calling all dedicated snipers...

[siddhi 0]

...i have a simple question (which I expect, given the sample population here , to elicit a flood of bullshit responses): who are you in RL? do you have an interesting job? any job? social interactions? a pet?

i have a semi-professional interest that was triggered when i got snipped recently.

now this was not a normal, high-target urban area type sniping: this was at a crashsite, at night, with only about 20 ppl on a server. all Zs had despawned, so the guy was likely lying there for a long, long time.

this is really intriguing: granted, urban sniping may have a certain appeal, but dedicated BUSH sniping? that must be like watching paint dry. what kind of person does that?

as one of the older players i actually had a type of sniper training once-upon-a-draftee-army. while i can see the attraction in doing a repeat observation of a location for 60min (latest then you switch with your team mate), even doing that for a quarter of that time on a computer game strikes me as .. unusual..

so, dedicated bush snipers: how long do you usually observe a location for before you call it in? more importantly, WHAT do you do while you are waiting? work on a different computer? eat? pluck your chicken ;)?

and how you would you categorize the personal life of the average bush sniper? sample responses would indicate young male between 18-22, usually with a low-impact university (i.e. not high workload) or just generally unemployed, socially rather isolated, and often enough eastern European. of course, maybe you are a mid-thirties progamer in a group office with DayZ just running in the background, but i think that would be the exception...

why I am interested?

a couple of years ago one of the most interesting little titbits from the book Microtrends was the career aspirations of a certain generation of Americans: "urban sniper" (see for instance http://francessarich.blogspot.co.at/2008/07/microtrends-iii.html ). Initially analysis suggested that, as the respondents were mostly black and Latino, there was "logical army career path" that, ill-informed that they maybe were, these young men were aiming for. On the other hand, secondary analysis indicated that in fact the "isolated, minority ethnic group" factor was stronger....the lack of possible empathy was interesting as well. In essence, there was a clear mass sociopathic trend to be observed in "isolated, disconnected young men", and i am wondering if they all ended up here...

i expect the average troll-spittle will have given up after the first paragraph of this post so i might actually get the one or the other interesting insight..please by all means talk generally if you prefer, but let me know what your thoughts are: displaced sociopathic behavior, boredoom, long-tail adrenaline-junkie, or maybe just to busy multitasking to be an active player?

[Rabbican 1]

I am a dedicated bush sniper, accountant is my primary function IRL. DayZ is the thrill of my life... I fully intend to get my whole department playing... Camping Spawners with high powered rifles is just too cool.

... Is that the response your looking for? Stand on more roof tops or stand still in open fields... Thank you

[Sethen 62]

Glad to see there are victims like you. ;)

I do enjoy sitting within my bush for long lengths of time staring through my scope to watch my .50 Cal blow a hole through your character. Hell.. I don't even loot my victims. Just let you become bait for the next.

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

I snipe and do a little of everything in Day-Z.

I don't have a current job, but I am very social and relaxed.

Generally I will have a video up on youtube next to me, or playing game of Thrones on my laptop. Checking emails or roleplaying if it tickles my fancy.

I don't generally call it quits, either. Sometimes I will spot a location all day if time permits.

[siddhi 0]

thanks for the responses:

@rabbican: what hierarchy-level would you say you are at in your organization? would you say you are more team-member, team-leader, independent worker, or other? do i understand correctly that you will remain at your location for a longer-period (couple of days), just log in for the kill?

@sethan: what do you do when you are waiting in the bush? how long a wait will you put up with in RL between kills? are you employed?

@ravin: spot on. thanks.

[Zakificus 10]

IRL I am a software engineer. Usually I multitask, so adding 'watch for movement and scan the area' to the list is usually convenient for when I want to play but am not quite in the mood to do anything very engaging.

I generally stick to sniping around fields between high traffic areas, which is pretty boring 90% of the time. I generally have DayZ running on one monitor, a movie or tv show on my second monitor, while doing something on my tablet - usually reading these forums.

[zantiago 119]

Im the spotter/overwatch for our clan.

And i've been sitting in one bush for 5hours straight, without even moving a muscle.

It's my job while playing, makeing sure my team mates are safe.

What i do in real life and regarding my age?

Im 25year's old, and i work as technical support, and im social to boot.

I have 4diffrent educations, including the following, industrial mechanic, industrial welder, technical support and ground course in leadership, and ofcourse im ex military.

Not that any of these really matter when it comes to gaming, fact is i've always played the sniper role and always will.

Working as technical support requires alot of patience, so it helps abit.

Hope that answered your questions!

-Z

[Double_Back 36]

If you have hunted something like deer in real life, you'd find that spending 30 minutes in one spot for that one shot at one target (in front of a computer in the comfy confines of your home) is quite easy. I've sat for 12 hours without seeing anything while hunting IRL.

A lot of the same principals and issues actually translate well between real life hunting and sniping online.

[Sanitrix 0]

Im a mechanic, but I have been hunting and tracking since I was about seven years old so I don't know if that helps any. Longest i have ever remained stationary was 6.5 hours. I discovered an encampment after backtracking a military off road I noticed exiting heavy bush land and do I set myself up and waited, sure enough a group of 5 returned in it and I dropped all of them using my SVD camo, they never even located me.

[Hawk24 94]

but dedicated BUSH sniping? (...) what kind of person does that?

The kind of person that knows that people like you are retarded enough to walk up to a helicopter crash site spawning high grade military equipment without getting enough intel about their surroundings

[*=LP=*Cpt.Kawa 57]

People shouldn't really answer here in some kind of a serious way.

OP you got killed by a bush sniper, by a guy who is also looking for chopper wrecks, by a guy who just spawned in behind you, by a guy who just walked by and saw you, who knows - just deal with it.

And obviously that:

The kind of person that knows that people like you are retarded enough to walk up to a helicopter crash site spawning high grade military equipment without getting enough intel about their surroundings

[Azrail (DayZ) 211]

we were sniping in the bushies on NE airfield today. we got three unlucky victims, no escape and no mercy.

we pissed them off good, because one of them managed to squeeze a X on the map at our location before he died,

but only few people could see it from group channel.

noone else came to investigate :(

we are not bush snipers in real life though.

[*=LP=*Cpt.Kawa 57]

we are not bush snipers in real life though.

Is bush sniper a real profession or more like a "form-hobby-to-a-job" thing. What you guys think?

I am really interested in this question, of course only in a semi-professional way. My job as a painter isn't that exciting at all, paint does dry kind of slow, but I like the smell of it. And I am looking for something new on the other hand I heard bush sniping is making you a sociopathic unemployed mass murdering and general unsuccessful sad person. Maybe the OP can give me some advice how to become a whiny little twat. Maybe that is better than a bush sniper, hm...

Well, I really like turtles.

[dpactual 36]

I'm unemployed and retired from the US Marine Corps. I was top in my class for rifle range (beating the instructors on the range even), and I will camp you for a week.

I love the taste of the hunt.

[Sethen 62]

thanks for the responses:

@rabbican: what hierarchy-level would you say you are at in your organization? would you say you are more team-member' date=' team-leader, independent worker, or other? do i understand correctly that you will remain at your location for a longer-period (couple of days), just log in for the kill?

@sethan: what do you do when you are waiting in the bush? how long a wait will you put up with in RL between kills? are you employed?

@ravin: spot on. thanks.

[/quote']

I am a Fitness trainer and a Firefighter.. I've actually bush snipe at the fire station having even an audience to watch me down a guy or two. Hmm.. For the most part I usually have Facebook up chatting and then bam there you are crawling in my sights, and Yes!! My heart starts to rush and I gain the adrenaline rush!! Very enjoyable. Also as other people have stated I hunt IRL so waiting 30mins-2hours or so on a video game is nothing compared to sitting in harsh weather in middle of woods for 6 hours +..

It's a game! It's design to be PVP related. Deal with it..

[KField86 237]

Honestly, to put this answer very bluntly, and some may understand it and some will not, I treat sniping like Deer Hunting. If you deer hunt, you'll know exactly what I mean. And before you make a comment, I'm a 26yr old from New York who works in construction, as well as painting/taping/sheet-rocking, etc etc. Definitely no hill billy.

When I go sniping, it's usually 6 of us. 2 Snipers. Each sniper has someone with an assault rifle covering their rear flank. Then 2 pointmen with silenced weapons for zombie clearing. Whether it's a backup weapon or a silenced M9, sometimes it varies. When we goto the NWAF, we are usually there for AT LEAST an hour. If we see anyone or not, it doesn't really matter. We also only shoot people that we can spot and verify are carrying a good weapon. We let people who look like newbies pass on by, and they'll never know we are there unless they literally walk right into us, and at which case we'd fire just to prolong our own lives and not take the risk of anyone going down. During the time we're waiting, we discuss tactics, shoot the shit, anything. As soon as we make visual contact with a player, the talking ceases and it's game-time and everyone falls into "alert" mode I guess you could say. But yeah, to me it's very much like hunting in real life. You be patient, you sit and wait, and then once you see something, your forehead sweats, your heart starts pounding, and then you see if you can pull the trigger or not. And I absolutely love it. I just hate having to absolutely book it once I send a round downrange with the M107. As soon as that thing goes off, me and my spotter/rifleman will move out together to engage any zombies if necessary at further ranges, just in case anyone is around and listening for gunfire. Try to make sure it's not in the same general position as when I fired the M107. Throw em off a bit. Then we relocate. I relocate each time I take a shot.

[ShovelGut 10]

Well I consider myself a dedicated bush sniper, I do mostly enjoy camping outside of cities I prefer to be atleast 600 meters out and I can sit idle anywhere from 1hr to 6 or 7 hours no problem. I have been a hunter in r/l my entire life so being patient and sitting for very long periods of time has never been an issue for me. To help pass the time I usually have a movie up on my 2nd monitor while I wait for someone to cross my path.

I am a full time sales rep at best buy and I am also a full time college student so I do most of my playing at odd hours (11pm to 6am)

[TheBambiMafia 11]

im in the mafia

[pLx - Killer_Toast 6]

I plead the fifth

[Swoosh Bear 12]

It's actually really easy to do. I sit far enough away so that the Zombies won't spawn so I can browse the interwebs and just periodicly check back to see if someone spawned the zombies. It's great.

[buster0083 1]

I find some reward in hiding out in the scrub 600m away from a likely target zone from time to time. Generally I'll read a book while keeping one eye on the monitor. As for your profiling...

29yo, Australian, full time employment - I'm in charge of the back end of a government surveillance aeroplane. Heavy focus in our job on the crew environment and being a team player. Reasonably wide circle of friends along with half a dozen very close ones - one of whom spots for me at times in DayZ. Pretty good work/lifestyle balance though I probably have more free time than most people - we tend to do 12-16 missions a month with the rest of the time on call or on days off. One of my close friends is a psychiatrist and tells me I'm pretty normal and balanced. Hope that's of use ;)

[siddhi 0]

• thanks for all the answers and sorry it took me a while to get back.
  
• 
  
• i thought the answers were very interesting, at least for me. DayZ is not the first game that has long solitary and unexciting gameplay moments - the all time winner would be Flight Simulator which has some quite extreme cases (real-time intercontinental flights etc.), but that game is very much about being a pilot..i.e. assuming an identity...rather then the interaction or even action component.
  
• 
  
• DayZ is certainly more action orientated, so basically it poses interesting questions if there are people who will simply go into a OP for a long period and remain fixed on the screen throughout that time (call it lurking). I think that is very different from those who do bush sniping as part of teamplay (especially two-man OP teams) or who do it, in their words, as a "multitasking" part of their general routine.
  
• 
  
• the comparison of these long-term lurkers with hunters is an interesting one. I have hunted, and I have an (albeit minimal) relevant training as a infantrymen, and for me there is no connection between the two physical and the virtual example. Having sat in a central European deer stand for a couple of hours I would say the experience is more similar to fishing - more about enjoying the entire environment - rather than the "kill". in military terms the theory I know is that you are supposed to switch between spotter and sniper. I was taught 60min within a classic OP context, I read somewhere the Americans did 15min turns.
  
• 
  
• In any case, I doubt if the dedicated lurkers are getting the enviornmental feel of hunting, or the alert high of focused military sniping. Maybe it is something else entirely - like "staying alive"?
  

[b1scuits 1]

I think of myself typically as a "bush sniper" like you described, I make most of my kills on well geared players by waiting for long periods of time over a certain area and not neccessarily one spot but multiple spots on a few grids around the map. It may interest you to know that I have a great love for fishing IRL and it almost feels the same, waiting for a big fish to bite, (in this case a good player to kill) and the satisfaction afterwards is rewarding enough.

edit: age 21+ studying Civil Engineering at university

Edited July 11, 2012 by b1scuits

[U.B.C.S. Ravin 326]

I feel very alert when sniping. The Clan I am in we always hang out in hotspots were people have the same gear and skill, if not higher skill than we do. The longest I lived as a sniper was 16 days, but as a pointman I died every other day losing gear constantly.

I wouldn't say its 'staying alive' more like 'Keeping my friends alive' But... I am not exactly the same kind of sniper. I work in teams and not alone, I don't camp Chenro or Elektro. I do not have the simple bandit mindset.

Up north, My mindset is kill or be killed.

[wartzilla 182]

Sniping in a video game is like fishing, or deer stand hunting -- which are both considered normal and healthy activities by anyone except perhaps die-hard vegans.

No, you don't stalk your target. Yes, it's still fun.

Calling people isolated, disconnected, and accusing them of lacking empathy because they enjoy sniping *in a game* is plainly idiotic and insulting.

In the words of a famous Russian hockey player; 'is only game, why you have to be mad?'

Clearly you've been pissed off by someone sniping you. Time to realize it's just a game, and stop trying to call people diseased for 'ruining your fun'.

Also, start paying attention and don't derp around in the open to then whine when you get killed. It's a post-apocalyptic war zone. Not the Teletubbie Land.