Is being a good soldier an art?

Is being a good soldier an art?

  • Yes

    Points: 49 75.4%
  • No

    Points: 16 24.6%

  • Total voters
    65
Hells to the yeah. 520+ hours as Soldier here.

I am art in Soldier form.
 
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Soldier is the most difficult class to master in TF2. Unlike the spy or demo, the soldier benefits very little from binds, scripts or aliases. The soldier relies more on breaking fire than any class in the game, even more than the HWG. The soldier has a weaker attack than both the heavy and the demo, and is also slower than all but the heavy.

Anyone can play soldier with proficiency, but few possess the ability to become dominant soldiers. So yes, I would say being a good soldier is an "art."

Edit: Btw I'm approaching 300 hrs as soldier. Still less than sniper though :P

Soldier is by far the 4th easiest class to figure out in TF2, coming right behind pyro engineer, and heavy. It's even easier with a medic...

Sure, there are spy scripts out there, but honestly, the GOOD spies NEVER use them. I have yet to see one spy script beneficial to me.

Breaking fire? Please, tell me, what good would the spy be if he couldn't get through the battlefront???? It's the hardest offensive class to date.

As for the weaker attack, a good soldier will always smoke a scout out in the wide open. Good demomen have a hard time regardless of who they are hitting a scout. Prediction is a lot harder as a demoman than it is with a soldier. Also, if you're using grenades, you don't have splash damage (like a soldier does) if the target isn't hit.. it may hurt them if they backpeddle into a grenade.

Now, as far as stickies go and HWG spam, true, the soldier has nothing like it. However, the soldier, like the heavy, has a shotgun to use midrange. The demo has a bottle and the hopes of a target falling into his trap/miraculously hitting the target with a grenade..


As for an art form, no, no class can be played "as an art form." You're either good at the class, mediocre, or you're not so great. Last time I checked, while in server, nobody ever said to me "Deja, you're a real artist at spy."


just my $0.02.
 
Soldier does have a sort of inertia. Even good soldiers get going slowly, but once they get going they are hard to stop.

Bingo. It's a strange phenomenon.

I used to play demo, sniper, and engie almost exclusively. However, after my little hiatus, I'm getting a little more involved with the soldier. It takes me a little while to 'remember' how and where to aim, but once I do... well, today, (and Tee Hee Hee can attest to this) I went through a life with 18 kills on BM, and with my excellent pocket medic kritz there, I was going berserk.

Soldier is all about where and when you aim.

Also, it's about territorial advantage. It's sort of absurd how many times I've done a rocket jump over a crate or something and 'death-from-above'd' multiple people at once. Soldiers are alarmingly mobile if you know how to play them.
 
As for an art form, no, no class can be played "as an art form." You're either good at the class, mediocre, or you're not so great. Last time I checked, while in server, nobody ever said to me "Deja, you're a real artist at spy."


just my $0.02.

Thank god somebody finally said this. Playing a video is not an "art" form. Art implies a creative process. Creating a video game is an art, not playing one.

When playing a video game you are trying to follow the rules of a system that was made by others. That is the exact opposite of art.


Before anyone disagrees with me....

If you really think that playing a game can be art:

A: You have misunderstood what the word "art" means.

B: You have no creativity and don't understand what real creativity is

C: You have never written music, painted, designed, or invented anything

D: All of the above
 
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1. Playing a video game isnt truely "art" its skill
2. A good demoman isnt what people here truely think a demoman is. a good demoman knows how to use both stickys and pills.
3. Soliders have less ammo but overall its harder to master a demoman because of his pills.
4. Dont go by pubs, in pubs you see demos being sticky pros when thats not the best, and soliders either failing or doing great.
5. Solider and Demoman are different even though most see them alike.
 
fixed

And as has been said, being good at any class is an art. They all have their fine points, including Pyro!

That deserves big red font. Pyro is a amazingly hard class to master. imo its harder to master then the so called spy. Which did you get good at first Stair/fallstabs or airblasting rockets? i mastered stairstabs and fallstabs way faster then i mastered airblasting and i usually dont miss airblasts now. Pyro has a huge learning curve but because of W+M1 they arent considered good.

/endrant
 
Thank god somebody finally said this. Playing a video is not an "art" form. Art implies a creative process. Creating a video game is an art, not playing one.

Before anyone disagrees with me....

If you really think that playing a game can be art:

A: You have misunderstood what the word "art" means.

B: You have no creativity and don't understand what real creativity is

C: You have never written music, painted, designed, or invented anything

D: All of the above

There is a big difference between "art" and "an art". Art is something that appeals to you sensory inputs, such as music, colors, etc. An art is something that requires skill to do. Writing music is art, but playing it is an art.
 
There is a big difference between "art" and "an art". Art is something that appeals to you sensory inputs, such as music, colors, etc. An art is something that requires skill to do. Writing music is art, but playing it is an art.

+1 internet for you
 
There is a big difference between "art" and "an art". Art is something that appeals to you sensory inputs, such as music, colors, etc. An art is something that requires skill to do. Writing music is art, but playing it is an art.
+1.

I like how Eyeless Hunter disagreed, so we automatically are all silly little children that "have no creativity and don't understand what real creativity is."

Way to go EyelessHunter!

-1
 
i think it is but only comparatively, the demo its kinda a spam machine if you ask me.
 
Pyro is a amazingly hard class to master. imo its harder to master then the so called spy. Which did you get good at first Stair/fallstabs or airblasting rockets? i mastered stairstabs and fallstabs way faster then i mastered airblasting and i usually dont miss airblasts now. Pyro has a huge learning curve but because of W+M1 they arent considered good.

/endrant


This.

My Main Is pyro, I am pretty good but I am only less then decent technically.

The Long Hard way to getting good with the pyro Is the One that pays off,

The WM1 Way Is good at first, but you never get anywhere.
 
Most of you guys are missing the whole point of this thread. I was not asking if playing a video game was art. I was asking if it was "an art". There is a huge difference. "An art" is something that requires immense skill, knowledge, time, experience, and effort to master and to reach perfection at. Designing a building is art, but being able to build it by hand is "an art", hammering nails in a perfect line is "an art". Anything that requires skill is "an art".
 
Playing Spy and Soldier Is an art !

*Cough* Being a SpY CrAb Is an art *Cough*
 
Most of you guys are missing the whole point of this thread. I was not asking if playing a video game was art. I was asking if it was "an art". There is a huge difference. "An art" is something that requires immense skill, knowledge, time, experience, and effort to master and to reach perfection at. Designing a building is art, but being able to build it by hand is "an art", hammering nails in a perfect line is "an art". Anything that requires skill is "an art".

A tl;dr version: learn2read
 
Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Most people who criticize the creativity of others have never created anything original.

I wouldn't compare playing a video game to sculpting or painting. In fact, by the definition Eyeless lists, video game coders are certainly not artists either. All they do is work within a set of strict rules to achieve a desired result.

We live within the boundaries we create with culture and language. Two people can view the same action - one will call the action an art, and the other will say that it is simply a skill to be learned.

As for spy being the most difficult offensive class, that is perhaps so. That doesn't negate the fact that those totally without skill may use the script work of others to be proficient. If you've never seen auto-stab, auto-DR or auto-sap used to their full effect - well you haven't seen what scripts can do.

Also, spy (like sniper) is heavily dependent on smooth performance. That doesn't take away from the skill needed to play it. But it does create a "ceiling" for some players. Limited by equipment or connection, those players will never perform any better, no matter how skilled they may be.

The design of the soldier class has made it so that skill (or art if you prefer) of playing is more important than the equipment played on.

My two cents.
 
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