The Technomicon

Over the weekend, Josh Olin at Treyarch commented on Twitter that quick-scoping would be “nerfed” in the next Call of Duty game, Black Ops, which ships November 9. Naturally, as with anytime you tell a nerd that things aren’t going to go exactly the way they want it to, there was something of a public outcry. It reached a point where Treyarch opened up a poll on their official forums, asking the community what they think. The result was less than surprising. Actually, I take that back. Part of it was surprising, that being the amount of people who rallied against quick-scoping. I honestly thought this would be a pro-QS landslide.

If you’re not in the know, quick-scoping is exactly what it sounds like. More often than not you’re taking your shot while your sights are still coming up. In many cases your screen is dark from the view switch, or the rifle is still in motion. In Call of Duty 4 the popular option was to equip an ACOG scope, as while it reduced the visual range it also brought the sights up quicker. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 changed quick-scoping completely by introducing the Sleight of Hand Pro perk, allowing for faster ADS (aim down sights) for all weapons. Now a pull of the left trigger would snap your cross hairs right into view.

Instead of rehashing my view on the subject, I’ll instead include the comment I was in the process of writing on the Black Ops forums when the topic was locked. Turns out that some people had decided to create multiple accounts in an attempt to skew the results of the poll they were conducting.

In my opinion, the problem with quick-scoping isn’t that it’s game-breaking in the sense that someone decimates the opposing team with a barrage of one-shot kills. It’s game-breaking in the sense that a quick-scoper’s own team is left to suffer at the expense of that player trying to collect clips for a montage, or flex their internet id. Snagging a few impressive shots means nothing if you had to go 4-17 to get them. Your team doesn’t care about those 4, only the 17 on the back-end.

Let’s be clear about this, though: this isn’t the same as arguing against grenade spam. No matter what you think of it (I’m not a fan, but that’s neither here nor there), spamming grenades is a strategy that is ultimately beneficial for your team. There is a greater chance of going positive, defending a capture point, protecting your headquarters, etc. by lobbing explosives then there is trying to quick-scope. Unless you’re in the top X% of talented quick-scopers you are most likely presenting a detriment that the rest of your team has to work harder to overcome.

At the same time I understand that quick-scoping isn’t something that everyone can do successfully. A sniper rifle is a precision weapon, so naturally it takes a degree of skill to be able to pull off a quick-scope in game. I’ve tried it, and have been awful at it, so I wouldn’t try to do it in a team setting.

Sleight of Hand Pro as it was intended to be used is not overpowered. For a traditional sniper it offers greater utility in that, should a shot present itself, it can be lined up all the quicker. If your target is making a move for cover, it gives you the chance to put a shot on them before they can hide. Situationally that changes, and the perk becomes a problem. At the risk of being flagged as part of the realism argument (which I’m actually not trying to make), a sniper rifle is the extreme end of the ranged spectrum, much the same way that a pistol is the extreme end for close quarters (melee attacks not withstanding). It’s a weapon designed to drop a target in one shot at a distance. To argue that snipers should be able to quickly ADS and drop a target at close range is akin to saying that pistols with 12x magnification scopes should be coded into the game.

Ultimately though, the problem here isn’t the playstyle, it’s the perks that enable it. There were aggressive snipers in previous Call of Duty games – games where Sleight of Hand Pro didn’t exist. There will still be aggressive snipers in Black Ops. Comparing any of these games to the way things work in Modern Warfare 2 is flawed, because regardless of its popularity it remains, at its core, a flawed game. It may have made quick-scoping easier, sure, but it did so at the cost of game balance. That’s what’s going to attract and keep players: balance. Catering to a small subsection of the community simply doesn’t accomplish that.

I will say though that when it comes to rogue playstyles, quick-scoping is probably the least worrisome. Modern Warfare 2 also introduce the Commando perk, which increased melee range to approximately ten feet, and introduced a gap-closing lunge that moved fast enough to make countering it difficult. (Stories of people “teleporting” through a spray of bullets to hit their target aren’t uncommon.) Perhaps the worst offender is the tandem perk setup of One Man Army and Danger Close, allowing the user to equip a barrel-mounted grenade launcher and rain death from a corner of the map. With Danger Close increasing all explosive weapon damage, and One Man Army allowing to change kits on the fly (and refreshing all ammo in the process), games quickly degenerated into who could spam the most grenades the fastest.

Black Ops is a step away from these playstyles. With One Man Army and Commando having been removed from the game, effectively hindering two “clever uses of game mechanics”, that only leaves quick-scoping on the chopping block. And if the information out there is any indication, then it too will be retired.

Personally, I won’t miss any of them.