Counter-Strike & Terrorism

People still play this game? Shit...

Here's an interesting twist, how is this going to work technically inside the game? Since de_xxxx maps are CT's on defense, and cs_maps are CT's on offense, you could not simply replace all occurrences of "Counter-Terrorist" with "Defensive Team", unless you limited the map selection to just de_ maps (and forget about cs_ and as_ maps), otherwise there would be some cs_ maps where the CT's (now "Defensive Team") would actually be on the offensive.

How would you justify that one team has access to certain weapons, and the other team does not, since there is no longer a name-associated distinction between CT's (which would traditionally be government-sponsored anti-terrorst teams) and T's (which have widely varying support bases).

This is a sensible choice and I agree with Steve's assertion that Intel probably had a big hand in this. However, given the fact that the CPL will probably get no more mainstream air- or press-time than the normal amount of CS playing, I'm not sure that this will really do much more than make some marketing and business people at Intel feel happy about sponsoring an event where kids still get together and virtually shoot each other in the head. At least it doesn't have the word Terrorist in it though.

Well on the surface, it's a silly move. I very much hope the actuall game is not changed in ANY way. That would be a terrible loss.

However, I can understand why Intel have taken this step. I mean can you imagine the headlines.. if some news site went a little overboard and said Intel had supported a terrorism game.. possible bad press there. I mean they could have just said "Ok, no CS" and got rid of the entire game.. so they deserve some credit for keeping it there.

However, anything more would just be stupid. Terrorism excisted before Sep 11th, people need to remember that.

What was that saying? "The coverup is always worse than the crime." I can just imagine some clever journos grabbing this and saying "Look, they changed the names. They're hiding something! They have something to be ashamed of!"

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if the media want to nail CS in the hindquarters, they'll do it if the teams are terrorist and counterterrorist, offensive and defensive, Tango and Nato, Red and Blue, or Tweedledum and Tweedledubblya.

Remember that news article that said "In Blue Shift for Half Life, the child is rewarded for shooting security guards and taking their guns." If someone can misunderstand Blue Shift that much AND hold a job in journalism AND get it past their editor, then CS is open season.

"In this realistic and violent game, the player either plays as a terrorist-type individual, or as a counter-terrorist. In hostage rescue maps, counter-terrorists are rewarded for shooting hostages because providing that half the hostages are rescued, those remaining are 'acceptable losses'. In an appalling display we saw a player slash and hack at hostages with a knife, and in the next 'round' firing his Steyr rifle upon his teammates so we could 'see their blood splatter on the wall'..."

If they want to print something like that, there isn't anything to stop them except journalistic integrity and the ability to see reason. We're boned.

Buy AMD!

Lame and weak.

Revisionist history at work.

I can see altering a game that hasn't gone to market yet, but not a game that's been out 2 years.

Lame.

You know Steve, I don't understand why you don't applaud this decision. I do. I think its a really good one. I mean they are being very logical. Its true that journalists would jump all over this, and they are doing it for the sake of preserving and evolving competitive gaming for a long time. In a sense, I sort of see it as being very clever and debonair.

Like you said, the game hasn't changed at all, just the names of things. If the CPL was going to be all hardassed and "stick to their guns" I would just see it as being cocky. Given the state of the world and recent events, I think this gives the gaming community one up on the media. Its like the gaming community can twist words around without making anything different...just like the media does.

I don't like to think this would be a trend now or something, but for these given circumstances, I think its really smart.

WE GOT YOUR NUMBER, MEDIA! WE GOT ALL YOUR NUMBERS.

The CPL and Intel still suck... =D

Let me get it out of the way right from the start, that I aboslutely hate the Media (and by "Media", I of course mean "mainstream media", ie: TV, papers, etc). However, this is not the Media's fault.

"WHAT?!", you scream? Think for a second, why is it potentially bad for us if these events get negative media coverage? If all the papers and TV talking heads put out stories about how games are celebrating terrorism or training us to be killers or whatever, so what? It's only stupid journalistic mud-slinging, what harm can it do us?
Well DUH, the reason we're scared of bad media coverage is because we know it will lead to censorship. But, bear with me a moment while I pester you with yet another rhetorical question, WHO has the power to censor?

THE GOVERNMENT.

If gov't didn't have the power of censorship, then stupid Media would just be an annoyance. Without the specter of Congress or the FCC clamping down on them, would game publishers have ever even considered the ESRB? I doubt it. After all, unlike the MPAA's rating system, the ESRB isn't even enforced by 90% of software retailers, so it's not like the industry actually feels they have to police themselves. The only reason the ESRB exists is to put up the illusion of "protecting the children" so all the neo-fascist thought-police types will go back to being bad parents to their own kids instead of trying to take our games away.

And please, spare me the "Censorship? We don't have any censorship!" tripe, because we both know it's bullshit. There are official FCC rules about what you can and can't say, show, and/or talk about in print and broadcast media. Neither federal Congress nor the Supreme Court give a flying fuck about the 1st Amendment, and you know it.

Anyway, the point is that as much as we all (justifiably) hate The Media, the problem rests with The Government.

Smash The State, Vote Libertarian. www.lp.org


MoNsTeR

fuck intel!!!!!!!!!

Guess I should throw out my 'Die Hard' movies, should be illegal to watch them next week.

Yeah well said sTeve ..............These ppl(Intel) are making the event possible in the first place by handing over money so this is fair if you dont like it pay for the event yourself.

I got a call at work from a fellow writing a article about violent games. Some of the points he brought up...damn. I think if the media latches violent games we will see censorship or something else bad maybe. This guy was trying to get me to say something bad about games like Counterstrike, Grand Theft Auto 3, etc. I basically thwarted him and told him a gamer POV. He was happy I was honest, but I could hear his disheartenment because my lack of hate for evil games!

I can just see horrible stories about games now, with the xbox coming out, gamecube, ps2 games, damn the media would have a field day, and they would love to latch on to it because this anthrax stuff is getting old. :(

As long as Valve doesn't change the regular Counter-Strike with these watered-down team names, that's fine. Custom versions of games for events are ok, but once they get into your home, it'll be time to start screaming against Big Brother.

Fucking media. More anthrax for the media, says I. Bastards. They ruin everything.

-J

chalk one point up for the terrorists. The 9/11 attack is going to change just about every part of our everyday life in some way, just what they wanted to accomplish. Sad that we fall into that trap of fear and second guessing ourselves, but it seems inevitable.

"You think Intel wants press that has been historically critical of gaming and violence showing up at an event that has their name all over it where in the finals people are cheering for and glorifying a victory of possibly the "terrorist team"?"

On that reasoning, you wonder why they're still happy to have their name all over an event in which shooting people in the head is counted as "a good thing". Especially since most high school shootings have to do with exactly that - shooting - and the misuse of guns, not terrorist activities.

Just fix it so the terrorists lose every round. Then play "God Bless America." Besides, the media is too busy whipping themselves into a panic over this anthrax "scare" (and I use that term very loosely). Stoopid media, go rot.

hahaha fucking wussies.

NOTE:The following is a joke. Don't let it ruin your day. I repeat the following is a joke. Viewer discression advised.

They should replace the Terrorists guns with white powder.

if it sorta looks like a duck, but doesn't quack like a duck and doesn't fly... is it still a duck?

omg it's a chicken!

Hello, and thank you for joining my slippery slope.

Setting a precedence such as this is a dangerous thing. Most people think "big deal its just for a tourney", until every group, parent, school, etc. starts refering to this decision, to try and push laws, ordinances, bans and so on. I can already hear the parents "if its so bad they have to change it for the tourney then its bad enough my kid shouldn't be subject to it". Anytime you start to sensor something, no good becomes of it.

ok so the bomb is there.

what about hostage maps?

I really don't know why we have to suddenly be so sensitive in video games anymore. There's 2 things. There's censoring to keep me from crying in the middle of a de_dust game, which iwll not happen. And there's censoring to keep media from being offended. I think it's to keep the media out, our wonderful enforcer of patriotic values. If we screwed over other countrys, or other countrys got screwed over without us, there would be no changes, not even considered. What happened to us is usual in other countrys, and if we change every part of our entertainment to filter out reality it's going to suck. I really don't give a shit, until i see on CNN that the world is aghast when Bin Laden's goons blow up 5 wooden crates.

I think it's just everyone involved trying to take the edge off a game that they see is OBVIOUSLY going to be offensive to onlookers given recent events. And probably NOT just Intel.

So which does the CPL want to do? Please the gamers by playing the most popular game? or please the sponsors and media by playing a game that doesn't raise any media eye-brows? I don't think their changes to a couple of words and .wav files in CS are enough to do that. And even if it IS, you can't expect to keep doing that forever. We like violent games.

Eventually competitive gaming will be forced to stay underground where we can play the violent games all of us love to play, not worrying that they will be changed (even on the SMALLEST scale) because they are afraid of bad press. Otherwise, it's like #13 said: we'll all be asked to play Chess.

Which by the way, is technically turnbased "Protect the VIP" with unrecognizable representations of PEOPLE DYING HORRIBLY ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE IN AN ATTEMPT TO KILL A GOVERNMENT LEADER.

Terrorists Win!

Offensive Team Wins!!!

* O F F T O P I C ' D *:

A SWAT Officer reports to his higher-ups:
   - Sorry, we couldn't get hostages to safety in time because Terrorists
   are losers campers.

This World Is Fucked!!!!

what's in a name? well let's protect the sensitivities of the press anyway!

If the sponsors want to censor the competition, they're not being very good sponsors at all. "Yeah, we're interested in associating our products with your contest .. but .. well, we want you to change it for us."

You are probably right, and it's just capitulating to the needs of the corpret economy...but to some degree I can hope that it is the Gaming industry showing a little maturity and sensitivity. There is a HUGE differance between watching what you say in respect of thousands who have lost there lives (for real, horrably dead, repeat real violence and terrorism) and being censored, or watching what you say because the media might percive it as bad.

If the media were exerting pressure on games involving terrorists and saying that they encouraged terrorism then I'd say get your heads out of your a$$es and get a life. But this is about a real event, about thousands of horrable deaths, and the CPL has in no way compromised it's principals by showing a little respect.

"Explosive device", not a "bomb".

Then I will play with my AK-47 "projectiles device" and kill the other players, which are merely "flesh devices", throw them my "fragmentation device", and then, when I run out of ammo, use my "cutting device" to hit them. Yeah.

It's the DEVICE-STRIKE!

If someone asks me to describe CS, I would prolly say: "Think Cops and Robbers, with better guns." You could change the Terrorists to Robbers, and the CT's to Cops, and they're ya go.

Yes I know the maps would not really match this, but CS is a ongoing battle between good and evil, same as other video games/movies have done for years. Besides, the attack in September occured after CS had existed for how many years ? (2 maybe?).

My three cents (Instead of two cents! Im rich)

-MadMatt

"Humans, what an amusing species"-Furry Bug

I think perhaps instead of offensive and defensive, they should have called the teams "demons" and "marines".

I bet that would have gone over well.

now I can't be a terrorist cause of a couble of rags terrorists? Man... one bad apple ruins it for everyone.

--Loco3KGT

The exploding cell-phone has been planted!