[6] Most mobs are those capable of no complex behaviors beyond generic programming of attacking or moving around.
Defeating mobs may be required to gather experience points,[7] money,[8] items,[9] or to complete quests.
[12] A game world might contain hundreds of different kinds of mobs, but if players spend a certain amount of time playing, they might become well aware of the characteristics presented by each kind and its related hazard.
[1] Later source code in DikuMUD used the term "mobile" to refer to a generic NPC, shortened further to "mob" in identifiers.
DikuMUD was a heavy influence on EverQuest,[14][15] and the term as it exists in MMORPGs is derived from the MUD usage.