Corpse Camping

Corpse camping is a practice found in many MMORPGs, where an enemy player character (PC) kills another PC in player versus player combat and then loiters in the area of the dead player's corpse. The mechanics for recovering one's body differ per game, but generally a PC must return to the area where he died to recover his body or face severe penalties. Those who corpse camp take advantage of these rules by waiting for the dead character to return to life, usually in a weakened state, and then killing him again when his defenses, mana and hit points are not at full capacity.

The practice is generally frowned upon, and, with the exception of PvP (Player versus Player) servers which allow players from opposing factions to kill one another, is usually not allowed. Certain games, such as World of Warcraft (WoW), seek to curb corpse camping by offering diminishing returns for killing the same character repeatedly. For example, WoW offers Honor Points, for a PvP kill of commensurate level, as a means to curb high level players from going into areas of lower level and killing low-level members of opposing factions, since such areas are usually far from the places where higher-level players would go to gain experience.

Another form of corpse camping is present in Starsiege: Tribes, and possibly other online first-person shooters. A player will kill another player, then either place a mine or satchel charge on the corpse, or take cover nearby. This sets up an ambush when someone arrives to retrieve valuable items from the body or revive a teammate. This is seen as unfair on most servers.