Bad habits we developed in shooters

We've made a huge mistake

Words: Hollander Cooper on January 9, 2013

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Fursnake - January 9, 2013 4:46 p.m.

Reload after shot? Hardly, I reload like they do in wartime, when my clip is empty. Which sometimes happens at the worst moment possible hehe. Trying to shoot out all the light? I learned long ago that most games don't accommodate this. Ignoring tutorials? With the lack of manuals in today's games? Not likely. Never ever use powerful weapons? Screw that part of why I bought the game is to use the powerful weapons? Is that an insignificant trash mob, where's my BFG? Shooting every red barrel? I probably would if it wasn't for the silly fact that I often miss seeing them until the fight is over lol. Trying to shoot allies? What am I, serial killer material? Sprinting through single player missions? Depends on the game and how quickly it takes to get boring. Also I hate rushing by the eye candy sometimes. Underestimating enemy AI? The only thing I underestimate usually is how annoyingly unerring enemy accuracy is even if I am "always sprinting" around the single player level. Overestimating enemy AI? I consider no one to be guilty of this ever. This only occurs when developers program crappy AI into the game.
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Oujisama - January 9, 2013 10:19 p.m.

Yeah yeah you're cool
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Bansheebot - January 10, 2013 2:17 p.m.

Congratulations, your parents now love you again.
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zelta38 - January 9, 2013 4:12 p.m.

Yet another amazing article, you're the only video game site I know that actually discusses the facts of a gamer's life like this with a profound knowledge of its history and culture all in quite the entertaining package, really loved that three times not cool video game ai, not cool part, good stuff!
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talleyXIV - January 9, 2013 4:04 p.m.

Complaining like crazy.
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Elgyem - January 9, 2013 2:25 p.m.

I have a bad habit of trying to reload on weapons that only have one clip. Also, forgetting that opponents are capable of hitting back in a melee situation. Please do this for RPGs.
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pl4y4h - January 9, 2013 12:48 p.m.

BINGO to the first one. Even with an LMG when I know it'll take forever, habit takes over
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jackthemenace - January 9, 2013 12:25 p.m.

Aside from the ones about underestimating enemy AI and shooting invulnerable targets, this pretty much describes me perfectly. I couldn't count the amount of times I'd been in a stealth game and set up an artistic masterpiece of an ambush, and then, twenty minutes later, had to go and just shoot an enemy, letting the trap go to waste, because the enemy was too stupid (?) to investigate and bumble into my ingenious machinations. One thing I do really like, though, is TF2's option to auto-relaod whenever you're not firing. Because then I don't feel like such an ass. Consciously, at least.
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ObliqueZombie - January 9, 2013 11:49 a.m.

... I... I'm a monster. I do every single one of these. Also, nice bit of writing on the "Reload after every shot" segment!
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cricket0 - January 9, 2013 11:41 a.m.

I think one that should be on this list is "Shoot anything that moves without good reason". Lets face it, most of the time in games, you shoot first and ask questions later, and if you sit down and think about it, you had no reason to shoot. Granted, most of the time they attack you first, but we've been so hard wired to kill everything ahead of us that the people we shoot could have been innocent the whole time, and are retaliating against a crazed gunman.
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Sy87 - January 9, 2013 11:34 a.m.

Can we be blamed for reloading after all every shot counts most of the time. Though it is dangerous and gets you killed at times. Anyway I may need that rocket for a tank I will just shoot my pistol at those five guys.
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JAM3380 - January 9, 2013 11:31 a.m.

I'm guilty of the too-frequent reload. I always feel as soon as I round a corner with a partial clip, I'll run into a large group of enemies. On a side note, I've seen one thing occurring a lot in multiplayer. Respawn in a corner, or something similar, but having a teammate intentionally blocking you, so you're stuck. Next thing you know, an enemy shows up and gets an easy multi-kill. The other thing I find annoying with multiplayer is the people who will camp on spawn points just to nail someone as soon as they appear. I refer to the tactical insertion in Call of Duty as a campfire, because I've seen so many incidents where someone will throw that down next to a spawn point, in case they happen to get killed themselves.
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mafyooz - January 9, 2013 11:14 a.m.

"Trying to shoot allies even when the game doesn't let you". Yep, that's me alright. Every time. And then I get pissy if a game DOES let you kill your allies and makes you fail the mission for it.....
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Robx - January 9, 2013 11:09 a.m.

Hats down to you, Cooper, magnificent article. Although I've never really shot my character's reflection in a game, everything else was spot on, just kept laughing all the way through.
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