Earliest known usage of term "BiS", and when did it become popular

[boktai1000]

We were having a debate in our Guild about the term Best in Slot and when it started to become such a commonplace term thrown around, trying to find a date in time when it started to become second nature to say.

The idea has always existed, but I personally remember reading and referring to it as one of the following: “Min-Maxing”, “Theorycrafting”, or an “Elitist” (ala Elitist Jerks).

For me personally, I don’t think I came across the term until maybe late BC / WotLK but it’s hard to remember back. I personally never really used it and instead would say “Min-Maxing” or “Theorycrafter”.

Just wondering, what’s the earliest you remember coming across the term Best in Slot? When do you think it really became popular, it’s hard to look up any information these days or guides for Vanilla without it having BiS in the title it seems.

[spdr]

I learned it from elitest jerks but i didnt start playing till TBC. It was definitely used in their rogue spreadsheet.

[Willias]

We were having a debate in our Guild about the term Best in Slot and when it started to become such a commonplace term thrown around, trying to find a date in time when it started to become second nature to say.

The idea has always existed, but I personally remember reading and referring to it as one of the following: “Min-Maxing”, “Theorycrafting”, or an “Elitist” (ala Elitist Jerks).

For me personally, I don’t think I came across the term until maybe late BC / WotLK but it’s hard to remember back. I personally never really used it and instead would say “Min-Maxing” or “Theorycrafter”.

Just wondering, what’s the earliest you remember coming across the term Best in Slot? When do you think it really became popular, it’s hard to look up any information these days or guides for Vanilla without it having BiS in the title it seems.

MMOs before World of Warcraft.

I know the term was used in EverQuest.

[josykay]

I remember it from certain Diablo 2 guides, although, mostly BIS was usually considered an at best theoretical possibility, since the wanted items for some slots were simply near impossible to find.

[Has lost its way]

I can't recall if people called it a slot but I recall it as far back as baldur's gate.

[boktai1000]

So two questions here, and I can agree that it was used in Vanilla by some folks - now whether you came across it is another thing entirely, but when exactly did it become popular and commonplace? Definitely not in Vanilla, and I'm even hard pressed to say it was widely used in BC but probably more. I think it may have started to pick up steam in WotLK, but it wasn't anything then compared to what it is today comparatively even then.

[avitush]

I started hearing it in BC, but from what I remember, people actually called it "best in slot" instead of using the acronym. But I remember commonly hearing the acronym by the time Wrath came along.

[Celarent]

As common parlance, Google Trends says April 2009, so — Ulduar.

[Millyraynge]

In WoW, this term was generally first used during the Burning Crusade, when the state of "best in slot" was achievable for everyone. In vanilla it was quite impossible to achieve anything like best in slot. There were some people with maximum equipment, but that was only possible because items were unfairly distributed during raids due to poor guild and raid management.

Overall this term is older than mmorpgs in general. Even in single player rpgs this term was in use long before online gaming.

[traevyn]

Hell man, I know people who used this in D&D

[tmamass]

So two questions here, and I can agree that it was used in Vanilla by some folks - now whether you came across it is another thing entirely, but when exactly did it become popular and commonplace? Definitely not in Vanilla, and I'm even hard pressed to say it was widely used in BC but probably more. I think it may have started to pick up steam in WotLK, but it wasn't anything then compared to what it is today comparatively even then.

by high enders it was used WAAAY before vanilla. the difference is that vanilla had a lot of nubs that never stepped foot in any game with BiS gear

[Arrannin]

I wonder how will current state of "all information available in seconds" make Vanilla different from the Vanilla we knew - where we had to try to solve problems on our own. (or with thottbot, but there was ofter not enough information on thottbot)

[MoanaLisa]

It was used in EverQuest long before WoW existed.

Yes, this is true. Best in Slot is pretty generic and predates WoW by some years.

[crakerjack]

I remember watching my friends dad play and he was raiding molten core/onyxia. He'd talk about best in slot but all I associated was the color purple. Eventually i'd start playing and raiding and would salivate over every epic, even if it wasn't for my class.

[Jonnusthegreat]

Got my BiS Sap of Piety in Everquest.

[buurton]

The first time I started using this term would have been in TBC.

[Whistl3r]

Its as old as item slots.

[Fitsu]

Pretty sure I saw this term used in Diablo 1, which was the first loot-based game I played. 100% Certain it was used in Diablo 2.

[Akasha64]

As common parlance, Google Trends says April 2009, so — Ulduar.

Yeah, seems about right. I stopped playing around Ulduar time, and I never heard this term thrown around that much. At first I thought it was a term that originated on pservers, but now I see the whole playerbase uses it. It probably existed before but it didn't become mainstream until then.