Turn on auto aim + blindfold your eye + spam your hammur = see what happen :P

I once asked someone what spamming means And they said:

Me: *Spams pulsar

Him: PULSAR SPAMMER LAWLALAWLWL CANT LIVE WITHOUT!

Me: Define spam?

Him: When you use the same weapon

Me: So if your always using flourish (wolver line) isn't that spamming as well?

Him: Leaves the game*

Oh well. Here I go.

First, answers to questions:

-So with the impression that there is an "overuse" of a weapon, action, or combo (while in LD), why does it even matter to begin with?

Explained in #3.

-Does it really show a lack of skill to "spam"?

Yes. “spamming” does show a lack of skill in the player doing it. For instance, if a Knight is Flourish full-combo attacking with Auto Target(not auto aim!), they are, essentially, hammering the attack button and hoping something happens. They are not using any form of technique that would increase their performance, and are letting the game fight for them by using the aim assist that, in some cases, spins the player around in superhuman reaction times. Same goes for the Rocket Hammer. For the Sealed lines, the AT isn’t as much of an issue, but doing nothing but repeatedly doing the full combo and relying on the second swing’s ability to hit a 360 degree area is, again, lazy and not skill-based.

-And if it does show a lack of skill, why is it that you only complain when it works?

Simple: Luck. PvP should be skill-based, and luck should have no effect on your ability to survive or deal damage. If you die to a spammer, it means they got lucky. Then you complain because they didn’t work for that kill/damage. As for why most people only complain when it kills you: Why would you care about how someone else plays the game if it’s not effective? Unless you either want them to get better, or you want less people to spam. Both of which are completely fine.

-Perhaps spamming is the others' play-style?

If that’s true, then they haven’t learned how to play the game correctly. (more on this later)

-Perhaps playing Lockdown so often is a form of spamming in itself?

No. It’s called 1) playing the game and 2) training, if you count it as that.

~~~

Now, the rest of my thoughts...

Lockdown, or any other form of Player versus Player, except in certain noncompetitive or chance games, should be based completely on skill. Luck or assistance should not affect the outcome of the match, in any way. Preferably, the game should also be balanced, but that’s a different discussion. Partially. Not really. It plays a role in this as well. Usually, people scream “spammer” when they lose/are killed, but it is often accompanied by cries of “OP”. Usually in the case of the FF and WRH. This is because those weapons are considered “overpowered” by parts of the community, and they have a combo that can be combined with AT to produce a blindly swinging player who will get a lot more hits in than he should because of luck and the game helping him.

People who are good at LD, people who know the techniques, people with experience, "pros", know that spamming and blind luck can only get you so far, if the game is designed correctly. If there is a game where you can beat a highly skilled opponent by spamming, either the highly skilled player isn't really all that skilled, the game's skill cap isn't very high, or the game is not balanced correctly. Take a fighting game, like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. If you match up the current MLG champion against someone who has a week's experience and button mashes their fight stick, they might do a combo. They might land some hits. But ultimately, the pro will win because he understands the techniques and combos, and how his character works. SK should work like this, but it's worse. If the skill difference is high enough, a skilled player should always defeat a spammer.If the player the spammer is facing is mediocre, the spammer should win about half the time. If an above average player goes up against a spammer, they should win about 75% of the time because they understand the game, they just don't have the fine mechanics down yet. This makes sense. Unfortunately, SK goes a step further. In my experience, spammers will utterly destroy newer players and mediocre ones, and only when you really start to get down the mechanics, learn a few advanced techniques, and have a significant amount of practice under your belt to start beating a spammer.
Side note: I don’t view CE reviving as a form of spam. I think of it as a way for rich players to essentially cheat death. It’s not spam, but it’s not good. It’s also a total rip-off, and it should never have been put in in the first place.

@Unstable-Ordinance: ”One of the reasons I prefer Blast Network over Lockdown. Besides experience and internet, the only thing that matters there is your skill.”
Experience should be the second-most-important factor, and is linked to skill. And internet makes a big difference, too.

TL;DR:
1)Yes, spam exists.
2) Spam is bad because it is luck-based rather than skill-based.
3) Spam is too good; you can be too successful by spamming in this game. Something needs to be changed so that you can’t win against higher-skilled opponents by spamming.
4) CE revs are bad. Not spam, but bad.

@Klipik
Your argument makes no sense, spammers can beat new and mediocre players not because spamming is overpowered but because it takes a certain level of skill and knowledge of the game to figure out how to spam. Otherwise new players and mediocre players would spam as well and then it would just be new players beating new players and mediocre players beating mediocre players, which is normal. The way I see it, spamming takes a certain degree of familiarity with the game it is a technique like any other, though it is the easiest one to learn, but as a spammer gets better and better, they will learn new strategies and naturally find themselves spamming less. Spamming is a skill level, one that is below pro players but above new and mediocre players. If you can't beat a spammer, it is probably because you are not as good as the spammer.

@Night-Rove:

"So people who uses Skolver all the time and flourish also lack skill?"

People who spam flourish lack skill. People who use flourish/snarbysword correctly (ducking in and out, shield canceling, conserving boost, stun locking, knowing how to use it in combination with other weapons, etc) are not spamming. (that's for strikers. for guardians, see here.

"Since you said Using auto target to HELP Play in Lockdown, doesnt skolver and wolver line as well? since they provide that damage bonus?"

Not "help" in the same way. Wolver, Gunslinger, and Bomber armors increase your ability to be effective in a certain class. You still have to be good to have any effect. Auto Target works as an artificial skill increaser, making you better at the game. Artificially. It allows you to perform moves, and hit people, that you wouldn't be able to do otherwise. Think of it like this: (ALERT: STARCRAFT ANALOGY INCOMING)
-Using armor that boosts your damage would be comparable to getting upgrades for your units' attack and defense.
-Using auto target would be comparable to using map hacks to constantly see the enemy's base and determine their strategy.
See the difference? Using Skolver is increasing your ability to be effective. Using AT is allowing you to do things that you normally couldn't.

"Define spam"

“spam” is when a player uses a full combo or clip, without any additional technique, and hammers their attack button in the hopes that something dies. Preferably not them.

@Nodocchi:
“it takes a certain level of skill and knowledge of the game to figure out how to spam.”
“spamming takes a certain degree of familiarity with the game it is a technique like any other”
“Spamming is a skill level, one that is below pro players but above new and mediocre players”

lolwut? Spamming is not a learned skill. Beyond learning the basic game controls, it’s the first thing every new player does in both PvE and PvP. the way to do the most damage is to click the attack button as fast as possible, right? *herp derp* If you want to count spamming as a skill level, it belongs at the very bottom. Maybe second-to-last, right above “sit there and do nothing”. The reason you see “hamma spammas” beating up on new players is because the new players have 2* gear, or less spam-friendly weapons.

"I define spamming as high frequency use of something. spamming text, spamming bullets, spamming whatever."

Then what about spamming the attack button? Wouldn't the result of that count as spamming? Are all CoD players spammers, because they have machine guns with a high RoF?

Button mashing isn't really something you can do in SK, as the only button you can "mash" is the attack button. It's not like you're pressing all the keys on the keyboard over and over in the hope that your character will suddenly perform a combo. There's really no difference between your definition and mine.

"One form of spamming would be to execute the same offensive maneuver so many times in succession that one's opponent does not receive a chance to escape the series of blows."

Thats what I consider spamming.

Does spamming matter? Unfortunately, yeah. Whatever is most effective will become mainstream, and whatever becomes mainstream will be used a lot. Doesn't mean that I can't run out and kill everyone with a dinky Carver :P.

Pretty much ^, but only to a certain extent.

At the end of the day, you have two kinds of spammers. You have the traditional kind, who seem to flail about with no actual intent of doing anything except not dying. But you also have the "effective spammers", or the ones who use their weapons in such a way that can be misconstrued as spamming, but upon closer inspection each movement is deliberate. It's hard to credit them for it in the middle of a fight, but if you're purely spectating it's easier to see with some players than it is others.

As much as I hate to admit it, Polaris spam can fall into both categories, especially with players who've used the gun since LD released, since they understand how the gun works enough to effectively create a zoning effect to funnel a player where they want them to go or get shocked. Either one creates an opening that can be exploited immensely. Ultimately, this can also be said for a variety of other weapons that get accused of spam - the hammer, the alchemer switching, etc.

Spam is the frequent or exclusive use of a single attack in the hopes that pressure from the repeated attacks will be effective. Spam is a pressure tactic, and while it is looked down on by many, it is still a valid play style. If an opponent uses other tactics but simply favors one, it is not qualified as spam.

Accusing someone of being a "spammer" is tantamount to admitting that you are not reflexive enough to predict an obvious pattern of attacks, but intelligent enough to recognize when it happens.

If, then, you realize what is happening, and you cannot stop it (or know you cannot stop it and yet do not retreat/compensate), you have only yourself to blame.

In most cases, the cause for accusations like these and others is clear: The defeated player does not want to admit that they in some way contributed to their loss, and so will project their inefficiency onto the player that defeated them.

While mindlessly button mashing and hoping probability is on your side obviously involves a lower degree of skill than honed technique, dying to it is just as much the loser's fault. This is because in theory, the perfectly omniscient player would factor all possible ways in which they might be hit from their current tactical position (as difficult an exercise in spatial multitasking this would be). Therefore, the degree to which you are susceptible to being hit by "spamming" is inversely related to how close you come to being the theoretically perfect player.

Energy revives on the other hand are not a form of combat, and have absolutely no downside for the user/abuser (other than maybe self-loathing if they're the type to have any sense of fairness). Therefore while there is no causation between abusing energy revives and being unskillful in technique, it does grant an unfair advantage and if abused frequently enough, can cause an otherwise unskilled player to have an overall game changing effect equal or greater than one who is skilled but does not use revives. It is for this reason that no successful multiplayer games where the main focus is player versus player competition have ever featured such an option, as most developers that care enough about their craft would see the obvious game breaking folly in it.

People who accuse people of spamming are usual duskers with toothpicks, hammers, and uvs that kill 3 people when suddenly they get dropped by a 4th who they think sucks so they accuse them of spamming. its a way of saying "omfg this noob with cobalt and calibur killed me wtf are you fking with me" so they accuse that person for simply clicking z or left click. to think about it the main point of lockdown is to capture and defend your points, am i not right? in the rules i don't recall reading something that says " you are not allowed to left click the whole time, you have to dodge strike dodge". For a fact it is much easier to kill a "spammer" because they are in one area not moving just attacking, get behind them and attack.

yes, I usually spam, mainly because of a bad weapon choice ( hunting blade, gigawatt pulsar), and I don't mind of insults.
there are two player types that spam: one, that just do it, hitting an enemy or not, and the other, people who actually think before doing, and know that if you spam too much, you get killed. really: using always the same pattern of attack kills you 75% of the time, if you mash the attack button. spamming does help sometimes, but only if you can use it it's really a skill.

"I always tell people "if you get hit, it's your own fault". "

Sorry to pop out your ballon, but that doesn't work all the time.

While I have no problem with Auto-Target ( I use it, although not in the newbie way ) it helps with the third swing. But I am not saying to remove it. And don't forget the main factor in getting hit by someone : Latency. If you ever experienced that, then you will know why you feel that when you get hit by a combo-spammer, that he/she is hopeless.

"I always tell people "if you get hit, it's either latency's fault or yours."

What are you supposed to do? Our combos are exactly the same, you can't avoid spamming it.

I gave up on lockdown. No skills involved. I stopped playing with honors and skills. (levi, plate armor, etc.) So if i do play LD i use spam set.

SPAMMING SET.
Skolver Set/Striker Kit
Final FLourish, Gran Faust, Hammer.
no trinkies.
I did 14K just spamming the hammer. Just clicking my Z button. thats it.

SKILL SET.
Divine Set./Recon Kit
Leviathan, Voltiac Tempest, Argent Peacemaker
2K damage placing Bombs at key points and just trying to capture and defend points.

so theres not one player whos good. unless you find a default player. Which is super rare.

"SKILL SET."

Using underpowered weapons doesn't mean you have skill. It means you're using underpowered weapons.

"No skills involved"

I agree there's a lot less skill than there should be, but you can't say there's no skill. Watch a player who actually knows what he/she's doing go up against (and destroy) a spammer, and you'll see.

"Removing spam basically removes the stepping-stone of 'absolutely %%%%%%% awful' to 'kinda OK'"

That is an important step, but it doesn't have to be filled by spam. Unfortunately, the only way to bridge the gap between new players and experienced players is to increase the LD playerbase to the point where newbies get the chance to play against each other, and develop the skills themselves. What would really work would be a ladder ranking system in LD like in Starcraft, where the bad/new players play the bad/new players and the pro players play the pro players. But, for this to happen, we would need a much larger playerbase/concurrent userbase.

"IMO Spam doesn't matter and is mainly used as a poor excuse for juvenile players with the mental age of about 6 to get over dying"

The problem is that are able to blame it on spam. Ideally, the game would be balanced to the point where spamming is too ineffective to kill anyone but the newest players. That way, you can't blame your deaths on spam because you know you can beat spammers.

Agreed that most noobs will start out by spamming. They key is to set up the game so they can't get that far by doing it, and are forced to learn the different techniques in order to become competitive with the "pros".

Congratulations, you have just labeled yourself as perfectly matching the definition of "spammer". Now, defend yourself when I say that anyone can do that and it shows that you are either compensating for your lack of skill, or are too lazy to actually do any work and you prefer to let the game do the fighting for you.

Regarding definition and preferred method of dealing with spam. But I also am at the point of believing that the dev team's lost its original path and really doesn't care about minigame unless it's losing players for them.

Which, I don' care either.

^