NERD CULTURE SMACKDOWN PRESENTS:
CALL OF DUTY: UNBALANCED WARFARE
Call of Duty is my favorite FPS series
and, in fact, last week I wrote an article about the top 11 reasons I
love the COD series. Linked below are the three articles.
But
I am also fair. Hell, when you're passionate about a game series,
you're going to have gripes with it, and I have more than a few gripes
with the Call of Duty series. Before we begin I want to list off the
series, from COD 4 on, in order of how much I liked them from 1) being
my favorite and 4) being my least favorite.
4. World At War, 3. Modern Warfare 2. Black Ops, and 1. Modern Warfare
And
now here are the last six of the Top 11 Things I HATE About COD
Multi-Player! Note: I consider myself a video game paladin and my least
favorite things in games tend to be exploits and just overpowered
weapons. M14 ---> The Paladin's Weapon!
6. SOUND-WHORING!
Modern Warfare 2 is responsible for items 6 and 4. Let that sink in a moment. Now, to be fair, the idea of "sound-whoring" is not exclusive to the Call of Duty series BUT it did actually add a perk to the game that enhanced.
Here is a fun-little definition.
sound-whore [sound-hohr]
verb
1. to use expensive headphones or surround sound speakers to enhance the sound in a video game for an unfair advantage.
noun
2. a video gamer who uses sound to determine his enemies location.
So, basically, sound-whoring is used by COD players to hear the footsteps of another player to determine their location and movement. In MW2, the perk Ninja allowed players to move more silently and Ninja Pro allows players to hear the movements of other with greater ease. Combing ninja pro with Turtle Beach headsets allow players to get an unfair advantage based on their ability to buy a non-standard headset and to train themselves in the "fine art of sound-whoring".
Solution: Never include a perk that allows a player to hear better.
5. DROP-SHOTS!
The ability to manipulate one's control scheme combined with the ability to go from standing to prone created a deadly combination in Call of Duty: Drop-Shots. Here is another cute little definition for your health!
drop-shot [drawp-shawt]
verb
1. to fall prone, in front of an enemy directly in front of you, and shoot them.
noun
2. the act or result of drop-shotting.
Now, the act of going prone in COD is in no way a problem. In fact, it is a viable and sensible action that helps a player get behind cover and snipe with a less vertical profile. Where going prone becomes drop-shotting is when a player uses COD's Tactical button-layout. This lay-out swaps the standard prone button "B" with the standard melee button "Tap Right Thumb-stick. This allows a player to go from standing to prone in a split second.
Few things are more frustrating than going to shoot someone and then seeing them fall from standing to the floor and shoot you. This problem is so bad that, generally, I aim for my enemies center body mass (usually the crotch) so if they go prone I shoot them on the way down.
Solution: Falling to the floor hurts; make a player take damage when they fall prone.
4. QUICK-SCOPES!
Last hyphenated title, I promise. Quick-shots is the other dastardly addition brought to us by MW2, crippled in Black Ops but brought back in full-force in MW3. Quick-Scopes turn Sniper Rifles from specialist long-range weapons to one-shot weapons of mass destruction. The problem here?
quick-scope [kwik-skohp]
verb
1. Video game. to quickly aim down the sights of a sniper rifle, auto-target an enemy, and one-shot kill them. Rinse and Repeat.
You can look down the scope of a sniper rifle faster than any gun in the game, most sniper rifles kill in one shot, and in console shooters guns have "auto-aim", to help compensate for the lack of precision given by a mouse, by having a character gun tilt toward an enemy near where they are aiming. The latter problem is pretty much vital to console shooters.
Solution: Sniper rifles shouldn't have auto-aim or, at the very least, lack auto aim on targets less than 20 feet away.
3. NOOB TUBES!
I'm sure a lot of COD players were expecting to see noob tubes take the top spot because it is one of the oldest complaints about COD. Grenade launchers are a deadly and powerful weapon going back to some of the older game shooters. So what did COD 4 do? Oh, include the grenade launcher as an under barrel attachment with two rounds and thus give players a no-skills, no-frills weapon of mass murder!
noob tube [noob-toob]
noun
1. Any grenade launcher under-barrel attachment in the COD series.
2. A weapon used by the cowardly and cruel, lacking any skill or forethought, and hated by many member of the COD community.
The reason a grenade launcher is so cheap and effective is that it can go over walls and has the same radius as, well, a grenade. Furthermore, just being hit by the ejected grenade can kill someone and with some perks you could have more ammo, find more ammo, or using One-Man-Army just switch classes so that you can have more grendades.
Few things are more frustrating than getting killed from across the map by a grenade launched from under an AK-74 U!
Solution: Limit the attachment to one round, decrease it's accuracy/effectiveness, or just remove it from the game.
2. ONE-HIT MELEE KILLS!?!
One hit melee kills are stupid. Unless you manage to stab someone in the lungs, heart, head, or throat they will almost always require more blows to kill them or, if they do die, it'll be from bleed out/ infection. Hell, there are cases of people being stabbed a dozen times or more and surviving.
The real problem is that very few weapons (Sniper Rifles, Explosives and Shot Guns) are capable of killing in one blow. It is infuriating when you are shooting someone in the body or face and they lung out and stab you. It is non-sensical. The real reason people hate this one-hit melee kill is because it a panic move people go to and has even been a ridiculously overpowered concept (I'll even admit to running around and stabbing people). Furthermore, the range of melee has over time sporadically increased but this is usually resolved and fixed.
Don't get me wrong. Melee is a viable FPS option but it just needs balance and the solution is incredible easy.
Solution: Make all melee hits take two blows to kill a non-injured enemy and/or the only one-hit melee kill should be when you catch an enemy from behind; other games included "assassinations" or animations of the player having to cut the throat of the other player's character.
1. BOOSTERS, CHEATERS, & HACKERS!
These three species of gamers have caused more strife, frustration and headaches than any broken weapon, overpowered perk, or weak game mechanic could ever produce.
First, we have the boosters, who are players who collaborate to join each other's game, kill each other, and boost their levels. This kind of cheap bull is the reason that Modern Warfare didn't allow party chat! These players commonly use tactical insertions and pre-chosen spots to accomplish their devious goals but they're nothing compared to the next two categories.
Cheaters! This is something that is frustrating in all games but is harder to punish than in, say, boxing, where you have a referee ready to punish an athlete for poor sportsmanship. We can report them but sometimes its nearly impossible. Cheaters use any gaming exploit available; from hiding in walls, hiding in dark graphic errors, using weapon combos to create effects, taking advantage of game errors and just generally trolling other players.
The last species is the most dangerous. If Modders are the Jedi of the gamer world, their Sith counterpart are Hackers, as they both use their computing skills to change games. The only problem? Modders usually mod games to make them funner, creating new maps, game modes and sharing them with the community. Hackers modify multi-player games so that they can win unfairly, frustrate other players, and intentionally mess up the game. Hackers can ruin a game; case in point, Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox 360. It is almost impossible to play the game for very long without ending up in a game where half of the players can see through walls, kill you in one shot, or walk on air!
Solution: Report these three species of gamers to moderators, hunt them down in game and ruin their fun, and, most importantly, don't encourage/take part in this activity.
The biggest problem with any multi-player community are players who ruin the fun for the rest of us. Let your voice be heard in the community, tell the game makers what you don't like, make suggestions, refuse to participate in bull-crap and remind them if game is broken YOU CAN STOP PLAYING IT! FIGHT BACK!
6. SOUND-WHORING!
Here is a fun-little definition.
sound-whore [sound-hohr]
verb
1. to use expensive headphones or surround sound speakers to enhance the sound in a video game for an unfair advantage.
noun
2. a video gamer who uses sound to determine his enemies location.
So, basically, sound-whoring is used by COD players to hear the footsteps of another player to determine their location and movement. In MW2, the perk Ninja allowed players to move more silently and Ninja Pro allows players to hear the movements of other with greater ease. Combing ninja pro with Turtle Beach headsets allow players to get an unfair advantage based on their ability to buy a non-standard headset and to train themselves in the "fine art of sound-whoring".
Solution: Never include a perk that allows a player to hear better.
5. DROP-SHOTS!
The ability to manipulate one's control scheme combined with the ability to go from standing to prone created a deadly combination in Call of Duty: Drop-Shots. Here is another cute little definition for your health!
drop-shot [drawp-shawt]
verb
1. to fall prone, in front of an enemy directly in front of you, and shoot them.
noun
2. the act or result of drop-shotting.
Now, the act of going prone in COD is in no way a problem. In fact, it is a viable and sensible action that helps a player get behind cover and snipe with a less vertical profile. Where going prone becomes drop-shotting is when a player uses COD's Tactical button-layout. This lay-out swaps the standard prone button "B" with the standard melee button "Tap Right Thumb-stick. This allows a player to go from standing to prone in a split second.
Few things are more frustrating than going to shoot someone and then seeing them fall from standing to the floor and shoot you. This problem is so bad that, generally, I aim for my enemies center body mass (usually the crotch) so if they go prone I shoot them on the way down.
Solution: Falling to the floor hurts; make a player take damage when they fall prone.
4. QUICK-SCOPES!
Last hyphenated title, I promise. Quick-shots is the other dastardly addition brought to us by MW2, crippled in Black Ops but brought back in full-force in MW3. Quick-Scopes turn Sniper Rifles from specialist long-range weapons to one-shot weapons of mass destruction. The problem here?
quick-scope [kwik-skohp]
verb
1. Video game. to quickly aim down the sights of a sniper rifle, auto-target an enemy, and one-shot kill them. Rinse and Repeat.
You can look down the scope of a sniper rifle faster than any gun in the game, most sniper rifles kill in one shot, and in console shooters guns have "auto-aim", to help compensate for the lack of precision given by a mouse, by having a character gun tilt toward an enemy near where they are aiming. The latter problem is pretty much vital to console shooters.
Solution: Sniper rifles shouldn't have auto-aim or, at the very least, lack auto aim on targets less than 20 feet away.
3. NOOB TUBES!
I'm sure a lot of COD players were expecting to see noob tubes take the top spot because it is one of the oldest complaints about COD. Grenade launchers are a deadly and powerful weapon going back to some of the older game shooters. So what did COD 4 do? Oh, include the grenade launcher as an under barrel attachment with two rounds and thus give players a no-skills, no-frills weapon of mass murder!
noob tube [noob-toob]
noun
1. Any grenade launcher under-barrel attachment in the COD series.
2. A weapon used by the cowardly and cruel, lacking any skill or forethought, and hated by many member of the COD community.
The reason a grenade launcher is so cheap and effective is that it can go over walls and has the same radius as, well, a grenade. Furthermore, just being hit by the ejected grenade can kill someone and with some perks you could have more ammo, find more ammo, or using One-Man-Army just switch classes so that you can have more grendades.
Few things are more frustrating than getting killed from across the map by a grenade launched from under an AK-74 U!
Solution: Limit the attachment to one round, decrease it's accuracy/effectiveness, or just remove it from the game.
2. ONE-HIT MELEE KILLS!?!
One hit melee kills are stupid. Unless you manage to stab someone in the lungs, heart, head, or throat they will almost always require more blows to kill them or, if they do die, it'll be from bleed out/ infection. Hell, there are cases of people being stabbed a dozen times or more and surviving.
The real problem is that very few weapons (Sniper Rifles, Explosives and Shot Guns) are capable of killing in one blow. It is infuriating when you are shooting someone in the body or face and they lung out and stab you. It is non-sensical. The real reason people hate this one-hit melee kill is because it a panic move people go to and has even been a ridiculously overpowered concept (I'll even admit to running around and stabbing people). Furthermore, the range of melee has over time sporadically increased but this is usually resolved and fixed.
Don't get me wrong. Melee is a viable FPS option but it just needs balance and the solution is incredible easy.
Solution: Make all melee hits take two blows to kill a non-injured enemy and/or the only one-hit melee kill should be when you catch an enemy from behind; other games included "assassinations" or animations of the player having to cut the throat of the other player's character.
1. BOOSTERS, CHEATERS, & HACKERS!
 |
| Imagine how easy it is to shoot a red blob!?! |
These three species of gamers have caused more strife, frustration and headaches than any broken weapon, overpowered perk, or weak game mechanic could ever produce.
First, we have the boosters, who are players who collaborate to join each other's game, kill each other, and boost their levels. This kind of cheap bull is the reason that Modern Warfare didn't allow party chat! These players commonly use tactical insertions and pre-chosen spots to accomplish their devious goals but they're nothing compared to the next two categories.
Cheaters! This is something that is frustrating in all games but is harder to punish than in, say, boxing, where you have a referee ready to punish an athlete for poor sportsmanship. We can report them but sometimes its nearly impossible. Cheaters use any gaming exploit available; from hiding in walls, hiding in dark graphic errors, using weapon combos to create effects, taking advantage of game errors and just generally trolling other players.
The last species is the most dangerous. If Modders are the Jedi of the gamer world, their Sith counterpart are Hackers, as they both use their computing skills to change games. The only problem? Modders usually mod games to make them funner, creating new maps, game modes and sharing them with the community. Hackers modify multi-player games so that they can win unfairly, frustrate other players, and intentionally mess up the game. Hackers can ruin a game; case in point, Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox 360. It is almost impossible to play the game for very long without ending up in a game where half of the players can see through walls, kill you in one shot, or walk on air!
Solution: Report these three species of gamers to moderators, hunt them down in game and ruin their fun, and, most importantly, don't encourage/take part in this activity.
The biggest problem with any multi-player community are players who ruin the fun for the rest of us. Let your voice be heard in the community, tell the game makers what you don't like, make suggestions, refuse to participate in bull-crap and remind them if game is broken YOU CAN STOP PLAYING IT! FIGHT BACK!
ITS YOUR CALL to DUTY!
