Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in Halo 3

[Ian David]

Suicide Bombing Makes Sick Sense in Halo 3
By Clive Thompson Email 11.05.07 | 12:00 AM

<snip>

Whenever I find myself under attack by a wildly superior player, I stop trying to duck and avoid their fire. Instead, I turn around and run straight at them. I know that by doing so, I'm only making it easier for them to shoot me -- and thus I'm marching straight into the jaws of death. Indeed, I can usually see my health meter rapidly shrinking to zero.

But at the last second, before I die, I'll whip out a sticky plasma grenade -- and throw it at them. Because I've run up so close, I almost always hit my opponent successfully. I'll die -- but he'll die too, a few seconds later when the grenade goes off. (When you pull off the trick, the game pops up a little dialog box noting that you killed someone "from beyond the grave.")

It was after pulling this maneuver a couple of dozen times that it suddenly hit me: I had, quite unconsciously, adopted the tactics of a suicide bomber -- or a kamikaze pilot.

It's not just that I'm willing to sacrifice my life to kill someone else. It's that I'm exploiting the psychology of asymmetrical warfare.

<snip>

I do not mean, of course, to trivialize the ghastly, horrific impact of real-life suicide bombing. Nor do I mean to gloss over the incredible complexity of the real-life personal, geopolitical and spiritual reasons why suicide bombers are willing to kill themselves. These are all impossibly more nuanced and perverse than what's happening inside a trifling, low-stakes videogame.

More:
http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2007/11/gamesfrontiers_1105

[Blashyrkh]

1. There's a simple explanation of this, and it has nothing to do with "suicide bombing"

I play Halo 3 too.

For me, the biggest statistic in Halo is your kill/death ratio. This is the number of kills got subtracting the number of deaths you suffered. A positive kill/death ratio means you killed more people than lives you lost. This is the key to winning "Slayer" Halo. Killing more than dying.

Thusly, every live you should be aiming for minimum, 1 kill. So at least you break even.

I only use the tactic you describe when facing certain death. It's pretty stupid tactically to automatically revert to "suicide bomber" every time. I won't sacrifice myself, but I'll damn well try to take someone with me.

At any rate, its a flawed tactic, because multiple kills per life is key. It's only valid when you *know* you are going to die, which is not really a suicide.

[Ian David]

2. This guy says he knows he will never be good enough to make Slayer or get good scores anyway...

and that suicide bombing is the only way he has to exact revenge-- not to score, but to get REVENGE.

[Blashyrkh]

7. That wasn't quoted in the original post.

I was just pointing out what a poor tactic it is, regardless.

If you're facing superior opposition, not dying is more effective than trading deaths in a a 1 for 1 because the opposition is moving one kill closer to the target while the gap stays static.

[DS1]

3. wow dude, welcome to 1998

Quake2 grenades in CTF anyone?

:eyes:

[Chovexani]

4. LOL, n00bs

:rofl:

[Rick Myers]

5. That trick is in the strategy guide for Battlefield 2142

Right before your health meter zeroes, you drop a grenade.

I'm only a casual player, and I know it's just a game, but the fact that kids play these games doesn't bode well for the future. We are raising a generation of cannon fodder.

A teen THINKS real war is just like these games... It's not. When you DIE in the BushCo version, you don't 'respawn' after 10 seconds!!!

You don't smell the death with an X-box, and the bad guys aren't real people with a Playstation.

I stopped providing my 10-year old nephew with any videogames after I walked in when he was playing True Crime: NYC, which my sister actually bought for him!!! He was kicking a 'hooker' character to force her to give up cash!!!! I flipped!!!! I TOOK the game away from him and refused to give it back to my sister.

A 10 year old playing The Simpsons is one thing, but games like Splinter Cell, GTA, Ghost Recon, etc should NOT be available to a 10 year old child!

Even the military TV ads are made to look like videogames!

[Ian David]

6. I used to use a completely different strategy in an old space-based MMORPG

Some of the guys with bigger ships used to shoot me just for sport, even though they wouldn't get any points or booty out of the deal. But it was costing me heavily.

So the tactic I adopted was to pop out of a solar system, take a couple pot shots at them, and then hyperspace back into a planetary system where I'd be safe.

I didn't do a lot of damage, but it forced them to stop and repair if they wanted all their systems at 100% again instead of, say 98%.

It was just really annoying for them.

My strategy was to tell them that if they keep blowing me up all the time, I'll just hang-out and annoy them for hours and hours, since I can't actually GO anywhere without getting blown-up anyway.

Well, it never worked.