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Snipers in video games, oh how people dread them. If you recall sniping used to be shooting from afar and looking down your scope and picking off your opponents one by one. Then, we have this new fad that is becoming oh so populaar and oh so annoying.
Quick scoping. the unholy of holys. I attempted it recently and did not seem very appealing, just made me felt like a regular infantry man with a bolt action rifle.
So my question is why are people doing this? is it fun? is it level grinding what is this obsessve fad going on. Also will regular snipers return?

As a non-multiplayer FPS type person, I have heard this term used. What does it mean, exactly? Sorry for the not really on topic reply, but my curiousity was peaked.

It is a term used to describe someone who uses a sniper rifle--essentially-- as an instagib shotgun, scoping in only to fire a guaranteed headshot at short range.

It's also exceedingly obnoxious because these individuals will crow about it as if it is some kind of exceedingly difficult feat.

Thanks Kan. That does sound pretty irritating.

There's also the phenomenon of "no-scoping" which is basically the same thing, just without using the scope.

Truthfully though, I do that bit in BF3 quite a bit with a more "assaulty" build on an M40A3 rifle using an ACOG Scope, Straight Pull Bolt, and a Laser Sighting Device.

It becomes a very, very nasty thing and Grey_Death and I have been experimenting for awhile with a C4 shooting technique using that rifle and him with C4.

It's hilarious when it works out well.

Ah, see, this is one of the main reasons I don't like multiplayer FPS much. A big part of the fun of games for me is the simulationist aspect of it, and seeing guys running up to someone with a sniper rifle and blowing them away at point blank would kinda shatter the illusion for me.

That and, you know, the infantile types vomiting profanities.

Kanluwen wrote:It is a term used to describe someone who uses a sniper rifle--essentially-- as an instagib shotgun, scoping in only to fire a guaranteed headshot at short range.

It's also exceedingly obnoxious because these individuals will crow about it as if it is some kind of exceedingly difficult feat.

If it's so effective, what is wrong with using it?

I understand the obnoxious crowing issue, but aside from that, what's the problem? Is it not a tactic available to everyone?

Teenage boys with small willies are obsessed with snipers/sniping, I have no idea why.

biccat wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:It is a term used to describe someone who uses a sniper rifle--essentially-- as an instagib shotgun, scoping in only to fire a guaranteed headshot at short range.

It's also exceedingly obnoxious because these individuals will crow about it as if it is some kind of exceedingly difficult feat.

If it's so effective, what is wrong with using it?

I understand the obnoxious crowing issue, but aside from that, what's the problem? Is it not a tactic available to everyone?

It primarily becomes an issue when you are playing games like Halo, where the sniper rifle is not something that is necessarily "available to everyone" but instead is a weapon which spawns at a set location on the level and then one individual beelines towards it and consistently seizes it every chance they get. They then make a point of if they are close to death, they will being firing all the ammunition out of it, so that nobody else can use it (teammate or enemy). It is a detrimental factor to a game when a specific map is balanced around the idea of actually having a sniper for one team or the other actually hanging back and providing cover fire rather than running in like Rambo.

It becomes an issue in games like Battlefield 3 because it has begun what I like to affectionately refer to as "Recon Wars". The Recon class has the ability to deploy a forward Spawn Beacon, allowing his squadmates to spawn on the location where he has secreted his beacon. These specific Recon Warriors do not attempt to place their beacon in a spot where it will be beneficial, such as a location on Rush which is fairly close to the objective allowing for faster reinforcements/disarms or on Conquest where his squadmates can spawn and contest a capture. The Recon Warrior will place his beacon in a location which will just give him clear shots at the enemy, and where they might not be able to take the beacon down due to a weird angle, etc ensuring that the Recon Warrior will be on top of the K/D ratio and points but his team still loses.

TL;DR version:
It's not helpful when it's a team-oriented, objective based game.

Why do people no-scope/quickscope?? Coz its different, and usually effective. I myself have never done quickscoping. I have however done the occasional no-scope but purely on accident(on resulting in a headshot which I thought was awesome lol)

Lets go back to two CoD games I used to play.

MW2 - I loved "hard scoping" as it is now dubbed. I always found a place to hide and pick people off. It was so fun when I got hate messages for using a sniper rifle correctly.

Black Ops - Never once have I used a sniper rifle in this game. Maps were usually quite crowded so being able to get a long range shot was difficult. However Treyarch somehow made it so that quickscoping was really difficult. It was very rare that I seen a sniper rifle used.

Will regular sniping return?? Possibly, it depends on who makes the game whether they make quickscoping hard or easy. Though I see a lot of people jumping to assault rifles if they make it hard to quickscope.

In games like TF2, Quick Scoping is very skillful (Mind you, only one class gets a Sniper Rifle) and most often is used at Ranged (Since no matter how good you are at quick scoping, your going to get rocked up close by anyone else). It's the mark of a good sniper to be able to quick scope headshot one target, reload, and do it again to another (As the Sniper is very much a Support Class).

In games like Gears of War (The first one), the Snipers were always the most obnoxious players around. This was mostly because the entire upper body was a Kill Shot, and clipping someone on the finger takes skill, apparantly....

Quick scoping is skillful like running is skillful...
Once you learn how to do it you just grind it until you get better.
I hate snipers...
The only thing worse are quickscopers and that's because they think it's skillful to run around with a 1-shot weapon and shooting from the hip with it...
At least the Commando Pro-Marathon-Lightweight and Tac Knife build was fair and had a disadvantage...

purplefood wrote:Quick scoping is skillful like running is skillful...
Once you learn how to do it you just grind it until you get better.
I hate snipers...
The only thing worse are quickscopers and that's because they think it's skillful to run around with a 1-shot weapon and shooting from the hip with it...
At least the Commando Pro-Marathon-Lightweight and Tac Knife build was fair and had a disadvantage...

yeah, you couldnt get kills fast enough to win before you died.

Im so glad commando never made it back.

Slarg232 wrote:In games like TF2, Quick Scoping is very skillful (Mind you, only one class gets a Sniper Rifle) and most often is used at Ranged (Since no matter how good you are at quick scoping, your going to get rocked up close by anyone else). It's the mark of a good sniper to be able to quick scope headshot one target, reload, and do it again to another (As the Sniper is very much a Support Class).

There is a huge difference between "quick scoping" in most games and in TF2.

The reason being that the Sniper in TF2's Sniper Rifle does not do full damage immediately. It has a set amount of time to 'charge up' courtesy of the red dot growing brighter. To ensure a "headshot kill" on a Sniper's target, he is usually picking targets which are being engaged by others or specifically aiming for lower health classes.

In any other game, that rifle is doing full damage no matter if you are no scoping or quick scoping or hunkered down in your own little spider nest aiming down a ballistic 12x sight. It will be the same damage and range, unless you have a Suppressor on the rifle.

I know, that's why I said it was ok in games like TF2, but not in games like Gears of War

Yes, but you didn't say why it was okay Mr. President. You need to clarify.

Ugh. "1V1 quickscopes?" No thanks mate, I'll just take you down with my SCAR instead. I also love when people moan about "hardscoping". Sorry for trying to use it for its original purpose.

Battle Brother Lucifer wrote:

purplefood wrote:Quick scoping is skillful like running is skillful...
Once you learn how to do it you just grind it until you get better.
I hate snipers...
The only thing worse are quickscopers and that's because they think it's skillful to run around with a 1-shot weapon and shooting from the hip with it...
At least the Commando Pro-Marathon-Lightweight and Tac Knife build was fair and had a disadvantage...

yeah, you couldnt get kills fast enough to win before you died.

Im so glad commando never made it back.

With the Commando class?
Nah you could get plenty of kills, easily enough to win.
The disadvantage was that you had a knife and everyone else had guns...
You are fairly limited in range whereas quick scoping isn't...

Nurgle wrote:Then, we have this new fad

If by "new" you mean "ever since the dawn of FPS games", then yes I suppose it is new...

Well since they got sniper rifles of course.

I feel your pain, I really do. I can tell you though, there are some games I played where sniping was an art, and done right.

When I was in my BF2 clan, I would run wither sniper/heavy gunner support / Heli pilot. but when I was sniping, I was WAY out in the back with as much sight line as possible to provide cover. thats what it was all about.

can't get rid of the sploiters. its an effective tactic, just doesn't follow the spirit of the game.

I would love a game where you can snipe from 1000+ meters.

You could do that on Operation Flashpoint couldn't you?

Amaya wrote:I would love a game where you can snipe from 1000+ meters.

try sniper elite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGzyKHl7Geo

the first one was really good and a fairly accurate representation of old style skill based sniping, its basically a shooter combined with thief, you have to do stealth, sound masking, herding enemies into killzones, traps, ect, ect
and the slo motion bullets passing through peoples skulls is awesome.

I modded Oblivion and Fallout 3 so I had 5x the range and 10x zoom for sniping, but it's not the same as a true sniper game.

Amaya wrote:I would love a game where you can snipe from 1000+ meters.

Try Red Orchestra. The learning curve is steep, but it's an awesome game. I haven't played Red Orchestra 2 yet, but I'm guessing it's also quite good.

Kanluwen wrote:
It's not helpful when it's a team-oriented, objective based game.

Also, if the map design is poor (I'm looking at you, every MW game after 1.), it effectively renders most other weapons useless; especially on console with aim assist.

Still, its better than dying to an AWP shot to the foot on Dust.

purplefood wrote:You could do that on Operation Flashpoint couldn't you?

Yeah, it may also be possible in ARMA 2.

Rimmy wrote:
can't get rid of the sploiters. its an effective tactic, just doesn't follow the spirit of the game.

An easy fix would be to increase the time it takes to aim down sights with a scope, or impart some kind of focusing delay on the optics.

I absolutely loathe quick scoping simply because of the ridiculousness of it. As stated before it kinda sorta takes a toll on immersion, and especially so for me. If you an do a 360 spin in the air and still manage to hit something, I'm fine with that. It's a silly and dangerous thing to do in real life, but it's still possible. Sprinting at someone with a sniper rifle only to jab the scope in your eye for a split second and shoot them is just...ugh.

If we're going on realism then they take position 'Hardscope' then switch to a secondary weapon, like a pistol or SMG.

Quickscoping is luck. Scoping in and dragging onto target is skill.
Trickshotters I don't mind, unless they're on your team :/

Having 3-4 kids on your team all jumping and spinning in 360 degrees on your team sucks big time.
That's why i don't play most of these new online shooters. There is only a few new ones that aren't supporting this crap such as the newly released Tribes game, the rest however cater to this to increase their player base, and it really gets me sometimes when game developers make their games in such a way to attract new customers that it really bugs the old ones. Surely there is a middle ground.