I used to be an admin in CAL (Cyber Athlete League), wrote my own mIRC scripts for support desk tickets and had a janky PHP interface for managing scores. Good times!
Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
131–140 of 478 posts
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#132I grew up with CS1.6 and spent what must be thousands of hours on it before I turned 18. But I can't stand what Valve did to modern versions of CS. The reason? Gambling. So much fucking gambling everywhere. Other games have lootboxes, I hate them, but they are usually "contained" in the sense that you do not see them in every context surrounding the game. But because CS skins can be traded between players, there is n…
Hate it all you want, but it's the sole reason Counter-Strike still exists today. Without skins, Valve would have shut the door on the game (and quite possibly the company entirely). Skins is literally a money printing machine.
That's, excuse my French, fucking ridiculous. Steam is a money printing machine that affords Valve the capital to run its CS servers 100 over.
Skins are also a money machine but it's just false to claim without it Valve would close its doors.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#133I feel like a modern CS1.6 clone that is open-source, community run servers (only), no match-making, modable by design, could actually work. Even in 2025. Just needs some internet meme magic and a few dedicated devs
There is not only one but actually two separate CS 1.6 recreation projects floating around. CS: Legacy and Classic Offensive
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#134I will forever mourn the general demise of server browsers. Too many games require you to use matchmaking systems, which means it's very hard to build up a small community in-game anymore. You either have to rely on forming small parties with people you've stumbled upon one by one, or you have to seek out people from some much larger area like Reddit or Discord. It takes a lot of the serendipity out of the experience…
People would practice 5v5 and find an opponent team on irc around 2002 2004
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I miss this old internet and gaming experience so much I made so many friends by joining a lobby and just playing a game for a few nights in a row or whatever Now I don't know how to really connect with people online anymore or build any kind of community Discord servers don't seem like the right way, they are too busy and chaotic for me I miss making friends online and gaming with them
What baffles me is that Discord is basically mIRC with some extra features but the culture just isn't the same.
It's not a discord problem it's an online culture problem. People now are addicted to trying to find things to be upset about and put people on blast for - make an off coloured joke in the old days and you may suddenly find your new best friend, now it's being clipped and shared on twitter and some one is calling your boss to try and get you fired.
It's not the tools it's the people
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#136I will forever mourn the general demise of server browsers. Too many games require you to use matchmaking systems, which means it's very hard to build up a small community in-game anymore. You either have to rely on forming small parties with people you've stumbled upon one by one, or you have to seek out people from some much larger area like Reddit or Discord. It takes a lot of the serendipity out of the experience…
I used to play on T3Houston every once in a while! Great times!
I did as well! @rimunroe I don't remember my handle, but you took me down a nice little path on memory lane.
The Warcraft mod was a little goofy, but as a younger kid who couldn't appreciate the hardcore competitive scene I liked the variety and silliness it brought.
I spent way too much time finding custom skins online to keep things interesting. Good times.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#137I was looking forward towards the Classic Offensive mod but then Valve DMCA'd it just a few days before the release. Awful move considering that not only they've okayed it before but also completely ignored the developers when they were trying to contact them. 8 years of development for nothing.
Valve gets away with murder for some reason even though the "gAMeR" community loves to get the pitchforks out for several minor controversies per month.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#138Something that wasn't mentioned in the article is that Counter-Strike spawned the creation of the most iconic FPS map ever: de_dust2. If an FPS supports custom maps, it's inevitable that de_dust2 will get ported to it. There's actually a mini-documentary about the creation of de_dust2 [0] which I think will be of interest to FPS fans. I wonder if de_dust2 is the most played FPS map or if it has been dethroned by some…
Thanks for sharing this! Very interesting! I believe de_dust2 is likely still the most played FPS map. Not sure which other map could have dethroned it. It can’t be Fortnite since Fortnite changes the map every few months and nowadays makes a new one every year or so. I guess Blood Gulch from the time when Halo was super popular was a very popular map as well. Then you also have 2fort from the Team Fortress games. Bu…
The only other map that started in a non-CS game that I think has even a slightly close level of fame would be COD Nuketown.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#139I used to do homework while waiting for the next round to start. Homework, round, homework, round. The game was perfect for a few minutes of excitement than enough time to solve the next math problem.
I don’t know but it was less intimidating than trying to focus JUST on the homework. It’s always made me wonder if there are kinds of multitasking that actually work to overcome the when to work feels intimidating.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#140Timely, I was just wondering yesterday (as I was launching the BF6 beta) if there was a current FPS with a mod scene like we had for Half Life and BF 1942. I can't seem to find anything.
Arma games, currently arma reforger which they released as a test before arma 4. Also dayz.