Humiliation Defined - Death in MW2

AS POSTED AT SFX-360.COM

Humiliation is defined by Webster as "to reduce to a lower position in one's own eyes or others' eyes." In the world of multiplayer video games, there is a gamut of ways to be reduced to a lower position in your eyes or in the eyes of your online opponent. This little opinion piece could literally be pages upon pages, each listing a number of humiliating ways to perish in various video games. Instead of boring you with just a list, I will focus mainly on mortifying ways to succumb in the hot game of the moment: Modern Warfare 2.

When I speak of humiliating ways to die, I am not talking about dying by the pre-patch javelin glitch or the noob tube into your spawn. What I am talking about here is, as the kids say, "getting owned" or the popular variant, "getting pwned". So here you go, here are some of the controller breaking, leg punching, drywall busting, swear a blue streak to make a sailor blush, most humiliating ways to die in Modern Warfare 2:

1. The Throwing Knife - Nothing quite promotes the common utterance, "what the f*ck?", like the throwing knife. There are a couple of different levels of humiliation with the throwing knife. There is the sneak up on the enemy from behind, line it up, and let it fly throwing knife deaths. This fashion is not that humiliating. The one that makes you hang your head in shame is the one where you line the dude up in your sights and right before you pull the trigger...whap. Right between the eyes. You can pretend that you do not know what I am talking about, but you know...

2. The Riot Shield - This plastic shield of death is pure pain with the right player behind it. We have all seen the noobs try to use it without great success. What is scary is the veteran player uses it with the proper perks/equipment. It is a bit scary to see this monster slowly walking toward you as you throw everything in your arsenal at him. You empty your clip at him. He lumbers forward. You noob tube. He moves forward. You stick him with Semtex. He laughs and presses on. You try to flashbang him and you stun yourself. Before you know it, he gives you the first love tap. As you panic to fight off the plastic shielded juggernaut of doom, he taps you again and sends you to meet your maker.

3. The Predator Missile: Now I am sure that you are thinking to yourself, how is the Predator missile a humiliating way to die? Sure, we have all been hit by them, but doesn't it seem that sometimes they are picking on you? Ever think that perhaps they ARE picking on you? Whenever I have the chance to drop one of these whistling death angels, I fight the urge to drop it into the crowd of red squares. Instead, I look for the guy that is trying his hardest to avoid getting hit. You know, the one red square that is making a mad dash from the pack to avoid the incoming missile...yeah, I always aim for him. That son of a gun looks like he has the most to lose. Hopefully it ruins a lot of kill streaks.

4. The Care Package - Yeah, sure...like you have never been killed by getting hit by one of your own care packages. If you haven't, good for you. If you have, you know it sucks. It is even more embarrassing if the enemy drops one of his packages on you.

5. The Self Death - This one comes in a variety of pretty packages: Falling off a building, misjudging a cooked grenade, hiding behind a burning car, holding down your post next to the burning barrel, etc...

So there you have it. I, like many others, have been on the receiving end of every one of these ways to depart the virtual earth (with the exception of being hit by the enemy care package - that is just wrong). If you have other embarrassing stories or ways to die, please share them in the comments below. Happy fragging!