I’d just liked to preface this post by pointing out that I don’t play games competitively online so people are spared my annoying habits (or quirks as I like to call them).
What annoying habit do I have? Many probably, but the one I’m particularly talking about involves first-person shooters and in particular shooters that give you access to vehicles. The best example of this is Halo, where you can play deathmatches on foot with conventional weaponry or hop into the nearest armoured vehicle and have a tank off.
Now this is where I step in and say “I reject your notions of warfare,” find myself a vehicle and drive it around haphazardly. Now granted a tank is an awesome instrument of destruction, but I find the same appeal in driving a quad bike around the battlefield like a maniac, honking the horn and occasionally scoring points by running other players over. Other activities include: driving up walls and into supposedly inaccessible areas in a Warthog and loop-de-looping in a Banshee until you find the top of the map.
You can probably tell that I’m not very competitive and it doesn’t take too many kills from a hidden sniper to turn me away from the path of war. Or, alternatively, to hop in a tank blowing up everything in sight and imagining the sniper watching through his scope as the tank turret turns ominously in his direction.
There’s always something silly to do in shooters if you look hard enough. Another of my favourites: the sticky mines in Timesplitters, which I liberally apply not just to the floors but also the walls, the ceiling and especially other player’s faces.
What about you? Are you deadly serious in these games or do you have a habit of straying from the strategically sound and into the certifiably insane?
L.P.Mergle 