Spamming
| “ | You're all a bunch of no-hopers!
Click to listen
— The Sniper
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Spamming refers to where a player continually repeats an act within the game. It comes in three forms: Weapon Spamming, Message Spamming, and Building Spamming.
Weapon Spamming
The player, upon equipping a certain weapon, will repeatedly fire at a specific location in order to hopefully damage any enemy that may wander into the location. An alternative of this, suppressive fire, is firing constantly at points of interest on a map such as Control Point or choke point.
Weapon Spamming is often associated with classes that have a high damage or weapon fire output. These can include Soldiers, Demomen and Heavies. Projectiles that are difficult to aim are often spammed as well, such as Huntsman arrows, and Sandman baseballs. Searching for cloaked Spies requires players to spray a nearby area in the hope of revealing the Spy's Cloak. This will not be an instance of spamming if the player recently bumped into the Spy and is therefore aware of their presence. Continually attaching Electro Sappers to buildings does not classify as spamming.
There is much debate surrounding the technique of spamming. It can be argued that continually firing requires no challenges to aiming or movement as experienced with a moving enemy; it therefore requires little or no skill to perform but maximizes the killing potential of the player. On the other hand, it is a viable tactic for deterring enemies from certain strategic areas, and requires awareness of the surroundings to prevent being ambushed.
An area bombarded by fire can be easily countered. Having a Medic deploy an ÜberCharge on a player can allow them to push through the damage and remove the causes of the spamming. Pyros can also counteract by reflecting enemy projectiles from the area and allow teammates to move forward. Waiting for the spammers to run out of ammo is possible, but not advised in case of nearby Dispensers or ammo packs. Spies equipped with the Dead Ringer may pass easily through the damage blockade and ambush the enemies. Additionally, Scouts equipped with Bonk! Atomic Punch may be able to get past the front lines while still invulnerable. This technique helps 'break up' the enemy spam, as many players will chase a Scout who runs past them.
Message Spamming
One or more players continually use the in game text based chat system, to send nonsensical repetitive messages, continually request trades or abuse other players.
In Voice Spamming, a player uses the in-game, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system to repeatedly send messages to players. Unlike Chat Spamming, players can get a lot more creative by using a number of sound effects, voice clips, or music from an external program. Voice Spamming frequently occurs in servers that have the sv_alltalk command enabled. While some players find it amusing, most players consider this an annoyance, as this may break their concentration or affect their ability to listen for key in-game sounds such as incoming players or uncloaking Spies. In addition, Voice Spamming can make it very difficult to listen to a teammate's alerts or responses. Fortunately, this can be counter-acted with a simple muting.
Ways to Counteract
- Oftentimes simply asking the spammer to stop will work if they're considerate enough.
- If a player is Voice Spamming, use the Main Menu and select the Mute Players option to silence them.
- Message spamming can be easily remedied if a Server Admin is present, as they have the ability to prevent a player from using Voice Chat and/or text Chat. However, some Admins might ignore Message Spamming depending on the rules of the server.
Building Spam
In most cases, Engineers will lay down multiple Sentry Guns and Dispensers is order to block off any attackers from certain locations.
Sometimes, Engineer spammers will construct multiple Teleporters to try to grief the team, including having Teleporter entrances mid-map send the team back to the start, or into bugged or glitched areas where the Teleported player cannot escape (however, most of the teleporter glitching areas have been fixed by Valve.)
