Rush (computer and video games) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

In video games, rushing is analogous to the human wave attack

Human wave attack

Human wave attack, also known as human sea attack, is an offensive infantry tactic, in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations against the enemy line, intended to overrun the defenders by engaging in melee combat.-Definition:According...

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

Real-time strategy

Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

(RTS), real-time tactical

Real-time tactics

Real-time tactics or RTT is a subgenre of tactical wargames played in real-time simulating the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics...

(RTT), squad-based tactical shooter

Tactical shooter

A tactical shooter is a subgenre of shooter game that includes both first-person shooters and third-person shooters. These games typically simulate realistic combat, thus making tactics and caution more important than quick reflexes in other action games...

(TS), and team-based first-person shooter

First-person shooter

First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

(FPS) computer games, a rush is an all-in fast attack

Shock tactics

Shock tactics, shock tactic or Shock attack is the name of an offensive maneuver which attempts to place the enemy under psychological pressure by a rapid and fully committed advance with the aim of causing their soldiers to retreat...

or preemptive strike

Preemptive war

A preemptive war is a war that is commenced in an attempt to repel or defeat a perceived inevitable offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending war before that threat materializes. It is a war which preemptively 'breaks the peace'. The term: 'preemptive war' is...

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
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...

. In fighting game

Fighting game

Fighting game is a video game genre where the player controls an on-screen character and engages in close combat with an opponent. These characters tend to be of equal power and fight matches consisting of several rounds, which take place in an arena. Players must master techniques such as...

s, 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 game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

s (MMORPGs) and competitive online role-playing games (CORPGs), where characters frequently deploy summoned creatures (pet

Pet

A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...

s) for use in mob control

Riot control

Riot control refers to the measures used by police, military, or other security forces to control, disperse, and arrest civilians who are involved in a riot, demonstration, or protest. Law enforcement officers or soldiers have long used non-lethal weapons such as batons and whips to disperse crowds...

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

Mob (computer gaming)

A mob, mobile or monster is a computer-controlled non-player character in a computer game such as an MMORPG or MUD. Depending on context, all such characters in a game may be considered "mobs", or usage may be limited to hostile NPCs and/or NPCs vulnerable to attack.-Purpose of mobs:Defeating...

. Collectible Card Game

Collectible card game

thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...

s (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
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...

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".

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 http://www.onpedia.com/encyclopedia/Rush-(computer-gaming) 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

Tech tree

In strategy computer games, the technology tree or tech tree is a hierarchical visual representation of the possible sequences of upgrades a player can take, by means of research. The diagram is tree-shaped in the sense that it branches at certain intervals, allowing the player to choose one...

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
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...

, 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
Command & Conquer
Command & Conquer, abbreviated to C&C and also known as Tiberian Dawn, is a 1995 real-time strategy computer game developed by Westwood Studios for MS-DOS and published by Virgin Interactive. It was the first of twelve games to date to be released under the Command & Conquer label, including a...

series since Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is a real-time strategy computer game of the Command & Conquer franchise, produced by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive in...

. 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
Total Annihilation
Total Annihilation is a real-time strategy video game created by Cavedog Entertainment, a sub-division of Humongous Entertainment, and released on September 30, 1997 by GT Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. It was the first RTS game to feature 3D units and terrain...

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

Guild Wars

Guild Wars is an episodic series of online 3D fantasy role-playing games developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. Although often defined as an MMORPG the developers define it as a CORPG due to significant differences from the MMORPG genre. It provides two main modes of gameplay—a cooperative...

, 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

Player versus player

Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between two or more live participants. This is in contrast to games where players compete against computer controlled opponents, which is correspondingly referred to as player versus environment...

(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

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...

the enemies with area of effect

Area of effect

thumb|Screenshot from FreedroidRPG showing Area of Effect.Area of effect is a term used in many role-playing and strategy games to describe attacks or spells that affect multiple targets within a specified area....

damage.

Purpose of mobs

Defeating mobs may be required to gather experience point

Experience point

An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...

s, money, items, or to complete quests. Combat between players and mobs is called player versus environment

Player versus environment

Player versus environment, or PvE , is a term used in online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, and other online role-playing video games, to refer to fighting computer-controlled enemies—in contrast to PvP .Usually a PvE mode can be played either alone, with human...

(PvE). Players may attack mobs, but some mobs are aggressive, and may attack players. Monster versus monster (MvM) battles also take place in some games.

Origin and usage

The term mob as it is used in MUD

MUD

A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...

s is short for mobile, which was used by Richard Bartle

Richard Bartle

Richard Allan Bartle is a British writer, professor and game researcher, best known for being the co-creator of MUD1 and the author of the seminal Designing Virtual Worlds. He is one of the pioneers of the massively multiplayer online game industry.-Life and career:Bartle received a Ph.D...

for objects that were self-mobile in MUD1

MUD1

Multi-User Dungeon, or MUD is the first MUD and the oldest virtual world in existence. It was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10 in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly language...

. Source code in DikuMUD

DikuMUD

DikuMUD is a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, which is a type of MUD. It was written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert, and Hans Henrik Staerfeldt at DIKU —the department of computer science at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen,...

uses the term "mob" to refer to a generic NPC. DikuMUD was influential in the creation of EverQuest
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...

, and the term as it exists in MMORPGs is derived from the MUD usage. In this usage, the term is properly an abbreviation rather than an acronym. Backronym

Backronym

A backronym or bacronym is a phrase constructed purposely, such that an acronym can be formed to a specific desired word. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology....

s 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. Named mobs are distinguished by having a proper name rather than being referred to by a general type ("a goblin", "a citizen", etc.). Dumb mobs are those with no complex behaviors beyond attacking.

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.

Collectible card game

Although the term is most commonly used in MMO

Massively multiplayer online game

A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...

s and other Electronic Game

Electronic game

An electronic game is a game that employs electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. The most common form of electronic game today is the video game, and for this reason the terms are often mistakenly used synonymously. Other common forms of electronic game include...

s, it can be applied to many other non-electronic games as well. For example, a player of a Collectible Card Game

Collectible card game

thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...

(CCGs) or Trading Card Game (TCGs), such as Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering , also known as Magic, is the first collectible trading card game created by mathematics professor Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011...

, can employ a strategy of flooding the enemy with small, cheap targets rather than strong, well-coordinated units.

Strategy & tactical games

Mobbing

Purpose of mobs

Origin and usage

Fighting Games

Collectible card game

See also