Words Worth Knowing: AOE
Words Worth Knowing was a vertical I wrote weekly explaining key pieces of gaming jargon to parents, guardians and teachers, as part of the larger overall GameHub outreach effort. The column ran for nearly two years and resulted in around 60 WWK articles. GameHubHQ.com closed in late 2017. This piece originally appeared on May 16, 2016.
What It Is: AOE = Area of Effect.
What It Means: AOE indicates "Area of Effect," meaning an attacking or defensive ability that affects an area of circumference around the player's character. It is also used in an unrelated sense as an acronym for the game series Age of Empires.
Why You Care: AOE is a term used in role-playing and strategy games, such as Dragon Age Inquisition. There are in general three kinds of spell/buff/ability/power: those cast onto the player's character, those targeted onto another character, and the AOE spells, which radiate out from around the player's character and affect everyone or thing within their radius. For example, a Healing Buff would emerge from the casting player and restore the health of every character nearby, whilst a lava attack would harm them with boiling rocks. For this reason, AOE abilities run the risk of friendly-fire incidents, such as accidentally restoring the health of an enemy or hurting an ally. Strategic use of AOE spells can greatly bolster a team's effectiveness.
