When did 'mob' come to mean 'monster'?

[Hellbent]

https://www.doomworld.com/search/?q=mob

 

Have a gander at the above search query. Half the uses of 'mob' are to mean 'monster', with one example so unequivocally, incontrovertibly so:

 

URROVA replied to rd.'s topic in Doom General

Quote

...romero's head is the best mob

 

I first noticed this use of 'mob' to mean 'monster' over on Angband. And I finally decided to make a thread about it. Then I was curious if it was being used elsewhere: and lo and behold, Doomers are using 'mob' to mean monster as well! How long has this devilry been going on for??

 

@Gez

Edited November 27, 2021 by Hellbent

[Gez]

Well, the wiktionary tells us this:

Quote

Etymology 1

From Middle English mob, short for mobile, from Latin mōbile (vulgus) (“fickle (crowd)”). The video-gaming sense originates from English mobile, used by Richard Bartle for objects capable of movement in an early MUD.

An early MUD? Richard Bartle has created MUDs since 1978, when he along with Roy Trubshaw created the very first MUD, the one that gave its name to the entire genre. Now since this is a genre that's older than me and since I've never really been interested in multiplayer games, I don't know if the terminology "mob" was there since this 1978 MUD or not. It would take a game historian to check. Anyway it's not surprising that it would be used in Angband, since AFAIK that game is a MUD.

 

But then we have this:

Quote

(video games) A non-player character, especially one that exists to be fought or killed to further the progression of the story or game.
2002, "Wolfie", Re: Whoa - massive changes due in next patch (on newsgroup alt.games.everquest)

"You can't win with small, balanced groups. You have to zerg the mob with a high number of players."

So this was already established video game lingo in 2002.

 

I'll also point out, in passing, that in Doom we also have the term "mobj" which is unrelated to mob: it comes from "map object". Any mob is a mobj, but a mobj is not necessarily a mob.

[Hellbent]

Thanks Gez! Do you think @URROVA was referring to mobj and not a monster?

[Gez]

If we consider that "mob" is originally short for "mobile" in the sense that it's an actor that moves around, then Romero's head, being immobile, cannot be a mob. But since the term mob has long been generalized to apply to any sort of enemy NPC, then it still fits despite that (plus, you can make it move with dehacked anyway). Mobj is a more technical and Doom-specific term, so it's more obscure, while mob is part of the general video game lingo.

[printz]

I always thought that "mob" in this context means a big group of monsters out to take you, like an angry mob. Also the mob is generally used villainously (think of organized crime). I never saw mob used with this meaning.

[Gez]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_(video_games)#cite_note-netgames-3

This book from 1994 is the oldest reference to the use of "mob" as short for "mobile" to designate game NPCs that was found by wiki contributors.

 

Anyway, that wiki page establishes quite clearly that it was there from the start (the 1978 MUD1), then moved from MUDs to MMORPGs starting with Everquest, and from there finally reached the rest of gaming.

[CrocMagnum]

1 hour ago, printz said:

I always thought that "mob" in this context means a big group of monsters out to take you, like an angry mob. Also the mob is generally used villainously (think of organized crime). I never saw mob used with this meaning.

 

That is how I discovered the term. "Mob(s)" in that context is a very common word in hack'n'slash games (Diablo 2, Torchlight 2,...). More rarely it can be used as a verb, as in "I keep getting mobbed a lot" or "In Titan Quest, Squall is a good skill to use while mobbing" (=while killing groups of monsters). 

[Eric Claus]

6 hours ago, Gez said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mob_(video_games)#cite_note-netgames-3

This book from 1994 is the oldest reference to the use of "mob" as short for "mobile" to designate game NPCs that was found by wiki contributors.

 

Anyway, that wiki page establishes quite clearly that it was there from the start (the 1978 MUD1), then moved from MUDs to MMORPGs starting with Everquest, and from there finally reached the rest of gaming.

 

Yeah I do remember first hearing the term when I played EQ way back.

[Dreemurr Deceevurr]

13 hours ago, Gez said:

Well, the wiktionary tells us this:

An early MUD? Richard Bartle has created MUDs since 1978, when he along with Roy Trubshaw created the very first MUD, the one that gave its name to the entire genre. Now since this is a genre that's older than me and since I've never really been interested in multiplayer games, I don't know if the terminology "mob" was there since this 1978 MUD or not. It would take a game historian to check. Anyway it's not surprising that it would be used in Angband, since AFAIK that game is a MUD.

 

But then we have this:

So this was already established video game lingo in 2002.

 

I'll also point out, in passing, that in Doom we also have the term "mobj" which is unrelated to mob: it comes from "map object". Any mob is a mobj, but a mobj is not necessarily a mob.

 

Funnily enough until I read this thread I thought "mob" was a shortening of "monster object".

[Artman2004]

I've really only seen mob used in this context in Minecraft. Most other games call them monsters or enemies.