Twinking

For other uses, see Twink.

Twinking is 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.

CRPGs and MMORPGs

In computer role-playing games and 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 have easily gotten on their own.

Twinking is typically done by transferring higher-end equipment from the player's (or his 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 other's 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.

Many games have item restrictions that prevent new characters from using high-level items and upsetting game balance; for instance, Diablo II implements ability score and level requirements.

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 console roleplaying game Pokémon, as an example, allows players to trade their Pokémon with each other; the game features a badge system to prevent a player just starting the game from effectively using a high-level Pokémon without progressing to a certain point in the game itself, by limiting the controlability of those Pokémon. Having said this it is possible to use a Pokémon of a much higher level than you should be able to control, due to their power and endurance in game, meaning that you could take out an enemy with one hit; but that hit may only be successful after 6 turns of failed combat.

One game in which twinking is common is Anarchy Online. All character classes have skill-enhancing "nanoprograms", the equivalent of spells in fantasy MMORPGs, some more in demand then others that allow you to boost various skills, makes twinking easy. Also as large number of items in game don't have level limitations and due the large variety of items, low-level characters are often able to equip equipments meant for much higher level characters.

The practice of character twinking can also be found in World of Warcraft, where players are divided into level-brackets in Battlegrounds. By using above-average equipment otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain by other players in the same bracket as well as using end-game enchantments, twinked characters have a significant advantage over non-twinked opponents in terms of survivability and lethality often having triple the health of a non-twinked character. Twinking in Battlegrounds is more common in low level-brackets, due to the relatively lower costs to supply twink equipment and higher potency of end-game enchantments. According to World of Warcraft designers, the ability for players to twink was a design flaw.[1] Since World of Warcraft patch 3.2.0 (released in August 2009), characters started gaining experience from Player-versus-Player combat, meaning they would eventually level up and find themselves on the low-level end of a higher bracket. At the same time the option became available to disable any and all experience gains, allowing a player to remain at the same level indefinitely. Furthermore, the game now distinguishes between players who have their experience gains enabled or disabled, putting them in separate Battlegrounds. Effectively it is still possible to twink, but regular players are now far less likely to encounter twinks in Battlegrounds than before. Thanks to patch 3.2, twinking is officially dead and questing players can actually have fun while leveling once again. [2] [3]

Twinking was once very common in the CRPG 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.

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 also 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 term "Twinkie" was used in Everquest in 1999, where players could acquire a bronze plate armor that could be equipped by lower level characters. The low level characters were completely clad in golden bronze armor with a high armor value but still only had a handful of hitpoints, hence the referral to a "Hostess Twinkie" - bright golden outside, soft and squishy inside.

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 Sojourn MUD, which several creators of Everquest played, "twink" was alternately used to refer to powerleveling and metagaming. As the text-based game was founded in the 1970s, this use of the term may predate later uses.

Online text-based role-playing games

In online text-based role-playing games such as MUDs and MU*s, 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;
• God-moding;
• 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.