Every quest begins with a problem. There is something that the adventurer needs or wants that he does not have or cannot do in his current state. Frodo cannot destroy the ring without going to Mordor. King Arthur cannot have the Holy Grail unless he finds it. Inigo Montoya cannot avenge his father without finding and killing the man with six fingers (yeah, that’s right… I just made a Princess Bride reference). Mario and Link cannot save the princess without first seeking her out, and then defeating the bad guys who have taken her prisoner. I cannot become a gamer without playing video games.
Within Every Quest, There are Adventures
But the problem that initiates the quest is rarely the only trial that the adventurer must face in the course of his quest. No one would read the Lord of the Rings if the majority of the book was spent simply walking from one place to another. The reader wants to hear about the perils of descending into the dark underworld of Moria, battling orcs in Rohan and Gondor, and taking on a giant Spider. The same is true for games. No one would play Mario if the majority of the game was running along a flat plain. We want to be forced to jump from ledge to ledge. We want to battle rogue Koopas and hurdle enormous flying bullets. All long before we ever meet Bowser.
In the Quest to Become a Gamer, You Will Face Trials
This quest is no less fraught with adventure. Each new game type brings new trials that must be overcome. Making it through each one requires a new way of thinking and a whole new set of skills. This week’s gaming experiences were no exception. In adventuring into the wild world of the first-person shooter, I rediscovered that I lack a particularly fundamental skill: hitting the moving target.
The Benefits of Unlimited Ammunition
When I was a younger person, I engaged in those war games commonly enjoyed by young men: paintball and laser tag. Now there is a very important distinction between these two endeavors (beyond the fact that paint balls hurt while buzzing packs are just annoying). You can run out of paint balls, but there is always another laser beam.
I was always better at laser tag. In fact, as I got older I would often grab the high score in my laser battles. But I was lucky to make it out of a paintball round without red or green or pink spots staining my clothing. The practical difference? I found out that when your ammo is unlimited, it becomes much easier to hit a moving target. If I could fire as many times as I wanted, at least one round was bound to hit eventually. But when I had to conserve, pay attention to where I placed my shot, and try not to let wind or obstacles interfere with the flight of my rounds, the moving target became a much more difficult proposition.
The First Person Shooter is not Laser Tag…
The year was 2006, or 2007, or 2008. The setting was Bryan, Texas, in a small house about a mile north of Texas A&M University. There a young man struggled with the problem of taking on an opponent one on one in the most important competitive event of his current existence: Halo 3. Sweaty hands gripped the controller, while he tried desperately to remember the process of breaking down the opponents shield with the battle rifle before running in and finishing the opponent with a quick melee attack. And of course, all of that had to happen before the opponent could do the same thing to him. Needless to say, it didn’t work out in his favor very often.
The problem wasn’t the melee. Sure, my button pressing speed could have been faster. But the real problem was making sure the rounds fired before the melee found their target. And more importantly, that enough of them found their mark before I ran out. Too often I would be locked in a firefight, and just as I rushed in for the kill, the ammo ran out. And the shields were still up.
Therein lies the trouble with moving targets: how does one hit them before (1) running out of ammo, or infinitely more problematic, (2) they hit you.
Facing the Trial
With college over, entering a new phase of life, roommates moving elsewhere and taking the Xboxs with them, Halo became a thing of the past. I would pick it up occasionally at friend’s houses. But any practical ability to acquire the skill of hitting the moving target was put on hold.
Until I fired up Borderlands 2 this week. My friend and co-founder of GameWisp, Aaron, had been raving about this game for months. So, when I decided to become a gamer, this was one of the titles that was on my list. I picked it up during the Steam Summer Sale, and played the first few minutes. But as I suspect was true for some of you, I quickly got annoyed with Claptrap, the robot guide, and shut it off.
This week, however, after spending a lot of time with Civ V and Minecraft, I was looking for something different. And there it was, sitting patiently, waiting for me to find my way back into its beautifully barren landscape.
It was over the next few hours that I discovered my old nemesis. There are two types of targets in the opening missions of Borderlands 2: monsters and humans. Both are problematic.
Targets move in two basic directions: at you and away from you. In the opening sequence of Borderlands 2, monsters run at you. These targets are more straightforward: as long as I knew where they were coming from, I could line them up and hope that I could shoot them enough times to kill them before they reach me. I found this strategy especially effective when wielding a shotgun. More damage in a single round means fewer rounds have to be fired to take down a monster. I still had trouble with multiple monsters coming at me at one time, but sustaining a bit of damage, I stayed alive for the most part.
It’s the targets that move away from me that are tricky. They move sideways or back, around barriers or out of my line of vision. They require tracking and precision, higher level skills then merely pulling the trigger (or clicking the mouse). And with limited ammo, this means I can’t simply shoot wildly in one direction and hope for good things. But when every target is seeking to kill you, every target must be dealt with.
Overcoming the Trial
So now I find myself engaged in adventure, faced with the necessity of acquiring a new skill in order to move forward in the game and, ultimately, in my quest. Can one honestly say that they are a gamer without the ability to hit the moving target? Perhaps. But now that the challenge is met, I feel it my duty to complete it. So for all you snipers and shooters out there, the question of the week is this: how does one learn to hit the moving target? Is it merely a matter of repetition and practice? Or are there tricks or tips that those of us with target hitting issues can apply?
So once again, thanks for reading! More adventures in becoming a gamer to come next week. And as always, if you are a PC gamer, make sure you check out GameWisp and great game saves like this one for Borderlands 2 (and skip that annoying Claptrap)!
You can read the previous episode in my quest to become a gamer here.
Images:
Header: http://internetfreaks.org/content/articles/gaming/reviews/borderlands-2-r600
Super Mario: http://obsoletegamer.com/super-mario-world/
Halo 3: http://www.nextgg.com/Essential-Guide-To-Halo-3-Multiplayer.html
Borderlands 2 Cover: http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a382200/borderlands-2-special-editions-announced-and-unboxed.html
Published: Aug 16, 2013 02:54 pm