The BF Diaries: Are they really Lone Wolves?

In WW1 the generals had this tactic called trench warfare they liked to use. It was a wonderful tactic that had worked very well in near every war. Then some git invented the Gatling gun. The Sit-Rep of the battlefield had changed but those stubborn old bastards in command of the world’s armies were far too dense to see the forest for the trees or–in this case–the Gatling gun for the bullets. And so they continued to send wave after wave of able bodied men over the walls of the trenches and into a hail of bullets to their deaths. And for all that sacrifice WW1 was pretty much a stalemate from day one till its end. 10 million soldiers died in WW1. 10 million.

Battlefield can be the same way sometimes.

I’ve been in Conquest games and stuck to my squad, attacking the flags to no avail. I’ve sat back and watched my team continue to do this even after I pointed out that it wasn’t working. At that point I just slip around back and head to another flag while the team keeps them occupied. And you know what ends up happening? As people on my team die they respawn on me, we cap the flag I infiltrated by myself and then together as a team we rush to the next flag behind the enemy lines and usually end up capping that as well.

The best leaders don’t announce themselves, they don’t bark orders. The best leaders lead through action, not words.

If I’m in a squad that’s communicating, even if it’s just me and one other guy, I’m a team player. I’ll do what you ask within reason. Leadership requires respect. Respect is earned and not given. Even so, I’ve never been one for following orders, especially when they are being issued by a bunch of dumbasses. The next time you go accusing people of being lone wolves, remember that being a lone wolf  does not necessarily equate to not playing the objectives. Ask yourself, what’s the point of taking a flag if 2-3 snipers are overlooking it from 50 yards out?

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Sometimes these lone wolves are really leaders, you’re just too stubborn to follow them. After 40 years on this planet the one thing I know for sure is the best leaders are the ones who don’t want the job. The best leaders don’t announce themselves, they don’t bark orders. The best leaders lead through action, not words.

Part of the lone wolf myth in BF3 is a product of the severe lack of communication in the game at times. This is a scapegoat. I’ve been in games where people are communicating and nothing comes together. Some people just don’t mesh as a team, no amount of gibber-jabber would rectify this fact. I’ve been in plenty of games where no one is talking and everyone falls into a silent symbiosis and everything comes together. Still, even in these games, sometimes you win and sometimes you loose.

And yes, I believe the lone wolf analogy BF veterans throw out there in their BF3 rants is a myth (at least for console players.) At the end of every game the one thing I’ve noticed is that, win or loose, the scores for all team members are evenly spread out. The Ace chopper pilot with 40 kills and 10 deaths has a similar score to the infantry grunt who was capping flags but ended up with 10 kills and 40 deaths. I rarely see the egregious killstreak scores you see at the top of the score sheet in every CoD game.

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