Counter-Strike in the good ol' days...

[Mindliner]

... of course, i can't really say much about "the good ol' days" seeing as i've only been playing since after beta7. However i have realized something: The counter-strike community, to put it simply, has changed. No longer do i join a server, greet everyone, and have a good time. Instead i am "greeted" with comments like "stfu n00b," "you cheater," "you are an idiot," etc...

I know this is partly due to Counter-Strike's retail release, and the overall popularity of the mod. I shouldn't say it used to be an underground mod, as it was still very popular before it was put on shelves, however i still think that the increase in users has greatly affected the personalities of the individuals who play the game. The counter-strike community mostly consists of jerks... plain and simple. It seems as thought the only servers i can join and have fun in, are 6 person max servers. Even then, there is that sour grape that calls you an awp whore, or an aimbot-using wall-hacker, just because he got owned.

That's another thing... Counter-Strike has become easy. With no new gameplay elements, challenges, scenerios, maps, etc, Counter-Strike lacks the element of development. I remember waiting eagerly for CS 1.0 to be released, only to be GREATLY dissapointed. It was as though gameplay had taken a totally different turn, and had become "just another mod." It was almost as if the Counter-Strike developers were beginning to attempt to please the masses, rather than the people who wanted a GENUINE, realistic, tactical, FUN, fps. Of course, i suppose you can't totally blame them; they would soon be paid for their brilliant mod. This sudden popularity boom reminds me of a personal story. In my webmastery class at my highschool, i brought a rip of Serious Sam to play when i was bored. We stuck it on a couple computers, and played on the school's LAN, trying our hardest to ignore the horrible complag (who knew P3 500's with 256mb of RAM could chug with Serious Sam's BEAUTIFUL engine?!). Soon, people asked if they could put it on their computer. "sure, why not" i thought. Of course, it spread... soon enough, EVERYONE that was taking a technology-related course was using serious sam like it was cocaine. This, of course, got very frustrating, as lamers would enter our servers and just make the game not fun... this is EXACTLY what happened to counter-strike.

Another contributing factor to the decline in Counter-Strikes vital fun element, is, in my opinion, voice communication. I realize that is not a Counter-Strike exclusive feature. Still, it just gives obnoxious jerks a chance to scream and yell, and be general morons. Sure, you can mute them, but the fact remains that they are idiots, and you are playing with idiots... Yes, i know this is a small thing, but hey, Counter-Strike in its purest form is what we want.

This sounds crazy, but another thing that makes Counter-Strike feel different is a Broadband connection. I used to use 56k, thinking it was unbearable... I got swbell DSL and was the happiest person alive, but for some reason, it felt as if something was missing. I sometimes consider sticking my old isa modem in and tryin CS on 56k, just to see if i could revive the old feeling. Sorry =P

Back on the subject of the community (which is my main complaint anyway), i used to play on a server cluster named The Mourning After. Fun times. If anyone reading this used to play here, tell me what you think about Counter-Strike today. It's sad that i've forgotten the names of most of the clans, but a few that stick out right now are TX, BZCGC, UGP, W-A-R, and of course, the infamous CK3. All great guys. The Mourning After was just a great place to be; you could always enter a server and find at least 3 people you knew, or had played with previously, who's names you remembered. Eventually even Mourning After became contaminated with idiots. My clanmates and I would repeatedly comment on how "Mourning After is being overrun by idiots", etc. It was sad, but true. Soon, the server cluster was shut down, after linenoise, the owner of the community, recieved a job with GODgames, and moved to asia.

Every once-in-a-while, i run into farmiliar faces, names, and people i used to know who are playing under different names. It's always fun to meet up with someone, and recognize their name, or vice-versa. I sometimes wonder what everyone is up to now... maybe they've gotten over their Counter-Strike addiction =)

Despite my dissapointments, I continue to play counter-strike. I still believe it is the best mod out there, but it isn't as great as it used to be.

If anyone played on Mourning After, or has played with the clan Divine Vindication, stick a reply on this sucker. We'd love to hear from you.

DV(Mindliner) - me (previously aka Nameci)
DV(Maleficus) - clan leader (previously aka [W-A-R]Maleficus)
DV(Deus) - member (previously aka Warhacker)
DV(Extrarius) - member (always been Extrarius =)
DV(Virtual Affliction) - member (aka bs2455, Evl, rwahh, he's got tons of em)







Maleficus (ICQ#XXXXXXX) Wrote:
lol if u been following CS for a while you can see a total change in attitude. i think CS (in terms of development) is dead. period.

www.counter-strike.net

 

[Maleficus]

MourningAfter was great. A well admined server with overall a good population. It's impossible to play without getting banned nowadays, all but 1 of the last i'd say 10 servers i have played in have banned me for some form of cheat. All the admins out there are obnoxious and quick to jump the gun.

I played CS Beta 1 hated the game and tried it when it reached Beta 5 and loved it. Been playing it ever since, but updates got less and less frequent and "innovation" in the game kinda died. Less good maps, virtually no new guns.

I really enjoyed the AT Counter-Strike game i played in a couple months back, we should have another.

O btw if anyone wants a really funny file as an example of voice comm idiocy, we have a prime example. If someone would like to host it i'll send it. EXTREME PROFANITY though.

 

[Rent]

I know the feeling.

I used to play feverantly a year ago. I honestly loved the game as it had the right elements at the right levels. However, I chose to stop playing in my clan and I stopped playing almost alltogether. I got DSL earlier this year and picked it up again. Wow. CS turned to sh!t VERY quickly after it went retail.

I remember the Mourning After servers. I didn't play on them all the time, however, I had them in my favorites list. I usually played on Domain of Games where I was generally well known. Now, as I look at them, they are full of kids that automatically call you a cheater if you get a headshot on them, people that bitch and moan about going 0 and 20 cause they suck ass (oh, but they're really awesome :disgust: )

I've stopped playing CS. I play a few rounds every now and again, but CS is not worth playing in its current state. I've played it since beta 1 where gun running and para ownage in the weapons factory level was king. I played when people were too stupid to know what camping was and when people knew someone was genuinely good, not some script kiddie.

I hope CS dies in the upcoming year. I hope people realize there is a WORLD of other games out there and they can all be just as fun, if not more fun.

 

[Ns1]

Been playing since beta 2.1, stopped right before 1.0, started again when I upgraded my computer, and you're right, it's totally not the same thing


Back in the days of cs_docks cs_seige cs_facility cs_ship and a few notable others, it was freaking crazy. Maybe it's cause we all sucked. Maybe it was cause the game had so many bugs and abuses (ghost flash light, ghosts opening doors, changing your name to where the opponents where), maybe it was because your opponent was running guns and you were pissed off

But hey, they were all legitimate strategies, and everybody enjoyed them. It was something new. It was something that you and a few thousand (maybe 2-3) others enjoyed at any given day and time.

But, along with EVERYTHING IN LIFE, when something grows in popularity, it goes downhill. Let's see exactly what we can attribute it to. Overzealous admins, cheaters, and lamers in general.

With the huge massive influx of asians (don't deny it, you know it's true. SC, BW, D2, UO), CS wasn't a game anymore. It was the trendy thing to do. All these goddamn pc bangs opened up, and then everybody and their mom started playing.

Then of course we gotta blame the cheaters. I mean w-t-f. What the hell is the point of playing if you can see through walls or have the computer automatically aim for you. It's utterly pointless. Because of the cheaters, we began to turn on the legitimate people. People who are really l33t, are accused of being cheaters. And the l33t people get pissed off, and get tired of dealing with all this bullshiet, and then leave. What do you have left? A bunch of newbies that think they're the shiet who are og l33t hax0rs.

Whatever, I'm over counterstrike. One more jaded cs'er to the pile.

 

[Celstar]

I've been playing since ... 1 month ago.

I have no idea how it is like to play in a non-cheating server. Last year all I kept reading about was CS CS CS!!, back when the games were legit and the players were naturally awesome.

I really missed out as I just discovered this is a kick ass game... *sigh*

 

[Killbot]

Interesting reading,
I've been playing since beta 7, haven't noticed much of a difference really until I read this posting and thought about it for abit. I think since ver. 1.0 came out things have got worse. Neuro got it right, its the knock on effect of the cheaters, I'm not that great at the game, but even I've been kick occasionally, for good players must just put them right off the game.

Think some of the happiest games I've had have been with afew friends, and no accusations of any sort going on, can't remember if our clan won or lost, just remember having a good laugh about things. Just gets annoying when you pull off a random headshot (which you know was lucky) and you then have to put up with some kid moaning, and giving you abuse about it for the rest of the game.
Still, I love the game, the clan I'm in is just a bunch of mates I work with, and we're just in it for a laugh, but the sooner we sort out our own server where we can hide away from the morons and just have a laugh, the better.

 

[sandorski]

Well, yea it is really sucky these days. I've only been accused of cheating once, but that didn't bother me. What did bother me was getting kicked from a server after killing the Administrator 2 rounds consecutively, in the same spot. The first time was camping at the top of the stairs at the T spawn on Trainyard. The admin flipped because I was camping, which I was for all of 10 seconds?! Next round comes around I go back to the same spot and after 2 seconds the Admin comes running up the stairs, I pop him, then get pummeled with a string of profanity ended with a "I hate f***** campers, good bye!". As I sat looking at the console, part of my love for CS died.

The next big blow was about 1 year back when the speed cheat came out. Every server I tried playing on would have some idiot using that cheat. I decided to take a break from CS and play TFC, same thing. Tried DoD and FLF, same lame thing. For 3 months I just quit playing any Half Life mods and all I really played after that was DoD. On occassion now I'll play some CS and sometimes it's half decent. Last night though was just another nail in the coffin for CS. 3 servers, each were a pain. The first server was running bots that were Uber Bots, no fun. Next server was half filled with Uber stupid bots. Third server had no bots, but 5-6 people using various cheats.

I first played beta 5.(something), but didn't really start getting addicted until beta 6. It was a blast and the only complaint heard was perhaps AWP whoreing with the occassional Newb complaing about camping. Those were the days, too bad they are long gone for CS.

I mostly play RTCW online now, there are certainly idiots tk'ing and blocking exits and whatnot, but so far there are no cheats.

 

[Shack70]

I've been playing about the same amopunt of time (Beta 7). I hang at Striker2K . We have a really great group of people and the server admin trys too keep things new. Lately anti-cheat is a big thing, but we have a good home. We would love to see some new faces. Drop by some time!

I play as BlackFlagg

 

[NicColt]

>As I sat looking at the console, part of my love for CS died

Jeez you've all hit it right on the head, and even if there were no cheats in CS anymore, banana admins are running this game and I feel exactly like sandorski, I got headshot by someone jumping with a glock from across the map, this happened several times - lucky, I don't think so. and the other time it did it for me was when I was following someone in camera view and obviously was map hacking and the other poor fella who was obviously trying to find him never had a chance. and it turned out he was the admin. and also the fact that punkbuster went bye bye.

I havent had HL or CS on my putter now for over two months and it feels good. RTCW has some minor anoyances but overall I like the teamplay and scoreboard method. You have a few idiots but even those are minor compared to CS.

Here's what RTCW needs, when you shoot your own teamate in non-ff mode that it makes him move a few inches. TKers in FF get's kicked automatically for an hour after 5 tk's unless you forgive TK in the voting.

Airstrikes are a little to anoying. On beach I died 9 times in a row, give me a break.