Frankly, I think the PPGs are neat. The distorting effect whenever they are used seems much more realistic for an energy-based weapon than phaser beams, ect.

PPG stands for Pulsed Plama Gun, right?

I believe they use super heated (ie, Plama) Helium as the charge.

And I agree, they are super cool weapons in the both the science, the effect, and the prop.

ANP

Plasma, I think...

I thought PPG stood for Phased Plasma Gun.

PPG = Pulse Plasma Gun due to the fact that it could only fire the plasma in one quick "Pellet" of a rapidly decaying magnetic field. Short range, high intensity plasma = world of hurt for whoever gets hit.

Did we ever see a Minbari PPG?

The Centauri PPG pistols seemed very elegant with a long barrel, the Narn PPG Pistols were like a box with a basic handgrip, but I don't remember seeing Minbari ones.

Minibari have sticks to play with...

We do get to see the Minbari version of the PPG in 'In the beginning'. I can't recall seeing it in the series, or ever seeing it being used though.