Why's it called minmax?

[Sorkail]

What I gather is that to minmax is to choose whatever race/gear/xp areas etc it takes to get to max level fastest and have the max possible stats/performance. Sooo...why isn't it just called maxing? How does the min part factor in?

[bordbard]

minimum effort

[touchtonedialing]

I always thought it was minimizing things that don't matter and maximising things that do.

Minmax

[myriverse]

I always thought it was minimizing things that don't matter and maximising things that do.

Minmax
That's it. "Minimizing losses"/"Maximizing gains."

The term has been in use since the 70s or 80s tabletop RPGs.

[applesauce25r624]

google is an awesome tool

[Mentathiel]

In tabletop RPGs, it was often possible to completely nerf one stat (usually charisma) for the sake of getting a bonus to others. I mean, it's normal for fighters to prioritise strength over intelligence (we do it on here too), but min-maxing was the art of almost breaking the system just to get five attacks a round in return for being so illiterate and ugly that you couldn't even order dinner in a tavern and had to get the bard to do it for you.

A skilled min-maxxer (Pun-Pun, for example) was terrifying. To put these actions into context, imagine someone finding a way to create a Dark-Elf fighter with STR and CON at 255 together with 60% haste (even before gear) by taking optional abilities to reduce their WIS, INT and CHA to 5.

The 'min' part of min-maxxing is a not so easy in modern MMORPGs, but we still see dump stats (how many fighters would care if their gear had a CHA penalty?) and people still argue over the exact point where +WIS gear is more useful to a druid than straight +Mana, so we call them min-maxxers after the obsessive D&D players who would spend days poring over every rule-book to find a way to get an extra +1 to their strength.

[Sorkail]

(Mostly) Great answers! Thanks. Didn't realize the origin was pre-EQ, I never came across the term til p99, including on live and other emu servers.

[tizznyres]

That's it. "Minimizing losses"/"Maximizing gains."

The term has been in use since the 70s or 80s tabletop RPGs.

Bingo. Although I'd describe it more as minimizing undesirable traits, and maximizing desirable ones.