It has been suggested that Zerging be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

In real-time strategy (RTS) and team-based first-person shooter (FPS) computer games, a rush is a fast attack at the beginning of the game. It emphasizes speed in an attempt to overwhelm an unprepared opponent. In fighting games, this style of play is called rushdown. This also has a different meaning in RPG computer games where characters skip the usual progress path with the aid of others to reap benefits that are usually denied to them until a later time. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Zerging, swarming or goblin tactics describes a tactic, originating in real-time strategy games but used in many different computer games including massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), that is analogous to the human wave attack in real-world ground warfare, in which overwhelming numbers of troops are sent at... Age of Empires (1997), Invasion of an enemy A real-time strategy (RTS) game is a type of computer strategy wargame which does not have turns like conventional turn-based strategy video or board games. ... Doom, one of the games that defined the first-person shooter genre. ... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... Screenshot of Kung Fu Master (1984, Irem). ...

Real-time strategy (RTS)

In RTS games, to perform a rush, the attacking player focuses on building a large number of fast, cheap units adept at attacking. The player who rushes may sacrifice such options as greater long-term resource gathering or immediate research up the tech tree to opt instead for a quick strike. In strategy computer games, of both the turn-based and real-time varieties, a tech tree, short for technology tree, is an abstract hierarchical visual representation of the possible paths of research a player can take. ...

A successful rush usually attempts to disrupt the resource gathering of the defending player. 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 wasted valuable time and resources that would have been better spent on research or building types of units not as well adapted toward the rush. 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. In military terminology, a suicide charge refers to a charge, usually of infantry or cavalry, into a strong and/or heavily fortified enemy, usually with the intent of breaking the offensive/defensive line and allowing subsequent forces to advance through the breach, or drive the attackers off. ...

The term "rush" is often preceded by a word describing the type of unit used in the rush. For example, in the game StarCraft, a Terran player may use a Marine rush, a Protoss player may use a Zealot rush, and a Zerg player may use the infamous Zergling rush. The units used are almost always cheap, easy to produce, and weak compared to other units. StarCraft (SC) is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. ... The Marines of the Terran Confederacy The Terrans are the name given to the human colonists in the StarCraft universe used to distinguish them from the humans of Earth. ... The Protoss The Protoss are a race in Blizzard Entertainments real-time strategy computer game, StarCraft. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A Zergling is the first non-worker unit the Zerg are able to build in the real time strategy game StarCraft, created by Blizzard Entertainment. ...

Origins

The first common appearances of the term rush in this sense came from Warcraft II (1995) Warcraft II players used the term grunt rush, the "grunts" being the basic Orcish military unit. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (usually simply called Warcraft II; sometimes abbreviated to WCII, WC2 or War2) is a sequel to the popular real-time strategy game Warcraft, published by Blizzard Entertainment in December 1995. ... 1995 (MCMXCV in Roman) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

There was a variation of the grunt rush that involved building a barracks (the primary military structure) before building a town hall (the primary structure for collecting resources and developing the tech tree.) The "barracks first rush" was effective because the in the 1.0 release of Warcraft II, the players' starting locations were bound to the players' colors. It was possible to know where a player was located on the map if you knew the starting location for each color. The color/location problem was fixed in the first patch and barracks first rushing became a losing proposition on most larger maps. Since the barracks first rush was a do-or-die tactic, it was banned in most leagues and strongly discouraged by most serious players. Players would start games saying "thf", short for "town hall first". The much later release, Warcraft II Battle.net Edition, forced players to build a town hall first.

In Command and Conquer: Red Alert (1996) so-called tank rushes were a dominant strategy for players using the Soviet forces. Command & Conquer: Red Alert and its sequels are computer games by Westwood Studios, spun off from the Command & Conquer series. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

The term was further popularized by the strategy of Zerg rush (typically with the zergling unit, so the term was also known as zergling rush or in a more abbreviated form as ling rush ), from StarCraft (1998). At the time StarCraft online play began, the Zerg could execute faster rushes than either the Terran or the Protoss; players considered the Zerg the race most likely to and best-adapted to rushing. Later balance changes implemented through patching and the release of an expansion pack improved the rushing abilities of the other races and de-emphasized Zerg rushing. 1998 (MCMXCVIII in Roman) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The Marines of the Terran Confederacy The Terrans are the name given to the human colonists in the StarCraft universe used to distinguish them from the humans of Earth. ... The Protoss The Protoss are a race in Blizzard Entertainments real-time strategy computer game, StarCraft. ... In computing, a patch is a software update meant to fix problems with a computer program. ... An expansion pack is an addition to an existing game. ...

Culture

When the first RTS-games were released in the early to mid 1990s, and rushes were first discovered, rushes were considered to be an unskilled tactic in many RTS gaming circles. However, the very design of RTS-games basically allow a rush of some type to exist in any game. Furthermore, a rush that failed was likely to result in the loss of the rushing player, so a rush involved taking an inherent risk. Consequently, soon the opposite became true: players who could rush well became respected. By the late 1990s, in most RTS-games, virtually all good players practiced the rush, which is still considered a standard and completely acceptable strategy. In some games, such as Galactic Civilizations, some players consider it unfair for the rush to be applied by artificial intelligence players. In early versions of Starcraft, players were able to quit the game within 5 minutes without having a loss filed in the official Battle.net statistics. This led to extremely early rushes where the rusher quit just before 5 minutes if the rush did not seem successful enough. The time limit was lowered in later versions. The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, the last decade of the 20th Century. ... Galactic Civilizations is a turn-based strategy computer game developed by Stardock. ... Hondas intelligent humanoid robot Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as intelligence exhibited by an artificial entity. ... StarCraft (SC) is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. ... Battle. ...

In RTS-games that have been played for a long time, anti-rush strategies are usually developed, causing most rushes to become more of an attempt at early pressure rather than a direct attempt to win the game, though the latter still sometimes occurs.

In StarCraft, the rush is often accompanied by chat that includes East Asian-style Internet lingo such as "kekeke" and East Asian-style emoticons such as "^__^"; this is indicative of StarCraft's popularity in South Korea. StarCraft (SC) is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. ... Online chat can refer to any kind of communication over the internet, but is primarily meant to refer to direct 1 on 1 chat or chat rooms, using tools such as instant messenger applications—computer programs, Internet Relay Chat, talkers and possibly MUDs, MUCKs, MUSHes and MOOes. ... East Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Kekeke (ㅋㅋㅋ) is a Korean term to indicate a cackling type of laughter. ... An emoticon, sometimes called a smiley, is a sequence of printable characters such as :), ^-^, or :-) or a small image that is intended to represent a human facial expression and convey an emotion. ... StarCraft (SC) is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. ...

In the Age of Empires series, sometimes, certain rules are applied in which the players are forbidden to rush before reaching a certain age period. Such rules are simply a mutual understanding between players. In the latest RTS-games, the developer made rushing an almost futile strategy. This was done by strengthening the settlement by further fortifying it with projectiles and, in some other cases, with towers. Another change was to make the villagers stronger; attacking the villagers with weak units was no longer a profitable business. Age of Empires, abbreviated to AoE, is a history-based real-time strategy computer game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft, released in 1997. ...

In such games, a rush can still be applied, but mostly to weaken your opponent's expansion plans.

Another way to avoid rush is to enforce a non-rush rule for a particular period of time. It could be anything from 10-minutes, to 1-hour; in TB-games, the rush restriction could last for hours. Players that want to avoid rush do it to make sure that all players have a fair chance to execute their own strategy, and, in turn enjoy a longer game.

Raiding

Raiding is a currently more common variant of the rush. A rush usually implies a strategy that relies heavily on build order, has a very narrow window of time, and aims to either win the game as early as possible or permanently cripple your opponent, often by destroying his important buildings that are too expensive to repair or rebuild and remain competitive in the game.

Raiding, by contrast, implies a focus on "hit and run" attacks on an enemy's resource gathering units and apparatus — while usually cheaper and somewhat less effective than destroying command centers or expensive military training buildings, it requires relatively little early military presence. A successful raid will usually destroy a couple economic gathering units and disrupt the enemy's concentration. It will rarely cripple an opponent, but will put them at a noticable disadvantage in the early and midgame.

Some games have units dedicated to the practice of raiding, such as the cavalry archers in Rise of Nations and light cavalry units in Age of Empires III. Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy computer game, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003. ... Age of Empires III (AoE III) is the sequel to Age of Empires II and the third title of the history-based real-time strategy Age of Empires series of computer games. ...

First-person shooter (FPS)

Rushing in team-based first-person shooters has the same meaning as in real-time strategy games, and the term probably originates from RTS games. The opposite of rushing in this sense is camping. In FPS games, rushing is often considered to be an honorable tactic, in contrast to camping which is often looked down upon as a dishonorable tactic. Camping is computer gaming jargon for the practice of a player staying in one area of the game world waiting for enemies or useful objects to appear or to come to the player rather than actively seeking them out. ...

A team will rush towards an objective or certain area of the map hoping to overwhelm the players there before backup can arrive. In a round-based game like Counter-Strike, players rush typically in an all-or-nothing attempt at the beginning of the round. In most other first-person shooters players spawn continuously, so they might wait and plan for a group of players to form a rush. For example in Unreal Tournament 2004's "Onslaught" mode (territorial control), players might prepare an organized rush to capture the last control point and win the game. Counter-Strike (CS) is a popular team-based mod of Valves first-person shooter (FPS) Half-Life. ... Unreal Tournament 2004 is a first-person shooter computer game designed mainly for multiplayer gaming although the game had a built in single-player mode that mimics multiplayer gaming by featuring AI-bots. ...

Similar to and spiritually derived from the "zerg rush" is a phenomenon known in the MMOFPS Planetside as "the zerg". Organized and teamwork-focused Outfits assign this description to the masses of hundreds of players in any faction that travel from base to base in a massive, unorganized squabble - rather than cooperating with fellow Outfits or coordinating with other players, and typically winning by gross numerical superiority rather than any amount of skill or tactical expertise, much like an inexperienced Zerg player in StarCraft would. PlanetSide is a Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter computer game published by Sony Online Entertainment and released on May 20, 2003. ... StarCraft (SC) is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. ...

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG)

As in FPS games, the rush tactic is strategically sound in massively multiplayer online games. Unlike FPS games, however, more often than not any occasion where a rush tactics is employed it is backed up by an overwhelming strength in numbers (the rushing side outnumbering the opponents). This particular tactic is usually called Zerging and is considered dishonorable. Many players in Blizzard's World of Warcraft have adopted the term "zerg rush kekekekekekekeke..." and so on. Zerging, swarming or goblin tactics describes a tactic, originating in real-time strategy games but used in many different computer games including massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs), that is analogous to the human wave attack in real-world ground warfare, in which overwhelming numbers of troops are sent at... World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ... Laughter is the biological reaction of humans to moments or occasions of humor: an outward expression of amusement. ...

Many MMOG companies attempt to inhibit the Zerging by their player base while still encouraging fair use of a rush. Some companies do this by enforcing that the same number of opponents will be on both sides of a battle (instanced arenas or dungeons), some by granting defenders abilities that are especially effective against uncoordinated large scale attacks, and others by providing defensive structures where an outnumbered defensive force can hold off attacking hordes.

Fighting game

In the world of fighting games, especially those of the 2-D variety, rushdown is a play style utilizing aggressive, unrelenting attacks designed to cause mental intimidation in the other player (due to the visually impressive string of attacks), and force them, due to the increased game pace, to make defensive errors, leading to punishable mistakes. Characters who excel in this style are referred to as "rushdown characters". A rushdown game is inherently a game of calculated risks.

Notable rushdown characters: Ken Masters, Ryu, Magneto, M. Bison, Balrog, Vega. Ken in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. ... Ryu drawn by SNK Ryu (リュウ in Japanese) is a video game character created by Capcom, and is the main character of the Street Fighter series. ... Magneto (alias Erik Magnus Lehnsherr) is a comic book fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Comics universe. ... M. Bison M. Bison (sometimes referred to as Major Bison, but officially called Master Bison and known in Japan as Vega) is one of the primary bosses of the Street Fighter fighting game series. ... Balrog Balrog (Mike Bison in Japan) is a character from the Street Fighter fighting game series. ... Vega Vega (Balrog in Japan) is one of the bosses of the Street Fighter fighting game series. ...

Multiplayer RPG Games

Rushing can also mean an attempt to circumvent the established path of progress, related to powergaming. In multiplayer RPG games, like Diablo II, low level characters can allow high level characters to complete tasks in such a way that the low level character is awarded the progress. This type of action usually is followed by the low level characters leeching off other characters and gaining rewards they ordinarily would not have access to. This enables rapid progression with characters gain rewards much faster than ordinarily possible. Diablo II, in particular, was patched by its makers to attempt to inhibit this action. Player have since found ways around the new measures introduced. Rushing, in the 1.10 patch of Diablo II, has passed into a form of currency since rushing became more complicated. Powergaming is a particular way of playing role-playing games in which the emphasis lies on developing a player character that is as powerful as possible. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

The technique gatecrasher refers to a player's character which is created to assist in rushing (getting another character 'promoted' to a later stage of the game than it could attain without assistance) by means of the gatecrasher questing through act one and two, up until the point where Duriel's lair in The True Tomb of Tal Rasha is opened by inserting the Horadric Staff into The Orifice.

The gatecrasher character then kills Duriel but exits the game without 'exploring' Tal Rasha's Chamber . At this point, any game created by the gatecrasher will have an open tomb, and a dead Duriel. This allows the "rushee" character to pass through Act Two quickly, by merely kicking the Claw Viper Altar, entering a town portal to the Arcane Sanctuary, exiting the portal, then entering a portal to the Summoner's Platform and going through the Red Portal to the Canyon of the Magi, exiting and then entering a portal to the Orifice, and walking through to the end of the Final Act Two Quest. After that the character must talk to the non-player characters (NPCs): Drognan the sage, Jerryn the harem master, and Meshif the sailor. Though it takes some time to describe this process, a fast rusher can get a character from Act One through to Act Four in a very few minutes, using a gatecrasher and another powerful character which has completed the game. A non-player character or non-playable character is a fictional character in a role-playing game whose role is generally created and performed by the gamemaster. ...

See also

• Camping
• Turtle
• Human wave attack