"Suicide" Bombing Always Made Sense In Games

Don't get me wrong - I think Clive Thompson is a great games journalist and I really did find his column on suicide bombing in Halo 3 enjoyable. And while I think he has a point well taken that Live's matchmaking service makes particularly effective because people don't want their stats going down ... this kind of strategy has existed for some time. Unreal Tournment's Redeemer is a suicide bomber's technological wet dream. Sure, it's great if you can guide it half way across the map - but it will do if you can just shot it into a crowded room. And of course when I played Counter-Strike, half the time anyone used a grenade it seemed like it would take them and half their team along with them. And in CS, you don't respawn until after the round, so...

Or take being a pyro in Team Fortress. While the baseline strategy is to hide around corners and from beneath ledges and burn people while they can't get to you - another is to run headlong into a group of people while holding down the trigger button, hoping that you'll get four or five of them before anyone can get a bead on you.

And of course, none of this is actually suicide bombing. It's respawning bombing. One is taking the ultimate in all penalties and one is waiting a few seconds. So while I appreciate Clive's article - I think it might have to go up for some kind of hyperbole award.