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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

#341

Post by meltyness »

vjk800 wrote: post #277
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?

Communities don't scale. This is the reason why nobody has done and why you couldn't get rich forming communities. Communities are handcrafted to accommodate the unique personalities of the people involved. Communities involve activities where a handful of people can socialize and bond. A service with a million users can never become a community because our social/grouping instincts don't work on that scale. A commun…

When they establish personality archetypes and roles bonds form readily. That's like, the purpose of roles in an organization.

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

#342

Post by gethly »

Tade0 wrote: post #304
gethly wrote: post #266

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 pr…

My first experience with CS was in early grade school back when it was just a Half-Life mod along with Team Fortress Classic - both broadly available in internet cafes. Connection speed an ping was absolutely terrible back then, so I didn't really get into it.

Yeah, man. The golden era of the internet when only nerds like us were online :)

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

#343

Post by sahn44 »

vaylian wrote: post #275
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…

What are "PC bangs"? Are they like internet cafes, but meant for gaming?

I taught English in Seoul for a year in '02/'03. bang = room. There was (maybe still is?) a PC bang on every block or two pretty much. I'm sure I went at least 100 times. Great way to kill some time playing counter-strike for me and dabbling in starcraft. It was maybe $1.50/hr at the time. For a much better PC, nice chair, pre-installed games and snacks available.

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

#344

Post by viridian »

wiredpancake wrote: post #185
GlobalElite wrote: post #46

I 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…

As someone with 10,000+ hours in CSGO/CS2, I think your argument is weak clearly is coming from someone who is a boomer. 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…

Saying its among the least egregious examples just isn't true. Doppler knives can sell for over $10,000. We know the sorts of psychological outcomes that occur from putting a vanishingly unlikely $10,000 jackpot on a slot machine.

People will willingly blow their paychecks, week after week, hoping to strike that 0.00275% chance for big money. This is bad for society, just like slot machines.

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

#345

Post by richardlblair »

racemic wrote: post #239
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…

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…

I spent many a weekend on your servers as a teen. Thank you for running them!

(I was MethodMan)

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

#346

Post by jamesnorden »

zedascouves wrote: post #21

I Started with actionquake (aq2). check it out. Minh “Gooseman” Le, one of CS’s creators, was a fan of AQ2. Counter-Strike (first released in June 1999 as a Half-Life mod) built on AQ2’s ideas but refined them with better hitboxes, buy menus, maps, and more tactical pacing. AQ2 is often described as “the bridge between Quake and Counter-Strike”.

He wasn't just "a fan", he worked on AQ2, specifically on weapon models.

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

#347

Post by viridian »

Rohansi wrote: post #112
redwall_hp wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The conclusion I came to is that this is due to the availability of game engines and game distribution, which have made modding pointless. Why expend countless hours building a game mode for someone else's game, in a world where that has copyright implications, when you can just build your own game? The indie scene blew up, modding is less popular.

Modding is a lot more approachable than making a whole new game. The only issue is most games aren't moddable. Some people still try to mod games that don't support modding and that's where you're likely to run into copyright issues.

I think its both. Modding has become harder, and making games easier. At some point they are close enough to parity that it just makes sense to put in the extra effort to avoid all the tertiary issues, like copyright/trademark violations.

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

#348

Post by bee_rider »

pbronez wrote: post #335
jamiek88 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sure they do - depends on the game. Baulder’s Gate 3 can handle split screen coop. It Takes Two is a co-op only platformer. Knight Squad gets up to 8 people playing at once. You can find many more options here https://www.co-optimus.com/games.php

It’s more like: the default assumption of a AAA console games used to be some local multiplayer. Now, you have to look for it.

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

#349

Post by robin_reala »

viridian wrote: post #336
ViktorRay wrote: post #67

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…

As much as I love all the maps you mentioned, and could probably sketch their layouts from memory, I think Rust and Nuketown from the call of duty series are probably better known by a wide margin. Rust has been featured in 3 different games that had a combined sales of over 2 billion dollars, but even that is small peanuts compared to Nuketown. Nuketown has been featured in six different games, with 17 total variant…

I’ve played neither Counterstrike nor Call of Duty, but I know de_dust2 by name and can even visualise what it looks like, and I’ve never heard of Rust or Nuketown.

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

#350

Post by xnorswap »

panick21_ wrote: post #301
baby wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like halo was never really big outside the US, I would guess unreal tournament, quake, DoD, CoD, battlefield, all were quite popular in the whole west

Halo was defiantly big outside of the US. I was prime age for gaming when Halo came out and Halo was the most talked about game and everybody loved it. The X-Box was less common as the first X-Box never really sold all that well. But Halo came out for the PC as well and many people played it.

Halo wasn't even ported to the PC until 2003, and wasn't well regarded or played much.
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