04-19-2004, 09:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-19-2004, 09:43 PM by [wcip]Angel.)
Taking into account all the inaccuracies of nostalgia, I still think CS was better before it 'went mainstream' - which I consider to be fairly late in its timeline, right around the end of the betas. I started playing in beta 4, which I still consider to be one of the best ones. Where AWPs killed in one shot, where your M4A1s had a scope and where "1337" was just a number.
To be honest, CS hasn't changed all that much, in my opinion. A few new weapons, some updated graphics and team-commands and somewhere along the line the aim went haywire if you held your fire-button in too long.
So what changed? Where did the tingly feeling go whenever my cursor would hover just slightly over the Cstrike-icon? The inevitable happened: CS got popular - really popular, real fast. An onslaught of pimple-faced dweebs and wannabe-military strategists overran the servers and filled them with their ominous presence. "1337"-speech didn't start all at once, but was built "word" for "word" increasingly by every mindless drone wanting to "|<1ck @zz" and "b3 c00l". Of course, with the appearance of the mute-function, one could simply ignore these pesky additions to your one-time favourite game. However, one could spot one of these people far away without even having to look at the way he expressed himself.
If you were to say the word "teamplay" in today's CS-community, you would be ridiculed. "OMG LOL PUBLIC FFS!!!111" meaning something like "Excuse me, sir, but I would have to disagree with you on the matter. When playing with strangers, one cannot expect any level of selflessness or team-spirit." Counter-strike is no longer a game with two teams pitted against each other but rather a chaotic jungle - a server filled with 16 people, all out to fullfill their own needs - their "stats".
If you help out a teammate dispatching an enemy, you no longer receive a "thank you for your help" but rather "OMG N00B FRGSTELER!!!!!11". The fact that your opponent died means nothing - nothing - if he didn't die by *your* hands. Why? Because there is no such thing as "a team". It's every man for himself and the goal is not to aid your team to victory, but to kill as many people as possible regardless of the outcome. If you kill 4 people in a round, but your team still loses the round, you don't get any sense of defeat, but rather one of victory, even though you did in fact die and lose the round.
What's really annoying is that CS-players are gods - they are infallible. They never do anything wrong, and act accordingly. Try to reason with them, and you're a "OMG NOOB PLZ STFU", whatever that means. They are not people, but rather the Mindless Drones of The Internet (the MDotI) we see everywhere else, but only more so. Not are they only better represented in the game of Counter-strike than anywhere else on the web, but being in a situation as testosterone-filling as a combat-situation; it has a tendency to bring out the worst in people. Everyone's an expert. They've played more CS than anyone. They haven't been in the army or received any special education in the training of arms, but did I mentioned they've played lots and lots of Counter-strike? That makes them an expert. On everything, apparently. They know what to do, and if anyone tells them differently, they're an "OMFG PLZ STFU NOOB2K2", etc.
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Rant over! Time for another:
Bolty, where are you? Ol' Pete and me turned our keys simultaniously several hours ago.
To be honest, CS hasn't changed all that much, in my opinion. A few new weapons, some updated graphics and team-commands and somewhere along the line the aim went haywire if you held your fire-button in too long.
So what changed? Where did the tingly feeling go whenever my cursor would hover just slightly over the Cstrike-icon? The inevitable happened: CS got popular - really popular, real fast. An onslaught of pimple-faced dweebs and wannabe-military strategists overran the servers and filled them with their ominous presence. "1337"-speech didn't start all at once, but was built "word" for "word" increasingly by every mindless drone wanting to "|<1ck @zz" and "b3 c00l". Of course, with the appearance of the mute-function, one could simply ignore these pesky additions to your one-time favourite game. However, one could spot one of these people far away without even having to look at the way he expressed himself.
If you were to say the word "teamplay" in today's CS-community, you would be ridiculed. "OMG LOL PUBLIC FFS!!!111" meaning something like "Excuse me, sir, but I would have to disagree with you on the matter. When playing with strangers, one cannot expect any level of selflessness or team-spirit." Counter-strike is no longer a game with two teams pitted against each other but rather a chaotic jungle - a server filled with 16 people, all out to fullfill their own needs - their "stats".
If you help out a teammate dispatching an enemy, you no longer receive a "thank you for your help" but rather "OMG N00B FRGSTELER!!!!!11". The fact that your opponent died means nothing - nothing - if he didn't die by *your* hands. Why? Because there is no such thing as "a team". It's every man for himself and the goal is not to aid your team to victory, but to kill as many people as possible regardless of the outcome. If you kill 4 people in a round, but your team still loses the round, you don't get any sense of defeat, but rather one of victory, even though you did in fact die and lose the round.
What's really annoying is that CS-players are gods - they are infallible. They never do anything wrong, and act accordingly. Try to reason with them, and you're a "OMG NOOB PLZ STFU", whatever that means. They are not people, but rather the Mindless Drones of The Internet (the MDotI) we see everywhere else, but only more so. Not are they only better represented in the game of Counter-strike than anywhere else on the web, but being in a situation as testosterone-filling as a combat-situation; it has a tendency to bring out the worst in people. Everyone's an expert. They've played more CS than anyone. They haven't been in the army or received any special education in the training of arms, but did I mentioned they've played lots and lots of Counter-strike? That makes them an expert. On everything, apparently. They know what to do, and if anyone tells them differently, they're an "OMFG PLZ STFU NOOB2K2", etc.
-----------
Rant over! Time for another:
Bolty, where are you? Ol' Pete and me turned our keys simultaniously several hours ago.
