Twinking

For other uses, see Twink (disambiguation).

Twinking is a type of behavior in role-playing games. A player who engages in such behavior is known as a twink. The precise definition of twinking varies depending on the variety of role-playing game. In "pen and paper" role-playing games, a twink is often synonymous with a munchkin. In MUDs, a twink is a player who is variously anything from a munchkin to a newbie to a griefer. In MMORPGs, twinking refers to powerleveling a character through the assistance of a higher level character, particularly through the use of otherwise unattainable high level equipment, or the process of keeping a video game character at a low level while using in-game currency, earned by a high level character, to provide it with superior equipment.

RPGs

In role-playing video games, particularly MMORPGs, twinking refers to outfitting a new character or player with items or other resources that are not normally available to new or low-level characters. A twink in this usage is a type of powergamer and munchkin. The term can also refer to the twinked character itself (e.g., "My twink has all the best gear."). In its most basic definition, a twink is a character with better gear than they could not have easily acquired on their own.

Twinking is typically done by transferring higher-end equipment from the player's (or his/her friend's) more experienced characters (who often have excess gear that would be much more useful to the lower-level character). It can also be done by equipping the character with the best possible gear for his level range, and filling them with end-game enchantments.

Many new players dislike twinking of others' characters, since it gives a major advantage to established players starting a new character. Some new players do not like to have their own characters twinked, as they prefer to earn the equipment for themselves.

It's common for twinking items to be traded at good values due to persistent demand. Sometimes, this will go so far as to inflate twink equipment prices, as high level players are willing to pay more than a newbie would be able to.

Examples

Twinking can happen whenever players can interact and trade with each other, regardless of how present other players can be in the game itself; the handheld roleplaying game Pokémon, as an example, allows players to trade their Pokémon with each other.

Twinking was once very common in the CORPG Guild Wars, when players would have their low-level characters taken by high-level characters to end-game areas to obtain the best armor, weapons, and skills available, as Guild Wars does not have a level limit on such things. These twinked characters would then return to low-level PvP areas to fight significantly disadvantaged opponents. This practice became so proliferate that the Guild Wars development team introduced a patch prohibiting characters with high-level armor entering beginner arenas.

Twinking in World of Warcraft is a process where a player character forgoes experience point gains and leveling and maintains a specific level. The character then attempts to obtain the best possible item per equipment slot available to that specific level. The twinked character, or "twink" is used to play in player versus player battlegrounds. The twink often chooses the highest playable level for a battleground bracket, (e.g. level 19 for the 15-19 battleground bracket, level 29 for the 25-29 battleground bracket, etc.). The armor and weapons the twink seeks to obtain may be purchased, rewarded from quests, or looted from dungeon bosses. The character may attempt this solo, in groups, or with the help from high level characters.

By competing at the highest level allowed in the battleground bracket, and equipped with the best possible gear, twinks played with a significant advantage over regular players. New players as well as low level players in the battleground bracket were often at a severe disadvantage in games that fielded numerous twinks. Because of the gear and/or experience advantage, twinks often easily overpowered new and low level players, quickly eliminating them from play. Consequently. these players experienced little of the actual game play. Battlegrounds often had twinks playing for both factions, Horde and Alliance, leveling the playing field to an extent, but winning and losing could be grossly influenced by which faction fielded more twinks. However, because of the large twink communities, especially at lower level brackets, battlegrounds were often filled with organized teams of twinks competing against each other.

Countermeasures

• Many games have item restrictions that prevent low-level characters from using higher-level items and upsetting game balance; in Diablo II, most items require a minimum ability score and/or level to equip.
• Some games, such as World of Warcraft (WoW) and Anarchy Online (AO) have certain items become "Soulbound" (WoW) or "NoDrop" (AO) when they are picked up, equipped or used, meaning they cannot thereafter be transferred to another player character.
• WoW further reduced twinking in Battlegrounds (player-versus-player combat arenas) by awarding experience points for Battleground victories, so that as PvP characters gain experience, they also gain levels and thus become disqualified from lower-level brackets. Additionally, some of the best-in-slot items became "heirlooms" which apply a percentage increase to all experience point gains.^{[citation needed]} Players can disable experience point gain for an in-game fee, but must play in separate Battlegrounds as long as they do so (commonly referred to as "no-EXP," "xp-off," or "twink only" battlegrounds) where most of the other players will also be twinkers. Queue times in such battlegrounds are frequently an hour or more, as there are not enough people queueing up in the respective level brackets.^{[citation needed]} Level brackets were also split in half, so there are separate levels 10-14 and 15-19 brackets instead of a single 10-19 bracket (and so on through the higher brackets). Thus, players only compete against other players who are closer in level to themselves.
• Pokémon games use a badge system, which makes Pokémon above a certain level harder to control due to making random actions and falling asleep until the trainer has completed enough of the campaign.

Online text-based role-playing games

In online text-based role-playing games such as MUDs, twinking may include, but is not limited to:

• Denial-of-service or "DoS" attacks
• Hacking the server
• Creating an invincible or extremely powerful character with which the twink will seek to dominate in role-play
• Aggravating and attacking the game administration and/or game community
• Exploit (online gaming)
• Cheating
• Powergaming
• Metagaming – for example, creating a character which will guess plot-points that they would not otherwise know had the player themselves not known it

Etymology

There are several possible etymologies for the word. It may not have been derived from a single source, instead evolving from multiple convergent usages. Its exact origin is unclear.

The gay-slang usage of "twink" has been suggested as a likely origin. One of the unofficial connotations of this usage is "a young/inexperienced person who can outfit himself fashionably because of financial benefits from an older/experienced sugar daddy." This parallels MMORPGs, where in-game money is a strong limiting factor in the virtual economy and gear is usually in the form of clothing and jewelry.

The word "twink" appeared in the Ultima Online: Renaissance playguide in the glossary of terms. It was asserted to have a meaning similar to its current one, but also included powerlevelling.

On the MUD Sojourn, which several creators of EverQuest played, "twink" was alternately used to refer to powerleveling and metagaming. As MUDs date to 1978, this use of the term may possibly predate later uses.

See also

• Munchkin (role-playing games)
• Optimization (role-playing games)
• Powerleveling
• Cheating
• God-moding
• Powergaming
• Min-maxing