Spam (computer game)
Encyclopedia
Spamming, in the context of video games, refers to the rapid, repeated use of the same item or action. For example, "grenade spamming" is the act of a player throwing a large amount of grenades in succession into an area. In fighting games, one form of spamming would be to execute the same offensive maneuver so many times in succession that one's opponent does not receive a chance to escape the series of blows.
. Some servers enforce rules regarding text spamming, possibly resulting in players being kicked or banned. Some games allow text to be turned off or mute the player after a limited number of messages at the same time, hence nullifying this form of spamming.
People usually "Copy and Paste" or use spambots.
barrages, suppressing an area of the map and killing any characters caught within the spammed zone. When multiple players spam the same area, it is near-impossible for the opposing players to avoid having their avatars wounded or killed, and this effectively denies that area to enemies.
In objective-based, or flag capture games like Counter-Strike
, Team Fortress
, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
or Battlefield 2
, grenade spamming is also used to keep the enemy from passing through a needed passage, or to spam the objective itself while allies perform a flank attack on the pinned opponents. This presents some problems in team-based attack-and-defense maps, where the defending team may have a (deliberately-designed) strong defensive position from which to spam. In Starsiege: Tribes
, a group of dedicated mortar spammers can confine an entire team within an enclosed area (such as their own base) indefinitely. Usually, victimized players will simply quit the server when this happens.
In addition to throwing fragmentation or explosive grenades, players can also spam smoke grenades, which obscures or completely eliminates vision and often lags the server
.
Grenade spamming is often criticized as requiring little to no skill and often seen as "unfair" by some players, as it does not put the player in direct conflict. Some see spamming as a valid tactic that prevents the opposition grouping together or camping
and that it is reasonable for more grenades to have a greater chance of eliminating opponents than just using one. Nonetheless, the tactic is a highly effective one, and recommended by some developers, such as Infinity Ward
in their game Call of Duty 2
. In the case of HE grenades in Counter-Strike, the tactic can also be used to severely weaken and even rarely kill players who otherwise would sustain minimal damage from a single grenade.
Some games even include weapons with obvious spamming utility, designed to serve specific tactical purposes. In Team Fortress 2
by Valve Software, some combat classes have weapons effective over large areas (usually these weapons are also highly inaccurate or even totally ineffective over longer ranges to prevent indiscriminate killing from afar), such as the various explosives used by the Demoman and Soldier classes. Categorized as a Defensive class, the Demoman has specific functions in area denial and preventing enemy advances. Thus, he may repeatedly launch grenades in a half-blind fashion at a doorway or around a corner (the Soldier class may similarly repeatedly launch rockets) where enemies are known to be congregating in order to delay attacks until allies arrive to assist in defence; this will not, however, block larger, more determined assaults, thus enabling them to prevent harassment behind friendly lines while still allowing organized teams of enemies to invade and achieve victory, maintaining game balance. Furthermore, thrown hand grenades (accessible to all players, not just the Demoman) were removed from the game early in development to mitigate potential abuse of spamming explosives.
A variation of grenade spamming is noob tubing, the act of simply having a grenade or rocket launcher equipped (more commonly grenade launcher) and simply shooting in the general direction of your foe in hopes the splash damage will kill or injure them.
tactics with firearms. In its most general definition, weapon spamming involves using a large amount of ammunition irrespective of having any visible targets. While rapid automatic fire is often desirable against multiple targets or for suppression purposes, many gaming communities will frown on the reliance on automatic fire.
The issue is most evident in games with light, fast automatic weapons and plenty of ammunition, such as light machine guns, allowing players to run around maps with the trigger held down and usually being able to score many points before being killed. While this style of gameplay often exposes players to direct conflict, as the style is largely based on luck
, players relying solely on spam tactics are often looked down upon for their apparent lack of skill. However, some differentiation is made between weapon spamming against invisible targets (identified by sound, for example) and simple blind firing with the hopes of randomly hitting a target.
Nonetheless, spamming is seen as an important skill to possess even in competitive gaming circles, and some weapons are designed for the sole purpose of sustained rapid fire. Some games provide weapon feedback (making the gun rise) or decrease the shot accuracy for each bullet in a burst, hence encouraging controlled fire. Limiting ammunition availability, or keeping the maximum amount a player can hold low, also encourages controlled firing. Similarly in Team Fortress 2, the Heavy Weapons Guy class has a very large, extremely high rate of fire
minigun
which is principally useful for suppressing enemies as well as killing careless players in large numbers, encouraging caution rather than recklessness around him. The weapon also holds an extremely large number of bullets and never requires reloading, however it is highly inaccurate over long range, and firing it prevents the Heavy from quick movement, rendering him virtually stationary during sustained fire. According to developers at Valve, the weapon was intended to allow players without twitch-firing skills to engage in heavy firefights by developing a different combat skill-set based around predicting the start of combat and thus being in a defensive position and having the weapon ready in advance of enemies' arrival.
Spamming certain weapons that require a large amount of game data to use or deploy, such as smoke grenades, is known to cause lag
, mainly because the computer cannot easily render the effects. This can often be a problem, especially in a multiplayer setting. Many players look down on intentionally spamming data-intensive weapons with the goal of causing an unfair advantage. Similarly, weapon spamming can be used in games such as CounterStrike for the purposes of limiting the ability of opponents to hear anything other than the weapon being fired.
Like other forms of spamming, many players complain that it is unfair and diminishes the skill of the game, but experienced players will frequently use spamming to force their opponents into a different fighting style or into a compromising position. The downside to move spamming is that it frequently leaves the player open to attack if they are not careful of when they spam a move. Frequent spamming of particular moves can also make a player very predictable, making the likelihood of an opponent falling victim to a spam move very low. Many games attempt to reduce move spamming by having long recovery times at the end of highly effective moves, giving characters effective counters to break spamming, as well as the damage of a move gradually lowering as it is used repeatedly.
Many fighting games have moves that are easily spammed or are purposefully created to be spammed. Some moves have an "infinite" capability, where the move will continue to execute without stopping as long as the player is pressing the right button(s). The Super Smash Bros.
series has given all the characters the ability to enter an infinite move by rapidly tapping the A button. The character will then stand in place and begin a rapid flurry of attacks which only ceases if the player stops pressing the button. Since the attacker is stationary, the victim can simply move away from this attack. As such, infinite moves are frequently used when the victim is backed up against a wall to prevent their escape. Other moves can be chained into themselves, meaning that a move can be executed many times in a row without giving the opponent any time to react between hits. Many fighting games have moves like this, especially throws that allow a player to throw their opponent on the ground or against a wall, leaving them open to another throw before they can get to their feet.
with weapon fire in an effort to kill the enemy as they spawn. Many games include some kind of spawn protection which prevents players being injured for a few seconds after spawning. Spawn points may be spammed using grenades, proximity mines, bullets, or other weaponry.
or other items. This is prevalent in the Half-Life 2
modification Garry's Mod
, where it is possible to spawn numerous quantities of large, complex, or explosive items in order to crash the server. This is also common amongst Griefer
s in Second Life
, who spam sandboxes (areas which allow anyone to spawn custom scripted items) with the intent of either slowing the FPS
for other players, or crashing the server altogether.
spamming has the goal of making the player or his allies invulnerable, or the enemy too weak to react. More common is direct-damage spamming, where a single attack or spell, which has a low casting-cost
and recharge time, is used continuously. One notable example is the spell 'Charged Bolt' in Diablo II
. Its instantaneous cast and low cost allowed high level mages to cast the spell as quickly as they could press the casting key, dealing large amounts of damage in the process. Players can also spam high-end powerful skills, such as the 'Apocalypse' spell in Diablo
or the Moonfire spell available to druids in World Of Warcraft, which can be spammed to do high amounts of damage in a short period of time. Most games place heavy restrictions on the most powerful skills to prevent this kind of spamming, however, and it is often only possible through the use of cheats.
There is significant overlap with skill spamming and the skill training in some MMORPG
s which require a skill to be used to improve it. A player which uses the same skill over and over for this purpose is also said to be skill spamming. This is generally less frowned upon unless done in a highly populated area of the game where the accompanying graphical or sound effects will cause annoyance to others.
Chat spamming
Chat spamming is the repetition of a word or line typed out by a player using a game's chat system. As most games have some form of text messaging built for in-game communication, there is little to stop a frustrated player from flooding a server with text in the same way a user can flood a chat roomChat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
. Some servers enforce rules regarding text spamming, possibly resulting in players being kicked or banned. Some games allow text to be turned off or mute the player after a limited number of messages at the same time, hence nullifying this form of spamming.
People usually "Copy and Paste" or use spambots.
Grenade spamming
Grenade spamming or nade spamming involves throwing multiple grenades into an area. Grenade spamming can have two distinct sub-genres. The first occurs when a single player will repeatedly acquire grenades (usually with the assistance of hotkeys) and throw them without moving. The second version involves a player or group of players all throwing large numbers of grenades into an area. Grenade spamming has the effect of real-life artilleryArtillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
barrages, suppressing an area of the map and killing any characters caught within the spammed zone. When multiple players spam the same area, it is near-impossible for the opposing players to avoid having their avatars wounded or killed, and this effectively denies that area to enemies.
In objective-based, or flag capture games like Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...
, Team Fortress
Team Fortress
Team Fortress is a team- and class-based online multiplayer video game mod based on id Software's Quake. Team Fortress was designed and written by Robin Walker, John Cook and Ian Caughley in 1996. The mod's gameplay has caught on with a large following of fans, which has spurred many developers to...
, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is a free and open source multiplayer first-person shooter video game set during World War II...
or Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2 is a computer game by the Swedish developer Digital Illusions CE . During development, Trauma Studios contributed to the development of the game after it was acquired by DICE...
, grenade spamming is also used to keep the enemy from passing through a needed passage, or to spam the objective itself while allies perform a flank attack on the pinned opponents. This presents some problems in team-based attack-and-defense maps, where the defending team may have a (deliberately-designed) strong defensive position from which to spam. In Starsiege: Tribes
Starsiege: Tribes
Starsiege: Tribes is a sci-fi first-person shooter video game. It is the first of the Tribes video game series and follows the story from Earthsiege and Starsiege. It was developed by Dynamix and published by the company now known as Sierra Entertainment in 1998.-History:A sequel, Tribes 2, was...
, a group of dedicated mortar spammers can confine an entire team within an enclosed area (such as their own base) indefinitely. Usually, victimized players will simply quit the server when this happens.
In addition to throwing fragmentation or explosive grenades, players can also spam smoke grenades, which obscures or completely eliminates vision and often lags the server
Lag (online gaming)
In online gaming, Lag is a term used to describe delays between the action of players and the reaction of the server . Although it is commonly used to refer to delays caused by high latency, it is occasionally used to describe delays caused by insufficient processing power in the client and/or server...
.
Grenade spamming is often criticized as requiring little to no skill and often seen as "unfair" by some players, as it does not put the player in direct conflict. Some see spamming as a valid tactic that prevents the opposition grouping together or camping
Camping (computer gaming)
In video gaming, camping is a tactic in which a player will obtain a strategic position anywhere on the map and wait for characters to arrive and be killed, or waiting for useful objects to appear in an area rather than actively seeking them out....
and that it is reasonable for more grenades to have a greater chance of eliminating opponents than just using one. Nonetheless, the tactic is a highly effective one, and recommended by some developers, such as Infinity Ward
Infinity Ward
Infinity Ward is an American video game developer. Infinity Ward is responsible for the development of the video game Call of Duty and four other installments in the Call of Duty franchise....
in their game Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter video game and the second installment in the critically acclaimed Call of Duty series. It was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It was released on October 25, 2005 for Microsoft Windows and on November 22, 2005 as a launch game for the...
. In the case of HE grenades in Counter-Strike, the tactic can also be used to severely weaken and even rarely kill players who otherwise would sustain minimal damage from a single grenade.
Some games even include weapons with obvious spamming utility, designed to serve specific tactical purposes. In Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is a free-to-play team-based first-person shooter multiplayer video game developed by Valve Corporation. A sequel to the original mod Team Fortress based on the Quake engine, it was first released as part of the video game compilation The Orange Box on October 10, 2007 for Windows...
by Valve Software, some combat classes have weapons effective over large areas (usually these weapons are also highly inaccurate or even totally ineffective over longer ranges to prevent indiscriminate killing from afar), such as the various explosives used by the Demoman and Soldier classes. Categorized as a Defensive class, the Demoman has specific functions in area denial and preventing enemy advances. Thus, he may repeatedly launch grenades in a half-blind fashion at a doorway or around a corner (the Soldier class may similarly repeatedly launch rockets) where enemies are known to be congregating in order to delay attacks until allies arrive to assist in defence; this will not, however, block larger, more determined assaults, thus enabling them to prevent harassment behind friendly lines while still allowing organized teams of enemies to invade and achieve victory, maintaining game balance. Furthermore, thrown hand grenades (accessible to all players, not just the Demoman) were removed from the game early in development to mitigate potential abuse of spamming explosives.
A variation of grenade spamming is noob tubing, the act of simply having a grenade or rocket launcher equipped (more commonly grenade launcher) and simply shooting in the general direction of your foe in hopes the splash damage will kill or injure them.
Weapon spamming
Apart from grenades, "spam" can also describe spray and praySpray and pray
Spray and pray is a derisive term for firing an automatic firearm towards an enemy in long bursts, without making an effort to line up each shot or burst of shots. This is especially prevalent amongst those without benefit of proper training. It differs from suppressive fire as the shooting is...
tactics with firearms. In its most general definition, weapon spamming involves using a large amount of ammunition irrespective of having any visible targets. While rapid automatic fire is often desirable against multiple targets or for suppression purposes, many gaming communities will frown on the reliance on automatic fire.
The issue is most evident in games with light, fast automatic weapons and plenty of ammunition, such as light machine guns, allowing players to run around maps with the trigger held down and usually being able to score many points before being killed. While this style of gameplay often exposes players to direct conflict, as the style is largely based on luck
Luck
Luck or fortuity is good fortune which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the prescriptive sense and the descriptive sense...
, players relying solely on spam tactics are often looked down upon for their apparent lack of skill. However, some differentiation is made between weapon spamming against invisible targets (identified by sound, for example) and simple blind firing with the hopes of randomly hitting a target.
Nonetheless, spamming is seen as an important skill to possess even in competitive gaming circles, and some weapons are designed for the sole purpose of sustained rapid fire. Some games provide weapon feedback (making the gun rise) or decrease the shot accuracy for each bullet in a burst, hence encouraging controlled fire. Limiting ammunition availability, or keeping the maximum amount a player can hold low, also encourages controlled firing. Similarly in Team Fortress 2, the Heavy Weapons Guy class has a very large, extremely high rate of fire
Rate of fire
Rate of fire is the frequency at which a specific weapon can fire or launch its projectiles. It is usually measured in rounds per minute , or per second .-Overview:...
minigun
Minigun
The Minigun is a 7.62 mm, multi-barrel heavy machine gun with a high rate of fire , employing Gatling-style rotating barrels with an external power source...
which is principally useful for suppressing enemies as well as killing careless players in large numbers, encouraging caution rather than recklessness around him. The weapon also holds an extremely large number of bullets and never requires reloading, however it is highly inaccurate over long range, and firing it prevents the Heavy from quick movement, rendering him virtually stationary during sustained fire. According to developers at Valve, the weapon was intended to allow players without twitch-firing skills to engage in heavy firefights by developing a different combat skill-set based around predicting the start of combat and thus being in a defensive position and having the weapon ready in advance of enemies' arrival.
Spamming certain weapons that require a large amount of game data to use or deploy, such as smoke grenades, is known to cause lag
Lag
Lag is a common word meaning to fail to keep up or to fall behind. In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs...
, mainly because the computer cannot easily render the effects. This can often be a problem, especially in a multiplayer setting. Many players look down on intentionally spamming data-intensive weapons with the goal of causing an unfair advantage. Similarly, weapon spamming can be used in games such as CounterStrike for the purposes of limiting the ability of opponents to hear anything other than the weapon being fired.
Move spamming
Spamming in fighting games is very prevalent and it's use is just as controversial as other forms of spamming. Move spamming involves using the same move or set of moves repeatedly. Usually these moves have high damage and/or speed and can be difficult to block. Move spamming allows a player to inflict high damage with little effort and prevents the opponent from getting into a good footing to attack.Like other forms of spamming, many players complain that it is unfair and diminishes the skill of the game, but experienced players will frequently use spamming to force their opponents into a different fighting style or into a compromising position. The downside to move spamming is that it frequently leaves the player open to attack if they are not careful of when they spam a move. Frequent spamming of particular moves can also make a player very predictable, making the likelihood of an opponent falling victim to a spam move very low. Many games attempt to reduce move spamming by having long recovery times at the end of highly effective moves, giving characters effective counters to break spamming, as well as the damage of a move gradually lowering as it is used repeatedly.
Many fighting games have moves that are easily spammed or are purposefully created to be spammed. Some moves have an "infinite" capability, where the move will continue to execute without stopping as long as the player is pressing the right button(s). The Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros., known in Japan as , is a fighting game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan on January 21, 1999, in North America on April 26, 1999, and in Europe on November 19, 1999. Super Smash Bros. is the first game in the Super...
series has given all the characters the ability to enter an infinite move by rapidly tapping the A button. The character will then stand in place and begin a rapid flurry of attacks which only ceases if the player stops pressing the button. Since the attacker is stationary, the victim can simply move away from this attack. As such, infinite moves are frequently used when the victim is backed up against a wall to prevent their escape. Other moves can be chained into themselves, meaning that a move can be executed many times in a row without giving the opponent any time to react between hits. Many fighting games have moves like this, especially throws that allow a player to throw their opponent on the ground or against a wall, leaving them open to another throw before they can get to their feet.
Spawn spamming
One form of spam which is regarded as reprehensible by the gaming community as a whole is spawn spamming (also known as spawn reaping) (see spawn camping). As the name implies, this involves spamming an enemy's spawn pointSpawning (computer gaming)
In video games, spawning is the live creation of a character or item. Respawning is the recreation of an entity after its death or destruction....
with weapon fire in an effort to kill the enemy as they spawn. Many games include some kind of spawn protection which prevents players being injured for a few seconds after spawning. Spawn points may be spammed using grenades, proximity mines, bullets, or other weaponry.
Sandbox spamming
In some sandbox-style open ended video games, players may spawn props, NPCsNon-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
or other items. This is prevalent in the Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2 , the sequel to Half-Life, is a first-person shooter video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. It is singleplayer, story-driven, science fiction, and linear...
modification Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod
Garry's Mod is a sandbox physics game using the Source engine. Garry's Mod has been available on Steam's content delivery service since November 29, 2006...
, where it is possible to spawn numerous quantities of large, complex, or explosive items in order to crash the server. This is also common amongst Griefer
Griefer
A griefer is a player in a multiplayer video game that deliberately irritates and harasses other players.-History:The term was applied to online, multiplayer computer games by the year 2000 or earlier, as illustrated by postings to the rec.games.computer.ultima.online USENET group.-Overview:A...
s in Second Life
Second Life
Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
, who spam sandboxes (areas which allow anyone to spawn custom scripted items) with the intent of either slowing the FPS
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
for other players, or crashing the server altogether.
Skill spamming
In Role Playing Games (RPG) spam usually takes the form of repeated use of one powerful or low-cost skill or spell. Buff, debuff, and conditionStatus effect
In role-playing games, a status effect is a temporary modification to a game character’s original set of stats that usually comes into play when special powers and abilities are used, often during combat. It appears in numerous computer and video games of many genres, most commonly in role-playing...
spamming has the goal of making the player or his allies invulnerable, or the enemy too weak to react. More common is direct-damage spamming, where a single attack or spell, which has a low casting-cost
Magic point
Magic points are units of magical power that are used in many role-playing, computer role-playing and similar games as an expendable resource that is needed to pay for magic spells and other abilities, such as special attacks...
and recharge time, is used continuously. One notable example is the spell 'Charged Bolt' in Diablo II
Diablo II
Diablo II is a dark fantasy/horror-themed hack and slash, with elements of the role playing game and dungeon crawl genres. It was released for Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment, and was developed by Blizzard North. It is a direct sequel to the 1996 hit PC game, Diablo.Diablo II...
. Its instantaneous cast and low cost allowed high level mages to cast the spell as quickly as they could press the casting key, dealing large amounts of damage in the process. Players can also spam high-end powerful skills, such as the 'Apocalypse' spell in Diablo
Diablo (video game)
Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996....
or the Moonfire spell available to druids in World Of Warcraft, which can be spammed to do high amounts of damage in a short period of time. Most games place heavy restrictions on the most powerful skills to prevent this kind of spamming, however, and it is often only possible through the use of cheats.
There is significant overlap with skill spamming and the skill training in some MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s which require a skill to be used to improve it. A player which uses the same skill over and over for this purpose is also said to be skill spamming. This is generally less frowned upon unless done in a highly populated area of the game where the accompanying graphical or sound effects will cause annoyance to others.
See also
- Spawn Camping
- CampingCamping (computer gaming)In video gaming, camping is a tactic in which a player will obtain a strategic position anywhere on the map and wait for characters to arrive and be killed, or waiting for useful objects to appear in an area rather than actively seeking them out....
- Rush
- NukeNuke (gaming)In many online video games , the term nuke can describe a spell or skill that is capable of dealing a large amount of damage to its target, which is frequently a unit. Also in the context of video games, “nuking” may also describe the act of using a nuclear weapon in the game...