Winning, But Playing Poorly

So lately I haven't been playing as well as I have in the past. And while I consider myself good, there have got to be better players out there. I'm sort of attributing it to how little I've played in the past 3 weeks. After buying and playing Red Dead for 2-3 weeks and then working on finishing up Forza 3's achievements I haven't had a lot of quality Call of Duty time. And coming back from that is tough. I get discouraged easily if I'm not winning and I die a lot, as I'm sure anyone does. Most of the time I end up rage quitting, something I need to stop doing.

But I was playing tonight and I joined a game of Team Deathmatch Express and Carnival was the map. Ugh, I don't like Carnival, this was after I had rage quit on it in a game of HQ Pro. Needless to say I voted to skip, and it passed. But the resulting map was Wasteland. While I hate this map as well I like to force myself to play it (if the rest of the lobby wants too as well) so I can learn how to play more efficiently on it.

I started off with my UMP45, rushing the other team as usual. Now, keep in mind I'm level 27 on the 3rd Prestige, so I don't have Ninja Pro yet, a key ingredient to my play-style. Long story short the UMP wasn't working out for me. So I switch to the TAR-21 and continue to get worked. But then as if given to me by the gods I switched to the M4 and began to destroy the other team. (Okay, it wasn't that dramatic, but work with me a little, everyone beefs up they're war stories a little bit, right?) Right away a Predator Missile, one kill off that and another off of a FAMAS I picked up and I have my Harriers. That easily got me my 11 kill streak, the Chopper Gunner. (Not my 11 kill streak of choice, but I'm going for the emblem.) That got me a lot of kills on such an open map.

The game starts coming to a close and I had just respawned with my M4 after dying. I see a bunch of red dots in the caves, so I line up looking down the trench closest to the Church and see a few guys running back and fourth. One sees me. And we trade fire.

I don't know about you, but I've developed a natural tendency to strafe back and fourth while shooting to make a harder target over my years of playing COD. I picked it up just playing against other people who did it. It really does make you a hard to hit target. I ended up killing the guy in the Game Winning Kill Cam. What's his reaction? (Unprovoked, mind you.) "Aw, yeah, look at you, glitchin' all around." I'm not even sure how I would do what he said, the game wasn't laggy at all.

I'm trying to make two points with this post. One is about the game and how switching your gun can make a world of difference when you're playing poorly. The second is how outrageous people can be when they lose. I am commonly accused of cheating when my team wins and I'm up top. I suppose it's human nature, to rationalize why you lost to yourself. People just happen to say it out loud more often than not, and usually in a manner that isn't so friendly. Ever since listening to an Xbox Live Enforcement speech at PAX East 2010 I've carried myself a little differently, attempting to be a more positive influence in the community. It's tough though. (I've linked it here, give it a listen when you have a chance, maybe you'll take something away from it like I did.)

That out of the way I'd like to wrap up by talking about how key it is to switch guns when you're playing poorly. I know a lot of my friends make a load-out and just play that the whole game. How I work is I make all my load-outs playable, and I pick one to start the game, usually the gun I'm working on, currently the TAR-21. I play with it. If I do well I keep using it. If I do bad I switch to a backup, usually a gun I know I'm good with. I remember loving the TAR-21, but every time I come back to using it I need to get used to the bounce until the I get the silencer, then things calm down a bit. But range can still be an issue sometimes, especially against guns like the M16. But keep this in mind when you play, and try it out. Leave a comment if it helps, especially if anyone accuses you of cheating when you win.

Go Deep. Go Hard.
-K1ng K00p4