What Does Spawn Mean in Gaming?
“Where did we spawn? And what is spawning anyway?” That’s the question we want to answer in this article. We will explain the meaning of spawn and how the term is used.
What does spawn mean?
Spawn is English and means to appear. In video games, it’s normal for players and characters to just pop up. You can think of it as a board game where the pieces just pop up on the board.
The term spawn is no longer limited to game worlds. When someone appears in the real world, gamers also like to call it spawning. If you did not see something or someone coming, then it is spawned.
What is a respawn?
Players can also spawn. When a spawn happens after the player has been defeated, it is called a respawn. Places, where players respawn, are called spawn points. These points can be set by the game or randomly distributed. However, especially with fixed spawn points, there is a risk of spawn camping.
Since a respawn is often associated with a previous defeat, it does not happen immediately. The waiting time for a respawn is determined by a respawn timer. This time varies depending on the game and can even increase over the course of a match.
But not only players can respawn. In some games, NPCs can respawn as well. Especially in single-player games this is necessary otherwise, the game world would empty over time.
Examples of the use of the terms spawn and respawn
- Wait, I’m respawning.
- I don’t know how the wasp got in my room either. It just spawned like that!
- This respawn takes a really long time though.
- I got a really inconvenient spawn point.
- The character spawns in those pesky mines.
- We’re still waiting for the boss to respawn.
