What's bad with camping ?

[Stavros Dimou]

I lately see lots of people online complain about fps games that people can get a nice spot and stay there for a while shooting.
Today I read a statement from one of the guys who make Brink,saying that Brink's levels will be designed in such a way that playing as a sniper will get you killed and that it won't be ideal for that kind of playing style.
But why is camping so bad ?
It's actually the most realistic tactic a real soldier would use in a real combat situation,and aren't fps games supposed to try to do everything realistic ?
But it's not about just being realistic.
Perhaps a player might not want furious run and gun action and want to play more relaxed or stratigically.
I heard people saying that staying in a place for some minutes with a gun is a cheat.
What ?
Once I was kicked from a server because I didn't moved for a few seconds because I wanted to drink some water.
But camping with a sniper is not a cheating.
The other player can get a sniper rifle and do some anti-sniping from afar,grab a rocket launcher and blow this one out,or infiltrate and get close to do a close kill.
I think that removing a gameplay tactic makes the overall gameplay of a game more empty and lacking.
I don't always play as a sniper or camper,I inform you that I like some time fast and furious action too,and I play lots of Quake Live,the most fast and camper-punishing game ever.
But there are times that I just want to play more tactical and slowly instead of running and jumping at insane speeds all the time to avoid getting shot.

I will give you two examples of games where camping is a good tactic,and campers are not overpowered.

Example 1: Wolfenstein Enemy Territory.
Yeah,this game is pretty old but until today there is an active community and you can find a server with people to play almost any time of the day,every day.
In that game you can be a sniper and just sit somewhere and snipe.
But the game desingers gave many anti-measures the players from the other team can use.
For example one might call an air strike,or someone else might steal the clothes that players of the other team are wearing,and come under cover close to you and kill you.
The developers let the tactic to be in,but provided counter-measures so snipers aren't over powered.

Example 2: Crysis & Crysis Warhead.
Crysis multiplayer is great for snipers. Most of the levels are HUGE,and have lots of vegetation that you can hind behind or under.
You can stay for very long with invisibility on and shoot when you see somebody.
At Crysis the developers included some ways someone can avoid or kill snipers.
For one,you can use the maximum speed option of the suit and run so fast the sniper won't have time to snipe you.Or you can get cloak mode on to be invisible and play the game being invisible.
Except that you can ride vehicles like helicopters or tanks and start blasting everything/one.

So,we see that camping can exist without being overpowered,if the developers thought about putting some mechanics/ways to fight them back.
Camping itself is something many people have fun to do,and it's a part of the gameplay.
I mean if camping is considered cheating,then why not consider rocket launchers and grenades as cheats too ?
It's fail logic.

 

[godfist88]

there nothing wrong with camping, if you know where the guy is just kill em'. it's not that difficult.

 

[KalosCast]

There's nothing inherently wrong with camping, but in games where it can be exploited to your advantage (most MMOs with corpse/graveyard camping, for example) to just constantly farm kills without the enemy even being able to theoretically retaliate, it needs to be protected against.

 

[John1307]

The problem most people have with camping is the lack of "skill". But thats not the problem i have. The problem i have with campers is when they camp dispite the objective. Maybe you can camp in TDM but when someone camps on a gamemode where it is neither wise or helpful thats the problem i have. also if you think modern fps are realistic then you need a reality check my friend

 

[KalosCast]

The problem most people have with camping is the lack of "skill". But thats not the problem i have. The problem i have with campers is when they camp dispite the objective. Maybe you can camp in TDM but when someone camps on a gamemode where it is neither wise or helpful thats the problem i have. also if you think modern fps are realistic then you need a reality check my friend

This to the end of the universe and back again.

You wanna know why your Modern Warfare 2 CTF matches last forever? It's because I stopped playing when I realized I was the only person who owned the game and went for the flag.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Nothing wrong with camping at all.

 

[Littlee300]

Camping is kind of a dick move because if everyone did it the game couldn't progress so the person who decides to be the good guy and not camp is at a disadvantage but whateva' I don't care if a guy camps but I would label him in my mind as a dick.

 

[Elamdri]

Camping is a very subjective and nebulous term. There are a lot of times what is called camping isn't actually camping and there are situations where camping can be a good thing. Then there are times when camping can make a game less enjoyable for other players and also can make a player actually a detriment to their team.

For example, guarding an objective and controlling a choke point are often referred to as camping, but in reality, what a player is doing is exactly what they should be doing in those situations. Likewise, there are times where it is a good idea for a player to find a spot where they have a wide view of the map and play some sort of sniper role.

Then there are situations where camping can kind of ruin the fun. Players who wedge themselves in areas where they can see who's coming but no one can get the jump on them from where they are tend to really kill the fun of a game. Now, this is actually a hallmark of bad map design, because an area of the map should be accessible from multiple routes, but not every map is like this. Camping a player's spawn can also be quite frustrating in games where the spawning isn't dynamic.

Finally, you have the worst of the campers, those who not only camp, but do it ineffectively. They camp at the back of the map, far away from the action. These players are the worst, because not only is what they're doing annoying to the few people they manage to kill, but they're not even really helping their team.

 

[bjj hero]

There is camping and sniping.

Camping is sitting still at the top of a stair case, in a corner etc and shooting people who appear, with little chance of being shot themselves. normally with an smg/shotty/assault rifle. It demonstrates a lack of skill that is easily fixed with explosives. These are normally the same clowns that accuse you of grenade spamming or noob tubing when you kill them after they've not moved for 10 minutes.

Sniping is finding a place with a good field of view with a scope and shooting people. It can be camping, such as lying down at the end of a long corridor but is not always.

Sniping is ok but if everyone did it no one would fire a shot. Thats the problem. You mention realistic but normally a side is trying to achieve something in a conflict, gain ground etc. This gives a reason to advance and move that is not there in TDM. Have you ever been on a server where there are 8 sad bastards hiding in bushes and corners out of 10 players? Boring as hell.

You are often hurting your team in objective based games as you are sitting in the corner with your thumb up your arse, not helping to achieve the objective and win. You may as well not be there. Camping is only an option because other players are not camping. I don't mind campers, they are easily taken out, its just boring. If there are a lot of campers on one server I'll go else where. Its dull and makes for a slow game.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

What's bad with camping? I'll tell ya; Bears. I mean, I just don't see a reason I should have to put my delicious sammiches and beer up in a tree all night just to keep it away from those fuzzy, thieving ne'er-do-wells.

Also, ants. And I guess bugs in general. Seriously, fuck bugs.

As for what's good about camping? I'd say s'mores, pooping outside, and making fire like a man.

Mmmm? What's that? Ohhhh... that kind of camping? Yeah, it's pretty lame. I mean, why hide in the bushes in a video game where you can run at a guy firing a rocket launcher screaming at the top of your lungs into your headset? You're only denying yourself pleasure by hiding in your duck blinds or whatever and taking a few pot shots now and then. Sure, you get to boast about 'skill' and whatnot, but it's pretty weaksauce when I'm telling everyone about how I totally double uzi'd some camping puckerholes while screaming maniacally that "I am the walrus, coo coo ca-bang!!".

Now that I think about it, that's why camping sucks... the lack of homicidal screaming. Homicidal screaming = fun. It's science.

 

[BoredDragon]

Analytical Response

I think it comes down to the skill of the kill. If you work your ass off in the field to get a few kills by predicting enemy movement and analyzing the spawn and front-line migration while some guy just sits in a corner and gets 10 kills off of people who have their back turned, then it's going to frustrate you.

Camping is legitimate when your objective is to defend something, but I almost always play things like team death match or free-for-all and that's where they seem to be the most predominate.

I think most players think its unfair because they are not forced to give up anything for their kills. Going out in the field forfeits your cover and your secrecy, and sniping forfeits your awareness of your immediate surroundings. With camping you have your secrecy, usually have cover, and are always aware of your immediate surroundings. You could argue that they give up predictability of their kills because they don't know when someone is going to pop up, but that's pretty much the same for all other strategies too.

Dumbed Down Response
Theyre all just campin' 'cause theyre all pussies who aint got no ballz

 

[Elamdri]

What's bad with camping? I'll tell ya; Bears. I mean, I just don't see a reason I should have to put my delicious sammiches and beer up in a tree all night just to keep it away from those fuzzy, thieving ne'er-do-wells.

Also, ants. And I guess bugs in general. Seriously, fuck bugs.

As for what's good about camping? I'd say s'mores, pooping outside, and making fire like a man.

Mmmm? What's that? Ohhhh... that kind of camping? Yeah, it's pretty lame. I mean, why hide in the bushes in a video game where you can run at a guy firing a rocket launcher screaming at the top of your lungs into your headset? You're only denying yourself pleasure by hiding in your duck blinds or whatever and taking a few pot shots now and then. Sure, you get to boast about 'skill' and whatnot, but it's pretty weaksauce when I'm telling everyone about how I totally double uzi'd some camping puckerholes while screaming maniacally that "I am the walrus, coo coo ca-bang!!".

Now that I think about it, that's why camping sucks... the lack of homicidal screaming. Homicidal screaming = fun. It's science.

I award you 100 internets sir.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I have a number of thoughts on the subject.

First, camping in modern video games has almost nothing to do with the sort of activity that lead to the creation of the word. In games like Quake, most of the maps in which people played against one another were poorly suited to the purpose. As a result, often weapons and items were placed in locations that did little to foster good gameplay. Camping originally referred to the act of waiting in a room with a single door (generally a room that contained at least health if not health and ammunition) and then murdering people with a rocket launcher as they came through said door. The game was such that, even a highly skilled player would find it difficult to dislodge a camper, especially if the map was one of the many that did not have a grenade launcher stored somewhere. The modern incarnation of camping on the other hand generally only offers a slim advantage to the camper that is, in most instances, negated the minute a player realizes another one is camping in a given location.

Most of the activity called camping represents a perfectly reasonable choice of action in modern FPS games. Many of these require some portion of a team to defend a given area or item and the resulting nearly static defense is indistinguishable from camping.

In spite of this, there is an inherent problem with camping in both the past interpretation and the modern one. Specifically, people that choose to camp in a game become passive participants who do nothing to move the progress of a game forward. The function they serve is to force a stalemate. If every player in a game resorted to camping, the game would progress quite slowly if at all. By contrast, if every player resorted to a more mobile game plan, reaching an end state is almost assured to happen more quickly.

Unfortunately, modern game designs tend to encourage camping as an activity. In Call of Duty for example, victory on a given map is often determined by little more than total kill count. Thus it is in the best interest of any given player to maximize their chances of getting a kill while minimizing the odds of being killed themselves. Because of a host of other factors, the primary determining factor in the outcome of any particular engagement tends to be who was pointing their weapon closest to where they needed to be pointing before the engagement began. This gives the static player (the camper) a notable advantage in any engagement the first time around as the mobile player is forced to transition their weapon between multiple locations commonly known for harboring an enemy while the camper can position themselves to reduce their possible locations for enemies to appear to an absolute minimum.

In short, I find the modern interpretation of camping far more palatable than the original activity the word was used to describe and I even recognize it's general utility and validity as a game strategy. Unfortunately, the strategy is one that leads to stagnation in any particular game and as such the practice becomes increasingly annoying as more and more of a game's population resort to the tactic.

 

[Karma168]

Snipers are fine, they're meant to camp. In fact camping with a sniper is preferable to running round trying to get quickscopes which is the worst thing ever invented in fps multiplayer.

the problem is people who hide behind doors, etc. and kill anyone who goes past. By all means find a spot that overlooks an area an cover that, but hiding in a place where the other person has absolutely no chance of killing you is unfair; it removes all skill and fairness from encounters.

 

[Elamdri]

You know all this talk of camping only came up recently with the whole Call of Duty nonsense and do you know why? Call of Duty is so pretentious with realism, it thinks only a few bullets should be required to drop someone. Look at all older shooters, if you wanted to drop someone in a few shots you needed a power weapon. Now the big thing is wannabe realism, people turn to "real tactics" which sucks all the fun out of the game. So why is camping bad? The shit head gives up little for ease of a reward. Try that in Halo or any other FPS that doesn't let every gun own you in 5 or less bullets and you won't last long.

Call of Duty did not create this debate, Hell I remember playing Counter-Strike back in the day and listening to people whine about the kid camping the hallway with the AWP.

 

[Aeshi]

Campers are bad because they use a strategy other than "mindlessly charge the enemy" like the average cretin.

 

[Ice Car]

It gets annoying if someone is camping an entire match in one spot and can almost be impossible to kill. For example, in Black Ops, Firing Range, Bird's Nest. Tactical Insertions + Flak Jacket + Second Chance Pro and another teammate with the same perk set. Nova Gas works as the slot for Tactical Mask is taken though.

It gets more annoying when you barely have any effective tools to get rid of campers. I.E Black Ops again. For some idiotic reason, Treyarch added NUMEROUS camp-encouraging and benefiting things. The Camera, Motion Sensor, Flak Jacket, Decoys even, No Danger Close so it's even harder to get rid of Flak Jackets, etc.

 

[Vibhor]

I don't know why people complain so much about other people actually using a strategy apart from mindless charging.
And then you say multiplayer is essential in every game.