What is your opinion on ambush/camping behavior in online games?

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It is as viable of a strategy as any other. People who complain about people "ratting" or being "bush wookies" crack me up... its like saying that chargin a point is a dumb way to play.. its not.. it is just the way people play. Some people are door kickers, some people want to sneak through a window, some people will camp an exit point. It all adds to the tension in a game. I think that if you are playing a game and dont like that people exit camp, like the do specifically in extraction shooters, then you might want to try a game that is more of a TDM.... Because extraction games are generally designed around chokepoints... ala EFT or Hunt to name the most dominant ones I can think of.
I have wondered if this concept of "playing the right way" stems from a generation of people who watch twitch streams. Those guys cannot really afford to play the flanking/ambush style, so people watch and think that pushing a point, or dropping into the hottest zones are the correct way to play. My old ass lacks the snap reflexes of a 15yo. I am for mid tier, or mid tier +1... So I try to play games that allow for me to push when I feel a tactical advantage, or snipe from the flanks when I dont. Which most people would never want to watch.
- Really don’t think that ‘playing the right way’ is a new phenomenon. I haven’t played an online FPS in 20 years, but I vividly remember controversy around camping when I was playing Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 Arena way back then.
  
  To piggyback on this, I used to play Counter-Strike 1.5 (and later 1.6) a lot. There were servers that ran scripts to automatically chuck people into the air and deal them damage (often called a slap) if they didn't change coordinates on the map for too long. Some would just auto-kick players for doing so. The anti-camper hate was common.
  The server I frequented was far more lenient, but camping that prolonged the round(since dead players could only watch, and the rounds were 5 minutes long to make walking and crouching more viable) was generally frowned upon if they weren't outnumbered or defending an objective.
- Complaining about campers has been a thing since before streaming became popular.
  Speaking anecdotally as both the complained and complainee, most people play superficially and aggressive. This makes them easy targets for strategies that are often considered "cheap" like camping or spamming. Rather than reflect and learn how to deal with those situations, its easier to deflect and blame the other for playing wrong.

33 comments