The lights are on
Online Multiplayer has jumped massively into the mainstream since the early 2000s. Games have been catered down to peoples levels so almost anyone can play. Game developers have made games a cinch to just jump into a game and play for the first time. Take Infinity Ward for example, they've taken one of the biggest franchises in the world and made it easy and fun for all to use. The controls run smoothly, It's easy to get from place to place, you can pick a class to use everytime you die, they make it possible to unlock guns and perks to improve the experience, and it's certainly easy to point and shoot at enemies killing them with ease. This combination of 'fun' has created a monster in the past decade, and it's not the good kind of monster either. This monster, so to speak, has resulted in: years of frustration, hatred of the game, and anger management issues. Now, what is this 'monster' I have been speaking of? You must've guessed it by now, it is the dreaded and feared Sniper.
Any person that has ever played a 1st person shooter has experienced this unfair treatment gun abuse. Your just taking your time advancing through a field making sure nobody abushes you, you poke out your head for just a moment and within the few seconds your vulnerable, BAM!, you are now a lifeless, headless body that has fallen victim to a blood thirsty sniper. Everything is fine though, you can spawn and start a clean slate, you pick your next weapon of choice and drop into the field yet again. BAM!, there goes your head, just as you spawn too, noticing this time it's a different sniper. At this time your starting to get frustrated.
Games like Call of Duty and Battlefield have been the main contributers to this sniper abuse. The developers make it to easy that if you wanted to, you could just a have a whole team of snipers, picking off innocent gamers looking for a good time. And with the addition of perks and attachments to your class it just makes it easier to use your sniper. You can put on a Thermal scope and all of a sudden, it makes it that much more of a cinch to bring a player down into the ground. It seems only as if developers are trying to promote this behavior with the motto, why go out into the battle and fight like a man when I can be one mile away and kill everyone I see from the comfort of this one hundred foot building that only has one way up.
Games like Halo 3 has made sniping pratical to a certain level, Bungie has placed one or two snipers around the map and the players lucky enough to win the gunfight to pick it up gets to use to their liking. That's it, the other team only needs to be aware of that one sniper while crossing open plains instead of the possibility of being 5 or more snipers preying at you from a far.
But Halo also has a disapointing feature to sniping, one that many games have adopted. It's to easy to point and shoot, just aim the cross air at an opposing players head and shoot, and you have claimed a kill that easily. Leading your shot is only a word of myth and incorporating bullet drop into the picture has been ignored by big developer bullies.
How can you as an individual stop the ease of sniping? Actually there is no way for a single soul to single handedly convince big shot developers to stop with there ways. In fact, since such a big population of 1st person shooter players are full time snipers snipers, it's almost impossible to convince them to change sniping because they know they can abuse the system by the ease of shooting from a mile away. The only way to stop the way sniping works during the modern age is when developers start growing the common sense to see the monster they have created and destroy it once and for all, no matter how many 7 year old kids cry because they can't use anything other than snipers.
I'm not trying to just totally beef on snipers. I'm actually alright with it all. It just gets very frustrating when I'm trying to have a legit battle in streets and alleyways looking for other people risking their life on the field and I get sniped multiple times from 4 to 6 different snipers that camp every entrance possible to advance.
(Please keep the flaming low)
Sniping is part of the game man, you can't be sore just because someone kills you. It's part of strategy, you can't stick your head out for long because you know there are snipers there. And if you keep doing it and keep getting shot then that's your fault, not theirs. They aren't going to take it out of the game. There are snipers in real life, and real soldiers have to be careful about how they move. The solution to this would be to make the maps bigger, but in Call of Duty the lag would be extraordinary.
I hate shotguns with a passion, I can't get kills with them and I always get run train on by people who use them when I'm using them, but I don't go around saying they are cheap because all someone has to do is hip fire to get a kill. Pointing a gun in someone's general direction and firing doesn't take skill either, just any itchy trigger finger. And you can camp just as hard with a shotgun as you can with a sniper rifle. Spraying through a wall with a machine gun or assault rifle doesn't take skill. Firing a rocket into a spawn doesn't take skill. Setting up a turret or dropping and air strike on a spawn doesn't take skill. But none of them are going to be taken out just because some people don't like them; because there are an equal number of people who do like them.
There are aspects of every set up that don't require any skill, but at the same time there are just as many that do. Even if someone is running around with a grenade launcher and a thumper, that person is still going to need some skill to get kills with bullets. It takes skill to snipe without being found, you have to wait for the right moment, and not stay in the same place for too long. Sniping is an exercise in patience if you are doing it right. Moving into position on a side of the map where no one is at and waiting for the enemy to appear. Knowing when to pick up and leave before they start rushing your position.
Just because you don't understand it, or aren't good at it, isn't a reason to call for it to be removed or hate on it. Also, you *** well better lead that sprinting person in Call of Duty or you'll be giving your position away for no reason. If they are jogging and they are 100 to 200 feet away, which is the general range for a sniper kill in Call of Duty because the majority of the maps are ungraciously small and cramped. There is no way that they would get out of the way of a bullet traveling at a couple thousand feet per/second. The problem is the map size, not whether or not the physics are in the game. When the maps are all roughly a quarter square mile, and never get bigger than probably a third of a mile, none of that stuff would take effect anyways. You can not comprehend the amount of skill it would take to hit anything from a mile away, and none of the maps are even close to that. From a quarter mile a standing human being appears to be around 1 inch tall, from a half mile that drops to about a half inch, at a mile they would appear as a small speck the size of an ant.
In real life snipers wait a week for a single kill, they have superior intelligence and they know where their target is going to be. They have to understand the wind patterns along the flight path, the effect the the earth's rotation will have on the trajectory of the bullet, bullet drop(which only starts after roughly 2/3rds of a mile) and an advanced knowledge of visualized angles and elevations. All of that stuff takes 3 -4 years to learn. You can't seriously be sitting here and suggesting that they need to require a college level understanding of physics and math in order to snipe in a game. If they were going to do that then they might as well make it so that you don't have NBA player ups, you can't jump off a ten foot ledge and land in a standing position then sprint off, you can't sprint across the map or even move half way across it with an LMG without getting exhausted and needing to stop. If you jump and fire a rocket your person would go flying head over heals, if you hip fired a 12-gauge it would fly out of your hands. How about knifes aren't auto-kills, getting hit with a grenade that doesn't explode doesn't kill you, you can bleed out from any wound, and if you jump down and break a bone you have to craw around the map for the rest of the game and you can never respawn? If they made things as realistic as you seem to think sniping needs to be then the game would be essentially unplayable.
You want something to complain about? How about 9mm rounds from a pistol or SMG traveling on a rail across the map and killing a sniper? That makes a lot less sense than not having bullet drop on a tiny map. No sub machine is accurate at 1,500ft. Hell, they aren't accurate at 100.
@JMan: I understand where you are coming from on that. What really bothers me about Snipers in class picking games is that you can have 5 or more snipers on a team. When there are that many snipers on a team it really makes the game a huge sniperfest. I would be totally fine with the way the point and shoot type of thing worked if there was a limit of like 2 snipers on a team, but a team that is exclusively snipers can make the game stale. I like when both teams are balanced, not over weighted.
I hardly get frustrated when a player with an M4 kills me from any distance, because I know that he's risking his life in the middle of the battlefield to get his kills. He is just as vulnerable as I am. And if the shooter is far away with an assault rifle, kudos for him, it's harder to get kills from afar like that.
I honestly dont know what you expect...You want them to make the snipers terrible just because you get frusterated or something?
That's just the way they are, and they arent that easy to use actually thanks to all the tubers and LMG users.
If a team is exclusively snipers then it should be easy to beat them. There is always a path that can't be covered by sniper fire. If you are on team full of people who don't set a line in the sand for themselves as opposed to those that don't ever pass a certain point then the snipers will not be able to do anything. But if your team all chooses snipers, or tries to hang back and take them at range, then you will loose. It's all about strategy. You can move your entire team's spawn by pushing ahead and subsequently ruin that sniper's perch by spawning a bunch of people with automatic weapons right around him. Couple that with the fact that every potential sniping spot now has two or three ways to sneak up on it and you can only carry one claymore and killing snipers isn't a very tough task for the savvy player.
I know there have been moments as a sniper that I have spent more time with my side arm out simply defending my position from people rushing up the stairs at my back than actually sniping. Taking a sniper's attention away from sniping is a victory in it's own right because it protects your team. A good sniper goes after other snipers over all else, not people on the ground. If they are decimating your team and you are all running around with assault rifles in one area for the most part, then there is a good chance that they aren't watching the other sniper spots. Work your way over to one, pull out a rifle of your own, take em out then move before they have a chance to set back up and find you. 75% of people sniping return to the spot where they got killed. Take advantage of that. It's not something to be removed, it's something to challenge you. It's your job to find any way possible to counter them, and there is always a way.
I personally hate camping and using a sniper rifle in games mostly because I suck at getting those sweet head shots...but saying it should be taken out because people can have a team of snipers is ridiculous...if you're that concerned and have to ability to become a sniper yourself than do it and fine that *** sniper and take them out..spawn camping is a problem in every game and isn't going to go away as long as people play the game so often that they can memorize the spawn points for each team...I used to do it in Goldeneye against my step dad in the temple level I even got to the point where I had learn the spawn rotation...it made the game less fun to play for me as well because it became less of a challenge...stop whining...just play cheap tactics are what war and video games are all about...you don't honestly think the military would stop using snipers because it takes away the enemies chance do you...
You honestly think it's easy to snipe and you're safe a 100 feet up? Please, in CoD people find snipers and kill them with a shotgun across the map.
In BFBC sniping isn't easy. Leading is actually hard to do, and also in BFBC, NO SNIPER KILLS IN 1 HIT. The ones that kill in two you at least got to wait 5 seconds until you can shoot your next shot. Don't tell me sniping is easy in every game. It isn't in BFBC. In any game a sniper can kill in 1 shot, yeah then it's easy. Perfect example CoD4 Barrett 50.Cal. Also, there is no leading in Call of Duty, making it quite easy.
Jesus, I'm just speakin my mind, if you don't agree you don't have to go on a rampage and try to prove me wrong.
I especially hate snipers that spawn camp. I was playing MAG last night, and I get killed 3 straight times by spawn campers (because you always respawn in the same spot). And the thing is, it was 3 different snipers! I agree with you on that there needs to be a limit on snipers per team, as it can just get absurd sometimes.
Good post Jake!
I think sniping should be banned from team deathmatch, but I don't mind it in objective-driven modes like Battlefield's Rush mode or Domination in MW2. Like Jman said, if a team has too many snipers, winning the round should be a breeze. Plus, I enjoy the thrill of the hunt. If a sniper takes me down a couple times, I swear revenge and don't stop tracking until I've knifed him in the back.
Well, if you're playing an FPS and demand a certain degree of realism - in the real world, you'll be surprised to find where potential to have the back of your head paint the front of your shirt exists. The 'art' of sniping requires you 'camp' and what game developers have been working on is ensuring that snipers are exposed from at least one or two angles.
Sniping in a game used to be easy, and in things like BFBC2, it is pretty easy. You CAN get a one shot kill, but that's sort of the sniper credo; "One shot, one kill". It's extremely hard to lead and then you get people being cheap and jumping instead of moving slowly and working their way under and through brush.
Snipers are usually hidden for two, or if they're lucky 3 shots and then they're supposed to move. Especially if sound direction is on point.
If you're worried about being sniped- then learn how to hunt a hunter. Don't assume that they're on rooftops all the time - I actually use a 'from below' approach since most people look in the rooftops and second story windows. I'll hide behind a rock, in a shrub, and IN equipment. The idea is to be in conspicuous. The stuff about being killed across a map with a shotgun - that's the game fault, and a lack of detail or overcompensating the 'rock paper scissors' formula of roles. While snipers aren't all that great at close range due to the idea that they're usually given a bolt action rifle, or they have scope blur, and wobble - that's realistic enough that people adapt and if successful, earned it, just like the guy who knife kills snipers from behind earned it because he was quiet enough and stayed out of view long enough to get that close - from a sniper perspective it is unacceptable to get knife killed. Of course good sniping is a two person operation.
@Jay Man
"In real life snipers wait a week for a single kill, they have superior intelligence and they know where their target is going to be. They have to understand the wind patterns along the flight path, the effect the the earth's rotation will have on the trajectory of the bullet, bullet drop(which only starts after roughly 2/3rds of a mile) and an advanced knowledge of visualized angles and elevations. All of that stuff takes 3 -4 years to learn."
That's not entirely accurate. For example a bullet is immediately effected by gravity and you have to adjust well before 2/3 a mile - there are 1760 yds in a mile, even with an M-16 you have to adjust at less than 300 yds (less 1/4 mile, let alone 2/3)- but some of it is the muzzle velocity that is a factor in your adjustments in trajectory. Still, 3-4 years as a 'lengh to be one' is ridiculous - that's the term of enlistment meaning that if you wanted to be a sniper then you'd have to sign up for two terms prior to qual. and the requirements to be a sniper in any branch have a GT 100 score requirement, what happens if you sign up for 8 years and fail sniper school, or don't even meet the qualification in basic? The course is 5 weeks at Ft. Benning and is held there for all branches along with Airborne and for the National Guard sniper school is in Arkansas.
"and also in BFBC, NO SNIPER KILLS IN 1 HIT."
That's not the case in BFBC2 - I've picked off people halfway across the map with a well placed headshot. I have to adjust for distance, but I've waxed people hiding under stairs. You can't pop the helmet with the M24 and get a kill, but the face does it right. It's all about the pink mist.
I would die without my sniper
In BFBC2 bullets are effected by gravity.
And if you are getting sniped go get a sniper and snipe the guy. I do it all the time.
lol personally I love snipers, easy kills if youre not 40+ feet a way. Think about it. Only the truly great ones actually run the map sniping, so odds are your loathed enemy is camping, and I will bet money he/she is just peering through the scope at a main crossing. Simply stick to the alleys, work youre way to him, and then thoroughly embarass him for his sniping skills. I prefer to call them out on live right before I put a couple rounds in them execution style lmfao xD So to the snipers, I respect you. You're dangerous at a distance, should be feared even if youre worth your rifle. But you should know that once one of us finds you, its game over, and no amount of claymores can save you lol. xD Now the f***ing NINJAS! I hate them, the little guys running around doing nothing but knifing, only thing to do with them is shotgun, and thats a pretty fine line to walk right there.
I actually applaud those who can use the sniper rifle good, as I can't use a sniper at all. On that note, snipers are easy to kill.
I completely agree wth Jman
Man. Counter-strike had a ton of problems like this. Peple just got 2 good.
This is a stupid fact of gaming with guns, Although some games do give a level of realism by adding breathing and making your scope fly all over the show but in actual fact I find that to make it easier for me to hit any one its like the gun is scanning where I know an enemy is and all I have to do is time my trigger pull right.
Shut up you retard. You don't have to complain about every little detail of call of duty just cause you don't like it. It take a lot of skill to snipe and snipers never get as many kill as people who use other weapons, that's just the way it is. But the thing about snipers is they don't have as many deaths, the same goes for every other game.