Gearheads of War

By Master Ritter/Sparton 501

I begin by saying; this argument is completely hypothetical due to my nature of play.
I've never frag tagged a player in my Gears career, and attempts to have resulted in my own destruction whether it be by chainsaw, curb stomp, or shotgun blast. I myself have been tagged more often that I would care to admit, and the large portion of the Gear playing community seem outraged by this tactic.

My argument is not to justify it, merely to play the devils advocate and elaborate on perhaps why it is not such a `bastard child' as the community has thus far believed.

The community has been after this aspect of the game since it was first overused by players; a rather Macbeth esque series of demands put upon Epic desired to discover the solution. "Shorten the distance required to tag!", "Disown any taggers!" "Remove it from the game entirely!!"

Have we been pursuing the symptoms and not the disease? A frag tag when considered out of context is an honor. The other team has seen fit not to merely down you by gunfire, or slash you with the torque bow or the chainsaw.
No, they'll not rest till they have you in dozens of bits across the map, not merely taking out another foe, but completely eradicating you! Players get upset out of proportion when someone is tagged in Gears, but I can remember no such disdain for someone blasting you by a plasma grenade in Halo? The skill is different, no player talented with a plasma grenade is a shoo in for a grenade tagger, but the end result is the same.

One might argue that the tagging allows a gory display of skill that no other weapon employs; the chainsaw gets put down after the player receives a bullet. The pistol is a ranged weapon. Etc, etc.
But a person is as readily destroyed by a close range shotgun blast as they are by a grenade. And a grenade is a dangerous tool to use; how many times has a player been tagged, roll into the nest of the enemy, and destroy them with their own grenades? I've done it, and taken out 1, 2, 3 opponents! And how many times has a player been closing on an opponent not to tag, but maybe to chainsaw, shotgun, or pistol whip and gotten blasted by an 8 gauge surprise? It's a dangerous, difficult tool to master, and it seems unfairly judged, juried, and executed.

The chainsaw subjects you to an unfortunate animation watching your character get hacked into pieces by another player screaming with blood lust. The grenade creates no humiliating animation.

The torque bow creates the same end result, but without the stigma of the grenade(?)

The grenade seems a tool crucified by the public, along with Wal-Mart, drive by shootings, and mimes. They all have a simple solution. We can stop doing/going. Or we can let it go, and live with it as another (perhaps unfortunate, perhaps not) part of life.