The image that video games have for snipers is a mixed one: at once they are cold, lone figures able to kill indiscriminately from great distances, while simultaneously they are flimsy, difficult and sometimes utterly despised. That dichotomy between emotionless death-dealer and frail bullet magnet has been drummed into players, yet for some, distance killing (like distance learning except gorier) holds an unshakeable allure.

It is almost universally accepted that the first video game with a “sniper” feature (based around peering down a field-of-view restricted set of crosshairs) was the seminal MDK, since then however technology and perceptions have moved on and a game with guns is now not considered feature-complete unless it has some form of ranged bullet swapping.

Fundamentally the image built by games of a solo sniper is entirely false, in most all real world applications of scoped rifles a sniper is a unit consisting of at least two members: a gunner and a spotter. The spotter allocates targets, provides atmospheric readings, distance and other necessary guidance while the gunner acquires a target, adjusts the sights, checks ammo and pulls the trigger. The spotter role has more or less been universally ignored in games due to the difficulty in implementation, no one wants a repetitive computer blurting out tidbits of information while we’re trying to put a bunny-hopping maniac under our sights; and any human player would rather be pulling the trigger than playing meteorologist. The only exception (that springs to mind) to spotters’ absence in video games was the follow up to the original Rainbow Six, subtitled Rogue Spear, whose sniper units provided more frustration than support (as was so often the case with early Rainbow Six team mates).

It’s not surprising that the spotter role has not seen widespread adoption, the synergy between spotter and sniper is implicit and there is obviously a huge difference between being able to feel the breeze on your face, the humidity in the air, the vast distance in front of you and holding a plastic controller in your hands. The usefulness of a spotter breaks down when intangible or unimplemented elements come into play or when target acquisition is made through a mini-map than a confidently whispered voice. The disjoint goes beyond the omission of a role and features are divided between the pursuit of realism and the pursuit of fun.

The easiest way to demonstrate this contrast is by looking at two relatively recent implementations of sniping: Battlefield 2 and Team Fortress 2. The former kits out your avatar with a pixelated ghillie suit and suitably conspicuous rifle, while the latter arms you with a fedora and absurdly proportioned gun. Ignoring the aesthetic choices however reveals just how different each plays: BF2’s scope view wobbles according to your stance and how long you’ve remained still while TF2’s is rock solid from the get-go. BF2’s shots are heard and not seen, sometimes what looks like a perfect shot disappears without a trace, othertimes a headshot turns into a kneeshot, TF2 on the other hand hits where you point immediately after pulling the trigger, the only modifier being how long you’ve stayed zoomed in.

It’s obvious the two games are very different in theme: one is a hardened military “simulation” while the other is comical and borderline slapstick; but the fine details are what define this argument. Battlefield 2 takes a much harder line on realism, their sniper is distant and difficult with little-to-no feedback between a pinpoint shot and the random chance of bullet-drop. Team Fortress 2 is balanced as a whole rather than for individual classes which means the sniper in isolation epitomises the hatred some feel for the “point and click” nature of the role. These two games are just a snapshot of the possibilities available even in just the gun-porn genre; time moved on from MDK to the popular arcade draw of light guns giving way to the unwieldy Silent Scope, while home implementations put in wobbly scopes, then breathing (and subsequently holding one’s virtual breath), thermal vision, night vision and all points in between.

It is an odd space that the snipers in video games occupy, a selective space of cautionary and gung-ho attitudes, choosing just when art imitates life. Common axioms from marksmen hold true in games: one is always aware when a sniper has killed his friends, and it isn’t very often snipers are captured as prisoners. So too the social aspect of playing a sniper role has changed, from the cried “camping!” in Counter Strike to back to the mystique demonstrated in Call of Duty 4. The sniper role represents the zenith of achievement in games for some, reliance on cunning to survive and skill to score, yet to others they’re still just vultures pecking at the corpses.

There are elements from the reality of military and urban snipers which games will never be able to or never wish to replicate, and it seems that developers are, for the minute at least, correct to walk a line between simulation and arcade to better suit the type of game they are creating and to better hide all the gory (in both literal and figurative sense) details from the fragile end user.