Snipers are becoming a significant issue in almost every shooter game. We are entering a phase where players are caught off guard too frequently by a sniper player. Games like Fortnite have experimented with completely removing snipers from their competitive play. It worked out well in Fortnite because of the building mechanic in the game. While build fighting, players are often forced to use shotguns and SMGs to eliminate their boxed-up opponents. But in every other game, including Fortnite- no builds, snipers play a key part in the overall weapon inventory.
📝 #MW3 #ModernWarfareZombies #Warzone
Patch Notes for the February 13th update are now available.
Multiplayer & Zombies: https://t.co/xhdl7W39Z2
Warzone: https://t.co/oGiD6nH6V2 pic.twitter.com/tOfoJgoBwO— Call of Duty Updates (@CODUpdates) February 13, 2024
Call of Duty recently announced in its patch notes that they would be banning sniper rifles. There’s been a ton of mixed reactions from the Call of Duty community regarding this announcement. Players were farming clips and trick shots with sniper rifles in Call of Duty this year. The problem arises when low Elo lobbies are filled with sniping smurfs. The majority of the online trick shot clips are from smurf accounts, with high Elo players posting montages of fragging out in bronze lobbies.
How do game developers fix the overpowered sniping meta?
As years have passed, game developers have found multiple ways to nerf sniping attributes in the game. Fortnite added bullet distance drops and bullet travel time to the game. This was a big nerf to heavy sniper rifles because they were overpowered. Other games, like Counter-Strike and Valorant, use an economy system to make sure that overpowered guns like the sniper do not feature in every round. This economy system has worked well in bomb diffuser modes. Unfortunately, when it comes to battle Royale games, it’s a matter of luck with regards to who finds the gun from ground loot.
Another significant factor that accounts for overpowered snipers is no scoping. No scoping refers to taking a shot without using the aim-down-scope feature. In certain games, no scoping is as accurate as using a scope within the gun. Many players use in-built monitor crosshairs to take advantage of this feature. As expected, game developers incorporates no-scoping inaccuracies to snipers as they were often used as shotguns.
🚨 ALL SNIPERS ARE BANNED IN #MW3RankedPlay.#MW3 #MWIII pic.twitter.com/hz0V94ffjL
— DELCO (@DelcoGaming) February 13, 2024
It’s when all such measures do not work that developers completely remove the gun from the game to ensure it is balanced. Yes, some of the elite sniper players have been hit hard with this change. But, to my surprise, a significant number of players prefer to keep the sniper out of the game. Some, in fact, say that the sniper should be removed from casual play as well, since casual mode is a form of practice for ranked matches.
In higher Elo gameplay, snipers are almost balanced in every game. The majority of the problems arise when Smurfs enter loyal lobbies and dominate with just the sniper. It’s a really tricky situation for the developers. As a temporary fix to address the dominance of snipers, Call of Duty developers opted to exclude them from ranked play. Before bringing them back, developers will have to make various adjustments to the snipers in-game and experiment with them in casual matches.
