The Copycat Effect
But what is the copycat effect?
We have all had this happen to us. You go on an epic killing spree, kill five heavies/medic teams by yourself and dominate the other team. The idiots see this, they look and think “well clearly he is only doing so well because he is playing (class). If I were playing (class) I would be kicking ass too” and so they change to (class) and hope to do as well as you have. The problem being that when there are five pyro’s it is impossible to win. I call it the copycat effect and It cannot be stopped without serious action such as locking the max number of a given class.
A good balance, but watch out for the idiots have noticed the number of points our demoman has accumulated.
So soon the idiots of the server have changed to the same class as you, and where once there was a reasonable balance of classes, now there are 5 fools playing pyro and not a sentry to be seen! Soon the team will lose because the idiots who want points are all doing the same thing.
Instantly the balance goes wild as fools across the team rush to the demoman.
But Herpers, god of scouts, what can we do about the copycat effect!?
Worry not for I have the answer: Play a class that is has too few players like baby heavy or medic, that way when three idiots rush to the class you can change out and play something else, and suddenly you have three heavies sitting on the point instead of a bunch of bloody snipers.
Please note: if your name is in either of the first two screenshots I did not choose you specifically and please don’t take offence from anything written there.
Stumble it!
St. Vincent responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:08 am #
Dude, did you just call The Black watch a Sniper FGT? That’s out of line, man!!
Plasto Joe responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:18 am #
Don’t worry, St. Vincent. He had me playing as a Demoman. Everyone knows I’m much more W+M1.
n00bie51 responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:25 am #
Haha, it was amusing, Herpers. Good article.
I can have fun playing any class — nowadays when I’m picking classes, I pick the one that nobody is playing as or that would aid the team. That way, I don’t contribute to class stacking and I get to play classes I may not play that frequently.
Killa-Ewok responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:38 am #
Ninja, lol.
Killa-Ewok responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:44 am #
Also I played with Chicago Ted just a few minutes ago.
Killa-Ewok responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:50 am #
SANDMAN’S BEEN NERFED. CHECK UPDATE NEWS.
Alex Wan responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 9:53 am #
Hey ma, look at me, my name’s on tv!
MaaaaaaaaaN1c!!!!!! responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 10:00 am #
Yaaay finally a Herpers article!
and it is a good one, especially the pics !
Hawat responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 10:00 am #
I’ve just discovered for myself the joy of uberchaining.
I’m a well-practised combat medic to begin with, and my partner was clearly an excellent all-round medic. We did pretty well, and I ended up scoring very highly (Though I was doing relatively well beforehand, it was very much my fault for losing track of my partner that they weren’t leading the board!).
Suddenly, there was no shortage of medics. Strange how when you join most servers and start clearing out the CP, you get chastised for not healing more, but people only start supplying the healing they’re crying out for when the medics are in need of some supporting firepower.
Pyrit responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 10:21 am #
It’s pretty impressive that you can get 10,000 points from one kill
Nice article.
Tim M responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 10:25 am #
These things fix themselves. Opportunistic players see a flood of one class and decide to change to a class that compensates for that class’s weakness or benefits for the class’s strength (ie team of scouts gets a soldier, a team of too many medics gets a heavy, too many engies get a pyro, and so on). Sure, it’s more annoying on a private server where people play more competitively, but on a pub server, people aren’t always bringing their A-game and will do what’s fun. Class limits restrict their decisions, and dying and respawning (I’m against instaspawn) isn’t fun, so playing the wrong class will lead them to switch, even if they want achievements or to show off their skills as the wrong class. Considering that about all you can do while respawning is watch the team and switch class, players are bound to make appropriate changes.
BJ Blazkowicz responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 10:32 am #
What kind of a name is Herpes?!
Tim M responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 10:33 am #
It’d be cool if there were a mod/option that would change your class’s name based on your past performance as that class (publicly available via steam community, actually). It’d be a fun touch, and give other players an idea of how good you actually are, which could be good or bad. It’d be opt-in, though, as it’d punish noobs, and give the overly serious types a target when they want everyone else to change class. Maybe even just basing it off of the percentage of time a person spends as the class would work, as points don’t say everything, and some classes obviously get more points than others, even though every class can contribute to a victory.
Corodan responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 11:46 am #
God of Scouts?
Pfah! I laugh at’chu!
Anyways, I HATE this. With a passion.
FlyingHat responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 1:02 pm #
That usually happens to me when I get really lucky at one point in a game.
Riddick responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 1:53 pm #
@ BJ Blazkowicz
its Herpers, not Herpes.
Galenor responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 2:43 pm #
It’s annoying when you’re an Engineer or Spy. All of a sudden you either have glory-hogging Engineers (that is, Engineers building a second sentry next to your successful one) or novice Spies running into the base and setting alarmbells off, making your own spying much harder.
Jub responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 2:54 pm #
I really hate the copycat effect on snipers. Any payload where I can shell out a few kills suddenly makes me the hunted one. And its not like the people are becoming spies, pyros, or anything that can pull splash damage, they become the snipers, which are the easiest to kill for the other sniper. So, as the copycat effect goes, my team forgets the cart and i have the most boring time being a soldier, pushing the damn thing through points without any help or cover.
benjamin responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 3:30 pm #
benjamin
The Black Watch responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 4:08 pm #
Me as a Sniper FGT is about as likely as me being a demo…
But I chuckled, slightly.
ZheGoggles responded on 14 Mar 2009 at 7:29 pm #
nice, short and amusing article
exactly what i come to this blog for
Sarda responded on 15 Mar 2009 at 1:22 am #
Love the last picture
n00bie51 responded on 15 Mar 2009 at 1:57 am #
I was playing as Demo Man playing defense on Steel today when nobody else was, and then I eventually noticed that two other Demo Man were by my side. Same happened when I was playing as Sniper.
Zorgulon responded on 15 Mar 2009 at 11:43 am #
With Black Watch being in that scoreboard, I can’t help but feel you missed a trick in not making the team all go Heavy. It’s what happens almost every time he’s on the server
n00bie51 responded on 15 Mar 2009 at 1:12 pm #
And then I start head shotting all those Heavies and then a bunch of players on my team start going Sniper and then the other team gets pissed off at me shooting their heads off and play as Sniper…
Catalyst responded on 15 Mar 2009 at 9:27 pm #
It’s weird. I keep hearing about this copycat effect, but have never actually seen it happen O_o
I don’t think it’s an urban legend, but… well, I guess I just play on the right servers. This isn’t to say that we don’t have our fair share of Solo Fortress players, who just go for their favourite class (sniper nine times out of ten) instead of bothering to check the class balance first.
Herpers responded on 15 Mar 2009 at 9:33 pm #
Stop commenting! I don’t want anymore emails.
n00bie51 responded on 16 Mar 2009 at 10:53 am #
Now you know how I feel when I posted my article, “Disapproving of Unlockables.”