I actually never played HQ until I took red's advice and started doing more contracts to level up faster (I would always forget to do them). I bought one on accident thinking it was for Domination, but it was for HQ, I guess I picked the wrong one. I was like oh well, let's try that game mode out. IT WAS FUUUUUUUUUUUN! I actually really like HQ, the only thing that pisses me off is when I die while we are holding the base, and you have to wait forever to spawn. I got A LOT of kills in one game in Nuketown. I think I went 67-13 or something, and didn't even get to use a killstreak, all gun kills.

Even though this game pisses me off from time to time, I enjoy playing it since I do okay at times. There are these guys I met that I have played together with, they are an awesome group of guys and they all know each other from real life. Only one of them is really good, but I get games in against not so good players when I party with them, so it is kind of like "boosting." >_<

I will continue playing this game until KZ3 comes out, and if I like KZ3 a lot, I will stay there for a while. If I don't like it too much, I will alternate between games.
Thanks if you read my essay! If anyone cares, my student teaching is a lot of fun, the kids are really well behaved and respectful. I will die of happiness if I land a job at the school.

I know you all have been struggling in BO, so I'd watch this. It should help out immensely. Did for me!

a month old, but i didnt know about this.
DUX check it out! lets u set up dolly cams, so u can edit clips easier and smoother.

Your thoughts?

situation A (HQ is offline, or online but not captured):
i think spawns are ok. seems like teams are placed at opposite sides, but probably slightly random. definitely not as predicatable as DOM/DEMO/CTF since these modes have constant set positions ("home bases" if u will. a flag/bomb site/etc.), but not as random as TDM. that said, once the HQ is online, ppl really shouldnt be going out of their way to flank/spawn kill since that will cost u from capping the HQ. once online, ppl should either be trying to cap it, or protect the guys in the HQ (holding choke points nearby). if ur not doing that, ur contributing to a loss.

situation B (HQ capped by other team):
spawns seem to be random, more so than situation A. but this benefits ur team. the other team doesnt know where u will be coming from so they cant predict it (as u can in other OBJ games). spawn trapping is not effective, so they would be unwise to venture too far from the HQ. so, instead of losing points by letting the HQ be destroyed, or getting killed while failing to predict spawns, its just "Atarimae" =>(matter of fact, without a doubt) that ppl will be camping the HQ. the objective of the game is to defend ur headquarters. i dont think thats cheap at all. i just think of it as "this is my house. if u come into it, u will die".

situation C (ur team has HQ):
yes as u said, difficult to predict spawn points of the enemy, but again, not relevant. u shouldnt be out and about on a midnight-stroll, looking for spawn rape victims. u should be in/near the HQ, holding off all intruders, or patrolling the choke points just near it (if u have teammates alive). assume they will be spawning randomly (its only fair) and therefore come from all angles. i wouldnt want there to be predictable spawns once the HQ is capped. that would just be predictable spawn raping; not fun. just think of it as Resistance: the aliens are coming to kill u. they have controlled all other parts of the country. all u have left is one small town, so protect it at all costs. there would be much less challenge, and much more abuse if spawns were predictable. HQ needs smart, tactical, coordinated (team) play in order to win.

personally, i love this mode. i love the fight for the HQ; throwing stun grenades, hitting the deck, and taking out guys as they bumrush the room. i love when Dux and i cap together; crouched in the corners, each watching a different entrance, then surviving through waves of enemies. i love being the last man standing; knowing there are 6 angry guys coming back for revenge, putting my life on the line, and coming out victorious. this mode offers some very fun, very challenging, hard fought, big kill/XP games. it is one of the least selfish modes, but in the process of completing the objective, u inevitably rack up kills. i love it. (or course, i must have had good connection status for most of my games, otherwise i wouldnt be so positive)

Ah, it's not like they'd last any amount of time anyway, right?

Black Ops Lag Compensation
I recommend reading this. It's not too long, nor too techy. Ii also has a some good examples. Very insightful & informative. Explains alot of the BS.

Activision threatens to pull PSN support (they 'could' rather)

....But they won't

i hate to admit it, but niva is the smart one. he has such hatred for COD which may stem from his despising the basic game mechanics (perks, streaks, etc.), which i dont agree with at all. but i completely agree that the game is a fucking piece of shit when it comes to servers and connection issues and how there is little joy playing online.

i vow never to buy another activision or COD game again.
i really hope that we, as a clan, could actually stick together and unify on this topic.

if we played PS3-exclusive titles like Resistance or Killzone or MAG, we would be able to play together, virtually lag-free, and enjoy the games instead of worrying constantly about whos going to suffer from lag, and how much it detracts from enjoying the game.

FUCK THE CHEAP COMPANIES WHO GIVE US SHITTY ONLINE EXPERIENCES.

i hope i re-read this in a year's time and make the right decision for future games. i hope u guys do as well.

just reading those posts made things alot more clear for me.

1. play against US players = have shitty lag
so i have to shoot at thin air or rely on aim assists; basically shoot where i think the enemy was 1 second ago!. fuck, i always wondered why the auto aim was pulling me away from the enemy! i kept trying to force it back onto the player... now i know to just follow the auto-aim and pray that GOD will send my bullets into the heart of my enemy even when im shooting at nothing.

2. have host status = have shitty lag
i realize im a constant complainer (sowwy!) but now i understand that it was justified. i always said, when i was host i was still getting lag. reading those posts makes me understand why. so i have "anti-lag", awesome! as explained by the developers, this anti-lag is meant to balance the playing field so that hosts do not get unfair advantages. awesome! so i actually lag as much or more (again, i watch my killcams, i can confirm this) than my opponents even when i have the most "desirable" connection.

3. FUCK COD GAMES. period.

That said, I understand how u feel - but at the same time, would you feel the same way if there were no recorded cumilative KDR statistic in the game - if you could experience COD for each round in itself, and once a round is over you either say Yah! or Meh. or Shit!! and it ends at that -I hope it's clear what I'm getting at here... What I mean is, no need to worry about the odd bad game, bad lag or good lag, blah blah blah - just play and have fun.

As it's well documehted that the COD world is not a perfect one, wouldn't one be doomed from the start if a perfect representation of their performance is what they were looking to achieve? It's just way to inconsistent in my mind, so why even bother worrying about it?? It would only cause stress in my mind.

I still think COD is fun - sometimes it's annoying when it feels mushy and slow because of some guy's garbage connection, but it's no big deal if my game doesnt go so well because of that. When the match is over leave the room if I want, find another server. Hardly even look at that stat and I am certainly not concerned about it going up or down as there are times where - What can you do? Really.

Free from frustration, at least from my perspective, I think I see COD for what it is and treat it as such. It's a hell of a lot of fun at times, and I got nothing to prove since, well what is there to prove anyways??

I just hope we can play together and have fun - which is what it's supposed to be. I know you've said you are not having fun unless you are killing, and that's fine since it's the same for most people - but learning to accept the good with the bad is one stop on the path to enlightenment, n'est pas??

ban: You can shove that French shit up your ass! LOL.

?? Not sure what you're getting at with this...

I'm not trying to enter into that debate at all, all I'm saying is since the game itself is flawed, why not accept it for what it is and not worry about a stat like KDR so much. Im not sayiing it doesnt matter or that one should play a certain way. We all bought the game and we are entitled to play exctly the way we feel fit. What I am talking about is getting pissed off or not.

I get pissed off by a lot of things in the game, like getting owned by Second Fucking Chance, lag, intrinsic design flaws in the game, the other guy outsmarting me or even when I lose fair and square but he's simply better - I hate losing, probably more than most people. However, there are times where it is out of my hands. Of course I would prefer that my only deaths were the result of my lack of skill or bad decidsions but that is not the case. I accept that and focus on doing better next time, and I most certainly never play recklessly.

I don't use killing killstreaks that might net me more kills at the end of the day, not out of a sense of loyalty and self sacrifice for the team but rather I get more satisfaction messing with the other teams game by putting up constand Uav n conter if I can. Conversely, I spend my time taking theirs out too if they are putting them up before I engage them as I am not a fan of being at a disadvantage.

I don''t think a couple points to the hundredth decimal point in a video game should be something that gets me upset in the real world.

We all want a perfect game, and this one isn't. Someday they might make one, who knows. Until then, I for one am satisfied to play this one til the next fun one comes out. My hope is that we can do that together.

while i understand many of the things ur saying, (and we can continue that discussion seperately), it is not relevant to my rant. i am sick of playing a laggy game, where my shots do not hit the player standing in front of me. one of the reasons i play online (and surely most people) is for the challenge of competing against other humanoids. as we are all very aware of, everyone has a different degree of competitive level from casual to hardcore. everyone has a different level of skill. but that is besides the point. i play online because it is a GAME. i treat it like a sports game. i want to win, or perform well, have fun and most definitely compete. if i didnt care about those things, i would play SP, training mode, or maybe little big planet...

so i am frustrated that a game cannot perform smoothly. i dont expect 100% smoothness, but i expect something playable... as does the majority of the COD community. whether or not i care about stats is not really pertinent to the discussion that laggy servers are not fun. im not exactly sure where ur anti-rant-rant even comes from. do you honestly enjoy playing in games with yellow bar? do u enjoy dying knowing that u actually outplayed ur opponent with superior tactics/skill, but instead u died from lag? if so, thats great, and happy hunting.

so whether u choose to sympathize with those that care about winning, or getting high scores, or doing whatever seems anal retentive, is completely besides the point. even ppl who "just want to have fun" and dont care about anything can agree that lagging is not fun. u cant tell me that any type of person should be given a bigger say in what is enjoyable or not for them. a casual person can say "i dont care about dying, so lag doesnt matter" whereas a competitive one would say the opposite. is that to say the casual player's opinion means more?

do u think there is a reason this topic has come up more than once in our forums, but never when we played Resistance or Killzone? or the thousands upon thousands of posts in COD related forums? its not about caring for stats, its about enjoying the game as it was meant to be played. these game makers make BILLIONS of dollars, yet they have no qualms with releasing a product that is 1/2 assed. yes, that gets me pissed. it gets me pissed knowing that i enjoy so many parts of this game, but my actions/performance are constantly hindered by however far i am from a random host.

i just dont get u , ban. u like to argue, that is fine and dandy. but why are u so sympathtic to the games that cant even get the ONE thing right that effects EVERY SINGLE PERSON playing it? dont u find that retarded? its like saying to a race car driver, "dont complain that ur car has slow acceleration or faulty brakes. just be happy that u are driving at all." if u drive, and u like to go fast (or win the race), or just feel the satisfaction of having ur car respond to how u intended to handle it, then u would understand where im coming from dude. if u race, but dont care if it handles the way u wanted it to, or think "hey, i dont mind if u tweak my car so that it accelerates slower", then please tell me.

I do enjoy playing online multiplayer, but time after time the little connection issues I interact with gradually loses my interest in this game (like many others). It just feels that whenever I pick up the control and wanting to have a good online experience, It's more of a 'winning ticket' situation. The odds of me having a great day out with perfect connection happens very rarely. But I frequently get fed up with worse things then what you guys suffer from.

SUCH AS THIS: you don't know how frustrating and guilty I feel when I'm the only player in a party who gets kicked, causing everyone else to back out just to get me back in again. This happens quite reguarly and causes me to switch the thing off! I know it has nothing to do with me, but if you were in my shoes, you do feel bad. There is nothing wrong with my connection too being NAT2! I feel I don't wana spoil it for the rest of us.

So my list of issues include: getting kicked from games, fail to migrate hosts, frame rate drops, disconnection of PSN, and constant yellow and red connection playing with clan buddies. I become content with it all, but this whole experience grows to hurt me like cancer extracting through my body.

As i've spoken to red, kuz and guz recently, I feel that I've lost my touch too... perhaps because I'm not caring as much. I'm not huge on priding myself to be the best player out there, as gaming to me is just a pastime.. but I'm just not having as much fun anymore.