Why 4 and 0 is a Good Score
When Call of Duty:World at War was released earlier this year, I eagerly went down to JB Hifi and bought it. Initially, I found the multiplayer quite daunting, as I’d started it late (though I bought the game the day it was released). So, all the players were much higher ranks, with “better” weapons, skills etc. As of this article, I’m still not at Rank 65, much less thinking about prestiging.
Because I’d previously played CoD4:MW (Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare) to death last year (and ended up selling it in disgust due to the inaction by Infinity Ward towards fixing the ranking up bug), I quickly settled into my usual style of play for these games, being a sniper.
Many games passed, whilst I put up with and adjusted my game style to the horrible Springfield w/ scope - terrible weapon with a terrible scope. I moved away from sniping (because I was too slow at sniping with the Springfield, and the maps are too small), I started using what I deem to be CQB weapons (the Thompson (which I love…), and the other rifles and MG’s). Of course, because my style of play is as a sniper, I’m no good at CQB, and would often get smashed in the scoring.
Eventually, I ranked up enough to unlock the Russian Mosin-Nagant, and found it to be quite nice, and _then_ unlocked the scope for it. Godly weapon! Back to sniping I went, even on relatively small maps.
A thought crossed my mind - how about I unlock the scope for the M1 Garand? In the game, the Garand is a painful semi-auto, because of the stripper clip, and it’s weak power. However, unlock the scope, and I found I could one-shot kill people across the map easily, and accurately to boot!
The Garand contributed to my slinking away into a corner to snipe away all game. The end result, lots of games where I’d shot 4 rounds for 4 kills with zero deaths…
My definition of Camping
The new maps for CoD:WaW are great! They’re spread out in both width and depth, which allows me to do what I excel at - snipe at long distances. I’ve often been accused of “camping” in these games, because I’ll sit in one spot all game. I’m not a camper, because where I set up my “camp” I can usually see most of the map, sighted down roads, across to high-traffic windows, doors, alleyways etc. To me, a person who is a “camper” is one who sits under a stairway, and gets targets of opportunity. There’s no skill in that, no challenge.
So, why 4 and 0? Why not more?
I don’t blaze away at just anyone who strolls by. Before I fire, I consider the following:
- Is a Recon plane up? If so, I won’t shoot, because then I’ll be marked on the map as a red dot, and my position has been given away. For my sniper class, I’ve usually equipped the “UAV jammer” type perk, which usually means your character is wearing a gillie suit, thus invisible to recon planes.
- Is the target looking in my direction? If so, I may or may not shoot, depending on other factors. Generally I will, but I do consider what will happen next if I shoot and miss…
- Is the target near someone else who could “see” me or my shot? It’s slow to move from target to target quickly, so sometimes I won’t fire, because I can’t take on more than one target at a time.
As a result, I quite often finish a game with four kills and zero to two deaths. Is that good or bad?
In my opinion, a positive kill/death ration (KDR) is a good thing - I’ve contributed some points to my team’s effort, but minimal deaths. If I went 10 kills and 15 deaths, is that good? A lot of people think it is, but why? 10 kills is good, but it’s the 15 deaths which is the bitey end of the statistic - I’d seriously doubt you’ve scored a 7-streak, and brought out the dogs with that kind of score! If I went 10-15, I’ve obviously had a terrible game!
Bring on CoD4:MW!
For some strange reason, about a month ago, I bought my 5th (!) copy of CoD4:MW, and have since abandoned CoD:WaW for the moment. One glaringly obvious thing that I’ve noticed in these CoD4:MW games is that people love running around the map like chickens with their heads chopped off. This presents lots of targets, and lots of problems to snipers like me, who like to slink around silently and slowly, getting into a good spot to score kills. With people moving about, they get seen, and get shot at. If you don’t move, you (generally) don’t get noticed, and (generally) won’t get shot at. It’s simple!
The equation: moving about = activity = noticed = shot at ~= kill.
The problem is that lots of people moving about usually equates to doing it without regard for what the rest of the team are doing, and therefore there are people wandering all over the map, quite spread out, and thus likely to find the odd sniper holed up in a spot…
Just about every game, I’ll equip with one of the sniper rifles (M40, M21, Dragunov, R700, or the venerable Barrett .50cal). Most games, again, I go 4 and 0, 4 and 1. I have gone 15:0 and better too. Those games I cherish, because the headless chickens were really headless, running around and getting knocked off and wonder why afterwards! Of course, the converse is also true. I know I’m tired, and need to quit and go to bed when I get 0 and 10 (which I’ve had twice now…). Both games, I’ve done my usual slinking about, but both games, I’ve been caught out in the open, moving about *sigh*
Isn’t 4 and 0 boring?
Sometimes it is, definitely. Going 4 and 0 usually means I’m being overcautious, or am just plain in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Other games, I do it deliberately, for the in-game achievements, or to manage my KDR, or to “slow” the game down somewhat, especially if I’m 4 and 4, and the other team are aggressive. With the other team being aggressive, they’re up and about and being rather noisy, my potential targets increase, but I’m in danger of going 4 and 15, which is never good!
Is 4 and 0 too passive?
According to the point score, yeah, maybe I am being passive - but I’ve never been accused of being quiet on the mic. For instance, on “Ambush”, there are two well known sniper buildings - one with a hole in the wall in the metal section, and one which has been blown out completely, in the concrete section. I was sniping from the hole-in-the-wall building, and noticed a target sniping from the other building. However, because he wasn’t looking over towards me, he was sniping down towards the grassy section, so I knew he was there, but couldn’t get a clean shot.
I noticed that another player on our team was set up atop a wall in the middle section of the map, and could see across to this target. So I called him into it, he took the shot, got the target, and thanked me for it. My job was done! I went on sniping down the road, and across the sandbagged flat roof in the concrete section.
It’s extremely rare to hear people calling out targets to others - I do it all the time - if I die, I call out where I was shot from.
So, just because I go 4 and 0, doesn’t mean I’m not playing!