Being a sniper

[Frizz.Meister]

I was wondering today, when did the whole "im pro i use only a sniper" craze start in video games. For starters i think everyone can agree its crap and what makes FPS fun is the mixture and variation of weapons. Now dont get me wrong lots of people like sniping more than other aspects, but when did it become the popular way to play?

When we all palyed golden eye there was no question that explosives were the most fun, proximity mines were the creators of many fun times. As games shifted a bit in PS2, Dreamcast times from my memory at least FPS generally focused around machine guns with lots of mid to close range action.

Now if you put in COD, Battlefield or Halo the number of people wanting to be a sniper is clearly in the majority, and generally the single player caters to that. So when did it become the cool thing?

Yes i know its a silly question but something must have started it.

[Flake]

It's the safest way to get a disproportionate kill/death ratio. Since many games judge your effectiveness not on how much you helped your team but how many people you killed, people who sniped came to think of themselves as elite.

And then Xbox Live happened and the whole thing was multiplied by about a thousand orders of asshole magnitude.

[MrEco]

Because generally sniping (In real life) is something reserved for the most elite and skilled of soldiers and there is a very strong romantic drama to the act of being a sniper hiding in one spot for hours on end until you finally make the perfect shot. Video games reflect this as best they can by often making stealth elements (If any are present in the game) tied directly within or at least close to the act of using a sniper rifle (Example: In CoD4 through MW2 your character wears a ghillie suit if you equip a sniper). Combined with the fact that sniper rifles are almost always the hardest weapons to use in first person shooters means it's basically become one big dick waving contest where everybody tries to prove they are the best player by getting a good k/d ratio with what is generally seen as the coolest and hardest to use weapon.

[MrPopo]

You always had people who would camp with the railgun in Quake 2, but I think the real sniper breakthrough happened with Counter Strike. At release the AWP was a one shot kill no matter where you hit the target (later patches made it so that limb shots only dropped you down to 20 HP). As a result you had a preponderance of people running it with a quick switch zoom macro to kill people. And since CS matches generally played out like team deathmatch with one life this was the most efficient choice for winning. Sniper rifles in many other FPS's have had a similar level of power. TF2 is an interesting case in that if you want to get kills you either have to be very good at hitting the head or you have to charge for a few seconds. Add to that the ineffectiveness of just killing people one by one and it mostly balances out and you don't get servers full of snipers.

[Erik_Twice]

Because snipin's a good job, mate!

I think that there are many factors that make sniping look like "pro stuff":

1) If you think about it the most well-known FPS franchises cater to that kind of gameplay. Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Battlefield. The fastest way to kill an enemy is through a headshot.

It seems like there are two brands of multiplayer FPS: Quake-like and CS-like.

2) In those games headshots and K/D ratio are the main feedback on how well you are doing.

3) The only competitive communities known to the general public are Counter-Strike and Starcraft. Since headshoting is the basis of CS...

4) The mechanics of sniping means that you either hit your target or you don't, there's not "hiting badly" as with other weapons. That changes the perception of the skill needed a lot.

5) It instakills, you can't fight back. That makes sniping look more powerful than it is.

TF2 is an interesting case in that if you want to get kills you either have to be very good at hitting the head or you have to charge for a few seconds. Add to that the ineffectiveness of just killing people one by one and it mostly balances out and you don't get servers full of snipers.

TF2 is a very interesting case. The Sniper is the only hitscan long-range class in a Quake-like world. The maps are cramped and mobility a premium. Every good line of sight has a rock or building in the middle and even the best ones are short compared to other games.

Back when I was really into it a hit a very hard wall when improving. I could quick scope and headshot as fast as the game allowed me but I still failed time and time again because my tactics just failed.

Scoping means standing still, it means not being able to see anything for half a second, you can only do 150 damage if you quickshot but standing still makes you a sitting duck for mobile classes. When to scope and when to run is incredibly important.

TF2' sniper needs a lot of tactics and gamesense to be effective. The game is very harsh to it and makes it a good class but not one that dominates the game. It's limitations are what forces him to seek teamates and call targets, since he so weak in direct combat.

[emwearz]

You always had people who would camp with the railgun in Quake 2, but I think the real sniper breakthrough happened with Counter Strike.

This.

[AmishSamurai]

kdr count man.

Also, from my experience with TF2, there's usually four types of snipers. The bad sniper who's unlucky, the bad sniper who's lucky enough to at least pretend like he's being useful, the unstoppable force of nature that is actually a credit to the team, and the sniper who only engages in sniper duels and doesn't actually do anything useful.

[emwearz]

There is a fifth.

The Sniper who is trying to score some achievements. (Though they generally fall under "The bad sniper who's unlucky").

[Bradtemple87]

I wont lie, I love to snipe

[Dylan]

The prevalence of sniping in modern shooters has hurt my interest in the genre. Really, I don't like the feeling from either side of the scope. For some reason playing as a sniper just isn't stimulating for me, I'm not sure why that is. Of course constantly getting headshot in various games (most notably Halo with its ludicrous auto aim) is not remarkably enjoyable either. The other problem is that I don't play shooters a ton, so I'm never aware enough of my surroundings to develop effective strategies against snipers. My fault certainly, but it makes the games nearly inaccessible for quick sessions of play.