I’ve been playing the game Planetside for a few months now and it’s really got me hooked. Not in a “gotta play it now, I need a fix” sort of way but rather like putting on a comfortable shoe that you know and love. The game never really ends and any sense of real accomplishment based on external game objectives is short lived at best. Any base you may take, or continent you may help take for your side will most likely in a few minutes, hours or a day at the most be retaken by one other sides. It’s a constant ebb and flow with no one side ever being truly victorious. This can be difficult for many people to handle. After all what then is the point? I think it is in this gap that I have found what I really like about the game. The measure of success is entirely personal. How well do I do against everyone else while I am playing? Am I killing more than I am dieing? In any given campaign am I doing something useful that helps my side? And how well do I do those things?

In Planetside I’ve found my niche; the role of a sniper. I am getting better at infantry combat and can and do use a light tank from time to time, but by far my best skill is as a sniper. Plant me somewhere and let me kill. I can clean whole ridge lines or bases quadrents or tower levels of enemy troops. The other night it was like “shooting fish in a barrel”. I have noticed some people learn from being sniped and adapt their behavior to make it marginally more difficult to kill them. But overall I’m still amazed by the power of a well hidden sniper with a good field of view on an enemy encampment.

I find the act of sniping characters that are avatars of real humans to be very satisfying. It’s me against them. Even better is when going up against another sniper. When we both know each others location and are trying for the least revealing position and trying to get the shot in on the other first. It’s very personal and satisfying when you win. Being a sniper also calls for a high degree of situational awareness. Even though you are zoomed in 8x on a target far away you have be aware of what is going on around you. Listen for aircraft and ground vehicles and check radar to see if they are friendly or not. You have to check for enemy forces sneaking up on your position. I know there will be many more games that come along and capture my time, but I think there will always be a place for Planetside. As long as the server population stay up that is. Planetside with very few people playing is very boring.