Guild Wars 2

I’m genuinely curious about where this “taxi” term originated from (the one which means “invite people to your party so that they can join your version of the map”). Some people use “ferry”, but “taxi” is rather widespead. Was it a specific guide, or another MMO, or our collective mind?

It was me.
You’re welcome.

5 places in the group.
1 place for the driver, 4 for customers.
It’s a taxi.

It started with a double mesmer team that use to offer a taxi service to the top of the Obsidian Sanctum JP, way back when that was the only way to get siege blueprints

Karizee.8076:

It started with a double mesmer team that use to offer a taxi service to the top of the Obsidian Sanctum JP, way back when that was the only way to get siege blueprints

I remember that, heh

Old time MMO term. We used it back in Everquest 1. Might have been around before that, but I first heard about in 1999 playing EQ1

Yeah, I am old

Siobhan.3582:

Old time MMO term. We used it back in Everquest 1. Might have been around before that, but I first heard about in 1999 playing EQ1

Yeah, I am old

Why so sad? That’s actually pretty cool.

The first time I killed a World Boss I was so proud that I asked in Map Chat if there was an NPC in the game who could stuff the body for me so I could put it on display. Unfortunately, I was a pretty poor typist back then, and my shouts for a “taxidermist” were taken as “taxi to the mists”.

It was all just a big misunderstanding.

I could tell you about the “ferry” too, but it’s a politically sensitive topic to bring up.

Taxi was originally a GW1 term. People would taxi alts or new players through the different maps for a fee. I enjoyed the taxi because it was a cool service players gave. Made the world feel a bit more alive for me.

GW1 also had ferry, “LF Ferry”

One of the TTS leaders started it. The TTS Taxi was available in the early days of the Teq runs.

Faux.1937:

GW1 also had ferry, “LF Ferry”

LF Ferry to Docks!

:D

Popular in Kamadan to get max armor at the start of the game

Zoso.8279:

Taxi was originally a GW1 term. People would taxi alts or new players through the different maps for a fee. I enjoyed the taxi because it was a cool service players gave. Made the world feel a bit more alive for me.

I don’t remember anyone say taxi in GW 1. I remember the Ferry and I remember runs…but I don’t really remember anyone using Taxi.

Could be an age thing though. lol

It was used a lot of GW1. Despite what some people might say it wasn’t a term or concept developed by anyone during GW2’s lifetime…

Okay people are saying that it was used in Guild Wars 1…I’m sure it was used in other games before that but…

I just put taxi into the Guild Wars 1 wiki and Ferry came up. Everyone there used Ferry for the few places you needed Ferries.

Everything else, as far as I remember, was a run.

Vayne.8563:

Okay people are saying that it was used in Guild Wars 1…I’m sure it was used in other games before that but…

I just put taxi into the Guild Wars 1 wiki and Ferry came up. Everyone there used Ferry for the few places you needed Ferries.

Everything else, as far as I remember, was a run.

Check out gwguru, which was for all purposes the go to forum for gw1.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS562US562&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=taxi+to+consulate+docks+site:www.guildwarsguru.com

I remember the term taxi being used all the time to get to the docks. Although, Ferry was a more commonly term used.
I was also a person that spent 50% of my time selling in Kamadan, so I saw lots of things.
The good ol’ days where I spent 8 hours a day playing Guild Wars.

Siobhan.3582:

Old time MMO term. We used it back in Everquest 1. Might have been around before that, but I first heard about in 1999 playing EQ1

Yeah, I am old

I played UO. Others kept trying to get me to switch to EQ1, but I was too stubborn. Now I play here. I can’t remember if we used the term taxi in UO, but my mage used to make portals and make/sell runes and rune books along with recall scrolls (to power the books, good business) for others. Nothing like custom lists of instant travel locations.

I’m old too. :p

I’ve also come here straight from UO. Used to have a notebook with huge lists of my transport runes, provided a regular ferry service…

In the original Guild Wars I remember always seeing “Ferry” or “Run”. The 1st time I heard “Taxi” was in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Karizee.8076:

It started with a double mesmer team that use to offer a taxi service to the top of the Obsidian Sanctum JP, way back when that was the only way to get siege blueprints

It’s been around in games far longer then gw2. They had taxi services in City of Heroes and way before that in everquest. Hell in CoH there was a Guild Named Taxibot just for getting people into events and across dangerous zones.

In City of Heroes there was an actual Taxi Supergroup (guild) who would teleport players around a map to PoI or shops or to mission locations where traveling on foot was dangerous. You could spot them by the yellow and black check pattern on their outfit. They started when that game was new in 2004 so the concept already existed a decade ago.

As mentioned before, “taxi” is at least as old as EverQuest. “Taxi’ing” was when one player would guide another to a specific location for a fee/donation. Older MMOs often had a /follow command that would tether you to the target, causing you to automatically follow said target whenever they moved. Taxis, usually Bards or Druids (usually Bards since their movement speed buff songs were constant with no need to recast), would buff their target, have them /follow, then run them to their destination for a fee/donation. This was different from “ferrying”, as previously mentioned, which was primarily Wizards/Druids casting their teleport spells that teleported all in the area to a predetermined landmark.

Whether it was around in UO, I can’t say. I started my MMO career as a Bard in EQ. Professional Intercontinental Taxi, Corpse Locator, Bat Wing/Bone Chip Farmer, Grandmaster Potter and Master of 7 Different Languages, Kamilie of Tarew Marr, lol.

Faux.1937:

GW1 also had ferry, “LF Ferry”

It did!. I remember that in the early days of Elona.

Taxi originated from the game Silkroad Online… 98% of the people were boters in that game… People would join the taxi 1mil/h and thats how they would level up…

LF spaceship transport to T4 Dry Top

Totally gonna catch on.

GamerOnline.3650:

Siobhan.3582:

Old time MMO term. We used it back in Everquest 1. Might have been around before that, but I first heard about in 1999 playing EQ1

Yeah, I am old

I played UO. Others kept trying to get me to switch to EQ1, but I was too stubborn. Now I play here. I can’t remember if we used the term taxi in UO, but my mage used to make portals and make/sell runes and rune books along with recall scrolls (to power the books, good business) for others.

The problem with UO portals was that the caster didn’t have to go through the portal. So it was risky paying a random stranger a fee for a portal. You could pay for a portal to Moonglow (island city), and find yourself at the bottom of Hythloth (demon dungeon).

The problem with runes and rune books (at least during the ~2 years I played) were twofold. The players could change the name on the rune. So the Moonglow rune you bought could, again, take you to the bottom of Hythloth. I used to run a tavern and kept a rune book behind the counter (but accessible by customers so anyone could use them to port without having to ask me). Every time I logged in, one of my daily tasks was to change the rune names back to their original locations. Even a pickpocket rummaging through your pack could swap the names on two of your runes. For whatever reason, people spent an inordinate amount of time trying to screw over others in that game. (Others couldn’t move your runes around though, which is how I remembered the locations to change the names back – by the position of the rune in the bag.)

The other problem was you dropped everything on death, so you could lose a rune book pretty easily if you were PKed. Most people who had rune books kept a duplicate in the bank. If they were PKed and lost one, they’d have to take the spare out and port all over to make a new book (you had to be at the location to mark a rune). Very inconvenient, and at least one of my friends lost his backup runebook when he was PKed while making a new rune book. That was actually the reason I started keeping a runebook in my tavern – so people could use it to teleport to places without the risk of carrying their own runes around.

The group teleport system in Everquest took care of most of these problems. There were only a few fixed locations you could teleport to, and all were (relatively) safe. The caster (wizard or druid) went with you, so you were less likely to be taken somewhere you didn’t want to go. And the locations were spell-based – once you learned the spell you could never lose it. Everquest was the first time there were enough people who’d port you around for a fee that it started being broadly referred to as a taxi service.

It’s a term that has been around since the start of online gaming, I first came across it in UO in reference to a high skilled player escorting one or more lower skilled players through dangerous areas in the game. It was also used to describe the mini wscort quests you got from nobles in UO.

Taxi:
1907, shortening of taximeter cab (introduced in London in March 1907), from taximeter “automatic meter to record the distance and fare” (1898), from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (1890), coined from Medieval Latin taxa “tax, charge.”
An earlier English form was taxameter (1894), used in horse-drawn cabs. Taxi dancer “woman whose services may be hired at a dance hall” is recorded from 1930. Taxi squad in U.S. football is 1966, said to be from a former Cleveland Browns owner who gave his reserves jobs with his taxicab company to keep them paid and available [“Dictionary of American Slang”], but other explanations (“short-term hire” or “shuttling back and forth” from the main team) seem possible.

The more you know :P

pdavis.8031:

Taxi:
1907, shortening of taximeter cab (introduced in London in March 1907), from taximeter “automatic meter to record the distance and fare” (1898), from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (1890), coined from Medieval Latin taxa “tax, charge.”
An earlier English form was taxameter (1894), used in horse-drawn cabs. Taxi dancer “woman whose services may be hired at a dance hall” is recorded from 1930. Taxi squad in U.S. football is 1966, said to be from a former Cleveland Browns owner who gave his reserves jobs with his taxicab company to keep them paid and available [“Dictionary of American Slang”], but other explanations (“short-term hire” or “shuttling back and forth” from the main team) seem possible.

The more you know :P

I’m pretty sure the OP meant in relation to gaming and more specifically mmo’s, but nice bit of info anyway :p

Belidos.3704:

pdavis.8031:

Taxi:
1907, shortening of taximeter cab (introduced in London in March 1907), from taximeter “automatic meter to record the distance and fare” (1898), from French taximètre, from German Taxameter (1890), coined from Medieval Latin taxa “tax, charge.”
An earlier English form was taxameter (1894), used in horse-drawn cabs. Taxi dancer “woman whose services may be hired at a dance hall” is recorded from 1930. Taxi squad in U.S. football is 1966, said to be from a former Cleveland Browns owner who gave his reserves jobs with his taxicab company to keep them paid and available [“Dictionary of American Slang”], but other explanations (“short-term hire” or “shuttling back and forth” from the main team) seem possible.

The more you know :P

I’m pretty sure the OP meant in relation to gaming and more specifically mmo’s, but nice bit of info anyway :p

I know…just being a smart kitty

Belidos.3704:

It’s a term that has been around since the start of online gaming, I first came across it in UO in reference to a high skilled player escorting one or more lower skilled players through dangerous areas in the game. It was also used to describe the mini wscort quests you got from nobles in UO.

I’d always heard the UO escort quests referred to as escorts. Taxi implies you’re in control of the movement. The escort NPCs moved so slowly (so you could catch up if you fell behind) that you were basically following them, not the other way around. i.e. escorting.

The escort NPCs were changed shortly before I quit to move faster and follow you (instead of traveling a fixed path – their fix for the NPCs getting stuck on terrain). So maybe the taxi tern developed after I left for EQ.

Behellagh.1468:

In City of Heroes there was an actual Taxi Supergroup (guild) who would teleport players around a map to PoI or shops or to mission locations where traveling on foot was dangerous. You could spot them by the yellow and black check pattern on their outfit. They started when that game was new in 2004 so the concept already existed a decade ago.

I miss the Taxibots. And the Hollows. And the rest of the game.

I remember in EQ that I always heard “portal” for the Druid/Mage teleport. I have to say, some of them used to charge an arm and a leg. I prefer Waypoints. Don’t have to beg, and they’re cheaper.

Siobhan.3582:

Old time MMO term. We used it back in Everquest 1. Might have been around before that, but I first heard about in 1999 playing EQ1

Yeah, I am old

Yay oldschool EQ players

I was there and played Druid as well, there were dozens of them with variations of “taxi” as their names(mine wasn’t one of those, and I mained Bard). It was a good money maker.

Though slightly different meaning, here it’s to get you into the correct instance, there it was to get you to the different zones.

All the EQ players in this thread makes me happy. I was one of those that got hooked way back when it was in bet and played for 15 years… still have an account with a max leveled toon I believe (I don’t think they’ve raised the cap yet…)

Oddly enough we used to “taxi” into full chatrooms on aol back in the 80’s…

Jerus.4350:

Yay oldschool EQ players

I was there and played Druid as well, there were dozens of them with variations of “taxi” as their names(mine wasn’t one of those, and I mained Bard).

What is it with this thread and EQ bards? My main was a bard as well.

Solandri.9640:

Jerus.4350:

Yay oldschool EQ players

I was there and played Druid as well, there were dozens of them with variations of “taxi” as their names(mine wasn’t one of those, and I mained Bard).

What is it with this thread and EQ bards? My main was a bard as well.

Best class in any game ever, so broken (in the best way) that they’d crash the game when trying to fix it