Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
FY_iceworld maybe, if we count number of rounds played?
Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
181–190 of 478 posts
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#1821.5 was peak CS in my opinion. No shield bullshit and massive amounts of customization and maps and servers. as_oilrig ftw
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#183I 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 legit miss early 2000s gaming. 1) People interacted, they truly did. Dramas, friendship, everything. Where? Quakenet, Forums. Every clan had their channel, some easily reached 1000+ people. 2) People genuinely played together in teams: CS, Day of Defeat, you name it. You had your clan and spammed #5on5 on quakenet. 3) Those clans actually met in lan! At Smau Italian Lan Party 2002 there were more than 60 Counter St…
In the late 90s early 2000s I was very into a game called Tactics Arena Online, and we had several great communities.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#184Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#185I 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…
CS is one of, if not, the least egregious "loot cases" systems in the gaming industry. Every case you open, gives you a reward, which can be sold. Each case you open has fixed odds and is not manipulated by the gaming companies to psychologically torment you. You get no benefit from using skins or stickers on your gun. It is purely cosmetic. Compared to other games which rely on pay2win mechanics, CSGO/CS2's systems are great.
I think skins are one of the best parts of CS. It blows my mind you can have skins worth thousands of dollars, trade them between friends like collectables, sell them for real life money and make your inventory look cool.
I agree the third party skin gambling sites aren't good, although the whole base concept, within Steam and a handful of trusted selling sites are perfectly fine.
Your gripe with the eSports side of this is also stupid. Have you watched / seen any sport on the planet? Gambling is apart of sports and sports culture, its one of the main revenue streams. Gambling helps grassroot sports and helps get kids into sports.
The whole "often give a segment to gambling people talking about odds" is rubbish. At most ESL, Blast, PGL events, the most that is even talked about odds is a brief mention of the odds, no breakdowns, no match betting options, etc. It's very, very tame. I likely have hours watching CS than I do playing too.
CS eSports is in a weird place because the funding comes from two main places in 2025, Saudi sportswashing and gambling. There used to be tons of VC, although that dried up when eSports didn't take off exactly how everyone expected it to. CS was one of the more safe investments are the game has been around for effectively two decades and has always had a competitive scene, dating back to early 2000s. CS is one of the most enjoyable and easy to watch eSports so its pretty enticing for viewers (and advertisers) although the marketablility of CS is hard due to bombs, guns and terrorists.
eSports needs a pay per view option otherwise the funding is always going to come from sketchy places, but the average eSports fan does not care enough to pay because they are too cheap to pay for stuff, or too young to have the funding to do so. Unlike traditional sport.
You are seemingly fine with killing gambling, so might as well kill all tier 2 and 3 scenes, including local scenes. They are mostly funded by gambling and even so, people throw matches because they get like 1k a month for being a tier 2 pro. People need to live and throwing gets more than their wage.
Your final point is Twitch chat messages saying stupid shit about match-fixing, I am not sure why this is even relevant. Studying twitch chat is like studying The Onion, not sure why you would.
Richard Lewis has talked extensively about everything I've said above.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#186I thought I was decent, but, damn…this other clan destroyed us every time.
I start following the CS leagues, CAL, RiTD, STA, CPL, and look at that…there’s this clan we scrimmaged every week: CK3
So that was my intro to competitive gaming, unknowingly playing one of the best clans in the world.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes but they aren’t wacky or silly
Instead they are a transparent system that enables literal children to get addicted to gambling and valve takes a cut of every payout and they are well aware of this. CS is not a billion dollar game. CS is a fairly unprofitable game with a giant tumor of a marketplace attached, a significant point of which is being a faux currency that escapes most currency controls
The CS2 Skin market-cap is above $5 Billion itself. The eSport scene is massive and one of the largest in the industry. The game is almost always the most played game on Steam.
Not sure where you are getting your idea that CS isn't a billion dollar game.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#188Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Gotta be a sunk cost thing right?
Valve explicitly says you cannot use that version of the Source SDK to make games on Steam, yet Classic Offensive did just that and subsequently got blocked for it.
Play by the rules and you can public just about anything you want mod-wise for Source.
There is no company that comes close to allowing the sheer content and modability than Valve.
They literally give you a full SDK, near full editor tools for both Source 1 and Source 2. Ability to publish games using some of these tools and for free, host the Steam Workshop and its likely PB's of modded content.
I don't see Activision given rights and modability to CoD Games, they DMCA instantly.
I don't see EA/Dice letting people use the Frostbite engine.
Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
In general I see this as an issue of gaming becoming more professionally run and maturing over time. Server Browsers make sense in a world in which members of the community are self-hosting their own infrastructure for others to play on. While a great way to build community, it can be a problem when it comes to player retention and competitive mechanics. Player retention can often suffer over the long-term as such co…
>"Server Browsers make sense in a world in which members of the community are self-hosting their own infrastructure for others to play on. While a great way to build community, it can be a problem when it comes to player retention and competitive mechanics." This just isn't true. The average TF2 player had 3K hours long before any official matchmaking was introduced, and UGC (TF2) and FACEIT (CSGO) were their own ren…