Last night, I was enjoying some Mercenary Team Deathmatch when I noticed that one of the guys I was being matched with and against was a fellow named Vapour King, who was actually quite good. And by "good", I mean exceptionally above average kill/death ratio. I think he actually had a 35-3 in one battle. I think his Kills generally averaged in the 20's and his Deaths were almost always single digits. He actually strung enough together to launch a Killstreak Nuke reward in one game.

Now, as some of you may agree, killing the other team's really good players is always a little sweeter. I had killed him a few times and he'd got me a few times as well, but on one occasion he ran back to where I had just killed him and I hadn't moved far from that spot. He caught me looking and took me out. He then sent me a text message over Xbox Live that said "haha camp master jack". I didn't really care if he thought I was a camper. People play different styles. Some like to snipe, some like to "run and gun" and some fall in between. I usually let my weapon determine how I play. If it's lightweight and meant for close quarters, I'll opt for "run and gun". If it's cumbersome and intended for medium to long range combat, I'll move from one advantageous position to the next, letting people come to me. I generally play more conservative than the average player. I've received the Accolade for highest Kill/Death ratio numerous times, as well as the "Fewest Deaths" one. His message did add a little bonus feeling of gladness every subsequent time I killed him, though.

I managed to take him out several times when we weren't on the same team. It was fun. The other kills were just bonuses, killing Vapour King was the real fun. He had obviously played the game a lot (he was lvl 66 of some high level of Prestige), and knew the maps well. I'd really got a sense of his play style, though, figuring out his patterns and where he was going to come from next. He also seemed to be focused on revenge. So if I managed to get him, I could advance to a new spot, wait for him to try and flank my previous position and try to get him. I'm sure, overall, he probably got me more times than I got him, but I was having fun playing cat and mouse (and my K/D ratio wasn't suffering). He was a great ally and a really brilliant rival.

He had to ruin any respect I might have had for him personally though, when he sent me this angry voice message after I finally quit for the night: "Man, seriously, you're probably the worst Call of Duty player I've ever fuckin' seen in my life. You just sit in one spot around corners or in bushes or whatever the fuck, just in this one spot, waiting for people to come around the corners. It's fuckin' pathetic. You should just sell your fuckin' game. Fuck off."

Obviously, he takes being killed a lot harder than I do. And I find it damn frustrating when it happens. But I've never sent someone a personal message on Xbox Live bitching them out about it. I mean "worst Call of Duty player he's ever seen in his life"? Worse than that guy we played with that was 3-24? I'm doing numbers like 7-1, 9-2, 13-5 a few break evens and maybe an 8-11 thrown in there. Nothing amazing, but nothing to be sad about either. This guy was just really mad about me ruining his killstreaks (and each time felt gooooooood).

Anyway, have you ever received messages like this?
How do you play your shooters?
Do you let other people's whiny complaints affect the play style that works best for you?
Is constantly moving around the map, running at the enemy, the only fair way to play?
Is occasionally holding a position cheating and/or missing the intent of the game?