Last man standing (computer games)

The Last man standing mode is based on the Deathmatch mode (detmatch). Two or more players appear on the arena ( respawn ), who fight among themselves in the "each for themselves" mode. The main difference from the detachment is the limited number of lives (respawn capabilities) of the players. Moreover, respawns may be generally prohibited. If a player dies, he recovers (respawn), but his life counter is reduced by one. As soon as a player runs out of his entire life, he is completely eliminated from the match and can no longer continue to participate in it. The game continues until only one player is left alive, and all the rest do not exhaust their life reserves. The remaining player is the winner of the match.

There are several variations (modifications) of the “Last man standing” mode, and one of the most common modifications is “Last team standing” ( Rus. The last remaining team ). “Last team standing” is completely identical to “Last man standing”, except that it is based not on a “simple” detmat, but on a team ( Eng. Team deathmatch ). All players are divided into, as a rule, two teams, and the team in which at least one player with at least one life is left alive wins. A team whose all players have exhausted all their lives loses.

Camping is a key weakness of the Last man standing mode. The player can sit in some specific place that provides him with significant advantages (for example, the highest point on the map, which is difficult to reach, but at the same time with which you can view the entire map; or some kind of dead end passage, which is good shot through). Having captured a similar point on the map, the camper awaits the appearance of other players and, taking advantage of his "ambush", kills them. Thus, by the end of the match, most of the players die, the rest almost end up with the number of lives, while the camper's number of lives can remain almost full. After waiting for this moment, the camper can get out of the ambush and easily destroy the few remaining players.

This tactic is advantageous in the “Last man standing” mode, but it eliminates the pleasure of the game and destroys the game mechanics. Instead of fighting players one against the other, camping encourages players to choose the most convenient points on the map, lie down on them and wait for other players. If all the players in this match use camping, the game stops.

Several methods are used to combat camping in the “Last man standing” modes. A computer game determines the players who spend a certain time without movement, are at one point on the map and do not conduct any actions. If the game identifies such players, it can notify them of camping, and if they do not change their tactics, then their position can be shown to all other players in the match, and in some cases the camper can be automatically removed (kicked) by the game from the match. Often retired players go into spectator mode, watching the actions of the rest. Having found the camper, retired players can initiate a vote for his removal (kick).

• Deathmatch
• Capture the Flag

• Alexander Yumashev aka Jazzcat. Review of Unreal Tournament (Neopr.) . Absolute Games (December 21, 1999). - Review of the game " Unreal Tournament ", which describes the mode of "Last man standing". Date of treatment December 5, 2010.