Videogame snipers

[Reclaimer]

This is just a random thought of mine about video game snipers.
I think they're useless. In goal oriented games I believe that a lot more can be accomplished by putting as many bodies with guns on the field and moving around towards the goals. In a video game, I just don't see what the point is of being far removed from combat and just taking valuable time to line up that one shot on that one guy across the field when so much is going on away from you.

I believe that sniping is primarly "bragging rights" or a vindictive form of gaming.. getting that head shot on that one lone guy running across the map.

But from a tactical standpoint in a video game.. you need bodies on the ground. What a sniper can accompish in Halo or COD, or Rainbow Six, one guy can accomplish by just being at the objective and then he can move on do other things.
In real life.. snipers are important for tactical teams. But you'll never see snipers being used in full on combat. Tactical teams engage one target at a time and so forth.
But in video games, the battles are dynamic and moving in all directions. I just think it's better to put direct fire on the field instead of losing a guy to go hide somewhere and take his time to line up shots.

I don't know.. I just want to see what you guys think towards sniping in videogames.
In short, the way I see it. A good sniper can control a part of an area and take out one or two guys at in short succession. However, a good ground and pounder and cover so much more and kill so many more in the time the sniper takes to find his shot, recover, move and find another shot.

[Variation-XBA]

Really depends on the game too. In games like COD where the guy gets to see the last 5 seconds of video of what you did after you kill him, you have to be a lot more dynamic and moving.

I've never really been a sniper in games, cause I get bored waiting for that one shot, then mad when I miss. sure its gratifying when you DO make that shot from a running guy across the map, but I never seem to get anywhere near teh same points or satisfaction from being a solder/grunt into the heat of battle.

[Reclaimer]

In a way, I can see how sniping provides gratification because you took the time to get that one shot lined up and you got it.
But honestly, I just think you can do so much more in an objective based battle with more guns and bodies on the front line.

Sometimes I think that in recent games, sniping just appeals to the subculture of gamers who only prefer to do so. Rainbow Six Las Vegas? Seriously, sniping is useless in close quarter urban combat with large teams.
Especially now when game makers make maps balanced enough where one single sniper can't control large swaths of territory anymore, the time it takes a single sniper to make one good shot, a good assaulter can get more kills.

But that's just me. In the real world.. snipers are important roles in SWAT and SOG-Ops. In video games, they're just there to appease gamers, but not really critical in the grand scheme of mass combat.

Plus I think theres two mindsets of gamers that snipe. One, they think they're really good at it. Two, if a game goes poorly a player automatically goes to sniping to stay out of direct action. (Which aggravates me when half your team turns into snipers, when you need boots on the ground to turn the tide)

[HaZarD SFD]

I snipe alot in COD4 on certain maps. I do announce overwatch of players as they move and locations of enemy as they are seen. I also have a knack for shooting through walls and killing my targets. Sniping in COD4 also is a challenge as you want to end the game with 10+ kills and 0 deaths. I do that quite often when I can.

I like to hide in the bush and wait for some poor bastard to run into my claymore or turn his back on me so I can stab him in the spine. Nothings better than making the Hunter not realize hes being hunted.

[Ainokeatoo]

It all comes down to how you play and how well you can strategize with your team, often, when I was fond of clan matches I was torn between grunt and sniper, I could snipe effectively and cover the team and I could rack up the kills when need be. Snipers need to be smart thats the only way you're going to get kills without having to wait to long. You have to anticipate where the enemy is going to be and know where a majority of them are or go to. You also have to figure out a good place to hide without being seen much if at all, which makes it all the more challenging. I don't think it's there just to appease gamers I think there is more to them, it's just frustrated players don't see the strategy in them :).

[HaZarD SFD]

In COD4 sometimes in the open is the best place to hide. I will hide in the most random bushes with my pistol out and have a blast.

[ryonin]

i think in games like Halo, the sniper is great, but there usually is never just one person who uses the sniper and they are certainly not using the sniper the whole game. If the player with the sniper can see there is a guy coming, he/she has the choice to either try and hit the person with the sniper, or, they can whip out their BR and put several shots on the person for the kill. When you have the sniper, you have a responsibility to your team to only use the snipe in times when you can get the shot and when your not in close range. so if your going to give the snipe to someone who wants to be a hero then your team will probably lose the sniper and be down a power weapon. so i think the sniper is a great weapon to include in a game

-Ryonin

[FaTBaLLa21]

I agree.

[Reclaimer]

I guess probably my biggest gripe about snipers in video games are the people who pick off the stray easy targets and ignore the major action going on elsewhere. You've probably seen it before. Your sniper is having a field day nailing the occasional sole person who's wandering off somewhere, meanwhile you and your team is digging a battle somewhere.

But then, in my experience even with a really good person as a sniper sometimes I feel his overall contribution as a whole is fairly limited when you account for the time he takes to find his spot, find his target, most likely go to another spot and start over again. God forbid he gets picked off by a counter sniper because then you're out one and the race is on for his sniper rifle.

I don't know. I'm just a realist. I know battles are won on the ground in video games and in the frenetic pace of combat you generally find; a team of 7 shooters on the field accomplishes more on their on in whole than having the assistance of a sniper.
Seriously, the more I think of it.. in real life snipers double as spotters for the forward team. In a game, theres nothing to really spot because generally everyone can see everything coming. Plus in real life, snipers are used for a single purpose on a single mission. In a real land war, you're not going to find a sniper on a hill somewhere while soldiers and tanks and whatnot are mixing it up somewhere.

But.. that's just me. Hell, if you want to be a sniper, more power to you. But I just think that generally it's a loss of a body where I actually need it. But the upshot is that if somebody in a game like Halo is the sniper, they can work to control the other team's sniper. In games like BFMC or COD4, your sniper can control the enemy snipers and deny them opportunity. That's more useful than just sitting around waiting for the perfect head shot to suddenly appear.

[Ainokeatoo]

Honestly, I like having snipers especially when they're supposed to be watching over the team, when and if you get killed it's not your fault it's the snipers lol. But on the real the sinpers get those "HE ALMOST KILLED YOU" shots that are vital especially when your Kill to Death ratio is horrible.