Snipers get a bad rap in gaming?

[Terminate421]

Bad Company 2 has been the best game to use Snipers in a long time, in my opinion. They do what they should be doing, scoping people out while taking care of huge threats. But on some maps, people abuse them as fire teams that are instakilling bolt action rifles.

Other wise the only one closer is ironically Halo: Reach, now before anyone brings up how its unrealistic to no-scope someone across map, sniping in Reach does take alot of effort from across a map, though there isn't as much scouting.

Sniping does feel annoying though. I'd be in the middle of combat, kicking ass on sprees until my corpse hits the ground because someone instakilled me with a rifle from a spot I couldn't either see or hit.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I don't see what people's problem is.

Sniping's hardly easy, and they're pretty easy to avoid unless they're really good or you just stand in the same place for no reason.

I would agree with this, Sniping is kind of more difficult to set up than running towards someone with a shotgun. I think snipers get hate because they are essentially the stealth class of fps' Everyone hates rogues in WOW too because they don't like to feel that they have been gotten the jump on and been sent into panic mode.

I'm surprised Yahtzee doesn't like sniping as he's usually a fan of sneaky sneakyness.

 

[Awexsome]

If they do their job well in defending the objective then I can't really complain. But far too often they either don't or there are too many of them. They tend to represent the "K/D ratio whore" demographic too and have the weapon that is often the least fun to play against.

The easiest way to tell when you've lost on offense in TF2 is when your team just went from 1 sniper to 4 when you weren't looking.

 

[ms_sunlight]

*sigh*

If snipers ruin the game - if it's possible to wait in a particular spot without in turn being vulnerable to assault yourself once you reveal yourself by firing - then the game is broken. If sniping is possible as a play style, then the game should be balanced to allow it without it being overpowered or the levels designed to allow it without providing exploits to allow invulnerability for the sniper.

Sniping is a real job performed by real soldiers. Every military force in the world has its snipers and sharpshooters. If a game allows it, it should be implemented properly. The only thing this thread tells me is that in most games it's not.

 

[Doctor Glocktor]

I love snipers!

There's nothing more fun than blowing the coward's face's off and reminding them of just how useless they are.

 

[Laughing Man]

Written from the point of view of a long time BF2 and BFBC2 sniper.

inb4: Sniping's a good job, mate.

The problem with sniping is, like Yahtzee said, the game you're playing is a point/click adventure where the only action is "Use Gun On Man".

There's rarely any interaction between sniper and snipee, which is where the "fun" comes from. That's where the bad rap comes.

Technically that is the objective of most first person shooters, yeah some allow melee and yes you can nade but the reality is for most folk the primary thing they will do is point weapon at man and press button until dead. The only difference is the sniper does it at a greater range.

It is actually a highly skilled job in both BF2 and BFBC2, in Bf2 a single sniper could hold an mcom / flag from an enemy attack, I know because I did it many times the flaw though is that the haters assume that a sniper is someone who camps in one spot and then just keeps killing. A decent sniper knows two things

a). If you don't kill your target with the first shot you increase your chances of being found hugely. One shot = one kill or you risk giving your position away.
b). You will get 3 maybe 4 decent kills before you have to move and find a new sniping spot and in the BF games a sniper on the move is a cheap and easy target for a guy carrying an automatic rifle.

In BFBC2 the 'sniper' is called 'recon' and for good reason. Yes they have a really cool long range rifle and a nice camo suit but their task is not just to take out targets at a distance but to also relay info to their team, hence the spot add on and the recon mines. They are the guys that have to hold the Mcom when the attackers have been killed and no one else is close enough to defend.

Finally, and this is just from the BF game view point but running in to a building holding fire and spraying and praying and getting a kill is something any nub can do. Leading a running and dodging targeting and putting an M95 armour piercing round through their head at over 300m, their ain't many people who can do that.

Oh and Gustav, nade spammers and RPG whores rate far far worse in my book.