In games (whether a traditional tabletop
RPG,
LARPing, or even
MMORPG) the term "leech" is given to someone who avoids confrontation and sits out while another player fights and gains experience for the person, or "leecher", who is avoiding confrontation. • In online multi-player games, "to leech" generally means that a player be present and qualify for the presentation of a reward of some sort, without contributing to the team effort needed to earn that reward. Although in the past the term "leeching" has been applied to a player gaining any benefit due solely to the efforts of others, the term is now most often limited to players that gain
experience without meaningful contribution. However, while this usually carries negative connotations, this is not always the case; for instance, in MMOs where
power leveling is possible, a higher level player may deliberately consent to a lower leveled player gaining experience without assisting, usually due to the danger to the lower leveled player. In situations where the amount of assistance the lower level player can provide is negligible (as is often the case when being Power Leveled, due to the disparity between target mobs and the player), a higher level player may deliberately encourage the lower level player to "leech" to avoid wasted time spent protecting the lower level player that could otherwise be directed towards more quickly accomplishing the goal of earning experience points. However, this is usually an arrangement between friends or guild-mates, and unsolicited requests to "leech" experience off of a higher level player is often considered extremely rude. • In popular MMORPG's the alternative way to refer to a "leecher" (especially one that is "leeching" items, as opposed to experience) has arisen as being "Ninja" (referring to the notional lightning reflexes needed to claim the reward between its appearance and its retrieval by the more deserving player). This can be used as either a noun ("Player One is a loot ninja!") or a verb ("Player One keeps ninja'ing all the drops!"). However, a "ninja" may not necessarily be "leeching", in that they do sometimes contribute to the goal, "ninja" more applies towards a player claiming an item unfairly, either because the group agreed to pass the item to a particular player in advance, or by taking the item before the group can determine which player gets the item fairly through whichever process the group agreed upon (usually rolling for it, which is simulated in many MMOs through a "/random" or "/roll" command). • This is different from "
kill stealing" where a player uses an attack at the right moment to kill an enemy and take the experience benefit (XP), which may benefit the player or not. In some games, XP is granted to the person who deals a final shot to an enemy, or to who deals a significant amount of damage regardless of who hit it last. Kill stealing can in this fashion be applied as a reverse leeching: it prevents another player from gaining XP at all regardless of their effort. == Prevention ==