Why's it called minmax?
 

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?

minimum effort

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.

google is an awesome tool

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.

(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.

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