'Camping' & 'Spawn Raping' - Bad thing? (Article)
Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 3:23 am
[Preface: I've been involved with FPS multiplayer networked gaming since early Doom - and have worked my way through Marathon, Quake, UT, Ghr, MoH and Joint Ops Escalation...So - while not claiming to be a great player - I at least think I can be called an 'experienced' player.]
Since the early days of high-mobile multiplayer FPS (notably Unreal Tournament) a word has crept into our vocablorary that is used as a disparaging indictment of a section of our community who have become something akin to lepers...The 'Campers'.
And more recently - while playing 'Joint Operations' on the PC (think: very large scale Ghost Recon) I have been introduced to another phrase to describe a hated segment of players; 'spawn rapers'.
Spawn raping, I should explain - as the notion doesn't seem to exist in Ghost Recon - is when a player deliberately makes their way to the opposing teams spawning area to kill enemy as they spawn.
I have witnessed players been cursed loudly for doing this in Joint Ops; and even bounced from the game AND even banned from certain game servers!
Yet, why do we - as a community - look at camping and spawn raping as NEGATIVE tactics - particularly when we play games that are supposed to be recreating, somewhat faithfully, battlefield squad warfare?
Let's take a look at these two 'tactics' more closely:
CAMPING - SNIPING BY ANY OTHER NAME...
On a smaller map 'camping' can be said to be negative to the flow of a fast moving game (which is where it originated, in fast mobile games like Unreal Tournament & Quake). Where a game is based on fluid point to point action, 'camping' can be seen to hinder the enjoyment of this form of play and can create artificial 'bottle necks' or barriers in maps carefully design to provide fast avenues of movement.
However, Quake and Unreal Tournament could hardly be said to be 'realistic' representations of squad based warfare - they are 'games' pure and simple. Games like Ghost Recon & Joint Ops on the other had do profess to be 'faithful' in their recreation of battlefield scenarios...
Furthermore - and most importantly - they INCLUDE the sniper class as an integral part of the game make-up!
So tell me this: if the game makers did not want people to camp, then why include the sniper class at all? As the very founding idea of the military sniper (from the Boar War through the First World War to Vietnam and beyond) has been to 'camp'. 'Camping' is simply another word for one of the snipers most basic tactics - learned early in sniper school - that being the tactic of the FIXED POSITION HIDE.
The North Vietnamese snipers were masters of this tactic - locating themselves at known hot-spots of American 'traffic', and waiting for a target of opportunity to appear, having already dialled in the known range.
German snipers of the First World War - acknowledged originators of many of todays sniper tactics - were based upon the Bavarian hunters, who used specially constructed fixed position shooting platforms.
...In other words, the world's greatest snipers were campers!
(Only the British, using Scottish stalking hunters - called 'Gillis' - used a different sniping technique which was based on 'closing' on the enemy. This is where we get the term 'Gillie suit', after the home-made hessian camouflage suits these Highland hunters wore.)
However, snipers were a hated individual on the battlefield, as their killing was very personal. They sought out individuals among the masses and impationately singled them out for killing. And in a way this is probably why we gamers still dislike 'campers'...Because it's personal.
SPAWN RAPING - DENYING THE ENEMY SECURITY
Joint Operations adds something additional to what we are used to in Ghost Recon - scale. Maps are vast, as are the numbers of players involved, up to 150 players fighting at once.
It's sniper heaven - rolling hills overlooking isolated bases. Plenty of opportunity to pick off targets of opportunity...
But more, at either end of the maps are the opposing forces main bases - base X - where, usually, the best equipment is kept - APCs, attack helicopters, tanks and the like - but base X is also the safe haven for spawning when other bases are too 'hot' to spawn in.
Enter 'spawn raping'. There is nothing more frustrating then spawning in what you what you think is comparative safety, well back from the front line, just to be fragged or sniped just as you re-spawn!
This is spawn-raping - camping outside a main base just waiting for unsuspecting enemy to spawn and then pick them off while they are unable to defend themselves.
With any luck the enemy will spawn slowly back at X - giving you plenty of time to snipe them one at a time.
Nasty, sneaky little tactic, eh? No self-respecting soldier would do such a despicable thing, would they?
Well, actually yes they would!
I find is very amusing that all these young players - the spotty youths who like nothing better than to play 'special forces', like the SAS, Green Berets, Rangers or Commandos - moan like little girls when they are victims of spawn raping!
I have seen them swear and curse at the spawn-rapers, threaten them with banning!
This nonsense shows complete ignorance of both military reality and history.
Special units like the British SAS and the American Rangers were both specifically created to work far behind enemy lines, destroying men and material in logistical staging areas in order to deny the enemy much needed reinforcements and replacements.
These tactics had the further advantage of making the enemy pull back much needed forces in order to guard their rear areas from such attacks. Thus these special units helped their fellow soldiers at the front line by tieing up enemy away from the front...
In other words - the SAS, LRDG, US Rangers, Airborne Divisions, Commandos and famous groups like The Chindits and 'Merril's Marauders' SPAWN RAPED!
From a gaming point of view too, if the game makers did not want spawn raping to happen then they would have created 'safe fire zones' at the X bases; or - as in Ghost Recon - introduced spawn invulnerability (a period of time, set on the server, giving the spawner invulnerability while they left the spawn zone).
So, if it's not against the game rules, and IS good military tactics, then what's all the agro about?
Well, again like camping, the problem is more about frustration and the interruption of mobile game play. This is because, largely speaking, the less mature players play less to recreate the experience of modern warfare, but rather want to play 'Quake' with realistic weapons.
There a big difference between the two game types - the 'Quake' model is based on head-to-head gunplay, with fast return to the battle on being killed. It's about running up a high kill-rate, with little regard to how many times you are killed - just an impatience to get back into the fray as quickly as possible.
This is diametrically opposed to realistically modelling the military battlefield. Where staying alive is the primary goal, as is the protection of strategic and tactical material and territory.
Individual 'scores' are not as important as team-work and defence of advantages gained in battle.
IN CONCLUSION
Camping and spawn-raping can be said to be an integral and maybe even key part of modern battlefield tactics. And therefore an indispensable part of any game which says it is trying to recreate modern warfare.
I personally have no sympathy with those who bemoan either tactic. And I have suffered at the hands of both campers and spawn-rapers on many an occasion - the difference in my attitude is that I recognize them as being legitimate military tactics, and I even applauded the tactic when it is well or cleverly done (even if I am the victim).
In my defence of these tactics you may conclude that I am a regular user of these tactics. But that is not the truth - I almost never camp - I have never been good in the sniper role - and I only rarely spawn-rape. Mainly doing this ONLY if the opportunity arises - should I find myself 'in the zone'.
I have little patience with the immature petulance of the spotty youths who curse this tactic. As the players who complain about this invariably are only interested in getting back into action as quickly as possible to increase their personal scores, rather than being team-players interested in helping to gain a team win.
Long live the campers and spawn-rapers! If for no other reason than they give me something to hunt!
Since the early days of high-mobile multiplayer FPS (notably Unreal Tournament) a word has crept into our vocablorary that is used as a disparaging indictment of a section of our community who have become something akin to lepers...The 'Campers'.
And more recently - while playing 'Joint Operations' on the PC (think: very large scale Ghost Recon) I have been introduced to another phrase to describe a hated segment of players; 'spawn rapers'.
Spawn raping, I should explain - as the notion doesn't seem to exist in Ghost Recon - is when a player deliberately makes their way to the opposing teams spawning area to kill enemy as they spawn.
I have witnessed players been cursed loudly for doing this in Joint Ops; and even bounced from the game AND even banned from certain game servers!
Yet, why do we - as a community - look at camping and spawn raping as NEGATIVE tactics - particularly when we play games that are supposed to be recreating, somewhat faithfully, battlefield squad warfare?
Let's take a look at these two 'tactics' more closely:
CAMPING - SNIPING BY ANY OTHER NAME...
On a smaller map 'camping' can be said to be negative to the flow of a fast moving game (which is where it originated, in fast mobile games like Unreal Tournament & Quake). Where a game is based on fluid point to point action, 'camping' can be seen to hinder the enjoyment of this form of play and can create artificial 'bottle necks' or barriers in maps carefully design to provide fast avenues of movement.
However, Quake and Unreal Tournament could hardly be said to be 'realistic' representations of squad based warfare - they are 'games' pure and simple. Games like Ghost Recon & Joint Ops on the other had do profess to be 'faithful' in their recreation of battlefield scenarios...
Furthermore - and most importantly - they INCLUDE the sniper class as an integral part of the game make-up!
So tell me this: if the game makers did not want people to camp, then why include the sniper class at all? As the very founding idea of the military sniper (from the Boar War through the First World War to Vietnam and beyond) has been to 'camp'. 'Camping' is simply another word for one of the snipers most basic tactics - learned early in sniper school - that being the tactic of the FIXED POSITION HIDE.
The North Vietnamese snipers were masters of this tactic - locating themselves at known hot-spots of American 'traffic', and waiting for a target of opportunity to appear, having already dialled in the known range.
German snipers of the First World War - acknowledged originators of many of todays sniper tactics - were based upon the Bavarian hunters, who used specially constructed fixed position shooting platforms.
...In other words, the world's greatest snipers were campers!
(Only the British, using Scottish stalking hunters - called 'Gillis' - used a different sniping technique which was based on 'closing' on the enemy. This is where we get the term 'Gillie suit', after the home-made hessian camouflage suits these Highland hunters wore.)
However, snipers were a hated individual on the battlefield, as their killing was very personal. They sought out individuals among the masses and impationately singled them out for killing. And in a way this is probably why we gamers still dislike 'campers'...Because it's personal.
SPAWN RAPING - DENYING THE ENEMY SECURITY
Joint Operations adds something additional to what we are used to in Ghost Recon - scale. Maps are vast, as are the numbers of players involved, up to 150 players fighting at once.
It's sniper heaven - rolling hills overlooking isolated bases. Plenty of opportunity to pick off targets of opportunity...
But more, at either end of the maps are the opposing forces main bases - base X - where, usually, the best equipment is kept - APCs, attack helicopters, tanks and the like - but base X is also the safe haven for spawning when other bases are too 'hot' to spawn in.
Enter 'spawn raping'. There is nothing more frustrating then spawning in what you what you think is comparative safety, well back from the front line, just to be fragged or sniped just as you re-spawn!
This is spawn-raping - camping outside a main base just waiting for unsuspecting enemy to spawn and then pick them off while they are unable to defend themselves.
With any luck the enemy will spawn slowly back at X - giving you plenty of time to snipe them one at a time.
Nasty, sneaky little tactic, eh? No self-respecting soldier would do such a despicable thing, would they?
Well, actually yes they would!
I find is very amusing that all these young players - the spotty youths who like nothing better than to play 'special forces', like the SAS, Green Berets, Rangers or Commandos - moan like little girls when they are victims of spawn raping!
I have seen them swear and curse at the spawn-rapers, threaten them with banning!
This nonsense shows complete ignorance of both military reality and history.
Special units like the British SAS and the American Rangers were both specifically created to work far behind enemy lines, destroying men and material in logistical staging areas in order to deny the enemy much needed reinforcements and replacements.
These tactics had the further advantage of making the enemy pull back much needed forces in order to guard their rear areas from such attacks. Thus these special units helped their fellow soldiers at the front line by tieing up enemy away from the front...
In other words - the SAS, LRDG, US Rangers, Airborne Divisions, Commandos and famous groups like The Chindits and 'Merril's Marauders' SPAWN RAPED!
From a gaming point of view too, if the game makers did not want spawn raping to happen then they would have created 'safe fire zones' at the X bases; or - as in Ghost Recon - introduced spawn invulnerability (a period of time, set on the server, giving the spawner invulnerability while they left the spawn zone).
So, if it's not against the game rules, and IS good military tactics, then what's all the agro about?
Well, again like camping, the problem is more about frustration and the interruption of mobile game play. This is because, largely speaking, the less mature players play less to recreate the experience of modern warfare, but rather want to play 'Quake' with realistic weapons.
There a big difference between the two game types - the 'Quake' model is based on head-to-head gunplay, with fast return to the battle on being killed. It's about running up a high kill-rate, with little regard to how many times you are killed - just an impatience to get back into the fray as quickly as possible.
This is diametrically opposed to realistically modelling the military battlefield. Where staying alive is the primary goal, as is the protection of strategic and tactical material and territory.
Individual 'scores' are not as important as team-work and defence of advantages gained in battle.
IN CONCLUSION
Camping and spawn-raping can be said to be an integral and maybe even key part of modern battlefield tactics. And therefore an indispensable part of any game which says it is trying to recreate modern warfare.
I personally have no sympathy with those who bemoan either tactic. And I have suffered at the hands of both campers and spawn-rapers on many an occasion - the difference in my attitude is that I recognize them as being legitimate military tactics, and I even applauded the tactic when it is well or cleverly done (even if I am the victim).
In my defence of these tactics you may conclude that I am a regular user of these tactics. But that is not the truth - I almost never camp - I have never been good in the sniper role - and I only rarely spawn-rape. Mainly doing this ONLY if the opportunity arises - should I find myself 'in the zone'.
I have little patience with the immature petulance of the spotty youths who curse this tactic. As the players who complain about this invariably are only interested in getting back into action as quickly as possible to increase their personal scores, rather than being team-players interested in helping to gain a team win.
Long live the campers and spawn-rapers! If for no other reason than they give me something to hunt!
i dont/cant always, weight the weight of my words or actions. 
