This game is by far the most popular FPS online game today.
What is it that makes it so popular ?
(Many facts only apply to public CS)
My guesses are :
1 . Playabillity - CS can be played by everyone together, both newbies AND pros. Since you are so vulnerable in CS and you can’t heal yourself, a newbie can easily land one little bullet into a pro and kill him, therefore making this game immensely satisfying for newbies.
One death only, no respawn - In CS you don’t respawn when you die. This makes the game a lot more tense than instant respawn games like Quake 3, and makes it so much more satisifying when you kill 3 or more players (4 or higher for pros) in a single round.
Its recoil system makes every gun unique and even though newbies can kill with an M4A1 (by, for example, spraying all over the place), then the pros can master the gun, using efficient bursts and other techniques.
Updates - The game is constantly being modified and updated. New content and bug fixes and balancing make every version of CS an almost unique experience and give people the chance to learn things others haven’t thought of yet.
It’s free, and therefore a lot more appealing (you only have to buy Half-Life).
Realism - Even though space combat is appealing and futuristic weapons have their charm, nothing can withstand real life substitutes. And since the game is very realistic, “down-to-earth” people can enjoy it also.
The game is fun in every stage of playing it and it doesn’t matter how long you’ve played, you can always enjoy public playing (In quake for example, a newbie can’t kill an advanced player by a long shot).
So these are my reasons.
I have played CS for 3 years now, so I find that I know a lot about the subject.
Does anyone have more reasons for its popularity or any positive critisism about my reasons?
Counter-Strike is popular simply because it was the first to be popular. There are plenty of squad based tactical FPSs out there that are better but no one is migrating because its hard to get all your friends to switch.
CS is loved for the same reason those super-hyped summer block-busters are loved. It has a lot and lots and lots of action, and it has just enough of a base in the real world (No healing, no respawning, and weapons that look like real-world weapons) that people think/pretend it’s realistic, while not including any of the realism that would emphasize “thinking” over “action.”
Another reason for its success is that anyone’s computer can run it. You don’t need a Geforce 4 or a Radeon 8500 like you do in Battlefield 1942 or Unreal2003.
Actually I don’t think it’s that realistic. I mean I stopped playing it after I had the following happen. I snuck up behind a guy, pumped 3 bursts into his back with the MP5 and he simply turned around and killed me with one shot from the DE.(Probably since I aimed for the chest, he aimed for my head.) A better term would be pseudo-realistic.
Anybody running Half-Life on XP? Run likes crap on my machine, which FAR exceeds the Half-Life specs, hardware-wise. Yes, I have the latest Half-Life and XP patches.
But it’s not nearly as mind-numbingly simple. Ghost Recon requires tactics and cooperation. Counterstrike doesn’t. Counterstrike requires repetition and repetition.
Remember, we just got out of the Quake Age (not that I disliked it, mind you). It’s gonna take a while before intelligent combat because the norm, and it’s gonna be a slow shift.
(And, yes, I do play Counterstrike, and enjoy it. I still play QUAKE and enjoy it.)
I feel like we’ll never recapture the days of the old Quake I capture the flag (back when it was a real mod with modified game levels and a few newly designed levels, and the kick-ass crazy runes like “ninja”). I spent hours and hours playing that game, and it was always very very intense. Only Half-life Team Fortress even came close in matching up, fun-wise.
I always thought CS looked like total ass, but that’s just my opinion.
Counter-Strike is popular mainly because…well, because it’s popular. It was one of the first big online games, probably due to it being different and more importantly, FREE. Nowadays there are dozens more clones of it, some of them superior, but CS just has so many people playing it that it’s going to be on top until something truly revolutionary comes along.
