Spam (computer game)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spam is a computer game phenomenon prevalent in FPS but also strongly present in many other game genres. Generally, it refers to the repeated, rapid use of an item, weapon or unit. Usually, this takes the form of grenade spamming i.e. a player or players throwing a number of grenades into one area.
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[edit] Types of Spam
[edit] 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 room. 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.
[edit] Grenade spamming
Grenade spamming or Nade spamming is the original type of spam, starting in Team Fortress and quickly spreading to other first person shooters. The concept of grenade spamming involves throwing multiple grenades into an area. Grenade spamming has the effect of real-life artillery barrages, suppressing an area of the map and killing any players caught within the spammed zone. When multiple players spam the same area, it is near-impossible for the opposing players to avoid being wounded or killed. Others 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.
In Objective-based games like Counter-Strike or Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory grenade spamming is also used to keep the enemy at bay from passing through a needed passage or to spam the objective itself while teammates go another way to kill them while they can't reach the objective. This presents some problems in team-based maps, where one team may have a better position to spam grenades from, causing serious imbalances. In Starsiege: Tribes, a group of dedicated mortar spammers can confine an entire team within an enclosed area (such as their own base) for hours on end. Usually, players will leave the server once this begins to happen.
In addition to throwing fragmentation or explosive grenades, players can also spam smoke grenades, which obscure or completely eliminate vision and often lag the server.
Grenade spamming is often criticised as requiring little to no skill and often seen as "unfair" by some players, as it does not put the player in direct conflict. Nonetheless, the tactic is a highly effective one, and recommended by some developers, such as Infinity Ward in their game Call of Duty 2.
[edit] Weapon spamming
Apart from grenades, "spam" can also describe spray and pray tactics with firearms. While rapid automatic fire is often desirable against multiple targets or for suppression purposes, gaming communities tend to frown on the reliance on automatic fire.
The issue is most evident in games with light, fast automatic weapons and plenty of ammunition, allowing players to run around maps with the trigger held down and usually being able to score many frags before being killed. While this style of gameplay exposes players to direct conflict, as the style is based purely on luck, players relying solely on spam tactics are often looked down upon for their apparent lack of skill, especially when they assert their dominance over precision weapons that require more concentration and ability to use.
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 prevents haphazard firing.
Spamming certain weapons, such as smoke grenades, is known to cause lag. Many players look down on intentionally spamming data-intensive weapons with the intention of causing an unfair disadvantage.
[edit] Spawn spamming
One form of spam which is regarded as reprehensible by the gaming community as a whole is spawn spamming (similar to spawn camping). As the name implies, this involves spamming an enemy's spawn point 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.
[edit] Sandbox Spawn Spamming
A form of spam in sandbox-style open ended video games is players spawning props, NPCs or other items. This is prevalent in the Half-Life 2 modification, Garry's Mod, where it is possible to repeatedly spawn large items and crash the server.
[edit] Unit spamming
When applied to real-time strategy games (or even some turn-based strategy games), spamming refers to the use of many units (usually of the same type) against an opponent. The units are usually cheap and quick to build, allowing players to send wave upon wave of the same unit against an opponent, with the intention of overwhelming their defenses with sheer numbers. This also is erroneously known as rushing. In StarCraft, for example, many Zerg players use tactics that involve spamming Zerglings, the cheapest unit in the game (see Zerg rush). Due to the sheer number of units, the strategy is difficult to defend against without powerful crowd control units that are unavailable early in the game. This is somewhat similar to the tactic coined for the Traveller TCS game by the Eurisko software and its creator.
Unit spamming can be used as a virtually impenetrable defense in games like Advance Wars because of the alarming numbers. As a result, it's particularly abusive when the spammer has ranged-attack units in his/her roster to destroy anything that even dares to strike. Fortunately, units that strategically counter both any easy-to-spam units and the ranged-attack units stop this; the spam requires resources to replace any units that get destroyed, and meanwhile, the spammer's opponent spends his/her own resources to increase his/her numbers.
Spamming units also has the effect of causing higher strain on player computers, making it more difficult to play the game or, in the worst scenarios, cause the game to crash entirely.
To prevent this style of play, game developers do such things as designing the game to have increased unit strength through diversification, hence players are encouraged to build different types of units that support each other. Also, by having automatic initial base defenses, some games prevent the possibility of an early unit rush being easily successful.
[edit] 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 condition 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, but most games place heavy restrictions on the most powerful skills to prevent this, and it is generally only possible through the use of cheats.
There is significant overlap with skill spamming and the skill training in some MMORPGs 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 often said to be skill spamming, although it's 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.
[edit] Alt. spamming
On the Nintendo DS first-person shooter, Metroid Prime Hunters, players can go into another form of battle called their 'Alternative form' instead of their normal 'BiPed' form. Players on Nintendo WFC often overuse this ability since it gives the player a number of advantages. While in alt. form, the player cannot be shot in the head (therefore no instant kills can be received from the sniper-like weapon, the Imperialist), the player is generally faster and more mobile then the BiPed form (providing easy escapes from the enemy, easy chasing, etc.) and while in the alt. form, some characters are immune to certain weapons.
Many players on Nintendo WFC take advantage of Samus' Morphball alt. form. The Morphball is the fastest and most mobile alt. form. Samus' Boosts can damage a player 20 health, then quickly release 3 bombs that explode on contact with the enemy that deal 16 damage each, totaling in 68 damage. That may not seem like much, but Samus's bombs reload very quicly, and she can never run out of boosts which is usually a guaranteed kill.
