Things you learn about yourself from video games

[Serafina]

Well, i LOVE mutlittasking. Antyhing that can only be won by straight-forward assaults, only requires repetition of X and so on is not my kind of game.

Thus, i like realistic FPS, RTS where you can actually have mutiple strategys and support in RPGs.

[AMT]

I seem to enjoy being on the front line as a support type. I'm apparently better as a number 2, then number 1.

[Dahak]

I learned that I will always go for the biggest BOOOM possible. Like in Alpha Centauri, where I regularly planet-bust my way to victory. Or explosives or artillery. Can solve almost all problems with enough firepower
And I learned that I will happily stab team mates in the back if I get an advantage out of it...

[Tolya]

All primary snipers are cowards if they can't fight any other way. It's a rule of the internet that anyone who plays artillery, sniper or other ranged units exclusively is a) worthless, b) a coward or c) both. It helps this rule that 50% of everyone is a coward.

No no no. Everyone who kills anybody from a distance without being seen is a "motherf*** camper"

[Tolya]

Even when you spent 15 minutes in game avoiding the enemy and carefully planing a major pwnage, you are still a camper.

If you happen to kill an idiot who cannot check the same corner where he was killed FOR THE FIFTH FUCKING TIME you are still a camper. Both known for a fact.

If you dumped your job, lost your wife, sold your kids to gain some really good skills in a game, you are a bloody aimbot h4x0r. Not that I know that from my own experience, but I met many really good players (for example in Battlefield 2) who were accused of hacking just because they had a good kill ratio.

[Stark]

Yeah, it's obviously your fault if people are so dumb they repeat their plan over and over to the same result. It's just far more common for the 'leet sniper' to end up stationary and getting few kills because nobody wanders past and they're too scared to move. It amuses me how many nerds characterise their play styles by a) fear or b) a need for power. I play games to have fun.

[Lagmonster]

The "I tried it fifty times, it's the absolute last thing they'll expect me to do this time" school of FPS strategy seems to have really good attendance among the bulk of online FPS players. Sometimes I wonder why they even make Battlefield an objective-based game, since FPS players tend towards thinking that the only objective is to kill any guy whose head appears in plain view for more than two seconds.

Which is why I can breach front line entrenchments in games like Battlefield 2142. Group A has sniper position X, grenade-lobbing position Y, and machine-gun-nest Z. They will ALWAYS have them. They will have them so much, they might as well set up condos on those spots, wear horse blinders, and fall asleep with their finger on the 'fire' button. You can walk within five feet of the flanks of most traditional sniper nests on any map and fire randomly into the air, and half the time they won't even bother to look around.

Not that Battlefield maps contain a fountain of alternative routes and attack possibilities, but the tunnel vision of many players, especially on defense, is tremendous.

[2000AD]

I tend to be a middle manager. For example in BF2 I tend to play as squad leader, not in command overall, but in command enough to make sure I can make a meaningful input (at least when playing organised and not pubbing)
I also tend to communicate a lot. I don't care if some people find my accent annoying, they can just mute me if it's a problem, but I'm going to make sure everyone knows what I know.

[Stark]

do you say useless things like 'oh no a man' or useful things like 'boomer midfield shack left'?

[Oscar Wilde]

In shooters, typically I'm the crazy, charge with assault rifle or shotgun. Sometimes I snipe.
In MMO type games I usually balance melee, magic, and bow skill.

[RogueIce]

In FPS, I have learned that should I ever be in combat, I will die within the first five seconds.

[charlemagne]

In FPS, I have learned that should I ever be in combat, I will die within the first five seconds.

...knifed to death by someone who can remember the bloody hotkey for that. I know that feeling

[Mr Bean]

I play way to much Battlefield for my own good. In 1942 I was a plane camping bastard. In the FH and Desert Combat mods I was a tank whore(Squish squish goes the infantry!).

Whatever Multi-player game it is, I pick a role and keep going back to it over and over agian. And normally play it as it's not designed to be played. For example I had great success in Team Fortress 2 as a spy who only disguised himself as a spy. I forced myself to rely 100% of acutally hiding in shadows, corner's and my cloak. I got to the point I could normally engage Doctors, Engineers and Soldiers with my pistol and win.

I once set myself a goal of how many people I could wing clip while flying upside down in one round in Battlefield 2 for no other reasons that to see. (Six btw)

[Guardsman Bass]

Pretty much I'm a close-range shotgun guy. I love to play on in-door multiplayer shooter levels, then find the nearest shotgun equivalent and go hunting. I think it's a patience issue; my brother is much more careful, and does stuff like sneak around behind and beat you on the head with the gun.

I've also found that whenever it's a game where one person drives a vehicle and another can shoot, I'm always the shooter. Literally on everything from Mario Kart: Double Dash to Halo, I'm the shooter. It just seems to be the pattern on things like the latter; we'll run up to a vehicle, and everyone goes to a position - and I'm almost always the shooter.

[defanatic]

In RTS games, I'm the stealth guy who sits there giggling at his monitor. For instance, hijacker rushing in generals zero hour.

In FPS games, I usually go between stealth and just charging to my death a lot.

[CaptHawkeye]

I prefer engagement at long range. Attacking enemies from farther than their own optimal engagement distance. I despise lone wolf sniping though since it accomplishes nothing. I'm a man of the GPMG and DMR. I love any game that simulates the suppression effects of a machine gun, instead of just treating them like bigger SMGs because Quake said so. In other words, I do what most douche bag slot wasting snipers don't do. I *attack* with the rest of the team. I don't even really use "sniper rifles" per se since I find most scopes to be uncomfortable and claustrophobic.

I also just love to hunt snipers with everything not a sniper rifle. Especially the ones that use the same exact hiding spot every time. You know after the 2nd time or so they've got it in for you, and won't stop until you're dead.

What Lag said about defenders is so true it brings tears to my eyes. Most gamers have absolutely no situational awareness and let the craziest shit walk right by them. I think this comes from overwhelming addiction to "snap reflexes". Most FPS gamers attach their eyes to the reticule and won't even budge a look elsewhere on the screen. This gives them crazy short engagement time in that small area, but leads to debilitating tunnel vision.

[Pablo Sanchez]

I play mostly FPS. I was thinking about it and I guess I don't really have a specific play-style, except that I always move around lot. I have excellent twitch reflexes and good awareness, which are good for close-in work, but I also have fairly good aim, although I'm typically not a very good sniper because I often take bad shots (twitchy). When I'm on defense, like in TF2, I run circuits instead of sitting in place.

[CaptHawkeye]

I must have bad luck Pablo. In pretty much any FPS i've played I frequently get spotted and killed because I was moving around too much. This may apply more to "tact-i-cool" FPS games though. Which stress the difference between "ready to fire" and "moving" positions.

Oh, how about another fucking poser annoyance? How about the retards in Battlefield-ish games that consistently take the only jeep in the base...and just crash it into some rock right in the middle of the enemy spawn? They always take a full jeep for a personal joyride TOTALLY ALONE and accomplish absolutely nothing. Not like it matters. Even if they had a gunner, he won't be able to hit anything with the way the idiot spastic retard drives.

[GuppyShark]

I find I always like to take the opposing force's anchor and disrupt it. I'm always paying attention to the overall big picture. If what I'm doing isn't contributing that, I redeploy.

I don't hold grudges. If I get killed somewhere, I'll look at the map and decide where the team needs a free asset - not just spawn to the closest point in hopes of revenge.

For example, in BF2142 I find myself usually focused on taking down the enemy armour and air, or swiping lightly defended control points. You don't get much score for it but you win the map. I found that amongst my friends, I had the best win/loss ratio but a relatively low score per minute.

It always used to frustrate me that people would throw the game (abandoning defence on the Titan while we control all launch points) because they wanted to pad their stats.

I also prefer the flank/rear approach over the direct assault. It works a hell of a lot better for achieving objectives, and is more fun, but again you don't get as much score per minute.

In MMOs I DPS, but I DPS damned well.

In RTS I prefer decisive, brutal confrontation - if it is impossible to win slowly but with fewer losses. I will often do the 'artillery range crawl' if my opponent is unable to deploy a counter, but I will always have heavy forces ready to break any counterattack.

No point letting those filthy rebels engage your precious forces if they can be showered with death before they will even reach your lines.

Bonus points if that line is a phalanx.

[Ohma]

I do not deal with stress well, and also panic easily. This tends to show up mostly in RTS or fighting games for me. "AAAAAAAAAAAAA NO! BASE UNDER ATTACK AT SAME TIME AS MAIN FORCE ENGAGES ENEMY CAN NOT DEAL WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FLAIL AROUND USELESSLY!! DADNKNVKDMVASDLFJINWEJGKLSFFFFFFFFFFF >.O" or "AAAAAAAAAAA TOO MANY BUTTON COMBINATION FORGOT HOW TO COUNTER COMMENCE BUTTON MASHING!!!! D8"

Oddly enough I've found I'm usually okay in multi FPS games...though I do tend to play more methodically than the other people I've played with.

[Nephtys]

I'm a horrible, sneaky bitch. Or so I'm told.

My favorite unit in Total Annhilation was the nuclear Landmine. Because it's sooo pleasing to be giving ground, having a weak frontline force steamrolled by the enemy main body. Then watching their whole force vanish when you trigger the nuke. Alternatively, setting up a radar jammed, secret firebase near their main compound, and holding fire until their Commander enters their effective range...

Alternatively, using sneaky crap like Jarman Kell in Generals and poking holes in any tank that dares leave base defenses.

[Davey]

I learned that I was less patient and more competitive than I thought I was. I've played a lot of fighting games, I still do from time to time, and when I was little, I used to try really hard to unlock everything. Unfortunately, this was often very frustrating, because the unlockable secrets in some of them, namely Soul Calibur were damn near impossible for anyone who wasn't some mutant martian with seventeen fingers on each hand and lightspeed reflexes to get!

I ended up taking a break from gaming for a few years after I got sick of it, and that did me a lot of good. I guess I've changed, because now whenever I lose (which I often do) I can sit back, relax, and have a good laugh about it.

[JointStrikeFighter]

It's sad that most games don't have maps that support this kind of play; you could do it in Battlezone too with wide flanking manoeuvres. It's also similar to the JSF School of Rear Penetration in WiC, where you go wide outside the LOS of all the enemy and appear next to their rear-area units and disrupt their whole organisation just by existing.

Turns out when the enemy Arty and AA are FUCKING EXPLODING and the rest of their team is running around like a headless chicken trying to stop THE BAD TANK MAN IN THE REAR AREA then your team wins. Or it least it would if everyone else on the team wasnt a fucking moron.

[weemadando]

In RTS I go after the lines of supply. I kill the harvesters/peasants/whatever with fast, mobile units and starve the enemy into submission.

Hell in Civ IV I rarely play a game where I win by a military victory - instead I out-trade, out-politic and out-preach everyone until their cities are mine by default.

[CaptHawkeye]

Turns out when the enemy Arty and AA are FUCKING EXPLODING and the rest of their team is running around like a headless chicken trying to stop THE BAD TANK MAN IN THE REAR AREA then your team wins. Or it least it would if everyone else on the team wasnt a fucking moron.

Murphy's Law states that just as you start your huge assault on the enemy spawn, your team will start uselessly spawning Heavy Artillery, light tanks, lots of infantry in tightly packed groups etc...