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HP? (Does the abbreviation mean Health Points, Hit Points or Hewlett-Packard to you)

  • Health points

    Votes: 450 30.6%
  • Hit Points

    Votes: 665 45.2%
  • Hewlett Packard

    Votes: 355 24.1%

  • Total voters
    1,470

JulianV

Member
Apr 10, 2018
481
My first PC was Hewlett Packard so that's the first thing on my mind. In games when I read HP I know is life, don't even think it on terms of health or hit.
 

Ceileachair

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
189
It's all in the context of the conversation. If your talking about computer's and say HP I know your talking about Hewitt Packard. If you're talking about video games and you say HP then I assume your talking about Hit Points.
 

Juryvicious

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,843
Depends on the context and how HP is used in a sentence. To answer the OP's question, Hit Points and Hewlett Packard.
 

Juryvicious

Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,843
It's always been Hit Points for me; that's an OG Dungeons & Dragons abbreviation.

Check out page 13 of the original Final Fantasy III (6) manual. HP = Hit Points and, just to get ahead of the people who think MP means Mind Points, MP = Magic Points.

Nice post, I'm right there with you. OG DnD had its fingers in many pies that's for sure. The original Final Fantasy on the NES also described HP as Hit Points on their chart, as did Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System.
 

Shahed

Member
Oct 27, 2017
841
UK, Newcastle
I'm aware in gaming terminology that HP = Hit Points.

But when I first came across HP and MP, I assumed they were Health and Magic Points. H standing for Health seemed logical and obvious, and I would have never considered Hit. Even now knowing it's Hit Points, when playing games and someone is low, Hit never enters my mind.

Say I'm playing FFXIV. I'll think 'someone needs more HP' or 'someone needs more health'. HP and health are interchangeable, so unless you factually know HP stands for hit points, it's easy to assume HP equals Health Points.

So yeah. Hit Points is correct. But I still think of it as Health Points. Hit just sounds weird amd cumbersome

If it makes a difference, I never ame across HP until I played FFVII
 

kmfdmpig

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
19,380
Hit Points or Hewlett Packard depending on the context. I had never heard Health Points before this thread.
 

solidr

Member
Oct 28, 2017
488
HP is a slur in my country, and this is the first thing i think when i see or hear HP
 

DanteRavenkin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
435
Canada
I learned HP in old-school D&D so it's always been 'Hit Points' to me.

edit: I forgot that I also quite often expect to see "Lovecraft" after HP
 

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
54,666
Side topic, anyone remember when Runescape changed from Hit Points to Constitution and how much of a stir that caused?

HP is Hit points in games to me because of that
 

Kurita

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,752
La France
I always thought it was "Health points" because we call them "Points de vie" in French, I assumed it was a literal translation (well, now that I think about it "vie" isn't literally "health" though lol)
Blew my mind when I learned it was Hit
 

Deleted member 17210

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,569
Hit points for video games. HP sauce for the fridge.

Health points? I guess that's not as bad as the kids saying Smash Broze.
 

HPSauce

Member
Jan 10, 2018
3,118
U.K.
HPSauce we need an expert opinion.
FdY48wU.jpg
 

Shoe

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,184
Probably Hewlett-Packard in a general context.

Actually, Harry Potter more than any of them.
 

SkyOdin

Member
Apr 21, 2018
2,680
If you look at the manual for almost any RPG, it will state that HP is an abbreviation for hit point.
 

Dary

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,419
The English Wilderness
I'm assuming HP as a term became so ingrained in geek/gamer culture that games stopped explaining what it stood for (the death of manuals would have helped), so you now have a generation that can interpret it as health points.

Did Pokémon ever define it?
 

XR.

Member
Nov 22, 2018
6,586
"Hit points" makes no sense. Is that an old thing? I've never heard of it.
 

OrangeNova

Member
Oct 30, 2017
12,670
Canada
Depends on context.

Hit Points and Health Points are the same and used interchangeably.

Hewlett-Packard if I'm working with printers or PCs
 

TwinBahamut

Member
Jun 8, 2018
1,360
You can call it Hit Points, or just Health, but I've never seen Health Points.

But Hit Points Is the original term going back to the very origin of it's use in Dungeons and Dragons.

Which makes sense, because HP isn't really meant to represent how much damage a body can take. It is meant to convey an abstract amount of luck, endurance, and plot armor a character has before they take an actual severe hit.
 

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,513
Indonesia
When I see in games, HP = health points.

When I see in non-game (this thread too), I assume HP = Hewlett-Packard

In my local language (Indonesian) pronunciation, hp = hand phone lol.
 

SkyOdin

Member
Apr 21, 2018
2,680
"Hit points" makes no sense. Is that an old thing? I've never heard of it.
It is literally the origin of the hp abbreviation in regards to being a numerical counter for how much damage a character can take. It comes from the Dungeons & Dragons game, the original RPG. Every RPG manual that defines hp will define it as hit points. It means "how many hits can a character take before they die".
 

XR.

Member
Nov 22, 2018
6,586
It is literally the origin of the hp abbreviation in regards to being a numerical counter for how much damage a character can take. It comes from the Dungeons & Dragons game, the original RPG. Every RPG manual that defines hp will define it as hit points.
Yeah, I get that but it's weird to me to see everything as how many hits they can take, rather than how much health they have. Not that it matters much, but it's not like hits are the only thing that can damage one's health.
 

GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,650
HP because this was on gaming side, but if it was on off-topic I would have said Hewlett Packard.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,241
You can call it Hit Points, or just Health, but I've never seen Health Points.

But Hit Points Is the original term going back to the very origin of it's use in Dungeons and Dragons.

Which makes sense, because HP isn't really meant to represent how much damage a body can take. It is meant to convey an abstract amount of luck, endurance, and plot armor a character has before they take an actual severe hit.

Except that it literally does. The rest of its auxiliary functions are just that, and once your HPs hit zero, you are either knocked out or dead.
 

Edward

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
Oct 30, 2017
5,121
Unless i am having a conversation about electronics/computers it's hit points. I've never heard of health points before.
 

mztik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,276
Tokyo, Japan
Hijo de Puta

Seriously, though, used to be hit points for me back in NES and SNES, but moving from PS/N64 forward, it has changed to health points for me.