Prestige!!!

So I'm taking a break from the countdown today.  It is day 16.  Blah, blah, blah.  When I first started counting the days down in this blog, I truly thought it would help make the time go by faster as well as give me clarity on everything that needed to be done.  Well it hasn't and has.  The wifey has the lockdown on stuff to get done.  No need for me to worry about that.  And as far as time going by faster, I don't think anything is going to do that.  So I am trashing the countdown, at least until the last week.

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Back in October of last year, word started to leak out about something in KoD4's MP called Prestige.  Fourzerotwo mentioned something about it on cod.com or on his blog and the gaming websites and CoD fans went nuts.  I too joined in the insanity.  What is this Prestige?  Is it a new, unthought of, game or match type that will revolutionize FPS's?  No one really knew.  But, a lot of us expected it to be something akin to the second coming.  Then there was the interview on Gametrailers with one of the studio heads (Grant or Jason).  Prestige was revealed.  Everyone was, of course, a little let down.  But, it still sounded very interesting.

So KoD4 releases.  Everyone goes nuts playing it and basically destroys Live for the next 2 months (including the insanity around Xmas).  I was somewhat unimpressed by the "Prestige Mode" and refused to follow the lemmings off the cliff.  Why would I want to do the same thing over and over again 11 times just for a silly little icon next to my name?  So after roughly two weeks, I got to 55.  The new black, as N3rf would say.  And when I got there, I stayed.

There were a few reasons I did not flip.  The nonconformist in me would not allow it.  I was still a little pissy about the idea of going back through all of that just to get the same better guns (at least that was my thought at the time).  I loved the 3 frags waaaaaaay too much.  I just was not going to do it.  Besides, I spent those two weeks with the absolute narrow minded focus of getting to 55.  Didn't care about my w/l.  Didn't care about my accuracy.  Didn't care about KDR.  GET TO 55!

But, then I got to 55.  It took me a few days to figure out what to do next.  I had spent those two weeks with a sole purpose.  Now I needed another goal.  This stupid game had gotten me so far away from just playing it for fun.  So I spent the next week or two just having fun with it.  But then the discussion of stats came up in the forums and my competitive side took over. 

At this point my w/l was in the neighborhood of .86.  Terrible!  My KDR was .96.  Horrible!   I had to fix that.  So for the next 3 months I focused on those two things- won/loss and Kill Death Ratio.  The only true way to focus on both of those in a match is to play Team Death Match or Hardcore TDM.  So that is what I did.  I never ignored invites.  But, I didn't ask for them either.  I just rolled in TDM.  I HAD to get those stats up.

And that is what I did.  By mid-March the stats were really starting to move up.  w/l was up to 1.21.  KDR was all the way up to 1.47.  I was very pleased.  Those were (and are) respectable stats.  During this time I rolled with 4 classes set up.  RPD, P90, and M4 with 3 frags, Stopping Power and Deep Impact.  For Hardcore it was the M16 silenced with Claymores, UAV Jammer and Deep Impact.  Never changed.  Same class every time I played a certain map.  And it worked for me.  Worked pretty stinking well. 

But then something happened.  One night I made the flip.  Nothing really instigated it.  I just fired up the box.  Went into the barracks and flipped.  "What the crap did I just do?"   I gotta admit I freaked out a little.  Then I got an invite from wjgjr.  Headquarters on Shipment popped up and away we went.

That was it for me.  I have rolled over every time I had the chance.  I think that first game sealed it for me.  By the time the match was over I had been promoted 6 times.  I loved it.  I got a little giddy every time that little sound effect played and it popped up on the screen that I had been promoted.

But for all of the rank whoring and every staying away from private matches, blah, blah, blah, I've enjoyed Prestige.  It truly was an ingenious, although not necessarily entirely new, concept by IW.  It obviously forces those of us with any sort of competitive edge to continue playing the MP.  We have to get that golden cross.  (i am not even touching the whole golden guns thing.)  But much more than that, I have discovered so many things because of Prestige. 

First off, the M16 truly is a great gun.  If I had never flipped I would have never been forced to use that gun.  Now it is a staple of my arsenal.  Next, the AK 74u and MP5 are both better guns than the P90.  I only use the P90 to rank up now.  3 flashbangs are not a bad substitute for 3 frags.  Not as good, but not all that bad either.  The G36C is also a great weapon.  Doesn't touch the M16, but a great second choice.  Sniping is fun, especially in hardcore.  Claymores are a vastly underutilized weapon.  And, in the right gametype, a much better selection than 3 frags.  Martyrdom is just plain funny, and very useful in HQ.

Without flipping into Prestige, I likely would not have figured any of those things out.  I would have just plodded along with the same layouts on and on.  But making the flip forced me to try out those weapons.  If for no other reason, so I could rank up faster and get another hit of that Prestige pipe. 

Obviously those thoughts on the weapons are simply my opinion.  But, one of the best things about Prestige is that there is a decent chance I will change my mind.  And, no matter what, I'm going for the gold.

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Step outside your comfort zone some time this week.  It'll make your comfort zone that much bigger.