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79 lines
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date: 2025-06-25 20:04:00
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title: A random thought about clicking a mouse (JWL 02)
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summary: I had a realization about how I used my mouse while playing Call of Duty that may speak to how quirky our minds can be. The long-awaited second entry to my "please god let me make shorter blog posts" series.
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---
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A little bit ago, I finally reinstalled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (the reboot released in 2023).
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I was watching YouTube videos on the game again that encouraged me to pick the game back up.
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I had originally bought Modern Warfare III (which I will abbreviate as MWIII from now on)
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*after* Black Ops 6 had already been out for a month or two. I heard that the game's
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core multiplayer mode was surprisingly decent, so I wanted to see what I missed...
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and yeah! It's one of the coolest AAA multiplayer experiences I've had so far, up there with
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the extraction shooter spinoff DMZ released in 2022 and even Battlefield 4, still to this day
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the G.O.A.T. of casual multiplayer gaming in my opinion.
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Still, I had to be a little more self-conscious about how and when I played this game now
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due to the fact that I no longer live alone — I live with multiple roommates who
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might get annoyed at the click-clacking of my Razer Huntsman Mini (the one thing I don't like
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about it lol). However, when I was talking with my roomates trying to confirm if they even had said issues,
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the feedback was different than I expected. One of my roommates noticed me clicking my mouse multiple times
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in quick succession when playing certain games, and that annoyed them *more* than my keyboard.
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It took me a while to figure out what it was, but after some self-reflection,
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I realized what was happening: it was my backup pistol that made me click
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that way.
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---
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Most guns in Call of Duty have automatic fire, meaning that bullets fire
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out of the gun over and over as long as you are holding down the "trigger"
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(in this case, my left mouse button). In COD, you usually can only carry two
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weapons: your main "primary" weapon and your backup "secondary" weapon.
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Secondary weapons mostly consist of pistols that have *semi*-automatic fire.
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These pistols only shoot *one* bullet when you pull the trigger, so to fire
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multiple shots, you have to pull the trigger (click the mouse) multiple times, one for each shot.
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That explains the pattern that my roommate was observing: since you usually have to fire
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multiple shots on-target in order to down an opponent in COD, if I had my pistol out, I had
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to click my mouse multiple times in rapid succession to win the fight.
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But that might not be the whole story.
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This is purely anecdotal experience, but with semi-auto weapons, every shot you fire feels
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like it has more "weight" to it since you have to deliberately trigger each one.
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This is actually something the developers at Valve noticed when developing Team Fortress 2:
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they made most of the weapons in that game semi-automatic *on purpose* so that
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players felt like they contributed more to the outcome of each gunfight
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(I'm too tired tonight to find a good source, but if you really want me to, [bug me about it](https://plush.city/@kebokyo)).
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I have a feeling that because I was putting more mental effort into each shot,
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I also put more *physical* effort into each shot — increasing the amount of noise
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each click produced and thus exacerbating the problem for my roommate.
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There might have even been a chance that the specific pistol I used contributed to
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the problem as well. I have been working to unlock cosmetics for the pistols carried forward
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from the previous game, Modern Warfare II, so I have the P890 pistol on most of
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my loadouts right now. The P890, like most guns in both games, is based on a real-life
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weapon but given a fake name to avoid legal trouble. In this case, the P890 is based off of
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the Sig Sauer P226, a heavy-duty pistol that emphasises the *heavy* part, both in caliber (.45 ACP)
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and in weight (its frame is still made out of steel!). In-game, the pistol has
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a high damage output but a slow rate-of-fire to compensate, which means I have to be
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even *more* deliberate with my shots — further emphasizing the mental (and,
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indrectly, physical) effort I put into my mouse clicks.
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---
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In the end, I made a personal rule that I will not play COD or other input-intensive games
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like FPS games in the evening, where my hardcore gamering might disturb my roommates' other evening
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activities. Of course, with how hot the weather has been getting lately, that effectively means that
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I am *never* allowed to play these games (as a gaming PC running on full blast generates a ton of heat already)... but that may be more of a blessing than a curse if I am being honest with myself.
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Oh, before I go, here's my very general opinion on MWIII: multiplayer is a blast, Modern Warfare Zombies
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is an insult to both DMZ fans and COD Zombies fans, and I haven't touched the campaign yet because
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I'm still trying to finish the prior game's campaign first. I have a *lot* more to say
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(including how I feel about the Gunsmith weapon customization systems in both this game and
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Black Ops 6)... but that is for another time.
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Hope y'all enjoyed this post, as ranty as it is. Since this is more of a "long journal entry" than
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"short blog post", here is the [obligatory song link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbwzOHjZUkg). Cya! |