Guileless said:
Interesting. Like I said, I've never played any CoD multiplayer before last week. I was under the impression that progression was the great draw of the game. So if you don't improve gear and abilities as in an MMO, how does CoD's progression model draw so many people in?
The more you play, the more you'll gravitate toward certain guns for certain purposes. The SCAR, is the first (if I recall correctly) AR you unlock, and it is an absolute beast at mid range, with decent close and far range capability. In contrast, the FAMAS murders at long range, and the M4 has a much better fire rate than the SCAR (which can get you killed if you aren't so great with the precision aiming).
Later on though, you'll find that other guns, while not necessarily wholly better, are better in select situations. The ACR with an ACOG has virtually no recoil (whereas the SCAR, for example, is nearly unusable with one), and the TAR handles like a semi-SMG, completely outclassing every other AR when it comes to close range (and makes for a decent mid-range weapon).
I just used ARs an an example. While you can use one gun that you prefer for the majority of all maps, and the ARs you get in the beginning are competent and good in their own right, every one of them (except for the F2000 maybe, that gun just blows) is usable in a variety of situations.
I think that this iteration of CoD has some of the best gun balancing in a long time (besides the obvious silliness of dual shotguns and that kind of nonsense). Every gun has its own feel, and unique use.
Edit: Realized I went off on a tangent, and didn't really directly answer your question. Besides the obvious e-peen draw of having potentially millions of users see how good you are, what titles you have, and your level at some point, I think the draw to leveling up is having all of those weapons available to you for any map, any situation. People complain that getting more custom classes for prestiging is a crappy reward for such a time investment, and I can tell you that those people haven't hit high enough level of play to know how important custom classes are. I can easily fill up eight class slots right now of combinations I just NEED to have available (unfortunately, I'm only about to hit my second prestige, and so only have 6 custom slots D: ), and all because the guns are unique and diverse. There is always going to be overlap in the use of every gun, but being good with all of them makes you a very formidable player indeed.
Edit2:
bobs99 ... said:
I agree with your definition of bad sniper but it should be renamed cheap sniper, although its no worse than all the people who hide with shotty's and so on.
Good snipers like you said get in good positions, I also find them more impressive when they make pushes and move around the map well rather than just locking one area down
I disagree, though it depends on what map you were playing, and what mode. I think I (and other people on this board) have said this before earlier in the thread, but basically, people mistake good teamwork for camping all the time. Camping is sitting in a remote, low-traffic room, watching a doorway that has no strategic value for his/her team. S/he is literally watching a useless door, and pulling the trigger if someone walks by. That style of play is in poor taste.
If that door, however, had strategic value for a team member or the team as a whole (such as the entrance to a good sniping spot, or the building that the team has locked down), then there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with watching your backs, and protecting your friends.
So for the example above, if they were guarding the house, then there is nothing wrong with what that sniper did. He is protecting one direction, one way of getting to the house. He watches his teammates backs, and they watch his. If he had no teammates around, and was sitting there the whole game regardless of what his teammates were doing, giving them no help at all, then yes, that is camping.
Arguably, no sniping is camping though, as any sniper killing someone at a distance is giving a tangible benefit to his team. If the sniper is using his rifle to pop people in that remote doorway though...that's a different story.
