mana in games, and why it's blue

[mellowtigger]

Something called "mana" is used frequently in computer fantasy games, but why is it called that? Why is it always depicted as something with a dark blue color? I don't know the history of the word, but this YouTube video asks these questions and tries to answer them.

Watch on YouTube

I can't vouch for its etymological accuracy, but I played lots of hours of 3 video games that it mentions as having pivotal influence in this trend. The first was Dungeon Master (1987) on an Amiga, then Warcraft 2 (1995) and Diablo 1 (1997) on pc. These are all important titles in the genre, so I grew up immersed with "mana" as the fuel for magic, and it was always blue in color.