Well in my experience as a veteran fps player, a paintball hobbyist, and even more a student of gunfight techniques, I’d say keeping your sight picture is the most important. I’m not convinced that the real world and the virtual world (where every conflict is prefaced with the mutual exchange of grenades), but when I slowly cruise through levels with my “weapon” constantly at the “ready”, I’m able to react to the kamikaze players much more effectively. Feeling the timing of things and knowing when to check your back or hold a position for a little while keeps me “alive” a lot of the time as well. I try to to play like I would act in a real situation, and I’m usually comforted that I end up dodging the grenade, shaking off the flashbang, and then using precision shots to finish it. But I know for sure that the real life law of moving slowly and smoothly will usually have you staring at a red screen for five seconds until your “boots” hit the “dirt” again when playing fps games.

Joshua,
It’s nice to hear about such solid tactics. Your experience adds up to value in the Real World. I’d take you into battle with me any day. I have a few comments to share about merging the two worlds, and these are not critical of your experience.

When I wrote about slowly and smoothly, I was using the base for the phrase, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” Sometimes my Teams went through terrain compartments so slowly that it’s hard to see anyone move, and sometimes we went through them so fast that the enemy was aiming behind us, looking for us, and of course we slaughtered them in Real World. It was a plus that they ended up shooting toward their own forces when they figured out where we were!

You are right when you indicated that movement must always be relative to the situation. In fact, what really matters more than your movement is the perception of “slow” and “fast” in the enemies’ mind. It’s possible to intentionally create perceptions of slow or fast at will in the mind of your opponent using specific techniques, and then you have finer control over the speed at which you move.

Sometimes when pressed, advancing to the rear works to string the enemy forces out so you can take them in slower time, but sometimes pressing toward a rapid advance compresses the enemy so they can’t respond efficiently. And then there’s flanking, maneuver, and envelopment tactics we haven’t even touched upon – not to mention the concepts of Up and Down and the family of Tactic specific to The Before, The During, and The After, so this note can quickly turn into a book-length reply!

However, it’s always true that Energy Follows Thought, so what you think can take place on the battlefield in Game World or Real World. It sounds like you have a solid handle on tactics, from your success and what you wrote! Game on!

Fascinating comments and welcome words of wisdom. I’m a competitive FPS gamer of 10+ years and I’ve always been interested in team tactics. Moving slowly and smoothly, and especially having a teammate with you doing the same and backing each other up, has been a stock tactic of my team for so long now it’s second nature. Being able to “box off” a level so it is practically impossible for the opponent to enter your half is a big part of the fun for me. In competitive FPS games it’s all about the kill:death ratio, and if you’re using this tactic it’s possible to play whole matches without dying. We’ve even been accused of cheating before for getting 40-0 Search & Destroy victories using these tactics! Knowing when to storm and when to hold is of paramount importance too and I got a nice warm glow reading your accounts of the same, Wolfgang.

I love the way that Real World wisdom can be applied in games nowadays! Gives the normal guy a chance to feel like a Hero.

Cool, Forsh! That’s one of the best descriptions of Real World tactics applied in Game World that I’ve ever read. With regard to boxing off a sector, if you haven’t tried this already (and with your experience, you may have), try an ambush we used with great success. Open a sector for your opponent to come in, lined with excellent terrain compartments where you populate some of your team, and have them open fire after the opponents have passed them in an open V crossfire pattern where their fields of fire are clearly defined. It worked every time in Real World, and I’m sure you’ll have success with it in Game World. It takes good Team control and discipline, good cover or concealment, and make sure the V is open enough so your crossfire isn’t against your own positions! (Yes, I know, that’s obvious at your level of skill, but I’d like people with less experience to try it also.) And by the way, all the heros I’ve know are normal guys – just like you and me, simply doing their jobs as best they can.