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The Rise Of Counter-Strike
b0r1s writes "Business 2.0 is running a story about Minh Le, and his now famous Counter-Strike mod for Half Life. The article explains the origins and motivation for the development of the mod, as well as explains the virtues of making code freely available for those who wish to hack games."
According to the article, Valve bought the rights to CS. If there's a lawsuit, it's probably because the original author is working on a second mod - and valve is concerned that he's using some of the code he had already sold.
Most of my gaming friends have moved on to more technologically advanced games such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault or Return to Castle Wolfenstein from Counterstrike. Recent server data shows that this shift is reflected across most servers, as Counterstrike population is decreasing, RTCW is up a little, and MOH:AA is up dramatically.
The new Counter-strike:Blue Zone may help increase the number of gamers, but only in the short term as games such as No One Lives Forever 2, the new RTCW expansion pack, and the much-anticipated Doom III come out.
So, don't look for much more success stories like Counterstrike, because the technological fickleness of gamers will cause mods based on old engines to become unpopular quickly.
seems not, the article talks about the source code enabling people to 'hack' their own mods. Nothing is mentioned of the disadvantage, as you state, of being able to see the code whilst developing cheat hacks (and conversely, how multiple developers working on open projects have developed anti-cheat software that actively combats these cheats)
Wow, it's amazing that halflife was so open to let their fans freely modify their code and give them all the tools to do it. This flies directly in the face of corporate logic, where companies sick their lawyers on their most loyal fans for copyright infringement or DMCA violations for modifying their products. And how did their fans react?
"We've actually sold more of the overall Half-Life family of products each year since we shipped back in 1998, which is very unusual in a market typified by three-month shelf lives"
It really is in corporate best interests to let their fans run with their products, create communities around their products and thereby add value and promote their products for them. I wish they'd understand that the fastest way to kill the very communities that support them is to send lawyers after them.
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Not needing the game CD stuck in my box is what sucked me in. I could play half-life, UT, and a few other games, but most would require the CD to be in the box. CS did not. I could jump in, it checked my CD key over the net, and I was off getting pasted by people who were way better than I.
After scratching a couple CD's and having oodles of hard drive space, I just don't like to play games that require the media. Granted, I can wander and get the no-cd 'fix' for the game, but you end up looking for a fresh crack every time the game does a service pack. As someone who actually pays for the bloody game - this pisses me off.
I'd say no media 'copy protection' was key for me...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
Economist Article: Counter-culture
I'm not sure if anyone's heard, Oprah Winfrey had an 'expert' on the other day, who tied the recent sniper killings in the D.C. area to Counter Strike. The 'expert' said that Counter Strike had trained this individual to kill and how to handle a gun.
;)
Excuse me, but how does playing a game teach you how to properly handle a gun? I've told my friends that Counter Strike isnt a game, it's a simulator. But a gun simulator it is not. I view it as a very good tactical simulator. But no-where during its gameplay does it teach you how to properly handle a gun, let alone teach you how to shoot someone at great distances.
I guess I just needed to get that off my chest. Oprah Winfrey is ugly too.
*DrugCheese rants*
The #1 problem with this mod, cheating, wasn't mentioned anywhere.
This would be a bigger game if that was fixed, personally I have zero intrest in it because I constantly hear those who play bitching about cheating.
Too bad.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
Ok I don't hate Counter Strike per se, it's a fine game, but I am bitter about its complete dominance in online FPSs. There are countless of very cool mods but you can't find anyone to play with because _everyone_ is playing CS. For example on several occasion I've been exited about some new and innovative Quake mod, but have been unable to find a single human player to play against. Infuriating.
My favourite memory was exploiting the map cs_siege. On this map there was a room with hostages that the CTs had to rescue. If the terrorists started losing and couldnt buy good guns, I would take all the hostages into said room. The only way into that room was a door. There was a window to that room that was unbreakable. I would spray a black spray over the window on the outside so the CTs couldnt see inside. Mind you, due to halflife mechanics, the terrors could see out of it fine, thus we had a sort of one way viewport. We would camp out there and just wait until a CT would bumble in (this first CT is usually the "rambo" who had a cable modem back before they were as common and he has a good gun and no time for teamplay). Voila, their LPB is down and we have his gun. Chances are, his gun shoots through walls and we just mow the rest down as they come into the room our window faces.
Later on, the window was made breakable and a vent was added to make another way into that room, but that was some of the funnest gaming I've ever had.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
Ratings, ratings, ratings.
That's all Ms. Oprah is after. If you want a real news source, listen to the Army Ranger (I think) Sgt Major who dissected the sniper's tactics and such.
The Sgt Maj believes this is a terrorist action, with more than one person.
Personally, I believe the sniper(s) are way too organized to be some slack-assed kid with a mod and a gun. She's just saying that to get ratings from the FWNC*.
*Folks With No Clue.
PS. Oprah is a terrorist. Playing on the fears of people makes you almost as bad as the people doing the activities.
Sent from your iPad.
Upon further checking on http://www.gamespy.com/stats, CS is alive and well. To all the naysayers proclaiming that CS is "dead", they are not looking at the simple numbers of people playing it. As of the time of this post, there are over 92,000 people playing this game. How far does that eclipe MoH (~8,000 players), the next closest competitor?.
The numbers speak for themselves, CS is alive and well. It'll take another "CS like" game to take people away from something they like.
I'll tell you this, if Valve ported the base client to Linux, I'd say their install base for CS (and other mods) would grow even further. Being that the engine is mainly Quake2, it can't be too difficult to port. Let Valve create the linux client and the numbers for their games will grow even further.
Coming from one who plays another HL mod, Firearms, there is something I find even more amazing about cheating. Even with options out there to help prevent cheaters, like Cheating-Death, people would rather bitch about the cheaters than play on servers which require such programs. Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too....
That being said, the people who play Counter Strike should be beaten over the head. I've never seen a more contentious, petty, jealous bunch. Anyone who is even moderately good is *obviously* cheating. God forsake someone would forsake their precious little egos and admit to themselves they lost a round legitimately. If you beat someone, it *must* have because they were doing something unscrupulous.
Worse, are the people who actually do cheat. I don't know what their deal is, but they suck even more than the people who accuse everyone *else* of cheating. Tipping the board in your favor defeats the purpose of playing. How can you say you won if you didn't win fairly? It's much more satisfying to beat the pants out of another team knowing it was just your own skill and strategy that did it, not some goddamn program you downloaded off the internet. Those people should be rounded up, put on barges and set adrift into the pacific.
We've had over 70,000 unique players in the past 3 months on our Counter-Strike server.
http://www.mshmro.com/hlstats/hlstats.php
We even wrote a paper about it.
http://www.cse.ogi.edu/sysl/projects/cstrike
Okay, so guns stayed after you died. If someone with an AWP died near the enemy base, this gave them a big advantage after respawn (guns were expensive). So I started hitting the "drop gun" button which throws your weapon down in front of you and started chain picking up dropping my own gun and the other gun all the way back to my respawn. This kept my team from having to buy guns the next round. Then _everyone_ started doing it and before you knew it a team would have all AWPs and a total beatdown was in progress until the level changed. At one point I was on a team that stockpiled over 50 guns at our respawn. Needless to say after everyone started doing it they made guns dissapear at the end of a round.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
Yes, it is a problem with 14 years old people that think they own the world. Buts that not only a part of the game CS, but more like a general problem with 14 years old people. The Counter.Strike community is maturing and the skill level its higher than evver before.
The problem with cheats is an evergoing battle between cheatmakers and those who make tools trying to get them. Whois having the "upper hand" goes in waves as both realease new versions. The anti-cheat people have released Punkbuster, Jedi, CSGuard, Cheating Death and latest the official Valve Anti Cheat, VAC.
Note that it took Valve almost 3 years before they recognized the problem, but until them there were allways someone else who made the anti- cheat software. [a special thanks to Olo who made and maintained the CSGuard untill the makers of OCG, a well nown aimbot gave up] These tools have banned _thousands_ of WONids. The server i play on have actually a banlist with 17000+ id's from all over the world. Although cheaters can get a new key and continue playing most of them leave the server alone. In the latest year cheating has been reduced drastically. If you stick to servers who have admins who now what they are doing, you'll be fine.
Most of the people I have talked to agree that the problem with _whining_ players who thinks everyody is cheating is a far bigger problem... No offens, but those who dont play that much, as the Anonymous Coward in this tread, fail too see that its possible to become incredible skilled in hitting others players heads. After all some people play CS full time; 10 hours a day, 6 days a week.
I recomend that you take the trip to www.sogamed.com and download some demos so you can see by your self. Or you can go to esreality.com, they have both demos and movies from the latest CPL event.
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Melius mori in libertate quam vivere in servitute.
> Valve released TFC (Team Fortress), the first well-known teamplaying mod for halflife,
Actually, TFC stands for Team Fortress Classic. Team Fortress (TF) itself was a mod for Quakeworld. Valve hired the developers of TF
> something else than deathmatch, i.e. realistic gameplay (Action Halflife mod anyone?). The Counterstrike concept came naturally then.
Actually, the first counterstrike beta's (and if anyone still remembers, the alphas too) before Action Halflife did. Action Halflife was never as popular as it's predecessor, Action Quake2 was. Coincidently, Counterstrike's creator, Gooseman, was a programmer for the A-team in their Quake2 days, which was the maker of Action Quake2 and later on (and without Gooseman), Action Half-life.
If Quake3 and UT had come out six months before, CS might have ended up being a Quake3 or (less likely) an UT mod. Gooseman was a Quake2 and a Quake1 mod maker. As he said in various interviews over the years, he moved to Halflife because it had a much nicer SDK than Quake2 did.
Of course, since he is a Valve employee now, he won't admit it, but Quake3 and UT both have much better engines and SDK's than Halflife does.
But while CS gives Valve time to fiddle and tweak, in another respect it's bad for the gaming industry. The mod's amazing success discourages innovation even at the very developer whose original great innovation led, inadvertantly, to its one day being out-innovated by a fan. Meanwhile, every kid who's playing CS 24/7 isn't buying new product. Given the quality of most product out there, you can hardly blame them, but it would be nice to see something approaching the mid-to-late 90s period of game creativity; sadly, we probably won't any time soon, and CS is one reason why.