Let me set the scene first, I’m going to be using a World of Tanks example but I’m pretty sure this could apply to any pvp game . Me (Vk3601) and two other mediums tanks are protecting a valley leading to our base while our big guns are rolling on the other side of the map. A classic hold maneuver on our part while we bring all our strength on the other side.
Down the other side of the valley we spot a Kv5 (super resilient heavy tank) accompanied by 5 fast mediums. The forces in presence are thus, on our side three mediums laying in ambush plus an artillery in the back, on their side 6 tanks including a big one no one can damage except the artillery, a great force for quick base capture. Our objective, hold down their force long enough to give time to the big boys to capture the enemy base.
Their mediums rush us hoping to speed past us, we spring the ambush and in a beautiful display of skill on our part we destroy all five mediums while the Kv5 is slowly mowing us down. When the last enemy medium falls, I’m left alone to stop the Kv5 from destroying our artillery. In my mind things are simple, I can’t really damage the Kv5 and if he destroy the artillery he can then destroy me at his leisure and capture our base. I need to make him fight me for as long as I can so either the artillery kills it or the other group captures the enemy base.
So I load explosive shell so I can at least annoy the Kv5 and start playing hide and seek moving away from the arty hoping he’ll take the bait and come for me. He doesn’t… he’s smart and knows I can’t do much so he heads straight for the arty. In the end we managed to kill it thanks to a lucky artillery shell.
The interesting part is that during the whole time there was someone on our side calling me all sorts of names because I didn’t go head to head with the Kv5. According to him I should have suicided myself to buy a few seconds and trying to buy time by playing hide and seek was cowardice (he used much more colorful terms).
My plan is better! Why can’t you see it!
I took some time setting up my example so you could follow my thought process during the whole fight. You read my explanation and you’re thinking it makes a lot of sense right? Then why did our Scott didn’t see it? Could it be because he’s dumb? Yes, possibly… the probabilities of him being dumb sure looks good. Then again, maybe he just had a better plan that I couldn’t see. Maybe I’m the one being dumb? Who knows???
See, what Scott forgot is that until proven otherwise people are not psychics in pvp games. I can’t possibly know you’re genius plan and you can’t know mine unless we speak to one another. Scott thought more time would be bought by going Kamikaze, I prefered to play on the Kv5 bloodlust.
The best part is how these pvp psychics get all worked up about it. I mean, the whole psychic phenomenon is present in pve too but in pvp games it gets way worse. People go insane about perceived mistakes from other players and forget than maybe if a strategy had been agreed upon before maybe… just maybe… things would have been smoother.
I have a simple advice to help keep our blood pressure down. Give them the benefit of the doubt. We might be psychics but they’re not and we can’t expect them to divine our genius plan. We will need to step down to their level and actually talk to them…
If the crux of his plan was for you to go head-to-head with a tank that would crush you like an insignificant bug, then he was pants-on-head retarded. Communication, or lack thereof on either party’s part plays little to no role in this.
To further your example, had you made a suicidal frontal assault on the KV-5, you would have been squished and he would have had a free run on your base. This, clearly, is bad. By using cover and a shell which at least presents the possibility of causing damage, you force him to hold off on the assault against your base and artillery and treat you as a threat, which allows more time for your assault to succeed as well as allowing your arty to fire on the more immediate KV-5 threat with the hope of destroying him, which happened.
Mbet is that he is just plain, old-fashioned stupid…it’s rampant in WoT! After 3k battles I’ve run in to all kinds of dumb, that’s for sure.