info @ the P.Pole 05.30.10 [Modern Warfare 2 Edition]

Disclaimer: Before all the Modern Warfare 1 fans and Bad Company 2 fans hate on me for liking Modern Warfare 2, might I clarify that:

  1. I never bought Modern Warfare 1, so this game isn’t a rehash cash-grab to me.
  2. I own and enjoy Bad Company 2 too.

So I’ve been getting some rave reviews from other players that I happen upon randomly in Infinity Ward’s “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″. Half the people that play with me and contact me end up sending me friend requests, and the other half send me messages telling me how much they hate my funky fresh style, like this one:

danger close noob tube camping and oma means your a noob
- mbrooker91, spelling is terribad, but true to the message

doesn’t that mean you just went 0 and 6 with a noob?
- me the Awesome, my response to him

Note: For the record, I remember bombing this specific guy once as he ran right across the area in front of me, twice more when he was feebly hiding behind a dumpster in the distance, once as he was running straight at me down a tunnel, once when he tried to sneak up on me behind some barrels, and he ate a claymore in the face. I’m also pretty sure I called a precision airstrike right on his head, and shot him with a few howitzers out of an AC130 gunship. So, I mean, I can understand why he’d be pissed. I’d be angry too if I sucked that hard.

Bite me, mbrooker91.

Conclusion

I’m putting this at the start, so people who aren’t inclined to read the whole damn rant (there’s plenty of stuff that only matters to you if you play Modern Warfare 2) can still get my point. You can skip the rest of this rant if you don’t like reading about detailed nerdy stuff, but here are the main points:

  • Haters gonna hate
  • Some people are average at video games
  • Some people are better than average at video games because they manipulate the game mechanics to do some neat/badass stuff
  • Some average players hate on these players because their methods are difficult to play against with  illogical criticisms
  • My opinion: tough luck, bitches—the scoreboard says it all
  • I for one am not self-loathing enough to tell the guy who just killed me six times in a row that he sucks and doesn’t know how to play
  • Some people are frustrated with sucking, as they should be, and take it out on the good players just looking to get some frags in
  • If you don’t like losing, try getting better, playing differently, buying another game, blaming the developers, or smashing your controller into your face, but don’t come whining to me about your terrible skills
  • Oh, and note that I don’t consider myself a pro at the game, but I just think it’s dumb to criticize other players on their styles—especially if they are kicking your ass, apparently

From the conclusion at the end of this post:

Point of the story is, don’t bitch about some guy who is creaming you just because he’s doing it with only one or two (really simple) tricks. Quality players adapt and change when things don’t seem to work. Stubborn/persistent players try the same thing again and again (usually to no avail), and little bitches cry and whine about how unfair the world is.

What a mbrooker91 looks like in real life.

This is true in life as well, from both points of view. For one, it’s just good sense to put forethought, critical thinking, and contingencies into your plans. Alternatively, when something doesn’t go your way, you can either avoid it, overcome the obstacle, stupidly attack it the same way every time, or lay down and die, bitching about it all way down.

Introduction

I think playing all those RPG and Pokémon games has made me a better Modern Warfare 2 player, at least in how I build my classes. Case in point, my “Soldier” class:

What does this mean?

The first perk (OMA) allows you to swap classes at any given point, and the penalty for doing so is a few seconds of waiting (approximately 2 seconds) where you can’t do anything except move around. The neat thing is that you can swap back into your existing class, refilling your ammo, equipment, etc… to full.

(from left: One Man Army Pro, Danger Close Pro, and Commando Pro emblems)

The second perk (DC) increases the damage you deal using explosive armaments (like frag grenades, rocket launchers, and yes, the grenade launcher). This makes explosive weapons a lot more powerful, as suddenly, splash damage is increased (I suspect the radius is enlarged too), making previously non-lethal hits much more likely to frag ass.

Commando Pro is the last perk. The non-pro version of Commando gives you a lunge that makes OHK knife attacks possible from farther away. The pro version is what I’m interested in, since it gives you zero falling damage, meaning you can (unrealistically) jump out from the top of the rafters and not die from the impact.

Any random assault rifle can have a grenade launcher attachment unlocked for it. I just like the ACR because it’s got so little recoil. The thing with the grenade launcher is that it can only carry two rounds, and after that, you’re pretty much dry. Ammo is gun + attachment specific so you can’t just run up and pick up a dead guy’s gun to refill your own gun’s ammo. There are also no ammo spawn boxes à la Quake or Unreal. The other equipment is pretty standard for me—mines to catch people coming to get me, and flashbangs if I need to dash.

Premise

Depending on the map, there might be one or two nice little spots for what I like to call “Operation Bomb-the-Crap-Out-of-Everyone”. The idea is to setup a safe-ish perimeter with the claymore mines, and then lob grenades out of the grenade launcher at people you see running around. You swap back into the same class to refill your grenade launcher ammo, and repeat. It’s not exactly complicated, but it seems to really give some particularly stubborn/stupid people trouble, when they are on the receiving end.

Location

Almost always, it’s an elevated position with a good view of all parts of the map, with a few predictable entrances. A good example would be a room with two perpendicular windows on the second floor of a house with only two doorway entrances.

Setup

Not much to this step. I put down a mine to cover one of the entrances, and then do a class swap back into my Soldier class. This refills my claymore (you can only carry one at a time) and I lay another one down to cover the other entrance. Pretty important, since, momentarily, people are really going to want you dead, and you can’t spend much time covering those doors while  hail-Mary-bombing everyone else.

Fun

So, now that you’re pretty much holed up in a high place with a great view, you start raining the pain. Now, this step was hard for me at first, since you have to get used to the distances between where you are, and where you see people unsuspectingly going about their lives. The grenades travel in a parabolic arc, so you need to compensate for the distance traveled + uneven terrain (if the ground happens to slope up/down) for your eggs of death to hit their mark. You need to get close, and let splash damage do the rest. I personally have gotten pretty damn good at calibrating my shots to get these exploding ball-sacks of fury into rooms across the whole map through the tiny windows and doors.

Actually, after you spend some time testing and figuring out how much higher above your target you need to aim to nail them from your spot, you’re set, because that distance will be the same every time as long as you’re in the same spot. I can pretty much always nail this one little corner that snipers think they are safe in from a random spot maybe 200 feet away. Yes, it’s hilarious. I personally always imagine if I was that person, running along seemingly safe and sound, minding my own business, when out of nowhere a baseball sized bomb whizzes in and explodes the lights out of me. Got to love it.

Results

Well, basically, if you do it right, your grenades will land on people far, far away and score some hilariously “WTF?!” kills for you. And obviously, someone who dies from a grenade to the head from 100 m away (yep, I’ve done it, although I can’t say it was on purpose) is probably going to try to get some revenge. If your careful surveillance of your perimeter doesn’t result in you nailing them again on their trip towards you, your mines will likely get them. When your claymores get set off, by the way, you should be replacing them with new ones but in slightly different spots to keep things unpredictable. And when you start getting your killstreaks? Well, basically, you keep the rain of pain coming. It’s really not too hard to get maybe 20 kills before dying using this kind of strategy—assuming no one on the other team actually plays smart and kills you while you’re swapping classes, or sneaks past all your claymores to shoot you in the back.

This is what that guy's head was like.

Reactions

Positive: Well, it’s no surprise that some people, seeing a teammate of theirs getting something like 20+ kills with less than 5 deaths after the ten-minute match, decide to befriend this clever little fox  (aka: me). It’s nice, I guess, but I usually don’t accept these requests. That’s me, y’know, down to earth, with a trigger-happy tendency toward blocking strangers.

Negative: Here’s where I get messages, sometimes mid-match, along the lines of “OMA + DC + grenade launcher means you’re a n00b” or “n00b camper” etc… Now, I’ve no problem with people getting frustrated when killed (I cuss quite a bit under my breath when I go on deathstreaks), but it bugs me when people whine about other people’s styles just because their own style is a terrible match up.

First off, what I explained above isn’t really camping. There’s plenty of moving around and scouting for new targets, and depending on the spot, I am relatively exposed to getting killed from a few directions if you know what you’re doing.

For your information, camping is usually when you sit in a room/sneaky spot, staring right at the one entrance or doorway, to “camp” the spot until someone walks in/by. You then shoot at any sign of movement hoping to catch someone unawares. In my opinion, I don’t mind these kinds of players much (mostly because it’s relatively easy to counter—toss in a grenade or flashbang, and take them out). That’s the weakness of camping: you pretty much trap yourself in a crap spot to gain the element of surprise (pretty bad trade off if you ask me). This works once or twice, but you’re pretty much dead if you don’t get out after that.

Secondly, I disagree with the “n00b” classification. I mean, statistically speaking, if I’m racking up huge amounts of kills with no one able to stop me, that sort of means I’m doing something right. Sure, I’m not running straight into the fray, all guns blazing, but that’s because I’m not suicidal. And it’s not like I’m using the wrong weapons for the job—see: shotgun sniping. I’d argue that it takes quite a bit of talent to be able to place a BFE pretty much anywhere I want on 80% of a map within a few seconds (including the time it takes to spot a target, aim the gun). And the whole backup plan that KILLS PEOPLE SNEAKING UP ON ME? That’s pretty badass too, if you ask me.

Noob Tubing: This Is Not It

Anyway, here’s what I think: there are two kinds of people that are hated in multiplayer video games. Cheaters, and campers. Cheaters break the rules to get an unfair advantage, and campers use crappy tactics to get a few cheap kills. Personally, if someone finds a game mechanic and manipulates it to set themselves head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, they shouldn’t have to put up with the whining of people who have failed to evolve or adapt. N00bs are new and don’t know how to play the game. This is almost the exact opposite of anyone who is able to

Options

If you don’t like people who play like me, here are a few ideas worth trying (instead of getting frustrated and stupid-mouthed:

  • Don’t Come Back: If you go to a restaurant and hated the experience, you don’t go back. Likewise, if you get served (I think I just punned you in the face), and you didn’t like it, just stay in the 20% of the map that I can’t kill you in. I can’t kill you if you stop running around out in the open, maybe.
  • Just Beat It: Every so often, I’ll play in matches where some badass decides he’s had enough of my ‘nade lobbing and they’ll come get me from some unpredictable direction and kill me! This is good. Just note that next time, there’s probably going to be a claymore with their name on it.
  • Evolve and Re-evolve: Yeah, this one I hate. Because of the limitations of the class building system, I can’t really do much about snipers (unless I know which room they’re sniping me from). Basically, if your class sucks against my high-flying explosive balls, change to something that has a chance of countering, rather than wondering why trying the same thing six times gets you killed every time. If I remember, trying the same thing expecting different results is the official definition of insanity. Do something new and see if that works (probably won’t, but it’s worth a shot).
  • Be Creative: Every setup out there has strengths and weaknesses (some more than others, making some better than others), but the point is, weaknesses exist for a reason. Case in point, by using Danger Close and Commando, I’m not immune to radar scans and heartbeat sensors (i.e. this puts a big red dot on my enemies’ maps, labeling exactly where I can be found).

Conclusion

Point of the story is, don’t bitch about some guy who is creaming you just because he’s doing it with only one or two (really simple) tricks. Quality players adapt and change when things don’t seem to work. Stubborn/persistent players try the same thing again and again (usually to no avail), and little bitches cry and whine about how unfair the world is.

Written by Carl on May 31, 2010 at 12:08 am
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