Ganking and camping are two aspects of World of Warcraft player vs. player realms that generate strong reactions amongst players. Some players love to gank, others consid
Ganking and camping are terms used on World of Warcraft player vs. player servers (also known as PVP servers).
Some players love ganking and camping, while others consider both activities griefing (deliberately annoying other players by making it difficult or impossible to play the game). Both Alliance and Horde members gank and camp, although each WoW faction is quick to accuse the other of excessive ganking and camping.
Ganking Lowbies and Mob Fighters
Ganking refers to two activities. High level players who attack low level players (lowbies) are ganking. Killing players in opposing World of Warcraft factions gives the victorious player Honor Points, which can be traded for items. Fighting players who are significantly lower in level provides no honor points, as the fight is completely one-sided.
A lowbie player knows he or she is being ganked if the attackers if the attacker’s level is expressed as level ?? and there’s a skull where the attacker’s level should be. The fact the fight is usually over in one blow is also a tip-off. Ganking lowbies is often considered cowardly and depending on the server, may be considered griefing.
Ganking can also refer to sneaking up on an enemy and attacking from behind while he or she fights monsters or non-player characters (known collectively as “mob,” which is short for mobiles). Some players consider this a cowardly act, while others think it’s a sound strategy for generating honor points.
A lower level character can sometimes generate a fair number of honor points by ganking a weakened high level character, for instance (note that the consequences of failing are usually a quick trip to the nearest WoW graveyard).
Camping the Graveyards and Corpses
Death isn’t permanent in World of Warcraft. When characters die they appear in spirit form at the nearest WoW graveyard, and can choose to “respawn” at the graveyard or run back to their body.
Camping describes hanging out—either at a graveyard or over the body of a fallen enemy—to kill characters as they respawn. This may generate more honor points, but each time a player kills the same character less honor is generated. More often, camping is a form of griefing.
Camping is a valuable strategy in some of the PVP battlegrounds. In the wider world of Azeroth, however, it’s generally looked down on.
He Who Lives by the Gank . . . .
Ganking and camping are simply part of play on a PVP realm. Not all players gank or camp—many prefer to earn their honor points through fair combat. Some high level players are even known to assist lowbies of the opposing faction when they’re in trouble.
It’s also worth remembering that ganking players risk payback. Word travels quickly when someone’s ganking or camping, which draws other players to the victim’s defense. At that point the ganker becomes the ganked, and justice is served.
The copyright of the article Ganking and Camping in World of Warcraft in Computer Software is owned by Michael McGrath. Permission to republish Ganking and Camping in World of Warcraft in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
bravo man, i really liked this article about ganking and camping. i have
also do alot of ganking and some camping. nice job
Feb 13, 2009 8:08 AM
Guest :
Wow you are an idiot if you do a lot of ganking and camping
"guest." You sir are coward and a weakling and you gank and
"camp" players 40 lowers level than you because you can't hang in
actual 80 arena and pvp. Please do us all a favor and grow some balls and
step foot in a "real" pvp where you can get camped and ganked
because you are keyboard turning clicking moron.
Feb 24, 2009 8:40 AM
Guest :
You gank and camp because you can't hang in 80 arena or pvp. Stop griefing
others
Jun 26, 2009 7:03 AM
Guest :
im a lvl 80 tauren dk on the terokkar realm and i was camping a lvl 21
human rouge in the barrens or the fun of it, the human wisps a lvl 80 buddy
who comes to the rescue........ my budddy who is also a rouge comes out of
his invisibility and we pound the lvl 80 and the process begins all over
again :)
Jul 1, 2009 10:05 PM
Guest :
When i was leveling up i got ganked more then enough times and now that im
80 there is a strong urge to gank for the sake of redemption. But up
untill this point i havent yet because as you say it is cowardly and noob
like.
Aug 10, 2009 9:43 PM
Guest :
its part of the game. get used to it, if ur gonna have a cry about it gtfo
Sep 15, 2009 10:40 AM
Guest :
I don't know if you would call it ganking, but I was attacked by a Tauren
rogue 3 levels lower than me last night while I was killing some panthers
and gorillas to work on my skinning and leatherworking. I'm a Level 40
Draenei hunter (and a self-proclaimed "newbie" - playing about a
month) (and I'm a female:) My boyfriend keeps telling me that someday I'll
gank just because of all the times it's been done to me as I've been
leveling. I disagree. However, last night, this rogue attacked me, so
I killed him...then I went off a short distance to continue what I was
doing (my bf said it's definitely not cool to camp). He stealths again and
attacks me AGAIN. So I killed him again. I went away again and continued
what I was doing, this time setting a frost trap nearby, and sure enough,
he comes at me AGAIN...so I took him out again and called it a night,
logging off to go play on one of my other characters. Was he ganking me? I agree that high levels ganking low levels are cowards who probably
don't have the skills to fight players in their own level range. It's not a
matter of "crying" or "whining" - "its part of the
game. get used to it, if ur gonna have a cry about it gtfo" - sorry,
pal...it's lame and asinine. I can't even see what they get out of it.
"Dude...it was hilarious! I took out a Level 20 hunter..." says
the Level 80 Warlock to his Level 80 friends. Impressive? C'mon. If you
want to kill stuff without a fight, shoot an NPC rabbit or something.
Amounts to the same thing really.
