I don't think we as players can blame the game or BSG for the ever growing problem of intentional long-period camping in Tarkov. I think this is about a choice the player makes and all the rest of it like for example like "they can hear me running from 90 meters with good headsets" are just excuses/justifications for the choice the player has made. The player has made a deliberate choice to do something in a computer game that he knows hurts other players.

Some unnecessary gaming background in the spoiler.

My gaming started with the Doom/Duke/Quake era. Next thing I remember is playing Diablo 2 all summer long with my brother, good times. I considered D2 best game for a long time. But then I got taste for online muliplayer gaming. I spent about 7-8 years in one single MUD game. For those who dont know, MUD games are completely text based games that were quite popular in the 90´s. I miss Clandestine MUD so much, it was the only thing in my life, where I was at the absolute top(small playerpool though). Played lots of different shooters. Quake 3 Arena was one of the favourite. Got around 11k hours in Dota2 and I absolutely suck at this game.

But man, Tarkov, shieeeeeeed. I started playing it at the end of 2019. What an experience. Quite fast I was convinced this is the best game ever made and I do think so till this day.

So, the choice. Let's analyze it. Let's see how much sense does it make to park your character inside a bush and not move it for all those long minutes. I am just gonna bring out some separate points, some from the campers themselves, some other thoughts also. For your information, I have friend-added some of the campers, when I see they are high level and talked to them and asked them questions.

-"I camp because this is fun". But is it? Is it objectively more fun than surrounding a 3 man in Customs crackhouse, running around the house, changing positions and chucking in grenades from different angles? No. If people were given a choice between two no-camera no-microphone streamers. Choice is that you can only watch one of them for the rest of your life and no other streamers. One of them is the guy who goes out looking for action and the other is one of those "camp for living" streamers. What would people choose? Most people would agree, that the camping style is not fun compared to the other style. I understand that while feeling the rush after a kill from camping can be a good feeling, it is nothing compared to when you win a fairly fair fight. My point is that camping is NOT fun objectively. It is barely even playing the game. A game that has so many options and choices what to do. Why choose this. It doesnt make sense.

-"When you move in Tarkov, you die." Yes the risk is always there. But hey, it is just a game. When your character dies, you can go again. Isnt this a good opportunity to take risks? Isnt this exactly why we play the multiplayer shooters? So that we dont have to go lie down literally for days as a sniper in real life? So that when we die, we dont really die? So we can learn from our mistakes and go try again. It is just a game. Using your keyboard to play it is more rewarding than not using your keyboard.

-"Everybody does it. I am so sick of campers, now I do it." No. Wtf? I didn't camp you. I have done nothing wrong to you, why you just nosound crouchcamped me from that bush? It is like...when some random dude spits in your face tomorrow in the streets, do you go out the day after and spit in some other dude's face? Come on.

-"It is just a playstyle. I can do whatever I want". I mean, sure you can, but should you? Have you considered all the alternatives? All the possibilities? Have you ever even for a moment thought about what you are really doing? So you are saying it is ok for you to camp 10 minutes per raid. Say you do 6 raids per day. That is an hour of camping. Hour of literally not really playing the game, but just either blank staring your screen or an hour of half watching some shit on your other screen, while half listening to steps coming? So out of 24 hours per day, 8 you sleep, 8 you work, 8 you have "free time". And an hour of that time you spend playing Tarkov, while not playing Tarkov. Huh, and you okay with that? ... I mean technically you CAN do whatever you want. You CAN go take a shit outside the toilet, not inside. But SHOULD you? I dont think you should, please dont.

It seems to me that in general over the years the attitude about camping in the community has moved from "disgraceful" to "acceptable" and now to "just superior playstyle". And in Tarkov it has moved from "part of the game like any other" to "all the cool kids are doing it". It's sad.

But dont forget, it is the players who are camping and nobody and nothing makes them camp. Not Nikita. Not the game. Not the comtac4 with their impressive 90 meters steps hearing distance. The headset didnt make anyone camp. The players make the choice. It is the players who coined the term "rat". So now we dont have to worry about us being blamed about camping, cause we just "ratting". It is the players who make specific YT content about camping. It is the players who stream daily and show the viewers the cool exfil camping spots and how to get easy loot and "have fun" doing so.

I know this sentence has been thrown around in two different forms, but I think in Tarkov's case it only goes one way: Hate the player, not the game. You dont like the game, then quit. Tarkov is fucking awsome. But the players...increasingly are not awsome. Yea, Tarkov changes, I dont like half the changes myself. But that doesn't mean I now go exfilcamp the tunnel. Or climb up a gas station tree and to be there for 15 minutes. No, I keep on using my keyboard. And dying to campers and then I come here to use my keyboard some more. But I wont camp. It doesn't make sense to do it. It is lame, it is cruel, it is boring. It sucks the fun out of the game for both the camper and the victim. And unlike fights that last longer than 1 second, neither side usually learns anything. Neither side gets better at the game.

Perhaps some irrelevant ending thoughts with a bit of sugar:

It will be interesting to see how Tarkov Arena will affect the main game. If the people who like to PvP go spend most of their time in Arena and meanwhile in the maingame the remaining treesitters, bushcampers, pronecampers, exfilcampers - every raid they each wait in their own spot...What then? They get bored, then they start moving? And perhaps after a couple of years they realise they are the only ones left in the game. There hasnt been any PvP going on for some time. So all the remaining Tarkov players make a pact. They can now loot freely. They wont kill each other. They are here for the loot, and they dont like to fight and all the PvPers are gone. So now Tarkov becomes purely a social looting game. But sometimes accidents happen and then the ex-campers, now settlers have to figure out all the details and it becomes annoying quite fast. So they figure since nobody wants to PvP anyways, they all sign a petition to turn off player-to-player damage and it gets done. This is it! Now it is all ready. Now Tarkov comes out of beta :)