Spawning (video 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.

All players typically spawn at the start of a round, whereas some objects may spawn after the occurrence of a particular event or delay. A player spawning again in the same round will usually be considered to be "respawning", especially if something occurred to bring them back sooner than usual. The term "spawning" is used almost exclusively in games where the player repeatedly dies.

The term was coined by id Software within the context of its game, Doom.

Spawn points

Spawn points are areas in a level where players spawn. In levels designed for team play, these points are usually grouped so that each team spawns in their own tight area of the level. Spawn points are typically reserved for one team at any time and often have the ability to change hands to the other team. Some games even allow spawn points to be created by players; using a beacon for example in Battlefield 2142. "Odd" spawn points cause the player to be spawned as if actively entering the game world, rather than merely appearing there.

Spawn camping is a practice where a player waits near precise spawn points to kill enemies as they spawn. This is usually considered to be poor sportsmanship and some players even perceive it to be exploitative of the game itself. Most team-based games have some kind of protection against spawn camping, such as a one-way door that only allows players to leave the spawn area, permanent AI defences or perhaps a timer which kills enemies if they spend too long around the spawn area. Games with capturable spawn points will often leave some spawn points without this sort of camping protection. Spawn points for game objects are often abused in a similar fashion in game types such as role-playing games.

Enemy respawning

In some games, enemies may be respawned (or, equivalently, new ones spawned) to keep players on their toes and create tension, or force players to move on, making it too costly (in resources) and/or too dangerous to stay in one place for too long. Enemies may visibly spawn or, in more realistic games, spawn outside the player's line of sight and move towards the player. Early games including monster respawning are Doom and its sequel Doom II: Hell on Earth. The enemies in these games had the ability to spawn from their teammates. Later games that continuously spawn enemies include GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, System Shock, Mass Effect 2 and Call of Duty.

In MMORPGs, it is typical for monsters or mobs of monsters to continually respawn to allow all players a chance to fight. Some of these games implement instances, which create a temporary copy of the game world and its characters, reserved for a subset of players. This allows each subset the chance to experience that part of the game without any interference from uninvited guests.^[1]

Player-requested entities

In some games a player who has access to debugging or administrative tools can spawn entities or pickups with said tools.

See also

• Camping (video gaming)

References