Spawn Camping Marathon Gets Black Ops Players Banned

[Logan Westbrook]

Spawn Camping Marathon Gets Black Ops Players Banned

​

You don't necessarily have to hack anything to cheat at Call of Duty.

A group of Call of Duty: Black Ops [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Black-Ops-Xbox-360/dp/B003JVKHEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299090434&sr=8-1 ] player earned themselves a temporary ban and a rank reset after Treyarch became aware of their efforts to cheat the system and rack up hundreds of kills through spawn camping.

The camping marathon took place during a Demolition game on the Havana map. Demolition features fixed spawns for both teams, making it a rather popular game mode with spawn campers.

As you can see in the video, the camper in question made a beeline for one of the spawn points and proceeded to knife people in the back as they appeared, and once he had amassed enough kills, he used the helicopter gunship to spray the spawn point with lead. By the end of the match, he had died eight times, but had killed 501 people. What's more his team mates had also been camping and had similarly high scores.

Unfortunately - for the campers at least - one of the players filmed the match and put it up on YouTube, where Treyarch's community manager Josh Olin saw it and gave everyone involved a temporary ban and reset their rank to zero. According to Olin's Twitter replies [http://twitter.com/#!/JD_2020/status/42404003358846976], the opposing team was in cahoots with the campers, which is why they didn't just disconnect, so they earned bans as well. Olin said that spawn camping was a form of boosting, and wouldn't be tolerated in Black Ops.

Source: Game Culture [http://www.gameculture.com/2011/03/01/when-500-kills-one-match-can-get-you-banned]


Permalink

 

[-Samurai-]

Hey, way to punish players for exposing the flaws in your game, Treyarch.

Maybe the people getting beat were in league with the spawn campers, or maybe they're like me and refuse to quit no matter how badly they're getting beat.

 

[Danpascooch]

The core mechanics of CoD online are so broken, I just find this funny

EDIT: To those who want to argue with me about why I think the core mechanics are broken, here is a copy of a post I made detailing my argument, I don't think CoD is stupid or hopeless, but I do think it needs major reform immediately, I have no intent to start an argument or flame-war, I am merely sharing my opinion that is relevant to this topic:

Alright, let's see if I can do this without starting a flamewar, I think I can manage it. *cracks knuckles*

Shooters are generally about skill and team tactics, that is what elevates one team over another in an online match. Here are those two elements, and how the core mechanics of CoD violate and destroy each of them.

Skill:

Basic Definition:

The ability to properly dispatch an opponent due to effective aiming and use of environment (cover and the like) in an even fight.

Call of Duty Definition:

The ability to wait in one spot until an enemy walks by, and then kill him solely because you sat in one spot and happened to see him first.

Violating Mechanics:

1.) Low Health (or high damage)

The extremely low health in CoD means that when two opponents are within range of eachother, and overwhelming amount of time the victor is the one who sees his opponent first, not the one with the most skill.

2.) Prone

Prone allows a player to lie down and almost always be the first person to see an opponent when the opponent enters the room, and don't even get me started on "drop shooting"

3.) Static Spawn

Besides the obvious problems shown in the video (did you see the part where he literally stood behind them and stabbed each one as they appeared?) Static spawning means that you can reliably predict which hallway/room/alley the enemy players will funnel through, leading to camping spots that take advantage of the mechanics listed above to remove skill from the game

4.) Kill Streaks

Players are awarded for getting a number of kills without dying, which discourages them from taking any sort of calculated risk or put their life in danger for the good of the team, this heavily encourages camping

Conclusion:

I have no real issue with any of these mechanics alone, the problem is that they all work together in synchronization to create a game where the victor is not determined by skill but by camping and waiting for extended periods of time

Tactics

Definition: Increasing effectiveness through the use of proper team communication, strategies, and grouping into squads

Violating Mechanics:

1.) The four mechanics above and the camping atmosphere they create

Grouping is suicide in CoD because the high damage and advantage of finding a camping spot means that a single camper with a rifle can kill three or more people almost as quickly as one, as long as he has a decent camping spot. (as in, any window overlooking a linear path)

2.) Static Spawns & Frequent Deaths

The fact that in CoD players are constantly either A) In a camping spot (in which case another teammate isn't likely to heavily increase effectiveness as detailed above) or B) constantly dying and teleporting back to one side of the map. Makes it nearly impossible to work as a group.

Conclusion:

Given the diminishing returns on camping, and the fact that players are constantly separated by being whisked away on respawn with startling frequency makes it nearly impossible to execute any meaningful teamwork.

Overall Argument

A shooter is not about finding spots to camp on a map, but that's what Call of Duty is all about, leading me to the conclusion that the core mechanics listed above have broken the fundamental aspects of what makes a shooter enjoyable.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

I like how they just punish those that are just abusing flaws the developers left in rather than making a patch which would take 30 mins tops (i'm being generous) to just vary the spawn points.

The ban is slightly unfair as they state themselves that they think the other team was in collaboration therefore they were not griefing the other team. A simple rollback of a few ranks of the exp they earned using the flaw would have been enough.

 

[Cpt Corallis]

Question: Why not just implement a system where a newly spawning player in a game with fixed spawn points be invincible until three seconds have passed since they moved from the spawn point?
Would mean that people would be able to escape from spawn campers or get revenge.

 

[Oilerfan92]

I bet my next paycheck treyarch does nothing to prevent this from happeningn and will do the same thing in their next games.

Pathetic.

 

[Wolfram23]

The core mechanics of CoD online are so broken, I just find this funny

The "core mechanics" are broken? I'd like to hear you explain that further.

OT: That's pretty sad. I thought the spawns were a lot more random but I guess this type of match it isn't.

 

[Sneaklemming]

Thats right, use bad design, and then ban your players when they uncover your bad design.

 

[Fappy]

Hey, way to punish players for exposing the flaws in your game, Treyarch.

Maybe the people getting beat were in league with the spawn campers, or maybe they're like me and refuse to quit no matter how badly they're getting beat.

Pretty much this. I have never understood why people can get in trouble for exploiting flaws in games and this goes for anything from Call of Duty to World of Warcraft. I'm sorry, but if the person in question isn't actively hacking the game and is just taking advantage of weaknesses in your programming that's your problem no matter how many players get adversely affected. I've never been guilty of this kind of behavior before, however I can't fathom why players can get punished for simply playing the game the way they want to.

 

[Dragonborne88]

They aren't punishing you for finding a bad design, they are punishing you for EXPLOITING it to get higher ranks...just because you find a bug, doesn't mean you need to use it.

I've found plenty of bugs in games, even ones that aren't multiplayer, and I see it, then proceed on, without using it, even if it would help me in someway. I have no pity for the people they banned for being cheap.

 

[Captain Pirate]

Hey, way to punish players for exposing the flaws in your game, Treyarch.

This.
I mean, yes, the players where VERY dishonest, and abused the game, which should perhaps earn them a warning. But don't ban people from finding something wrong with your game, Treyarch.
If you didn't want people doing that, why make it possible?
I love Black Ops, but... seriously, Treyarch, fuck off and give the guys a break. And fix the bloody spawns so it doesn't happen again.

Props to the players for finding the flaw, figuring out how to exploit it, and doing so very, very successfully.

 

[Veloxe]

Hey, way to punish players for exposing the flaws in your game, Treyarch.

There is a big difference between exposing flaws, and exploiting flaws.

OT: Hope no one on the other team got caught up in all that and ended up getting banned for just trying to beat the campers as opposed to just disconnecting.

 

[thiosk]

I have to say; online multiplayer is pretty lame in general.

I've noticed it more and more in the 15 years since I was 14. This sort of thing used to happen a lot back in the day too, but you'd never hear\care about it because of the lack of ranked metagaming features.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I got spawn camped once. I refused to quick, even though I could literally only take five steps before I was cut down. Everyone else save one person on my team quit the match, and it got to the point where whenever I managed to kill someone, it was pure joy. Guess what?

IT WASN'T IN CALL OF DUTY!!!!

Stop saying this is only Call of Duty's problem. Tons of online shooters have this issue. For the record, the game I was talking about is Resistance 2.

On topic: I think this is hilarious. Stupid people doing stupid things then posting it for the enforcers to see. Ha ha ha ha ha!

 

[felixader]

Hey, way to punish players for exposing the flaws in your game, Treyarch.

Maybe the people getting beat were in league with the spawn campers, or maybe they're like me and refuse to quit no matter how badly they're getting beat.

You first sentence mirrors my exact thougths.
Way to go for banning people who play your game the way you made it. X-P

 

[Anton P. Nym]

They aren't punishing you for finding a bad design, they are punishing you for EXPLOITING it to get higher ranks...just because you find a bug, doesn't mean you need to use it.

Yup, I agree with this. Sure, Treyarch needs to do a better job of proofing their designs... but that does not excuse douchebaggery by players. (Any more than Infinity Ward's goof with the Javelin Exploit in CoD4 did.)

People gotta take ownership of their own actions, and that includes the players.

-- Steve

 

[Drop_D-Bombshell]

Why am i not suprised? I've lost all hope in CoD now. If a gaming company manages to let this slip in nearly 6 months since release they really need to shape up and actually test the game properly.

 

[Kenko]

Hey, way to punish players for exposing the flaws in your game, Treyarch.

Maybe the people getting beat were in league with the spawn campers, or maybe they're like me and refuse to quit no matter how badly they're getting beat.

There's exposing a flaw and then theres exploiting it to get an unfair advantage over others.