Sniper vs Shotgun

My copy of Call of Duty 2 very rarely sees the light of day. It spends all it’s time inside my Xbox 360. Normally once I finish a game I don’t play it again much, but I’ve completed cod2 several times now and am in the process of getting my true money’s worth from the multiplayer experience on Xbox Live.
Yeah OK, there are some issues with the multiplayer portion of this game. The lag can be frustrating, lack of options when setting up games, etc, etc. But if you play at the right times you can get some cracking matches with no lag. Not to mention that IW are working on a patch which will (hopefully) fix all these problems.

Except for the lag I don’t have too much to complain about with regards to the multiplayer experience on Xbox Live. I like the random maps and after a match has finished I don’t mind joining a new lobby. After all I don’t want to keep getting my ass owned by ##gamertag## match after match after match.
However there is one issue causing a lot of commotion over on the cod2 forums and it’s the age-old “please don’t kill me with that particular weapon, it’s too powerful and it’s not fair”
The weapons in question on this occasion are the sniper rifle and the shotgun. Here’s me take on the matter.

Those weapons are there for a reason; to be used. Certain situations call for certain weapons. The truly skilled player will pick the best weapon for the environment they find themselves in.
If he’s creeping around a wide open field with next to no cover to hide behind he’s going to want something which will take the enemy out as soon as he sees them. If he can see them from miles away, then he’ll want a gun which will take them out from miles away. There’s no point having a close-range gun because by the time he gets anywhere near close enough to using it they’ll have taken him out.
If he’s in a built up environment with lots of buildings to hide in and lots of corners for anyone to run around and bump into him then he’s going to want something which is going to take them out at close range quickly and effectively without too much aiming required (he won’t have time to aim!)

The good player is only interested in one thing and that’s killing you. He won’t care how he does it. If he has to chase and hunt you down then that’s what he’ll do. If he needs to stop briefly to make sure his aim is bang on deadly he’ll do that too. He won’t care what weapon he uses as long as you die and he lives. Does he care that the shotgun is so devastating at close range that others think it’s an unfair weapon? No! (I don’t think I’ve ever been killed by a fair weapon…. they’re all unfair!) He’ll use the best killing machine he can get his hands on, because that’s what he’s there to do.

But does this make the good player a skilled player? Well what kind of skill are we measuring here? If he’s owning your ass every time you go up against him I’d say he’s skilled, skilled at killing. If you want to see who can get closest to the bulls-eye then you’re playing the wrong game fella.