Glossary

Just in case you're not a nerd, geek, gamer, or other internetophile this post will be a glossary of terms and acronyms that I'll try and keep up to date as I go along. If you read onwards as I hope you will, you'll see this is supposed to be a journal about EVE and there won't be any EVE content in this post. To solve that let me say that I started this post on day 9 of my EVE experience. In the background I can hear the faint noise of a mining laser that I fitted to a cargo hauler. I've sent it out slowly mining while I do other stuff. I don't have to pay attention to it. Technically it could get "suicide ganked" though it wouldn't be worth it. Now we are on topic. See below.

EDIT (14/08/2012 ) : A fellow blogger has a much more comprehensive list up, including many things you'll need in game. So if you are a player and not just a blog reader I suggest going to TurAmarths' site http://turamarths-evelife.blogspot.co.uk/p/common-eve-terms-abbreviations.html

AFK : Away From Keyboard. Meaning I'm not sat there staring, glassy eyed, into an infinity full of dangerous people with armed starships. Usually for me this means I've put the hauler on orbit round a rock and turned a mining laser on.

fit or fitting : each ship in eve has a number of powered slots, some high, some medium, some low power. These can hold different kinds of equipment. A medium slot might hold a shield booster, a low power slot a cargo hold booster, a high power slot might hold a weapon. Weapons are also limited by "hardpoints", locations on the ships hull where they could be mounted, presumably this avoids ships falling apart under the load, ships that look like hedgehogs made out of guns, and ships that are constantly shooting themselves in the face.

grind : A series of actions performed in game, such as running the same mission over and over again, with the eventual aim of some kind of profit. The less human intervention the better. Eg "I'm grinding Mining but it's ok, I'm watching reading a book while I do it."

MMO : Massively Multiplayer Online. Generally short for MMORPG

MMORPG : Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. A computer game where many players at once can interact in the same game world.

noob : From "newbie" meaning person new to a game who doesn't understand all the tactics, rules and mechanics. Noob is generally employed mockingly or insultingly.

NPC : Non Player Character. A computer generated and controlled entity in the game.

PVE : Player Vs Environment. Part of the game where you compete against computer controlled opponents.

PVP : Player Vs Player. Part of the game where you are competing against something controlled by a human opponent playing over the internet. In EVE its seems like PvP can be market based more easily than in other MMOs. That's not to say there aren't a lot of people out there blowing the crap out of each others ships.

rat : An NPC opponent, generally very angry about something, generally cannon fodder. Lootable corpses.

space : The Final Frontier. Come on, keep up.

suicide ganking : in EVE Online an action where a player controlled ship will destroy another players ship while knowing full well they will be destroyed in turn by the police. Various tactics can make this profitable. 

In EVE the action might not even be motivated by money.

SWTOR : Star Wars : The Old Republic. An online game, an MMO, with a Star Wars milieu

WoW : World of Warcraft. An online game, an MMO, with a fantasy milieu.

If I've made any mistakes or omissions then let me know.