Poll: What is your definition of camping?

[Atmos Duality]

An ambush or defensive strategy that far too many gamers whine about.
Don't complain; adapt.

 

[Yopaz]

You're playing a game, with tonnes of fun environments, great action, different guns, weapons, possibly vehicles.

And if one of those many guns in the game is a sniper or a machine gun with a tripod then the best thing to do is to find a spot where you can use this to your advantage. You might say that this isn't fun, but you know what else isn't fun? Running around a corner with a draganov to meet an enemy carrying a M4.

 

[Spygon]

Have you moved more than 10 paces away from one spot in the last minute of gameplay and do you have a sniper rifle in your hands

If the answer to both of them is a no you are camping.

The problem i have with the camping problem is what happens if everybody camps there side of the map.You are all sitting looking at walls the entire round sadly call of looking at walls 3 all round doesnt have the same ring to it.

 

[Guffe]

Staying in one place all the time.
As said I don't see patrolling as camping because if someone is camping and watching the patrolling guy and can find a pattern, he can utilize that, whilst the patroller has several spots to guard.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Camping involves farming a given area in an FPS's map(s) for kills. Not to be confused with the Sniper's primary role in games like TF2, which *involves* standing in one place and picking people off from a distance.

Considering this, I tend to figure that any class that's designed to move forwards or to actively attack the enemy needs to be played as such. If you pick the Heavy and only stand around, you're camping. This doesn't apply for the Engineer, with whom the most you can reliably do is try to heckle people with your shotgun and get them within range of your sentry.

On the other hand, the Mini-Turret and the Frontier Justice go well together. Use those disposable turrets to stack up your amount of guaranteed crits, then go on a short and cautious offensive run. That's always fun.

 

[HarryScull]

camping is the best way to play, stick to the outside of the map, move cautiously from cover to cover, choke point to choke point and pick off the baby buffalo (A.K.A rusher's) who run aimlessly into the middle of the map and then wine and ***** when they get destroyed.

when people do it to the extreme or badly (sitting in random corners) its annoying but then again noobs are annoying, the definition of a noob is a player who annoys the shit out of you

 

[Hero in a half shell]

You're playing a game, with tonnes of fun environments, great action, different guns, weapons, possibly vehicles.

And if one of those many guns in the game is a sniper or a machine gun with a tripod then the best thing to do is to find a spot where you can use this to your advantage. You might say that this isn't fun, but you know what else isn't fun? Running around a corner with a draganov to meet an enemy carrying a M4.

Yes, but if you are sniping or machine gunning you want to have a wide area to view. I have no problem with people that pick a position and defend it, it's when that position is in a tiny enclosed space that creates no opportunity to fight back, no skill to kill your enemy, no need for any other buttons or even changing where your crosshairs are aimed, just the fire button. It's a no skill, no action tactic, that usually yields low results (I'm a run and gun, high kill, high death rates kinda player.)
That said, I don't particuarly mind other players doing this in games like free-for-all, because they just handicap themselves. I hate it in team games, when the campers are on your team, especially in Battlefield, because it slows the game down and essentially gives you one less player in your team.

Snipers don't count as campers. A really good sniper is an awesome boon to any team, and can really shut down the ability of the enemy to move around the map effectively. But to do this they generally have to take up highly visible, highly open positions, like rooftops or hilltops, and I don't see that as camping, as it usually involves some movement in and out of cover, and presenting yourself to the enemy so, while you can hit them, they can hit you back. There's nothing wrong with that.
Sitting under the stairs or in a narrow hallway and covering the only way a person can come past with a one-hit-kill close range weapon is completely different, you remove all movement and tactics, all skill and ability for opponents to fight back, and it is horrible to play a team game when half your side are a quarter of the map behind the lines, sitting in hallways while the other team controls all the flags.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Are you helping you team hold a point, accomplish an objective, are you pinned down, do you know that there IS someone(s) at the other side of that door? Then you are not doing bad camping.

If you are spawn or teleport killing(aside from in TF2 then it is fine) from a camp spot and keep on return then you are a scourge and should be banned from all online play.

 

[OniaPL]

If camping means waiting in a silent corner to shoot some reckless fool in the back with a shotgun, then I am a camper.

But it is a legitimate strategy. If the game allows me to, I will grab my assault rifle and find a place from which I can spray everyone down.

 

[guitarsniper]

Camping has been pretty well defined in this thread already, but to clarify something for me personally, if you're chilling in one spot with really good cover and sightlines to defend an objective or what have you, then you're not camping. I may call you a camper when you kill me, but I don't mean it. I'm just pissed that you got the drop on me.

 

[Naeras]

Playing overly defensively and keeping yourself to the same general area constantly, never putting yourself in any kind of risk.

In some games, this can be a good thing. If you've got an economical advantage in most RTSes, simply sitting back and rely on your macro advantage forces your opponent to react. While defensive Sentinels and Heavy-on-Flag-doombringers in Tribes: Ascend are technically camping, they're amazing at protecting the flag from lone cappers if they do their job, and are thus helpful to the team. In fighting games, some of the most interesting matchups are the ones where it's all about controlling the range between you and your opponent, where one tries to get close and another would want the opponent at far/mid range. These things cause interesting dynamics in games.

The problem with camping arises when everybody does it. An FPS where everyones camping is boring, an RTS where camping is your only option is boring, a fighting game where all you do is to stay in a corner and spam fireballs turns dull really fast.

 

[WanderingFool]

Camping is just hiding around corners and waiting for someone to inevitably walk by so you can shank them in the back.


Aiming a sniper rifle out of a window and defending a choke point or some open ground, is not camping.

That is strategy.

/thread the shit out of this!

I hate when I get killed by so guy sitting in a corner with a shotgun (Blops... fuck you...)

One of my more favorite tactics in BF3 (I play Rush most often) is finding a good spot on the battlefield overlooking the objective, setting up with a sniper, and pluging anyone who attempts to arm/disarm the objective.

As I see it, Camping isnt bad if its helping the team by protecting the objective or halting enemy progress. If you are sitting in one spot the entire match, just shoting at people that wonder by, and not assisting in defending or attacking the objective, than you are a camping whore. If you are sitting in one spot, and you are able to actually help the team from that one spot, than its playing smart.

 

[Yopaz]

You're playing a game, with tonnes of fun environments, great action, different guns, weapons, possibly vehicles.

And if one of those many guns in the game is a sniper or a machine gun with a tripod then the best thing to do is to find a spot where you can use this to your advantage. You might say that this isn't fun, but you know what else isn't fun? Running around a corner with a draganov to meet an enemy carrying a M4.

Yes, but if you are sniping or machine gunning you want to have a wide area to view. I have no problem with people that pick a position and defend it, it's when that position is in a tiny enclosed space that creates no opportunity to fight back, no skill to kill your enemy, no need for any other buttons or even changing where your crosshairs are aimed, just the fire button. It's a no skill, no action tactic, that usually yields low results (I'm a run and gun, high kill, high death rates kinda player.)
That said, I don't particuarly mind other players doing this in games like free-for-all, because they just handicap themselves. I hate it in team games, when the campers are on your team, especially in Battlefield, because it slows the game down and essentially gives you one less player in your team.

Snipers don't count as campers. A really good sniper is an awesome boon to any team, and can really shut down the ability of the enemy to move around the map effectively. But to do this they generally have to take up highly visible, highly open positions, like rooftops or hilltops, and I don't see that as camping, as it usually involves some movement in and out of cover, and presenting yourself to the enemy so, while you can hit them, they can hit you back. There's nothing wrong with that.
Sitting under the stairs or in a narrow hallway and covering the only way a person can come past with a one-hit-kill close range weapon is completely different, you remove all movement and tactics, all skill and ability for opponents to fight back, and it is horrible to play a team game when half your side are a quarter of the map behind the lines, sitting in hallways while the other team controls all the flags.

If you are camping without moving at all, then you may be able to get a few kills without skills at all. However a strategy like this is so easily defeated that it doesn't really matter. Someone less skilled than that person could figure out that by not walking straight into his area of view he could kill that person with ease. Thus making that useless. Really, if you can't bypass someone looking in one single direction then you have no right to complain. However you're completely right that hiding in small confined places with no tactical benefit other than "someone might walk by" isn't really a good strategy.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Camping is just hiding around corners and waiting for someone to inevitably walk by so you can shank them in the back.


Aiming a sniper rifle out of a window and defending a choke point or some open ground, is not camping.

That is strategy.

Exactly. I think people scream about campers too much because in reality, they just want their team to gain the better area.

 

[RagTagBand]

Finding an easily defended area with high traffic near by and killing people as they wander into your firing line.

A tactic hated by people killed by other people using this tactic for reasons ALWAYS secondary to the purpose of the game. I enjoy camping and the rage that it causes, but at the end of the match...who's name is at the top of the scoreboard? Not Miss ragey pants.

 

[Cpu46]

There's no challenge, no strategy, no action; it's just pointless. They distill the myriad of options for fun they are given in multiplayer down to sit stationary in blind corner and click mouse when movement happens on screen. Farmville has more action than that.

Well, not being a FPS expert, I wouldn't know, but I also wouldn't be cranky because someone else is missing out on the fun by their own choice 0.o

It is slightly different in games where everyone gets loadouts. In a game where weapons are pickups there is a big problem with people rushing the power weapons and then going to hide in a closet to grab a few cheap kills over the course of the entire game. Also for team based games you are pretty much playing with one less player for every camper on your team.

OT: Its a mixture for me. Of course like I just said it sucks if weapons are pickups instead of loadouts since that gun that could actually turn the tide of battle is not being used anymore. If a group is camping one position it is a bit more strategic and I don't consider it cheap. If it is objective based and they are actually camping the objective then it is a good strategy. If they are a sniper and not spawn camping then it is good as well.

But one guy with a one shot kill weapon sitting in a single, easily defended, spot (or rotating between several every death) because they know someone will walk by eventually is kind of a pain.

 

[ElPatron]

Camp (v.): An FPS tactic, whereby you stay in one spot and repeatedly kill people dumb enough to keep running past your one spot. Much hated by people who are bad enough at the game to repeatedly get killed by someone they know the exact location of at all times.

I say camping is a legitimate tactic even though it pisses me off so much, But there are always ways to counter the camper so it's your fault if you can't do it

"Stop camping, you noob! Gawd. I've walked past this exact spot seventeen times and they have killed me every time. What a noob! Get some skills, you camping idiot."

Except that little detail: most games are retardedly supportive of camping, making those places a blind spot from almost all entry points and having some kind of object preventing grenades from rolling into it.

Camping means that the enemy has to line up his sights with you, while you already know where you have to hit. Takes absolutely no skill, otherwise why would so many players do it? Plus, if a player is trying to kill a camper, it leaves him exposed to ALL the other entry points.

It's impossible to determine if a camper is still at his place or has moved while you were getting there, and you still have to take into account the ENTIRE enemy team. Basically camping creates a Catch-22 situation that makes it impossible for the opponent to score unless your team is on another place in the map.

Try to camp in Quake. That's right, you're dead. Campers ruin modern map design because the nly way to perfectly avoid campers is making Quake-clones. And that would be boring.

I enjoy camping and the rage that it causes, but at the end of the match...who's name is at the top of the scoreboard? Not Miss ragey pants.

If you enjoy something for the rage it causes, then effectively you are griefing. Check some threads on the Escapist about griefing - compared to the average escapist I'm actually pretty liberal about it.

If you're playing for the scoreboard it either means:
- You're not helping your team
- If you're in a deathmatch, at least have the guts to show yourself. If everyone played like you, you'd have 0 kills at the end.

Camping is when someone you didn't see kills you.

Or someone you can see, but can't hit repeatedly due to their unfair advantage.