Mac Daniel's Advice

First Person Shooters: Netiquette and Tactics

Korin Hasegawa-John - 2001.11.19

This is a continuation of my earlier article on first person shooters. This article deals with netiquette for shooters and improving your skills.

Netiquette

The biggest problem that most people have is "camping." Camping is parking yourself at the end of a totally unimportant hallway with a shock rifle, rocket launcher, or railgun. A camper will then proceed to sit there without moving and shoot people who come down the hall. It is very tempting to do this, especially if you are scared of the people leaping around and hitting their targets while moving. Try to avoid it, however, because people will not be very happy with you. Being called a camper is considered an insult.

Sniping is similar. It's the same practice, although it involves being parked above a strategic intersection such as the intersection of three passages where there are a lot of weapons. This is considered legitimate, especially in team games. It's not so nice in free-for-all-games.

Swearing is also frowned upon in general. If you must call someone a name, do it like this. "Die, %&@*$!" Also, whining isn't very nice. Just because someone kills you, that doesn't mean that they're a lame little hack of a camper or that they're cheating or that they're a piece of lowlife. Everyone dies sometimes.

Tactics

The best tactic is jumping. It makes you a harder target to hit, especially with a single shot accurate weapon. It also makes it harder for you to hit anything, but it's usually easier to aim at someone when you know you are going to be jumping than it is for the other person to get a good shot at you.

Strafing is also good. It allows you to move laterally (side to side) without turning and screwing up your aim. If you see a bunch of people having it out in a big mass, get a rapid-fire weapon such as a minigun or plasma gun and strafe across while firing. It's a good strategy. Also, you can strafe back and forth quickly to ensure that you get more hits even if the person moves slightly.

Don't be afraid to run. If you have an Enforcer or other weak weapon and you're going against an opponent with a rocket launcher, run like the wind. If you're playing a team game, call for backup. Always try to use your teammates in a team game - and don't forget to support them.

If you're in a team game and see one of your guys and an opponent close together, unless you are using a very accurate weapon pass up the opportunity. If you hit your teammates, they won't be happy. They might even shoot at you in revenge. Also, if you kill a teammate you get a negative point, which doesn't help at all.

Coming up next: My choices for FPS games and some hardware picks.

Join us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

Recent Mac Daniel columns

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
  Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Share

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Quantcast

TypeStyler 11 is now in the Mac App Store!! -- Special Introductory Price of $59.95!! -- To Buy From The Mac App Store Click Here Now!! Or buy direct from Strider Software.

Quantcast

Quantcast

Quantcast

Poker Mac Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker and Mac Casino applications in minutes.

Quantcast

Quantcast

Quantcast

Quantcast

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
Cult of Mac
Shrine of Apple
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac Museum
DealMac
Deal Brothers
Mac2Sell
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End Mac FAQ

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The Apple Store
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
GainSaver
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay

Low End Mac's Amazon.com store

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link