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Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

nytimes.com

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Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#261

Post by tokioyoyo »

ViktorRay wrote: post #67
TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #47

Something 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…

There have been days where 40M people played Fortnite on a single day. I'm kinda out of the gaming world a bit, but I did not believe when my nephew mentioned it, but it checked out. Given the age range of people who still actively play it, I'm not sure if they've even heard of de_dust2.

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#262

Post by sneak »

baby wrote: post #192
xtracto wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing with sites like reddit, HN and the like is that they don't promote "identity" like IRC, forums and others. Like, I'm replying to you, we are being "social" , but mostly we will interact in this thread and call it a day. There's no push to form community or some longer term interaction. In the late 90s early 2000s I was very into a game called Tactics Arena Online, and we had several great communities.

Whoever can recreate this community feeling is going to be rich. Why did people spend so much time in specific phpbb forums? Maybe the problem is that there are too many communities out there now and so people just give up because you're in all of them and you're part of none of them at the same time?

They did, and it’s called Reddit. Then it got enshittified.

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#264

Post by sneak »

darth_aardvark wrote: post #205
baby wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoever can recreate this community feeling is going to be rich. Why did people spend so much time in specific phpbb forums? Maybe the problem is that there are too many communities out there now and so people just give up because you're in all of them and you're part of none of them at the same time?

Discord servers are the closest. People do build up friendships, relationships, enemyships, and a public persona / reputation within a Discord server.

Discord is centralized, heavily censored, and surveilled, so it can’t serve this purpose for many communities (such as most of the ones in which I participate).

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#266

Post by gethly »

Good times. I think my first CS was 1.0 beta. I played thousands of hours of this game, even seriously considered going pro back in the day, haha. Well, i was actually on that route, not just considering it - i was actually doing it. Clan wars, tournaments, lan parties...yeah, it was great.

Though looking back, I think they killed the joy for me with version 1.6 where the guns started firing all over the place and precision became more of a random thing than anything else, unlike previous versions.

I never understood the newer versions, like Condition Zero, Source and others. They look nothing like the original CS and played differently as well.

Anyway, good times :)

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#267

Post by jamiek88 »

eru wrote: post #237
1-6 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the late 1990s, living in South Korea during the fallout of the IMF financial crisis, my friends and I discovered PC bangs. These gaming havens offered titles like Rainbow Six, MechWarrior 2, and the legendary StarCraft. As a teenager, those moments were unforgettable—sitting in a buzzing PC bang, immersed in epic battles, sparked a lifelong passion for computer networks that I still pursue today. In the 2000s, I…

Weren't consoles with split screen supposed to fill that niche (too), right in your living room?

Consoles don’t even have split screen any more. Sucks.

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#268

Post by BLKNSLVR »

bashwizard wrote: post #259
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #211

I have a (knowingly irrational) dislike for Counter Strike because it fragmented what was previously an essentially single 'Quake / Quake 2" community, making the free-for-all adrenaline frag fests that I most enjoyed less populated, specifically at LANs. I got my fun from balls out running and firing rockets and rails in the chaos of free for all, and CS offered what was essentially the 'we're all campers' version,…

You sound like me. I disliked CS because of how slow and campy it was compared to Quake and we always had this banter in my friend group about Quake vs CS vs Unreal Tournament and which game requires more skill. I ended up playing for one of the best clans in Sweden and competed for a few years until Q3 eventually died. I did try playing CS more serious for some time but I just couldn't stand it and I never had the p…

> Quake requires more skill btw.

+10

I still get a buzz watching the old Q2 / Q3 frag videos.

I was never that good, but have scored a handful of ridiculous flick rails over the time. I think Rocket Arena 3 was peak for me. I'm nearly 20 years out of practice now though. Feels like I'm getting closer to picking up some light hardcore PC gaming again though ;)

My niece is looking forward to having a crack at Portal 2 in the near future (yes, it's old, but it came up somehow or other recently, and she knows it from memes), so I'm aiming to enjoy that together. Gotta refresh myself through Portal 1 first.

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#269

Post by arkh »

dev0p wrote: post #242
racemic wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've lurked on HN for years, but I had to create an account just to respond to your post. I operated these servers – perhaps my handle is still familiar. I remember you for sure! I'm touched that you and so many others still have fond memories of that time. It was such a gratifying experience to build out that server network and the accompanying integrations that attracted so many and built such a great community. I…

This kind of interaction is what makes me miss the "old internet" the most...

My intuition is it still exists.

This "old internet" sentiment is due to the fact it was mostly academics in their world and geeks in theirs on internet at the time. Then it made it easier for everyone to use so everyone used it.

But I bet there are still the same proportion of geeks in the population. Which are still socializing on niche area of internet. We don't see it because we're old farts and have jobs and habits so we won't be trawling what are the current young geek channels. It was forum, IRC, ICQ and their ancestors for us. It is some other things for them. The story about the group of teenagers embedding messages in the One Million Checkboxes database shows "the old internet" is still alive.

Re: Counter-Strike: A billion-dollar game built in a dorm room

#270

Post by 999900000999 »

rimunroe wrote: post #72

I 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…

There's a difference between being toxic within a community. The community can self correct, it can ban people.

And if you don't like a community, you can leave at any time.

Compared to being toxic anonymously. Unless you get banned by an algorithm, your free to just suck.

However, I was in one CS clan where a girl gave out her real number to a random guy. Within minutes she was getting spam calls and other not great stuff.

I miss my CS clan though. There was some tension and arguments, but that's inherent to any structure with people.

Funny enough one of my mates couldn't believe I wasn't white over voice chat. It was like being in this magic world where race didn't matter.

Good times.

Edit: If someone wants to start an open source realistic-ish multiplayer FPS I'm so down.

Invite only community servers. If you suck and cheat we will figure it out and ban you. None of this kernel level anti cheat junk.

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