Rush (video games)

Rush (video games)
A "four pool" zergling rush against a zerg AI opponent in StarCraft, who has not yet built a Spawning Pool.

In video games, rushing is analogous to the human wave attack in real-world ground warfare, in which speed and surprise are used to overwhelm and/or cripple an enemy before they achieve effective buildups of sizable defensive and/or expansionist capabilities.

In real-time strategy (RTS), real-time tactical (RTT), squad-based tactical shooter (TS), and team-based first-person shooter (FPS) computer games, a rush is an all-in fast attack or preemptive strike intended to overwhelm an unprepared opponent. In massively-multiplayer online first-person-shooter (MMOFPS), this also describes the masses of hundreds of players in massive, unorganized squabble in effort to win by gross numerical superiority. In these contexts, it is also known as Swarming, Cheese, Mobbing, Goblin Tactics or Zerging, referring to the Zerg rush tactic from StarCraft. In fighting games, this style of play is called Rushdown. In sport games, this style of play is called Blitz or Red Dog. This also has a different meaning in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) and competitive online role-playing games (CORPGs), where characters frequently deploy summoned creatures (pets) for use in mob control tactics known as Mob Control, sapping tactics known as Minion Bombing, or use of tactics that involve repeatedly throwing themselves (dying and reviving) at a boss mob. Collectible Card Games (CCG) and Trading Card Games (TCG) can employ a strategy of Flooding the enemy with small, cheap and expendable targets rather than strong, well-coordinated units.

The common alternatives to rushing are:

  • Turtling (building strong fortification defenses combined with mass firepower using artillery and aircraft units, and sending out an advanced force projection army later in the game).
  • Steamrolling (creating rapid deployment of "expansionist outposts" to fuel a booming economy and using it to purchase better (and more expensive) units and technologies than the enemy, thereby achieving rapid dominance which is referred to as a "boom" or "shock and awe".

Contents

Strategy & tactical games

In strategy games, to perform a rush, the attacking player focuses on quickly building a large number of units early on in the game [1] with the hopes of swarming the opponents before they can defend themselves. In the majority of cases, these units are fast and cheap to enable larger numbers and opportunistic attack strategies, but they may sometimes be chosen to exploit a particular weakness of the enemy. The player who rushes may sacrifice options such as long-term resource gathering, defense, or immediate research up the tech tree to opt instead for a quick strike, usually putting the rushing player at a severe disadvantage, should the rush be unsuccessful.

A successful rush usually attempts to disrupt the resource gathering of the defending player or annihilate that player entirely. The rush is a risky tactic. If the rush is successful, then the player may have won the game or significantly set his or her opponent back; if the rush fails, then the rushing player may have lost valuable time and resources that would have been better spent on research, building defenses, and building more powerful units. A rush can also be considered a mass attack with primarily only one type of unit used, and depends on overwhelming numbers and force to succeed. The rush is often a suicidal attack (for the units involved); rushing units are often expected to die, but to nevertheless benefit the player initiating the rush by disrupting the opponent's operations.

The term "rush" is often preceded by a word describing the type of unit used in the rush, and falls broadly into the category of normal early attacks ("rushes") and all-in attacks ("cheese"). For example, in the game StarCraft, a Terran player may use a Marine rush (or in some cases an SCV rush), a Protoss player may use a Zealot rush, and a Zerg player may use the infamous Zergling rush. The units used were almost always cheap, easy to produce, and weak compared to other units.

Occasionally, the term is applied to the different, but related tactic epitomized by the Tank rush present in the Command & Conquer series since Command & Conquer: Red Alert. The tank rush differs in the units are neither cheap nor easily produced, but in a sufficient group they can be nigh unstoppable. Similar to the StarCraft etymology, the term is often altered according to the units involved, such as the Rhino tank rush of Red Alert 2, the Flash tank rush of Total Annihilation and the Pitbull rush of Command & Conquer 3. This alternate application can also be found in many gaming communities. Some rushes rely on units that may not be cheap or quick to produce but have a particular advantage such as flight or invisibility that requires specialized defenses to counter. For example, a Protoss player may employ a Dark Templar rush, consisting of the perpetually cloaked Dark Templar unit, against an opponent with no units or structures that can detect cloaked units. In Red Alert 2, a tactic called a "Rocky Rush" where an Allied player, without the knowledge of their opponent, quickly amasses a large force of flying infantry called Rocketeers is a somewhat common rush. The strategy relies on the idea that just as many StarCraft players may forget early invisibility detection ability to defend against more conventional attacks, many Red Alert 2 players might not have built any anti-aircraft defenses early in the game in order to defend against tank and engineer rushes more effectively. If an opponent has sufficient warning of a Rocketeer Rush, it is easy for them to build a defense to counter the Rocketeer rush for a fraction of the cost of the Rocketeers, ensuring victory for the defending player, because the opponent will be left with little money and no way of stopping a ground assault with anti-aircraft support.

Mobbing

In Guild Wars, Mobbing also refers to the Alliance Battle tactic of gathering together players from more than one party in order to overwhelm the opposing team in player versus player (PvP). Also, mobs can refer to several separate groups of enemies that a player aggros into a large group, usually for another party member to nuke the enemies with area of effect damage.

Purpose of mobs

Defeating mobs may be required to gather experience points,[1] money,[2] items,[3] or to complete quests.[4] Combat between players and mobs is called player versus environment (PvE).[5] Players may attack mobs, but some mobs are aggressive, and may attack players.[6] Monster versus monster (MvM) battles also take place in some games.[7]

Origin and usage

The term mob as it is used in MUDs is short for mobile,[8][6][9][10] which was used by Richard Bartle for objects that were self-mobile in MUD1.[8] Source code in DikuMUD uses the term "mob" to refer to a generic NPC.[11] DikuMUD was influential in the creation of EverQuest,[12] and the term as it exists in MMORPGs is derived from the MUD usage.[8][13] In this usage, the term is properly an abbreviation rather than an acronym.[6][8] Backronyms for "MOB" such as "monster or beast", "mere ordinary beast" and "mean old bastard" have also been coined.

"Mob" may be used to specifically refer to generic monstrous NPCs that the player is expected to hunt and kill, excluding NPCs that engage in dialog or sell items, or who cannot be attacked.[13] Named mobs are distinguished by having a proper name rather than being referred to by a general type ("a goblin", "a citizen", etc.).[14] Dumb mobs are those with no complex behaviors beyond attacking.[6]


Fighting Games

In fighting games, rush down or cheesing is a common tactic. Usually a player uses a move, or a series of offensive moves, to overwhelm the opponent. There is are many ways to do this in fighting games, however, in general cheesing follows two forms. The first form is usually an all out relentless attack by a player which can be maintained by using any and all attacks at the player’s disposal (button mashing) or through a memorized offensive combination routine. This tactic is usually more effective on beginners who have not mastered defensive stances and counter attacks. Beginners will tend to either try to match the more experienced player measure for measure, (and fail due to unfamiliarity with controls) or "clam up" in a complete defensive posture leaving them vulnerable to attacks to more powerful defense breaking attacks. Sometimes, this tactic is used as a feint or an opening test of a player’s ability, rather than a style of play. Experienced gamers, in general, will be used to countering rush down techniques without sacrificing offense. Another popular type of cheesing involves a manipulation of game mechanics. In this type a player uses rapid offensive maneuvers coupled with manipulation of the games design. For example, a player might rush down in hopes of trapping a player against the "corner", or some physical boundary developed by games so as to cut down their opponent’s ability to elude the assault. Another example is using graphic or timing discrepancies to incapacitate an opponent. For example, the game might have a series of "quick attacks" which might throw an opponent to the game's floor; the modeling of the player who is floored by an attack might be relatively slow. Players who are floored are usually unable to defend themselves until they're back in their set position. As such an opponent can use an attack to "floor" an opponent and then once floored can repeatedly use quick attacks to seemingly keep the opponent floored (and unable to defend themselves) indefinitely. A prominent example of this was in Mortal Kombat, in which the low level sweep kick could be used to keep the player semi permanently floored. This type of cheesing is frowned upon by gamers, and usually is seen as bad gamesmanship, and may cause other players to refuse to play with the offender.

CCGs, TCGs, miniatures, board & dice games

Collectible card game

Although the term is most commonly used in MMOs and other Electronic Games, it can be applied to many other non-electronic games as well. For example, a player of a Collectible Card Game (CCGs) or Trading Card Game (TCGs), such as Magic: The Gathering, can employ a strategy of flooding the enemy with small, cheap targets rather than strong, well-coordinated units.

See also

References

  1. ^ Carton, Sean (1995). Internet Virtual Worlds Quick Tour. Ventana Press. pp. 175. ISBN 1566042224. "Mob A slang term for "mobiles" or monsters on a virtual world. Monsters are non-player characters who roam the world. Often, players reach a higher level by fighting and killing monsters." 
  2. ^ Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. pp. 301. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. "One consequence of this is that quest rewards and mobile drops should be variable, too. Who'd want to risk life and limb for 20,000 UOC if it wasn't enough to buy an arrow? Yet how do designers make these price rises occur rationally in such a way that unscrupulous players can't screw over the system?" 
  3. ^ Busey, Andrew (1995). Secrets of the MUD Wizards. SAMS Publishing. pp. 295. ISBN 0-672-30723-5. "Monsters keep players on the go for experience and weapons." 
  4. ^ Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. pp. 649. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. "In the big city, you're asked to deliver bread; in the frontier town, you're asked to kill bandits. Can you stand the heat, or do you get out of the kitchen? By giving players harder quests in rougher areas, designers inform them that these are tougher areas." 
  5. ^ Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. pp. 406. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. "Player versus Environment (PvE). Players are opposed by the environment—that is, the virtual world. In a combat situation, this means player characters (PCs) fight monsters." 
  6. ^ a b c d Shah, Rawn; Romine, James (1995). Playing MUDs on the Internet. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. pp. 93–94. ISBN 0-471-11633-5. "One of the major types of objects that you will encounter on a Mud is the mobile. A mob (pronounced MOHb, not MAWb), or mobile, is a computer controlled creature. [...] If a mob is not friendly, it is known as an agg or aggressive mobile. It will hit you at the first opportunity, even the instant you walk into a room. A majority of Muds have dumb mobs. A dumb mob will fight you until you kill it or flee from it." 
  7. ^ Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. pp. 103. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. "Consider a second goblin raiding party. It emerges from its camp, kills some villagers' sheep, and then returns home with the spoils. The villagers get angry and offer to pay players to kill the goblins." 
  8. ^ a b c d Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. pp. 102. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. "What's more of an issue is the presence in the virtual world of virtual creatures. These are commonly known as mobiles30 (mobs for short), and they represent the monsters and non-player characters who inhabit the virtual world. [...] 30From MUD1, "mobile objects." I called them that because creatures moving in a controlled but unpredictable way are like the kind of "mobiles" that hang from ceilings. Well, I was in kind of a hurry..." 
  9. ^ Maloni, Kelly; Baker, Derek; Wice, Nathaniel (1994). Net Games. Random House / Michael Wolff & Company, Inc.. pp. 213. ISBN 0-679-75592-6. "mob or mobile ..... a monster in the game" 
  10. ^ Towers, J. Tarin; Badertscher, Ken; Cunningham, Wayne; Buskirk, Laura (1996). Yahoo! Wild Web Rides. IDG Books Worldwide Inc.. pp. 140. ISBN 0-7645-7003-X. "mob = mobile (This is jargon for a monster or creature.)" 
  11. ^ ftp://ftpgame.org/pub/mud/diku/ DikuMUD source
  12. ^ Bartle, Richard (2003). Designing Virtual Worlds. New Riders. pp. 25. ISBN 0-1310-1816-7. "If ever there was a case of being in the right place at the right time, EverQuest (EQ) is it. It was basically a DikuMUD with a graphical client bolted on—the similarities are so close that under legal threat its server programmers were forced to sign sworn statements to the effect that they didn't use any actual DikuMUD code in EverQuest." 
  13. ^ a b Hecht, Eliah (2007-02-20). "The compleat WoW abbreviations". WoW Insider. http://www.wow.com/2007/02/20/the-compleat-wow-abbreviations/. Retrieved 2010-03-25. "Mob: Short for "mobile" (derived from MUDs, where any NPC was either a stationary shopkeeper or mobile; see WoWWiki), this refers in WoW to NPCs, primarily NPCs that are meant to be killed." 
  14. ^ Poisso, Lisa (2009-06-08). "WoW Rookie: Rares, elites and nameds". WoW Insider. http://www.wow.com/2009/07/08/wow-rookie-rares-elites-and-nameds/. Retrieved 2010-03-25. "Named mobs are just that: monsters that have names." 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Rush (video game series) — Rush is the title of a series of arcade racing games that is known for its high flying jumps and multiple shortcuts. Atari Games, a division of Midway Games, is the game s developer. Ed Logg, the developer behind influential games such as… …   Wikipedia

  • Portal:Video games — edit   …   Wikipedia

  • Rush (video game) — Infobox VG title = Rush developer = Midway Games publisher = Midway Games distributor = designer = engine = version = released = vgrelease|NA=October 30, 2006 genre = Racing modes = Single player, multiplayer ratings = vgratings|ESRB=Teen… …   Wikipedia

  • List of One Piece video games — The One Piece logo, as seen on many of the series video game covers The One Piece video games series was published by Bandai and Banpresto, later as part of Namco Bandai Games, and is based on Eiichiro Oda s shonen manga and anime series of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Chronology of real-time tactics video games — Part of a series on …   Wikipedia

  • Chronology of city-building video games — Part of a series on …   Wikipedia

  • Magic: The Gathering video games — Several video games based on the Magic: The Gathering franchise exist for multiple systems. Some have attempted to translate the card game to electronic play nearly exactly; others have taken more liberties and drawn more from the setting than… …   Wikipedia

  • List of puzzle video games — Part of a series on Puzzles …   Wikipedia

  • List of Dragon Ball video games — The following is a list of video games based on the Dragon Ball manga by Akira Toriyama. Since 1986, many video games based on the property have been released in Japan, with the majority of the games being produced by Bandai. Most of the fighting …   Wikipedia

  • Dance Dance Revolution (Windows video games) — To date two official home versions of Dance Dance Revolution have been released for personal computers, with a third on the way. One in Japan and one in North America. In contrast, dozens of DDR like programs have been released on multiple… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”