Virtually Sniping

Sniping in multiplayer shooters has gotten a pretty bad rap in gaming culture. Some of the comments I read: If you like pointing and clicking so much, play your windows desktop. Every sniper in the game just cares about their kill-to-death ratio. Snipers have no skill.

Sniping in a shooter can be rewarding though. My favorite thing to do is what I call "offensive" sniping. Basically, following the assault troops in and picking off dangerous targets as they are identified, leaving the easier and more accessible targets to the run-and-gunners.

So the good and the bad stated above have an underlying commonality though. Real-world sniping is not easy. One should not be able to run with a sniper rifle and take a fully accurate shot on the fly. One also should not be able to spot a target and execute a flawless shot with a flick of the wrist.

There are some attempts to simulate realism (or at least simulate difficulty). The Call of Duty series uses holding your breath, which is a realistic tactic for sniping. Games like Team Fortress 2 have a power meter build in to simulate how snipers have to wait for a shot. The execution is still flawed though, since a headshot is an instant kill. It sort of encourages twitch gaming.

Why aren' t games like real-world sniping? I'm not asking for snipers to be prone the whole time and wait for someone to walk past the reticle. How about zeroing the scope? It would be interesting if snipers had to calibrate the reticle and distance actually matters. This would force a sniper to pick a zero point and allow them to choose to fire at a target further away by aiming slightly below the crosshairs. This forces snipers to think about their shot and puts some guesswork (or experience) into sniping.

How about gradually building accuracy for remaining still? Sniping should reward calm, collected and carefully chosen shots rather than firing re-actively to the first target that comes into view. Sniping should also be dangerous where one should have to decide between remaining in a known position to take a shot or moving to a better/safer location and having to set up again.

Well, before this post becomes a wall of text, I'm just going to end here. I'm sure there are plenty of other reasonable ideas, but as it stands, sniping is an experience that can be even more challenging and rewarding for those who enjoy it. It can also be a role that commands respect.