Counter-Strike
Encyclopedia
Counter-Strike is a tactical
first-person shooter
video game developed by Valve Corporation
which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le
and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe
. The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which currently includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
, Counter-Strike: Source
, Counter-Strike: Anthology and Counter-Strike on Xbox
.
Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists
in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission objective or eliminating the opposing force.
The game was the most played Half-Life modification in terms of players, according to GameSpy
in 2008.
As of August 2011, the Counter-Strike franchise has sold over 25 million units.
simultaneously.
A player can choose to play as one of four different default character models (four for each side, although Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as "freeze time") to prepare and buy equipment, during which they cannot attack or walk/move (a player can still take damage, having the player drop from a certain height during freeze time was the only way a map designer could control the players starting "HP
"). They can return to the buy area within a set amount of time to buy more equipment (some custom maps included neutral "buy zones" that could be used by both teams). Once the round has ended, surviving players retain their equipment for use in the next round; players who were killed begin the next round with the basic default starting equipment.
Standard monetary bonuses are awarded for winning a round, losing a round, killing an enemy, being the first to instruct a hostage to follow, rescuing a hostage or planting (Terrorist)/defusing (Counter terrorist) the bomb.
The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to statistics for each player: name, kills, deaths, and ping (in milliseconds). The scoreboard also indicates whether a player is dead, carrying the bomb (on bomb maps), or is the VIP (on assassination maps), although information on players on the opposing team is hidden from a player until his/her death, as this information can be important.
Killed players become "spectators" for the duration of the round; they cannot change their names until they spawn (come alive) again, text chat cannot be sent to or received from live players; and voice chat can only be received from live players and not sent to them (unless the cvar
sv_alltalk is set to 1). Spectators are generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying information about living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in the case of Internet cafe
s and Voice over IP
programs such as TeamSpeak
or Ventrilo
). This form of cheating is known as "ghosting".
, while others remove features of the game, and others create different modes of play. Some of the mods give server administrators more flexible and efficient control over his or her server. "Admin plugins", as they are mostly referred as, have become very popular (see Metamod
, AMX Mod and AMX Mod X). There are some mods which affect gameplay heavily, such as Gun Game, where players start with a basic pistol and must score kills to receive better weapons, and Zombie Mod, where one team consists of zombies and must "spread the infection" by killing the other team (using only the knife). There are also the Superhero and Warcraft III mods which mix the first-person gameplay of Counter-Strike with an experience system, allowing a player to become more powerful as they continue to play. The game is also highly customizable on the player's end, allowing the user to install or even create their own custom skins, HUDs, sprites, and sound effects, given the proper tools.
" in reference to programs or "hacks" executed by the user.
Valve has implemented an anti-cheat system called Valve Anti-Cheat
(VAC). Players cheating on a VAC-enabled server risk having their account permanently banned from all VAC-secured servers.
With the first version of VAC, a ban took hold almost instantly after being detected and the cheater had to wait 2 years to have the account unbanned. Since VAC's second version, cheaters are not banned automatically. With the second version, Valve instituted a policy of 'delayed bans,' the theory being that a new hack is developed which circumvents the VAC system, it will spread amongst the 'cheating' community. By delaying the initial ban, Valve hopes to identify (and ban) as many cheaters as possible. Like any software detection system, some cheats are not detected by VAC and at times, the only effective anti-cheat solution is a human administrator watching an online game. Some servers implement a voting system, in which case players can call for a vote to kick or ban the accused cheater. VAC's success at identifying cheats and banning those who use them has also provided a boost in the purchasing of private cheats. These cheats are updated frequently to minimize the risk of detection, and are generally only available to a trusted list of recipients who collectively promise not to reveal the underlying design.
The ESL wire anti-cheat program is one of the most modern anti-cheat programs. It took the developers, Turtle Entertainment, six months of work and more than $500,000 to finish the project. Although successfully preventing hacks from being run, the program faced strong criticism by the counter-strike community for its frequent crashing. It is still, however, the official anti-cheat program used by the Electronic Sports League in the league's online tournaments and competitions.
/Vivendi Universal Games
, it was bundled with Team Fortress Classic
, Opposing Force
multiplayer, and the Wanted, Half-Life: Absolute Redemption and Firearms mods."
On 24 March 1999 Planet Half-Life
opened its Counter-Strike section. Within two weeks, the site had received 10,000 hits. On June 19, 1999, the first public beta of Counter-Strike was released, followed by numerous further "beta" releases. On April 12, 2000, Valve
announced that the Counter-Strike developers and Valve had teamed up.
The non-beta release dates of Counter-Strike are as follows:
Note: Version 1.6 effectively coincided with the release of Valve Software's Steam content delivery system. All further updates and bug fixes have been dynamically delivered via Steam, without any specific new version numbers.
On January 25, 2003, a world wide competition was held by Valve
and hosted by Dell
. Numerous Dell desktops and laptops were awarded in the competition which attracted over 10,000 participants. The competition was held over a two week period, with the winners "b0b" and "jsrawr" being announced on February 15 on Valve's website.
to take advantage of more modern graphics and audio hardware. However, the original Counter-Strike is still available and played by many people via Steam, as the two variants are quite different, and players inevitably prefer one variant over the other. Both versions continue to co-exist today.
Counter-Strike was originally played online through the WON
gaming service, which was shut down in 2004, forcing players to switch to Steam. The non-Steam version of Counter-Strike (version 1.5) can still be downloaded from sites such as FilePlanet
. Due to the closure of WON, part of the player community responded by creating their own WON network, dubbed WON2
.
In March 2007, Valve implemented mandatory advertisements through Steam in official maps and in the game's GUI overhead. Customers have expressed frustration with the ads, including an over 200 page thread on Valve's official forums, saying that they violate original terms of service and distract from the game. The thread was later deleted by an unknown moderator.
, Taiwan
, Japan
, Singapore
, and Indonesia
, and is now fully online. It is developed by Nexon Corporation
with oversight from license-holder Valve Corporation
, and is an attempt to increase market share of Valve's games in the Asian gaming market.
and Hidden Path Entertainment
, which also codevelopes Counter-Strike: Source, going under the title Global Offensive. The game is meant to be played on game consoles (such as PS3, Xbox 360, etc.) rather than the PC and is aimed as a competition to other FPS games such as the Call of Duty and the Battlefield series.
, Evil Geniuses
, Team Dynamic, Complexity Gaming, mTw, Frag Executors, Na`Vi, fnatic
and couple older teams Ninjas in Pyjamas
and Team 3D ) have come to earn a living out of it, while other clans and community based groups neither lose nor earn money via member donations which are self-sustaining in return for administrator rights in servers involved in the community.
Counter-Strike remains extremely popular to this day. There are currently professional online leagues supporting Counter-Strike, such as the E-Sports Entertainment League (ESEA), Regional Gaming Associaion League (RGA League), Virtual Entertainment Gaming Association League (VEGA) and CyberEvolution, a pay-to-play league. Various LAN tournaments are held throughout the world such as the Electronic Sports World Cup
(ESWC), the World e-Sports Games
(WEG), CyberAthlete Professional League (CPL), and the World Cyber Games
(WCG). Championship matches in these events are televised with commentary and analysis.
There have been a multitude of games claimed by their developers, reviewers and fans to be "Counter-Strike killers," but none have seriously been able to dent its overall popularity. Server statistics in 2002 showed that Counter-Strike servers outnumbered their Battlefield
, Unreal Tournament 2003
or Quake III
first-person shooter counterparts at least 3 to 1.
However, as criticism of Condition Zero showed, the GoldSrc
engine has already been surpassed by several generations of newer engines. Even Counter-Strike: Source has been criticized for not progressing the gameplay enough and failing to take full advantage of the Source engine
.
, now a disbarred attorney from Florida, predicted that the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech Massacre
had been trained to kill in the game, well before Seung-Hui Cho
(the shooter) was identified. News sources originally stated that Seung-Hui Cho only played the game in high school, however no video games whatsoever were found in the gunman's dorm room, and there is no evidence that he ever played Counter-Strike. Thompson also blamed Counter-Strike for the February 14, 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting
perpetrated by Steven Kazmierczak on the day after the shooting. It is reported that Kazmierczak did play Counter-Strike in college.
On January 17, 2008, a Brazilian federal court order prohibiting all sales of Counter-Strike and EverQuest
and imposing the immediate withdrawal of these from all stores began to be enforced. The federal Brazilian judge Carlos Alberto Simões de Tomaz, of the Minas Gerais
judiciary section, ordered the ban in October 2007 because, according to him, the games "bring imminent stimulus to the subversion of the social order, attempting against the democratic and rightful state and against the public safety". As of June 18, 2009, a regional federal court
order lifting the prohibition on the sale of Counter-Strike was published. The game is now being sold again in Brazil.
Tactical shooter
A tactical shooter is a subgenre of shooter game that includes both first-person shooters and third-person shooters. These games typically simulate realistic combat, thus making tactics and caution more important than quick reflexes in other action games...
first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
video game developed by Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le
Minh Le
Minh Le , also known by his online nickname Gooseman, is a Vietnamese-Canadian computer game developer who co-created the popular Half-Life mod Counter-Strike with Jess Cliffe in 1999...
and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe
Jess Cliffe
Jess Cliffe is a Valve Software computer game designer and co-creator of Counter-Strike with Minh Le . He is the "voice of Counter-Strike" via the radio commands and sound effects....
. The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which currently includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is a multiplayer video game and the follow-up to Counter-Strike. The game was released in 2004 using the GoldSrc Half-Life engine. CS:CZ features a multiplayer mode, which features updated character models, textures, maps and other graphical tweaks...
, Counter-Strike: Source
Counter-Strike: Source
Counter-Strike: Source is an FPS video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is a complete remake of Counter-Strike using the Source game engine. As in the original, Counter-Strike: Source pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists in a series of rounds...
, Counter-Strike: Anthology and Counter-Strike on Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
.
Counter-Strike pits a team of counter-terrorists against a team of terrorists
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
in a series of rounds. Each round is won by either completing the mission objective or eliminating the opposing force.
The game was the most played Half-Life modification in terms of players, according to GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
in 2008.
As of August 2011, the Counter-Strike franchise has sold over 25 million units.
Gameplay
Counter-Strike is a first-person shooter in which players join either the terrorist team, the counter-terrorist team, or become a spectator. Each team attempts to complete their mission objective and/or eliminate the opposing team. Each round starts with the two teams spawningSpawning (computer gaming)
In video games, spawning is the live creation of a character or item. Respawning is the recreation of an entity after its death or destruction....
simultaneously.
A player can choose to play as one of four different default character models (four for each side, although Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is a multiplayer video game and the follow-up to Counter-Strike. The game was released in 2004 using the GoldSrc Half-Life engine. CS:CZ features a multiplayer mode, which features updated character models, textures, maps and other graphical tweaks...
added two extra models, bringing the total to ten). Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins (known as "freeze time") to prepare and buy equipment, during which they cannot attack or walk/move (a player can still take damage, having the player drop from a certain height during freeze time was the only way a map designer could control the players starting "HP
Health (gaming)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
"). They can return to the buy area within a set amount of time to buy more equipment (some custom maps included neutral "buy zones" that could be used by both teams). Once the round has ended, surviving players retain their equipment for use in the next round; players who were killed begin the next round with the basic default starting equipment.
Standard monetary bonuses are awarded for winning a round, losing a round, killing an enemy, being the first to instruct a hostage to follow, rescuing a hostage or planting (Terrorist)/defusing (Counter terrorist) the bomb.
The scoreboard displays team scores in addition to statistics for each player: name, kills, deaths, and ping (in milliseconds). The scoreboard also indicates whether a player is dead, carrying the bomb (on bomb maps), or is the VIP (on assassination maps), although information on players on the opposing team is hidden from a player until his/her death, as this information can be important.
Killed players become "spectators" for the duration of the round; they cannot change their names until they spawn (come alive) again, text chat cannot be sent to or received from live players; and voice chat can only be received from live players and not sent to them (unless the cvar
CVAR
CVAR and ConVar are abbreviations for Console Variable. Depending on the context in which the term is found, it may also stand for Client Variable, or Configuration Variable....
sv_alltalk is set to 1). Spectators are generally able to watch the rest of the round from multiple selectable views, although some servers disable some of these views to prevent dead players from relaying information about living players to their teammates through alternative media (most notably voice in the case of Internet cafe
Internet cafe
An Internet café or cybercafé is a place which provides internet access to the public, usually for a fee. These businesses usually provide snacks and drinks, hence the café in the name...
s and Voice over IP
Voice over IP
Voice over Internet Protocol is a family of technologies, methodologies, communication protocols, and transmission techniques for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet...
programs such as TeamSpeak
TeamSpeak
TeamSpeak is a proprietary Voice over IP software that allows users to speak on a chat channel with other users, much like a telephone conference call. A TeamSpeak user will often wear a headset with an integrated microphone...
or Ventrilo
Ventrilo
Ventrilo is a proprietary VoIP software which includes text chat.The Ventrilo client and server are both available as freeware for use with fewer than 8 people on the same server . The server software is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, or Unix variants such as Linux, Kopi, Solaris,...
). This form of cheating is known as "ghosting".
Mods and scripts
Though Counter-Strike is itself a mod, it has developed its own community of script writers and mod creators. Some mods add botsComputer game bot
A bot, most prominently in the first-person shooter types , is a type of weak AI expert system software which for each instance of the program controls a player in deathmatch, team deathmatch and/or cooperative human player. Computer bots may play against other bots and/or human players in unison,...
, while others remove features of the game, and others create different modes of play. Some of the mods give server administrators more flexible and efficient control over his or her server. "Admin plugins", as they are mostly referred as, have become very popular (see Metamod
Metamod
Metamod is a plugin interface for Half-Life modifications that is located between the Half-Life game engine and a Half-Life mod, providing the dynamic loading and unloading of DLL plugins to add or remove extra functions to or from the game server....
, AMX Mod and AMX Mod X). There are some mods which affect gameplay heavily, such as Gun Game, where players start with a basic pistol and must score kills to receive better weapons, and Zombie Mod, where one team consists of zombies and must "spread the infection" by killing the other team (using only the knife). There are also the Superhero and Warcraft III mods which mix the first-person gameplay of Counter-Strike with an experience system, allowing a player to become more powerful as they continue to play. The game is also highly customizable on the player's end, allowing the user to install or even create their own custom skins, HUDs, sprites, and sound effects, given the proper tools.
Cheating
Counter Strike has been a prime target for exploitation by cheaters since its release. In-game, cheating is often referred to as "hackingHacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
" in reference to programs or "hacks" executed by the user.
- Wallhacks allows players to see through walls. These work by displaying objects that are normally obscured or by replacing opaque game textures with translucent ones. As the engine only renders the immediate areaPotentially visible setPotentially Visible Sets are used to accelerate the rendering of 3D environments. This is a form of occlusion culling, whereby a candidate set of potentially visible polygons are pre-computed, then indexed at run-time in order to quickly obtain an estimate of the visible geometry...
around the player, this does not allow a player to see the entire level at once. - Speedhacks give the player increased foot speed. These work by sending false synchronization data to the server.
- Recoil hack removes any recoil (and thus improves accuracy) from a player's firearm.
- No spread is used to remove the random deviation normally experienced when the player shoots. This is similar to the recoil hack.
- AimbotAimbotAn aimbot is a type of computer game bot used in first-person shooter games to provide varying levels of target acquisition assistance to the player. It is sometimes incorporated as a feature of a game...
s help the player aim at enemies. Practically the same as auto-targeting, These work by either modifying a bullet's in-flight path, or automatically moving the player's crosshair onto an enemy. - ESP shows textual information about the enemy; such as health, name and distance; also information about weapons lying around the map, which could be missed without the hack. Most ESP cheats show info through walls.
- Barrel hack depicts an enemy's gaze as a visible line.
- Anti-flash and anti-smoke remove the effects of the flashbang and smoke grenadeSmoke grenadeSmoke grenades are canister-type grenades used as ground-to-ground or ground-to-air signaling devices, target or landing zone marking devices, or as screening devices for unit movements. Smoke grenades are normally considered non-lethal, although incorrect use may cause death...
. Implementation is derived from the wall hack.
Valve has implemented an anti-cheat system called Valve Anti-Cheat
Valve Anti-Cheat
Valve Anti-Cheat, abbreviated to VAC, is an anti-cheat solution developed by Valve Corporation as a component of the Steam game development platform.-History:...
(VAC). Players cheating on a VAC-enabled server risk having their account permanently banned from all VAC-secured servers.
With the first version of VAC, a ban took hold almost instantly after being detected and the cheater had to wait 2 years to have the account unbanned. Since VAC's second version, cheaters are not banned automatically. With the second version, Valve instituted a policy of 'delayed bans,' the theory being that a new hack is developed which circumvents the VAC system, it will spread amongst the 'cheating' community. By delaying the initial ban, Valve hopes to identify (and ban) as many cheaters as possible. Like any software detection system, some cheats are not detected by VAC and at times, the only effective anti-cheat solution is a human administrator watching an online game. Some servers implement a voting system, in which case players can call for a vote to kick or ban the accused cheater. VAC's success at identifying cheats and banning those who use them has also provided a boost in the purchasing of private cheats. These cheats are updated frequently to minimize the risk of detection, and are generally only available to a trusted list of recipients who collectively promise not to reveal the underlying design.
The ESL wire anti-cheat program is one of the most modern anti-cheat programs. It took the developers, Turtle Entertainment, six months of work and more than $500,000 to finish the project. Although successfully preventing hacks from being run, the program faced strong criticism by the counter-strike community for its frequent crashing. It is still, however, the official anti-cheat program used by the Electronic Sports League in the league's online tournaments and competitions.
Release
When Counter-Strike was published by Sierra EntertainmentSierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
/Vivendi Universal Games
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games, formerly known as Vivendi Universal Games, was the holdings company for Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. Vivendi Games was founded as Vivendi Universal Games after Vivendi bought Universal Studios in the early 2000s...
, it was bundled with Team Fortress Classic
Team Fortress Classic
Team Fortress Classic, also known as Team Fortress 1.5 or simply TFC, is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation. It is a remake of the Team Fortress modification for Quake. Team Fortress Classic was originally released for Windows on April 7, 1999 as...
, Opposing Force
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life: Opposing Force is an expansion pack for Valve Software's science fiction first-person shooter video game Half-Life. The game was developed by Gearbox Software and Valve Corporation and published by Sierra Entertainment on November 1, 1999. Opposing Force is the first expansion for...
multiplayer, and the Wanted, Half-Life: Absolute Redemption and Firearms mods."
On 24 March 1999 Planet Half-Life
Planet Half-Life
Planet Half-Life is a gaming website owned by IGN and its subsidiary GameSpy. Maintained by a voluntary team of contributors, the site is dedicated to providing news and informes Half-Life and Half-Life 2, as well as related modifications and other Valve Software titles...
opened its Counter-Strike section. Within two weeks, the site had received 10,000 hits. On June 19, 1999, the first public beta of Counter-Strike was released, followed by numerous further "beta" releases. On April 12, 2000, Valve
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
announced that the Counter-Strike developers and Valve had teamed up.
The non-beta release dates of Counter-Strike are as follows:
- Version 1.0: November 1, 2000
- Version 1.1: March 13, 2001
- Version 1.3: September 12, 2001
- Version 1.4: April 24, 2002
- Version 1.5: June 12, 2002
- Version 1.6: September 15, 2003
Note: Version 1.6 effectively coincided with the release of Valve Software's Steam content delivery system. All further updates and bug fixes have been dynamically delivered via Steam, without any specific new version numbers.
On January 25, 2003, a world wide competition was held by Valve
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
and hosted by Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
. Numerous Dell desktops and laptops were awarded in the competition which attracted over 10,000 participants. The competition was held over a two week period, with the winners "b0b" and "jsrawr" being announced on February 15 on Valve's website.
Counter-Strike: Source
Counter-Strike received a major technology update and refresh on November 1, 2004 with the release of Counter-Strike: Source, which was heavily updated using Valve's Source game engineSource engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
to take advantage of more modern graphics and audio hardware. However, the original Counter-Strike is still available and played by many people via Steam, as the two variants are quite different, and players inevitably prefer one variant over the other. Both versions continue to co-exist today.
Counter-Strike was originally played online through the WON
World Opponent Network
World Opponent Network or WON was an online gaming service, created by Sierra Games as the Sierra Internet Gaming System . WON was used by games such as Homeworld, Half-Life, Star Trek: Armada, Soldier of Fortune, Dark Reign 2, Silencer, ARC and online versions of casino games as well as early...
gaming service, which was shut down in 2004, forcing players to switch to Steam. The non-Steam version of Counter-Strike (version 1.5) can still be downloaded from sites such as FilePlanet
FilePlanet
FilePlanet is a video game download service that provides demos, patches, mods and other gaming media and other gaming media downloads to its users. FilePlanet was launched, and is run by, GameSpy, which is now a subsidiary of IGN, and is one of the most used video game download sites on the...
. Due to the closure of WON, part of the player community responded by creating their own WON network, dubbed WON2
WON2
WON2 is the user-created and operated online gaming network, and is a re-creation of the original World Opponent Network online gaming service...
.
In March 2007, Valve implemented mandatory advertisements through Steam in official maps and in the game's GUI overhead. Customers have expressed frustration with the ads, including an over 200 page thread on Valve's official forums, saying that they violate original terms of service and distract from the game. The thread was later deleted by an unknown moderator.
Counter-Strike Online
Counter-Strike Online is available in South KoreaSouth Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, and is now fully online. It is developed by Nexon Corporation
Nexon Corporation
Nexon Co. Ltd. is a South Korean video game developer and publisher of online games and MMORPGs. Founded in Seoul in 1994, Nexon's headquarters is currently based in Tokyo. Nexon provides over 30 games which are serviced in 72 countries globally, reaching 1.14 billion players...
with oversight from license-holder Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
, and is an attempt to increase market share of Valve's games in the Asian gaming market.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
On August 12, 2011, it was confirmed that a new Counter Strike game is currently in development at Valve SoftwareValve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
and Hidden Path Entertainment
Hidden Path Entertainment
Hidden Path Entertainment is an American video game development company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States. It was founded in 2006 by Michael Austin, Jim Garbarini, Dave McCoy, Jeff Pobst, and Mark Terrano. In 2008, Hidden Path released its first original title, Defense Grid: The...
, which also codevelopes Counter-Strike: Source, going under the title Global Offensive. The game is meant to be played on game consoles (such as PS3, Xbox 360, etc.) rather than the PC and is aimed as a competition to other FPS games such as the Call of Duty and the Battlefield series.
Reception
Counter-Strike received generally favorable reviews.Legacy
Counter Strike is famous for the culture surrounding it, which includes everything from professional gamers and leagues, to excessive cheating and disruptive behavior. Certain professional teams (such as SK GamingSK Gaming
SK Gaming is a professional German electronic sports organization founded in 1997 by a small group of Quake players living in Oberhausen. SK Gaming retains teams across different genres and are particularly known for their success in Counter-Strike tournaments...
, Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses
Evil Geniuses is a professional gaming organization based out of the United States. Founded in 1999, the organization is known as being the premier North American electronic sports organization, boasting highly successful players across each competitive genre...
, Team Dynamic, Complexity Gaming, mTw, Frag Executors, Na`Vi, fnatic
Fnatic
Fnatic is a professional electronic sports organization based out of Australia, UK and The Netherlands. Fnatic was founded in July 23, 2004. Fnatic is particularly well-known for its highly successful Counter-Strike team, which is the single most financially-successful Counter-Strike team in...
and couple older teams Ninjas in Pyjamas
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Ninjas in Pyjamas was a professional Counter-Strike clan based in Sweden. They were considered to be one of the top teams in the world by many, including GotFrag.-2000 - 2002:...
and Team 3D ) have come to earn a living out of it, while other clans and community based groups neither lose nor earn money via member donations which are self-sustaining in return for administrator rights in servers involved in the community.
Counter-Strike remains extremely popular to this day. There are currently professional online leagues supporting Counter-Strike, such as the E-Sports Entertainment League (ESEA), Regional Gaming Associaion League (RGA League), Virtual Entertainment Gaming Association League (VEGA) and CyberEvolution, a pay-to-play league. Various LAN tournaments are held throughout the world such as the Electronic Sports World Cup
Electronic Sports World Cup
The Electronic Sports World Cup is an international professional gaming championship.Every year winners of national qualifier event around the world earn the right to represent their country in the ESWC Finals...
(ESWC), the World e-Sports Games
World e-Sports Games
World eSport Games is a competitive, international video game league with elite amateur and pro gamers from around the world battling to be crowned world champions...
(WEG), CyberAthlete Professional League (CPL), and the World Cyber Games
World Cyber Games
The World Cyber Games is an international competitive video-gaming event operated by South Korean company World Cyber Games Inc., and sponsored by Samsung and Microsoft...
(WCG). Championship matches in these events are televised with commentary and analysis.
There have been a multitude of games claimed by their developers, reviewers and fans to be "Counter-Strike killers," but none have seriously been able to dent its overall popularity. Server statistics in 2002 showed that Counter-Strike servers outnumbered their Battlefield
Battlefield (video game series)
The Battlefield franchise is a series of computer and console games that started with the Windows/Mac game Battlefield 1942. The series is developed by the Swedish company EA Digital Illusions CE, and published by Electronic Arts. The games feature a greater focus on large maps, teamwork and...
, Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2003 or UT2003 is a first-person shooter video game designed mainly for multiplayer gaming. The game is part of the Unreal franchise's series of games, and is a sequel to Unreal Tournament ....
or Quake III
Quake III Arena
Quake III Arena , is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game released on December 2, 1999. The game was developed by id Software and featured music composed by Sonic Mayhem and Front Line Assembly...
first-person shooter counterparts at least 3 to 1.
However, as criticism of Condition Zero showed, the GoldSrc
GoldSrc
GoldSrc, or Goldsource, is the retronym used internally by Valve Software to refer to the heavily modified Quake engine that powers their science fiction first-person shooter Half-Life ....
engine has already been surpassed by several generations of newer engines. Even Counter-Strike: Source has been criticized for not progressing the gameplay enough and failing to take full advantage of the Source engine
Source engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
.
Controversy
Counter-Strike faced controversy in April 2007 when Jack ThompsonJack Thompson (attorney)
John Bruce "Jack" Thompson is an American activist and disbarred attorney, based in Coral Gables, Florida. Thompson is known for his role as an anti-video-game activist, particularly against violence and sex in video games....
, now a disbarred attorney from Florida, predicted that the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech Massacre
Virginia Tech massacre
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people...
had been trained to kill in the game, well before Seung-Hui Cho
Seung-Hui Cho
Seung-Hui Cho was a senior-level undergraduate student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University who killed 32 people and wounded 17 others on April 16, 2007, in the shooting rampage which came to be known as the "Virginia Tech massacre." Cho later committed suicide after law...
(the shooter) was identified. News sources originally stated that Seung-Hui Cho only played the game in high school, however no video games whatsoever were found in the gunman's dorm room, and there is no evidence that he ever played Counter-Strike. Thompson also blamed Counter-Strike for the February 14, 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting
Northern Illinois University shooting
The Northern Illinois University shooting was a school shooting that took place on February 14, 2008, during which Steven Kazmierczak shot multiple people on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, United States, killing five and injuring twenty-one, before committing...
perpetrated by Steven Kazmierczak on the day after the shooting. It is reported that Kazmierczak did play Counter-Strike in college.
On January 17, 2008, a Brazilian federal court order prohibiting all sales of Counter-Strike and EverQuest
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...
and imposing the immediate withdrawal of these from all stores began to be enforced. The federal Brazilian judge Carlos Alberto Simões de Tomaz, of the Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
judiciary section, ordered the ban in October 2007 because, according to him, the games "bring imminent stimulus to the subversion of the social order, attempting against the democratic and rightful state and against the public safety". As of June 18, 2009, a regional federal court
Regional Federal Courts
The Regional Federal Courts are Brazilian appellate courts of the Brazil federal court system. There currently are five of these courts, geographically defined. They are commonly called TRFs....
order lifting the prohibition on the sale of Counter-Strike was published. The game is now being sold again in Brazil.