Mob
Mob, MOB, or mobbing may refer to:
Behavioral phenomena
- Cash mob, a group of people who assemble at a local business to make purchases
- Pillow fight flash mob
Crime and law enforcement
Transportation
Mafia
A mafia is a type of organized crime syndicate whose primary activities are protection racketeering, the arbitration of disputes between criminals, and the organizing and oversight of illegal agreements and transactions. Secondary activities may be practiced such as gambling, loan sharking, drug-trafficking, and fraud.
The term was originally applied to the Sicilian Mafia, but has since expanded to encompass other organizations of similar methods and purpose, e.g., "the Russian Mafia" or "the Japanese Mafia". The term is applied informally by the press and public; the criminal organizations themselves have their own terms (e.g., the original Sicilian and Italian-American Mafia call themselves Cosa Nostra, the Mexican Mafia calls itself La Eme, the Japanese Mafia Yakuza, the Chinese Mafia Triad and the Russian Mafia Bratva).
When used alone and without any qualifier, "Mafia" or "the Mafia" typically refers to either the Sicilian Mafia or the Italian-American Mafia, and sometimes Italian organized crime in general.
Mob (video gaming)
A mob, mobile or monster is a computer-controlled non-player character (NPC) in a computer game such as an MMORPG or MUD. Depending on context, every and any such characters in a game may be considered to be a "mob", or usage of the term may be limited to hostile NPCs and/or NPCs vulnerable to attack. Common usage refers to either a single character or a multitude of characters in a group as a mob. In most modern graphical games, "mob" may be used to specifically refer to generic monstrous NPCs that the player is expected to hunt and kill, excluding NPCs that engage in dialog or sell items or who cannot be attacked. "Named mobs" are distinguished by having a proper name rather than being referred to by a general type ("a goblin," "a citizen," etc.). "Dumb mobs" are those capable of no complex behaviors beyond attacking or moving around.
Purpose of mobs
Defeating mobs may be required to gather experience points, money, items, or to complete quests. Combat between player characters (PCs) and mobs is called player versus environment (PvE). PCs may also attack mobs because they aggressively attack PCs. Monster versus monster (MvM) battles also take place in some games.
