I have never understood the purpose of matching outfits for clans. Actually, scratch that. I understand. The Unity associated with a standardized appearance is a nice idea. Perhaps the members of the clan depicted below [names cropped-out to protect the innocent] appreciate the aesthetic of a professional paintball team. Maybe they played organized sports for so long, that it becomes hard to invoke the competitive spirit without a number on oneaO™s back.
The position I should be taking with this stylistic decision is that I do not agree with the logic behind it. Tactically, that is. I ainaO™t gonna harp on your style, Player. No, Sir. If it works for you, then play on.
However, as a gamer on Xbox Live, our playeraO™s icon is the only piece of distinctiveness that we have at a glance. This is our chance to add a point of flair to our Mjolnir armor. Your icon is that beacon of individuality that your mates can use to identify you and assess the particular variety of shit with which you wrestle at that moment in the game.
Of course, it is good to assign a degree of unity to a team to avoid friendly fire, but Bungie does that for us. Aside from those rare moments in which our teams are Green or Yellow, we are either Red or we are Blue. I can understand the desire to play Army; and in the Army, everyone wears Government Issue aO” hence the term G.I. But donaO™t the hero-types find a way to express themselves? Rambo wore his red headband. Kilgore adorned himself with a yellow ascot for crying out loud.
If you are going to play Army, after all, play the hero-type.
Once upon a time, I had a brief tenure with a clan that enforced a matching icons rule. Each player on The Malicious [R.I.P.] was required to bear a sigil with the Skull-and-Bones set on a one-tone gradient. And boy, oh boy, did we all look cool in a pre-game lobby! Unfortunately, when we got into combat, the usual constructive tone of our chatter broke down completely. Everywhere I looked, colorful skulls stared back at me. The airwaves of our team chatter band became choked with commands addressed to no one in particular.
aOoeHey, You.aO
aOoeWho?aO
aOoeYou, the one with the crimson skull near the flag.aO
aOoeThataO™s action.aO
aOoeNo, I am action, and IaO™m in the rocks trying to snipe.aO
And to think that we got dressed up like each other to feel organized. So much extra chatter, just to figure out who was who. Which one was Fock? I donaO™t do well when I canaO™t pick out Fock at a glance. Of course, I could drag my reticle over their heads to determine who I needed to warn about the crouched shotty wielder sneaking into the base. But who has time to do that when a crouched shotty wielder is sneaking into the base?
In defense of the boys illustrated above, I suppose they could memorize each otheraO™s number. For me, that is just one more thing to worry about when I am trying to outrun a SPNKr in the aO~Hog. As for that lone Peon? He is the exception that proves the rule. I am sure they all know who he is.
Posted by XerxdeeJ
Of course, it is good to assign a degree of unity to a team to avoid friendly fire, but Bungie does that for us. Aside from those rare moments in which our teams are Green or Yellow, we are either Red or we are Blue. I can understand the desire to play Army; and in the Army, everyone wears Government Issue aO” hence the term G.I. But donaO™t the hero-types find a way to express themselves? Rambo wore his red headband. Kilgore adorned himself with a yellow ascot for crying out loud.
If you are going to play Army, after all, play the hero-type.
Once upon a time, I had a brief tenure with a clan that enforced a matching icons rule. Each player on The Malicious [R.I.P.] was required to bear a sigil with the Skull-and-Bones set on a one-tone gradient. And boy, oh boy, did we all look cool in a pre-game lobby! Unfortunately, when we got into combat, the usual constructive tone of our chatter broke down completely. Everywhere I looked, colorful skulls stared back at me. The airwaves of our team chatter band became choked with commands addressed to no one in particular.
aOoeHey, You.aO
aOoeWho?aO
aOoeYou, the one with the crimson skull near the flag.aO
aOoeThataO™s action.aO
aOoeNo, I am action, and IaO™m in the rocks trying to snipe.aO
And to think that we got dressed up like each other to feel organized. So much extra chatter, just to figure out who was who. Which one was Fock? I donaO™t do well when I canaO™t pick out Fock at a glance. Of course, I could drag my reticle over their heads to determine who I needed to warn about the crouched shotty wielder sneaking into the base. But who has time to do that when a crouched shotty wielder is sneaking into the base?
In defense of the boys illustrated above, I suppose they could memorize each otheraO™s number. For me, that is just one more thing to worry about when I am trying to outrun a SPNKr in the aO~Hog. As for that lone Peon? He is the exception that proves the rule. I am sure they all know who he is.
HOLY EFFING CRAP! THAT’S MY CLAN!!!!
I can’t believe it!
I see your point Deej, the icon system is excellent and is user friendly while giving you a decent amount of artistic freedom. I myself have been complemented on the aesthetic appeal of my icon a number of times and i have even had a copy cat. I made him change it of course :D
However, numbers can infact AID communication. What I mean by this is that aslong as everyone remembers what their number is there is no need for names. Instead of relying on every player being able to match every symbol to a name you just shout out the number of the symbol. Thus communications simply becomes:
“1, take out that sniper!”
As opposed to:
“Take out that sniper..uh..umm..guy with the symbol thingy”
In the first case, player 1 has memorised his number so he can instantly react. To take this further you can divide your team into 2 squads (blue and red) by coordinating the background colour of everyone’s symbols. So in a big team battle game you could have 2 squads of 4 players:
Alpha squad (designated by a blue background), refered to as:
Alpha 1, Alpha 2, Alpha 3, Alpha 4
Bravo squad, (red background), refered to as:
Bravo 1, Bravo 2, Bravo 3, Bravo 4
And suddenly tactical organisationg becomes logistically much easier. I’ve never actually tried this myself but i think it has potential for a hardcore team.
Of course the downside to this is that it erodes the teams individuality and character. A single number with a monotonous background isn’t exactly iconic.
There are some times when splitting up and forming squads with seperate objectives works. I think these decisions are best made on the fly, with a heavy emphasis on improvisation.
Early on in Clan Meryl Streep [shut up] we toyed with the idea of specialists and special teams. The reandom nature of spawning into the game made this strategy very problematic. Instead of pushing our objective, our team ended up running all over the map trying to reunite with their squad.
On the original note: I am fascinated to hear the other side of the matching uniforms argument. As long as everyone remembers their own number, I can see how this could be valuable.
However, I am sticking to my guns on this one. When I play with familiar members in my clan, knowing who they are by their icons helps me make snap decisions. If I need to drop off a sniper rifle, I know who make use of it. If I am looking for a tail gunner, there are some people who I know just don’t want to do it…
But thanks for the analysis nonetheless…
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DATE: 10/16/2005 06:52:55 AM
Oh, and by the way, we do memorize each others number and it is actually quite easy because most of us know each other personally, and we also play alot of LAN and LIVE games together.
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DATE: 10/16/2005 08:54:44 AM
Does that ‘Split into 2 groups of 4’ thing ever work? Any time I go into BTB with my friends someone always says to do it, but after about 5 seconds of playing everyone is off doing their own thing.
Don’t you love teamwork? :P