Why scopes suck

Slowing down the game

Having accepted the fact that the sniper rifle is the single most powerful, abusive weapon in the game, we can logically assume that most people will want to use it. Moreover, those that do NOT want to use it, will often end up doing so in order to not look like they suck compared to their ‘l33t’ teammates who must be so damn good for racking up at 4:1 kill ratio.

What happens when two thirds, half, or even a quarter of the team has sniper rifles is that the game slows down to a crawl. All the players without scopes would rather wait for the snipers on their team to thin out the snipers on the other side, rather than poke their heads out and die. Depending on the map, the minute or two is a waste as the two sides carefully dance their sniper duels, until one side is so strong it can rush, or until the snipers on the other side are thinned out sufficiently to permit the real play to start.

So, putting that together, what we have is a collection of unskilled munchkin noobs who pick up scopes, waste half the match shooting at each other and padding their kill count until only the unskilled munchkin noob with the best aim is left and the real game can begin. Odds are he’s not a good player, despite the score – oh he can aim like crazy, but what else can he do? Does he understand the flow of the game, would he be able to survive a regular firefight, can he move in combat? Probably not – unless he’s one of the good players whose ego forces him to pick up a scope and maintain a respectable kill ratio.

Does anyone besides me see something wrong with that – that the least skilled, most chickenshit, predictable players will dominate a match. They engage in their own little private game, stamping out each other sometimes, but mostly focusing on the easy kills – the people actually going for the objective. All the while these skill-less ingrates are being protected from the few rushers who make it through Sniper’s Alley by the people actually trying to play the game.

Just how reflective is Pavlov or Hurtgen of World War II warfare? Would a sniper who slowly moved into position during the night, hid himself perfectly to take shots at lone targets or small groups, really be able to get 20 kills in the span of a few minutes? No. He doesn’t know the same three routes that everyone is taking at the start of every round. He doesn’t know if there will be a squad on patrol behind him or beside him. If he’s part of an assault, he’s a support item – not the heavy artillery. And yet in games, snipers are given a ludicrous advantage over everyone else.

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