We’ve all been in an online multiplayer game eagerly waiting to find someone with a user name in red font so we can empty a whole M16 clip into their skulls. The thrill of running head strong into battle with reckless regard for life makes constantly respawing almost worth the trouble. However there are a few among us who don’t go for the Rambo style glory moments. They hide on rooftops or on the edges of maps waiting for some poor soul to go running by. Before you know it everyone on the opposite team is frantically searching for the sniper before they can turn the tide of battle too severely. Snipers are a necessity for militaristic combat games despite their annoyances, but the problem with the sniper becomes all too apparent when everybody in a match chooses to be a sniper.

Personally, I’m no good at sniping. I prefer the the method of shooting with minimal precision in the hopes of landing a headshot. I enjoy multiplayer matches when most of the people are grunts who just want to get into some fast paced action and keep the game moving. All too often I unwittingly get placed into a match that has a 100 kill requirement for winning but over half the people in the room are do nothing snipers. Needless to say, the match lasts for so long I just exit the game entirely and begin writing a post on why there should be a sniper limit in multiplayer matches.

This isn’t the case in all multiplayer games by any means. Some are bred to be quick such as the Unreal Tournament series or Resistance while others can go either way. Metal Gear Online is a good example of a mix between a hail of bullets flying for a good ten minutes and squad based tactical gameplay. It’s fun to play a match where everyone has their own role - and that includes the sniper. A machine gunner could get the enemies attention and draw them into the snipers sights while someone else could be planting traps to ensure a certain route is always taken. It’s just no fun when the battlefield is eerily quite because everyone is crouched over in a ditch somewhere hoping someone would get impatient enough to actually want to play the game.

I encourage everyone to keep their scopes and snipe to their hearts content, but understand there are some moments where we have to pick another role. The point of having different classes and weapons is to vary the gameplay so no experience is ever the same twice. The bottom line is if you want to play sniper vs. sniper matches - then create a room specifically for that. Otherwise keep the game moving.