In MMOs, many players don’t just play one hero, but several. But why are the characters abbreviated as Twink, Toon, or Alt? The new Trivia article from MeinMMO reveals it to you!
If you search for “Twink” in the MeinMMO glossary, you will find the following: “Twinks are all characters that are not main characters. Players often use Twinks to experience different aspects of the game than with their main character.”
In addition to “Alt” and “Toon”, there are two other abbreviations that also refer to (side) characters. But why do we frequently use these terms? “Char” as an abbreviation for character would be much more straightforward. MeinMMO investigates and explains the origins of “Twink”, “Alt”, and “Toon”.
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Where does the term “Alt” come from?
Let’s first look at the term whose origin is certainly the most straightforward: The term “Alt” comes from “alternative character” and thus refers to a … you guessed it … alternative to the main character.
Where does the term “Twink” come from?
The term “Twink” is significantly harder to define than “Alt”. Long before the first 3D MMORPGs, “Twink” was used in the US gay scene to describe young or young-looking, submissive, almost feminine men (via Wikipedia). This stereotype still exists today and is said to have expanded over time to include adult women from the porn scene who look like teenagers.
Many German players who first encountered the term “Twink” in EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and similar games probably had no idea of this original meaning. For them, they were just second or third characters. Although the term had already appeared in role-playing contexts before, such as in tabletop games or in Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs for short).
When you hear RPG fans from back then talk about the use of the term “Twink”, you learn the following:
- As early as the 70s and 80s, the best equipment from MUDs was referred to as “Twinkling” (via Reddit) and the term “Twink” was used in the context of power leveling (via Wikipedia).
- In the context of Dungeons & Dragons, “Twinks” were apparently mostly young male players who wanted to create overpowered characters and allegedly did not care about the actual role-playing aspects of the D&D adventure (via mmo-champion.com).
- In Anarchy Online and various other MMORPGs, “Twink” (or more generally: “Twinking”) was a term used for any character of a veteran who carried equipment that was usually reserved for characters of a higher level (via mmo-champion.com).
- In Vanilla WoW, characters from PvP groups were sometimes called “Twinks” if they had equipment that was actually meant for higher character levels. Equipment that was obtained with the help of a stronger main character or friend (via Reddit). Later, this even evolved into a sort of elite Twink scene for low-level PvP characters of levels 19, 29, and so on.
This way, a certain parallel can be discerned to the previously described usage of the term “Twink”: A young, inexperienced character is equipped by an older, more experienced, and better-off character. Whether this actually explains the general use of the term “Twink” in games is hotly debated online.
Another theory is that the term derives from the English word “Twinkling”, because the aforementioned tabletop, MUD, and MMO players were primarily after the “sparkling” or “shiny” loot to equip their characters as best as possible.
In Souls games, there is also the term “Twink”, which is said to have originated from the targeted farming of the upgrade material “Twinkling Titanite” in Dark Souls. There, the term also refers to side characters that are equipped as best as possible to hunt down other low-level, but significantly worse-equipped characters.
Where does the term “Toon” come from?
The term “Toon” originally comes from “Cartoon” and refers in this context to the characters of an animated film, which are often depicted as anthropomorphized animals or objects, presumably heavily influenced by the well-known Looney Tunes from Warner Bros. – later continued by the Tiny Toon Adventures.
In the context of role-playing games, this term is said to have first appeared in 1984 when a certain Warren Spector (Deus Ex, System Shock) developed the cartoon RPG Toon together with Greg Costikyan (via Wikipedia), in which you actually dealt with cartoon characters.
The first mention of Toons as non-cartoon characters is said to have occurred in the context of The Realm Online in 1996. This is one of the first graphic MMORPGs, which also has a colorful, almost cartoonish graphic style.
The colorful look may have reminded some of the aforementioned Toons, which might have led to the designation for the characters of The Realm Online. From there, the term is said to have spilled over into other games like Diablo and Anarchy Online.
With Toontown Online, there was even an MMORPG from Disney in 2003, where the player characters were officially called “Toons” (via Wikipedia), which might have accelerated the spread of the term as a synonym for characters even more.
Which of the three terms “Twink”, “Alt”, and “Toon” do you regularly use, and when or in which game did you first encounter it? Share in the comments! Want more trivia knowledge? Then we have another exciting question for you: Why is loot always white, green, blue, purple, and gold?
