Poll: Call of Duty requires Skill... or not?

[BoredDragon]

The actual shooting and killing someone at close/medium range doesn't really take that much skill. However, in order to be good, you must use your intellect to figure out where the next major confrontation area is going to take place and plan ahead accordingly.Then again, I've been killed by 5 year olds camping in a random corner hundreds of times so maybe not.

I will stand that the sniping does take skill and when I say sniping, I mean shooting him in the head from a long distance away. I don't mean quickscoping or shooting 15 times and finally getting 3 bodyshots.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

It takes almost no skill. You have to know the controls and have some hand-eye coordination, but that's about it. I let my sister (who's never played a game in her life save for some shitty horse game where all you do is press the space bar) play a bit of Mod Warfare 2. By button mashing and holding down the trigger, she managed to get 30-something kills.

 

[Snotnarok]

Any game takes skill to play, I've seen people walk out of hectic matches with no deaths and tons of kills, and they weren't camping in a corner the whole game praying on the people actually mobile on the map.

 

[MrGalactus]

Not as much as something like Quake or Unreal Tournament or Gears. CoD is very satisfying to do well at, though.

 

[MasterWhatever]

It does require a small amount nothing to fancy.

 

[spartan231490]

It's the age old question since CoD 4. I was wondering what Escapist thought. Me personally? I don't think so. Certainly takes some basic skill, but besides hoping you're connection is good enough and whether the other guy is ready or not plays a large part.

couldn't disagree more. I have a horrible connection, often a full second of lag, and I average pretty even on k/d and w/l. I would be better if it wasn't for the random spikes of lag to 2 or even 3 seconds behind, and the random disconnects, but that's off topic. I frequently win gun-fights in cod against people with better connections, even if they get the first shot, presumably because of skill. I can think of no other reason. Also, any time you directly compete with another person skill is required because it is a direct confrontation.

 

[Fuselage]

Every game requires skill.
/thread

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

in cod 4 i would say more skill, but in the newer ones? it's more...how the game is playing for you, based on connection and a few other functions, which if they are going your way you are near untouchable.

 

[Averant]

It does take skill. Lots and lots of luck, but it does take skill. He who shoots first does not always win. This may be a bit of a dated example, but I once had a friend in CoD2 who was so good he could pop everyone in the head with a gewehr even while being MG'd at.

EDIT: Hell, repeatedly I've sprayed and prayed, then gotten a pistol bullet to the head, no kill for me.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I can say with complete certainty that it does require a massive amount of skill.
the thing is that everybody who's been playing since the dawn of time already has all those skills down to muscle memory.

I have lots of experience playing FPS games (mostly good ones though) but I can't take two steps in CoD on Veteran without getting Swiss-Cheesed by a quarter of a million bullets

 

[AWDMANOUT]

I really would like to say yes, I really truly would...

But no.

Maybe a tiny bit of it is skill. Most of it is luck, and another big chunk of it is just an irritating lonely bastard in his basement using cheap gimmicks/annoying tactics to bother the brains out of the entire force of competitors.

Actually, that sounds like a good tactic.

My captcha has an umlaut... How do I type that?? D:

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

Yes it does. Either that or my luck is considerably worse than I thought. No one should be able to do that poorly in a game if skill isn't involved.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

It requires thinking ahead of your opponents (which I consider a skill), it's beneficial to understand which way your targets will run, or where they will hide. As long as you understand how the other players will react to the present scenario, you should be able to rack up a fair amount of kills.

This is what I was going to say. The players who learn how others think and react in certain situations are the ones who are going to do really well. Anticipation and quick reactions on the fly are the skills required (along with reflexes) to excel at COD.

 

[somerandomguy76]

Personally, I find CoD quite strategic. I have solid reflexes but some people are just crazy, plus you have to factor in the connection (or lack thereof). Thus I find myself getting far more kills by outflanking the enemy or doubling back or some other intentional, strategic move than by just running and gunning.

So yes, CoD takes mental skill, planning and situational awareness. People may just not approach the game in that manner.

 

[Lord Aronsworth]

If we're on this topic, I feel it's necessary to point out back in the 90s people would always say RPGs were for people who couldn't play "real" games. However, even those take skill at predicting your opponent's next move, and preparing accordingly.

But it depends what counts as a skill. For a game like CoD, twitch reactions can get you pretty far. However, when it's played how I--someone who admittedly doesn't play CoD--think one SHOULD play it*, it requires a lot of skill.

I may have seemed unclear there, so I'll just go ahead and say I voted twitch reaction.

*Actually aiming THEN shooting, not this spraying bullets all over the screen hoping you hit whatever it is that moved that plagues the online multiplayer servers.

 

[Mr Binary]

I would say that Call of Duty does require some amount of skill. A lot of it however, is just hoping for a good connection and pressing the knife button faster than the other guy.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Yes, you do. I've played against people that are blatantly bad, or just don't know how to handle different situations. I can consistently do 20-5 in hardcore TDM match after match. This is after weeks of online play between CoD4 and MW2. So yes, skill developed after time of playing.

 

[qeinar]

On pc your connetion is pretty much not really that of of others connection due to servers, so connection is not everything. If you think your good at the game then you should make a game battles team and see if it does take skill. ^^ If you have a team it doesn't take much skill to win over a team of randoms, but winning in game battles certainly takes as much skill as any other game. (not completely true since the comåetetive level of a game with more people on the game battles side would probably be harder to win in.)

Still if your soloing and doing good on your own your probably good at the game since you are doing better than other people. ^^