Camping. A Legitimate Strategy?

[Star Fox Runner]

For those of us who play FPS, (which is almost all of us) you know what camping is.

Yeah sure, it's a tactic usually used by noobs who don't know how to play games, but you gotta admit, they thought it up, they do it, and it works.

So, what do you all think? Is it simply a no talent tactic, or is it a legitimate strategy?

[Wes]

It's a legit strategy, but extremely annoying.

[Nova]

If you watch Proffesional demos of Counter Strike, THE most revered competitive FPS, you would see that they all camp. Camping is a strategy that works because Defensive > Offensive. If you burst in guns a blazing your going to get shot by someone whos behind cover and was waiting for you to come into their area.

Watch some CS Demos. It will change your perspective.

[Sabre]

It depends on the game and mode. Camping in deathmatch is bad because if everyone does it, there is no game, but if 1 does it, they get an advantage. It would be like a game of football where everybody is in goal.

When the mode changes, then it's ok. Headquarters in call of duty is my favourite, because camping players can't get the objective, same is true of almost any mode where you have to defend something that moves around. Provided the defending players don't have the ability to respawn on the point, then it's good.

[Nope.]

It's a legit strategy, but extremely annoying.

Especially in fast-paced fps games.

Excessive Plus for Q3A has even an AntiCamper option.

Yeah sure, it's a tactic usually used by noobs who don't know how to play games, but you gotta admit, they thought it up, they do it, and it works.

While I don't do camping myself ( exception made for some games like UT2004 and other fps with sniper rifles ), sometimes they're not noobs... just people who wants to play in a different way. If you think about it for a second, it can be even the exact opposite of noob. Maybe they can't play that game like the others do, rocketjump on everything or do a wallslide with a plasmagun for 3 minutes, but at least they're smarter enough to find a way to win without running around like batshit insane-ax crazy people while shooting at everything alive and without "breaking the rules" ( and, mind you, the last one can happen only with cheats or bugs ). If camping was for noobs, then every sniper class or weapons were for noobs. There's nothing that tells you to not do camping, exception made for the AntiCamper options...

They're noobs if they fail even with that.

[Sluggsnipa]

For those of us who play FPS, (which is almost all of us) you know what camping is.

Yeah sure, it's a tactic usually used by noobs who don't know how to play games, but you gotta admit, they thought it up, they do it, and it works.

So, what do you all think? Is it simply a no talent tactic, or is it a legitimate strategy?

It's a strategy,but pretty annoying at that,I hate the snipers in Bad Company games!!!!

In real life it's more legitimate. You don't have 12-year olds screaming that you're a camper. No,you got your enemy's last sound.

[Icy]

I look at it this way, in real life, do snipers not camp? Does anyone not camp? We don't go rush the enemy and try to kill them all, that'd be suicide, so we stay back and shoot from afar behind cover. Or at least, that's how I think it is…

And really, in a game, it's stupid to rush the enemy because almost always they have the advantage of seeing you first. Camping is a legitimate strategy and is not only used by noobs. In fact, I'd say these "noobs" don't even camp as much as they rush.

So yeah, what Nova said.

Better to be on the defensive than the offensive.

Snipers in Bad Company can be annoying if you're on the receiving end, but honestly, it works and it IS a legitimate strategy so you shouldn't care.

People talk about 10 year olds mic-spamming, but honestly, I think 25 year olds whining about camping is even more annoying.

And yes, I do camp. If I find a nice spot to sit back and pick off some easy targets, I welcome it. ^^

[ThePointingMan]

If someones camping, it's easier to find 'em next time So I'm ok with that.

[CrypticQuery]

Camping is legit IMO, but in a fast-paced FPS video game, why the hell would you want to just sit there and shoot people as they go by? In real life I understand, but in games the goal is to have fun and I can't grasp how someone finds it fun to sit in a corner the entire match. (Excluding sniping)

[Deploy]

Couldn't resist.

[Guest Mr. Nintendo]

Depends on the game, for a FPS game like TF2 and COD: Black Ops then no, it would not be a legitimate strategy but insted, a waste of time.

[ZM Anonymous]

For those of us who play FPS, (which is almost all of us) you know what camping is.

Yeah sure, it's a tactic usually used by noobs who don't know how to play games, but you gotta admit, they thought it up, they do it, and it works.

So, what do you all think? Is it simply a no talent tactic, or is it a legitimate strategy?

Noobs didn't invent camping. Many people don't realize that noobs couldn't have done this on their own. It all routes back to the one person they saw attempt it and have successful results, like noob tubing. Many people also don't realize it isn't exactly flawless. From personal experience, I know there are ways to counteract camping. Knowing the map inside and out and knowing the game mechanics fully can help in your favor. As far as if it's a "no-talent tactic," I can disagree. Depending on the weapon the said camper uses, (ie. sniper rifle) it can take a bit of talent if you deal with lag. ms of ping can mean the difference between dead or alive. If he/she uses something like a SMG and prefers the enemy come to them, they'd have to pay attention to the HUD and in-game sounds.

Like some say, it's annoying, primarily because of the fact that it is just over-exploited as a tactic. It's also annoying that people complain about stuff like camping and noob tubing. sure it sucks, but don't go out on a tirade if you can't kill him. Maybe you just suck. I'm gonna be flat out honest. A kill's a kill. If you can't kill the noob, then you can't kill anyone.

This has been a butthurtingly honest post by ZM Anonymous.

[Arashikage]

Snipers in Bad Company can be annoying if you're on the receiving end, but honestly, it works and it IS a legitimate strategy so you shouldn't care.

*Thwacks Icy*

Did I not teach you better!? They're SCOUTS, not snipers! Snipers are for COD Noobs! XD

[fox1235]

Hey if you can do it with out glitching or hacking its ok to do.

[Fox-Shot]

I believe it varies. In Conquest mode on Battlefield: Bad Company 2, I feel that camping is a REQUIRED practice, just not for a long time. Since snipers can take you out easily if your standing in front of a common sniper spot, you need to crouch behind cover and just wait. Once the flag is captured, move on or there's no reason to it.

Black Ops is also varied, I feel that in a map like Array, camping HELPS the people who aren't camping. If they are just camping on the water tower in TDM, it creates the objective of capturing the tower by killing the campers on it before they can get enough for kill streaks, creating a more teamwork-based game.

Unreal Tournament 2004 actually said "You are Camping!" if you stood somewhere too long, but didn't do anything other than that.

[Sabre]

Noobs didn't invent camping. Many people don't realize that noobs couldn't have done this on their own. It all routes back to the one person they saw attempt it and have successful results, like noob tubing. Many people also don't realize it isn't exactly flawless. From personal experience, I know there are ways to counteract camping. Knowing the map inside and out and knowing the game mechanics fully can help in your favor. As far as if it's a "no-talent tactic," I can disagree. Depending on the weapon the said camper uses, (ie. sniper rifle) it can take a bit of talent if you deal with lag. ms of ping can mean the difference between dead or alive. If he/she uses something like a SMG and prefers the enemy come to them, they'd have to pay attention to the HUD and in-game sounds.

Like some say, it's annoying, primarily because of the fact that it is just over-exploited as a tactic. It's also annoying that people complain about stuff like camping and noob tubing. sure it sucks, but don't go out on a tirade if you can't kill him. Maybe you just suck. I'm gonna be flat out honest. A kill's a kill. If you can't kill the noob, then you can't kill anyone.

This has been a butthurtingly honest post by ZM Anonymous.

So anyone who disagrees with you is 'butthurt' (whatever that means) and has no skill? In that case anyone who disagrees with me is a squid monster and therefor is wrong.

Anyway, saying that "it is possable to beat campers" is like saying that a knife is better then a machine gun because in certain situations (ie. The gunner is being dumb or he runs out of ammo) it is possable for the knife man to get the upper hand. Camping is a fair stratagy in some modes, but it's not most. Camping pretty much guarantees victory, and if both teams use it there is no game. It's a bit like playing hide and seek in a carpark with an invisablity device. It's no fun for seeker, it's easy for the hiders, and if anyone decides not to use the device, they lose.

The goal is to have fun, not win at all costs. Camping makes the game boring and unfair to everyone who isn't camping. Why do you think objective games are so popular these days?

[Vy'drach]

Depends on the game and the mode. In SOCOM: Confrontation, camping usually wasn't a cheap strategy, it was easy to kill campers if your shots were accurate or you were good with a grenade (Which are not magnetic like they are in CoD, nor are they one button throws). In most of the Confrontation game modes, "camping" is not only legitimate, it's the correct and encouraged thing to do. In hostage/VIP extraction, what do you do? Camp the targets or the extraction zones. Even in the typical TDM games it's not bad. One game I made it to a building that the Spec Ops spawns near (me being a Mercenary), my weapon, a suppressed G18C pistol, which is the weakest damage per bullet weapon, but fires at 11-1200 RPMs, so it can drop people, if you can keep it on target. I hide in a corner with no cover, big group runs in all at once, I spray them down (aiming for the head as no matter their armor weight, or my bullet damage, a single headshot is a kill), then switch corners. They respawn, run in, check that corner, and I spray them down again, new corner, same thing, this time, I kill everyone but someone else runs in when I have only a few extra rounds, so I only wound him. He turns around, sprays at me, grazing me, while I reload. And this is a longer reload than most games as I have to drop the mag, reach for and pull it out of the mag pouch, slide it in, and then release the slide. All in all it takes about 3-4 seconds. The whole time the guy is spraying at me while I strafe in the room, but I get the gun reloaded, aim at his head, and fire a burst. I walk over another 9x19mm pistol and restock my magazines, then the group walks in and checks every corner, and a guy with an M14 kills me with a few shots since it's 7.62x51mm NATO, and I was wounded from the guy earlier as health doesn't refill. However I did get twenty some-odd kills that life. Objective of that mode, get more kills.

Was it cheap, not really as all it would of taken is someone checking their corners, flanking, or actually being able to aim well to kill me.

However there are ways in that game to camp cheaply, such as taking the hostages to a place that you have to approach from one direction, you have cover, and the enemy can't grenade you because it will kill the honstages as well, which makes them lose. Run into a few games like that.

[Sabre]

So camping is ok as long as you're the one doing it?

[Vy'drach]

So camping is ok as long as you're the one doing it?

No, depends on the situation, the game, and the game mode.

If the guys had checked their corners properly and were able to shoot, I'd of been screwed.

SOCOM: Confrontation is not a run and gun game, usually. Only on the 16vs16 respawn suppression (TDM) is it like that, and only on the larger maps like Urban Wasteland and Crossroads.

[GameMasterGuy]

Depends on what you mean by legitimate.

[DZComposer]

Whether or not it is a legitimate strategy depends highly on the game itself, and beyond that even the game mode.

If your objective is to defend something, then camping is not only a legitimate strategy, but the BEST strategy. If you're too aggressive on defense, attackers can slip through.

Take TF2 A/D maps (IE Dustbowl), for instance. If RED can put down a good point defense with strategically placed sentries and the people are staying near the point, BLU will have a tough time taking the point. If RED decides to go Heavy/Medic or scout and chase people all around the map, they may get lots of kills, but a scout can easily slip by and get to the point. Especially if he has Bonk.

TF2 Payload requires camping for RED, as defense on payload is all about area denial at choke points. Camping is a must. Take Cashworks, for instance. The deciding factor in Cashworks usually ends up being whether or not RED can hold the choke point immediately after the first point. A lot of times, RED will let BLU have the first point, and have several teleporters set up from RED's second spawn back to the first point (BLU capping first point makes RED's spawn move). 3 or 4 sentires in that area can make BLU go through living hell.

That said, TF2 has the ultimate counter to camping: The Ãœbercharge. Ãœbercharge requires teamwork, though. Especially in the situation on PL_Cashworks, but when executed properly, an Ãœber-Demo can wreck 3 or four sentries. Get a push behind him, and the teles are gone as well. The coordinated push also will take care of pesky airblast pyros.

All of that said, there are situations where camping is cheap. This is mainly in games will little to no spawn protection, or in deathmatch situations.

[Ringoshiiro]

I kind of hate to believe it, but camping is a legitimate strategy. I at least can tolerate it much more than spamming on a fighting game the whole time. I still don't like excessive camping in general, but I only seem to get mad if the person is actually a good camper. For example: I play Call of Duty B.O and I like to use the shotguns [steakout if you're wondering] and sometimes I do a tactical camp on demolition mode. All I do is lay down in prone position near a corridor, but I'm in the line of fire and they could just stun and dispatch me easily. However, I don't use this tactic in team death match. There is a such thing as a "Tactical Camp." You can't always be running around, but you shouldn't become a stagnant figure in the background the whole game. Also, I believe the real reason for hating camping is the amount of skill needed to counter it effortlessly. Back to call of duty: if you have flack jacket pro, tactical mask pro and hardened pro, then you are technically the ultimate camper. Your opponent has a pretty hard time blowing you up in one shot, if they run up and shoot, you won't flinch and you'll just counterattack. Finally, the tactical mask pro allows you to be practically impervious to flashbangs and concussion grenades. Now, if a person uses this loadout and has skill in playing the game and some legitimate strategy for prolonged camping, then this person will give just about anyone a headache.

The thing is, camping will only be as annoying as the programmers allow it to be. They could do an anticamp algorithm that is biased for snipers. Or maybe they could just give perks that don't make camping so darn easy to do. Again, I don't like camping depending on the objective of the game. It is justifiable in games that require protection, but for regular kills, it disrupts the pace of the game.

Of course there is one option: you could just avoid the camper altogether if possible. When he/she sits there for 5 minutes straight without the slightest action, then that's when the camper will reevaluate their strategy.

My take on this is only a tad biased in that campers plagued me for so long in FPS's, but logically, camping can be effective and efficient at winning certain games.

[Sabre]

I kind of hate to believe it, but camping is a legitimate strategy. I at least can tolerate it much more than spamming on a fighting game the whole time. I still don't like excessive camping in general, but I only seem to get mad if the person is actually a good camper. For example: I play Call of Duty B.O and I like to use the shotguns [steakout if you're wondering] and sometimes I do a tactical camp on demolition mode. All I do is lay down in prone position near a corridor, but I'm in the line of fire and they could just stun and dispatch me easily. However, I don't use this tactic in team death match. There is a such thing as a "Tactical Camp." You can't always be running around, but you shouldn't become a stagnant figure in the background the whole game. Also, I believe the real reason for hating camping is the amount of skill needed to counter it effortlessly. Back to call of duty: if you have flack jacket pro, tactical mask pro and hardened pro, then you are technically the ultimate camper. Your opponent has a pretty hard time blowing you up in one shot, if they run up and shoot, you won't flinch and you'll just counterattack. Finally, the tactical mask pro allows you to be practically impervious to flashbangs and concussion grenades. Now, if a person uses this loadout and has skill in playing the game and some legitimate strategy for prolonged camping, then this person will give just about anyone a headache.

The thing is, camping will only be as annoying as the programmers allow it to be. They could do an anticamp algorithm that is biased for snipers. Or maybe they could just give perks that don't make camping so darn easy to do. Again, I don't like camping depending on the objective of the game. It is justifiable in games that require protection, but for regular kills, it disrupts the pace of the game.

Of course there is one option: you could just avoid the camper altogether if possible. When he/she sits there for 5 minutes straight without the slightest action, then that's when the camper will reevaluate their strategy.

My take on this is only a tad biased in that campers plagued me for so long in FPS's, but logically, camping can be effective and efficient at winning certain games.

The avoid camper stratagy is known I know as leaving them to their picnic. It's a warhammer term. Basicly someone camps all their forces into an blob that you cant go within range of without death. However, holding the majority of objectives that way is almost impossable. Rather then trying to take the high value area, just take everything else. In a fair game that should allow you to win, or at least force a tie.

[Prince Elite]

It's a situational strategy, if a Sniper can find a place where he/she can rain hell down on his/her enemies, then sure, but if it's cowardice, maybe not. It all depends on the situation

[Fire Yoshi]

The sniper invented camping, most likely. The best snipers in fps games such as Halo are campers, so I'll say that camping is legit...well, depending on the game mode of course. Camping will get you nowhere on King of The Hill (unless there's camping spots in the hill).