DOS4/GW said:
Contempt for sniper rifles isn't exclusive to Tribes or Legions by any means. People don't like being killed by unseen enemies on the other side of the map, often with no means to retaliate. It's rarely a satisfying death.
But it really is worse in Legions and Tribes. Snipers usually have 360 degree views over huge open landscape, and the sniper rifle is the only weapon in the game that doesn't have to deal with travel time. It's extremely hard to counter. Traditional methods such as suppressing or flanking don't really work.
Notice I've claimed nowhere that sniping isn't effective, nor that its presence in other games doesn't arouse the ire of opponents. What's exclusive to Tribes/Legions isn't either of those points, but the entire anti-O-sniping attitude and its associated paradox.
You've seen the innumerable threads, I'm sure, where people claim that o-sniping is absolutely ineffective yet warrants massive nerfs (implying overpowering effectiveness). Personally, I wouldn't be too bothered by an opposition wasting its time on ineffective tactics, but hey: maybe that's just me.
That was my point.
As for sniping being worse in Legions and Tribes, I'm going to disagree – especially given that the primary gametype is CTF. The maps are large, yes, but players traverse those distances relatively quickly. An organized offense shouldn't have difficulties with snipers; and in the past, this community's suffered more from lack of the former than abundance of the latter. (Or perhaps from an abundance of the latter due to a lack of the former).