Youmantan: Video games, a closer look from the beginning - "Counter-Strike", the FPS benchmark that has been popular for 20 years

"Counter-Strike" has created one FPS myth after another. It has a history of 20 years but it is still enduring. From the beginning of "CS 1.5" when people were looking for rooms to play online under the local area network, to the rise of "CS: GO", the IP "Counter-Strike" is like a benchmark in the FPS game industry. Even though there are countless works of the same type in the game industry, it still cannot surpass its classics.

For players born in the 80s and 90s, Counter-Strike is undoubtedly their enlightenment in online shooting games. In that somewhat old gaming era, around 2003, the domestic gaming field ushered in a new dawn of online gaming. A wide variety of online games are flooded on the computer screens of various players, but it is difficult to find the game. But CS is different. As long as someone builds a room in an Internet cafe and yells "Is there anyone who plays CS?", they will definitely get a response. This is its original charm. No man will refuse a passionate online FPS game. . It is the 20th anniversary of CS. In this issue of "Electronic Games, a closer look from the beginning", Lao Tan will talk to you about "Counter-Strike, the FPS benchmark that has been popular for 20 years."

Back in the summer of 1999, the founders "Jesse Cliffe" and "Minh Lee" developed its MOD "Half-Life: Counter-Terrorism" based on the V agency shooting game "Half-Life" Elite". According to founder Jesse Cliffe: "Counter-Strike is a team-based game where one team plays the role of terrorists and the other team plays the role of Counter-Strike. Each side can use different guns and equipment. These guns and Equipment has different functions. Maps have different objectives: hostage rescue, assassination, bomb defusing, escape, etc."

Minh Lee at the LIFE-VIND launch event in Detroit on June 19, 1999. The beta 1.0 test version of "Counter-Strike" arrived as promised and immediately caused a stir in the gaming industry. Countless players came to participate in the test that month. In subsequent interviews, the two founders said they had never imagined such a popular scene. In the next two or three years, the sales of "Half-Life" will skyrocket, and this group of players who have just started playing the game only come here for the "Counter-Strike" MOD.

There was an episode about the birth of the name Counter-Strike. At that time, the two were intensively making final preparations for the game, but they still had not named this MOD. The two of them reached the final conclusion in just three sentences during their communication. No one would have thought in the future that "Counter-Strike", which was once hastily named in three sentences, would start its 20-year legendary career as a long-lasting shooting game.

Speaking of the way "Counter-Strike" first entered the country, veteran players must have been deeply impressed. The character modeling that even looks a little weird, the blurry oversized pixels, and the various scenes that are too simple to look at directly cannot be described as excellent picture quality, but it has achieved amazing success. During the most glorious period of "CS 1.5", it appeared on the computer screens of almost all Internet cafes in China. In any place that can be connected to a local area network, including computer rooms in primary and secondary schools, you will most likely be able to search for rooms built by players when you open "CS 1.5". Having said that, considering the development status of games in China, the success of "CS 1.5" is inevitable, and its decline in popularity is completely in line with the trend of electronic games.

The development process of China's games is bumpy, but macroscopically speaking, it just started late. Regarding the mainstream wave of the entire game field, China has not gone too far. When an excellent multiplayer game appears, it will always be shot on the beach, regardless of type or group of people.

The last grand event of "CS 1.5" was around 2003, and when Blizzard's "World of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne" began to be introduced into the country, it instantly brought players into the paradise of MOBA games. There is no doubt that "The Frozen Throne" with its cool special effects and rich gameplay is more likely to arouse the excitement of players. The dominance of "CS 1.5" has finally changed hands. The group of loyal players who are still persisting no longer appear on the local area network and have moved to various battle platforms. There is no longer the grand occasion of "chugging tug tug" together in the entire Internet cafe.

As we all know, the gaming industry will be dominated by online games 15 years ago. Even so, the emergence of the final version of Counter-Strike "CS1.6" still achieved 25 million sales. It is no exaggeration to say that "CS 1.6" can be described as "debut is the peak". After groping and trying on the previous version, "CS 1.6" finally optimized every detail to make it more suitable for "e-sports". Yes, esports has become the ultimate core of Counter-Strike.

Looking back on the years when "CS 1.6" was all-powerful, it was the most dazzling FPS team competition game in the world for the entire eight years from 2004 to 2012. Just like the popular League of Legends today, you could definitely see "CS 1.6" in any comprehensive international e-sports event at that time. Its re-emergence in China can only be traced back to the WEG e-sports competition in 2005. At that time, the Chinese team "wNw" won the championship of the "CS 1.6" team competition, which instantly ignited the enthusiasm of ordinary players and attracted many new players. An influx of old players returned, and the scene was so spectacular.

Seeing that "CS 1.6", which is gradually becoming an e-sports game, has become mainstream, various Internet cafes in the country have begun to follow suit and transform "e-sports" into a business model. I still remember that at that time, Internet cafes were always hosting so-called competitions, attracting countless passers-by to watch. Counter-Strike became popular all over the country again, maintaining its popularity for a full 8 years. Of course, because "CS 1.6" has won the hearts of the people, the follow-up games that the official is preparing to release have been repeatedly shelved.

Every day, countless manufacturers are eyeing the cake of the game market, especially hot products like "CS 1.6" are even more popular. Finally, when the popularity of Counter-Strike gradually declined, "Crossfire" began to seize the "Counter-Strike FPS market" in online games. It has almost the same gameplay and the same scene, but "Cross Fire" has unique environmental advantages, instantly dividing most of the FPS game market. What if other manufacturers see this? I want a piece of such an attractive cake. So at the end of 2008, a Korean company obtained the authorization of Valve’s “Counter-Strike” and transformed it into an online game to create “Counter-Strike Online”.

"Counter-Strike Online" was born for only one reason, to attract players' money from China. After all, "CrossFire" next door earns astronomical figures every year, so there must be some players who want to try new games. However, "Counter-Terrorism OL" made a mistake in calculating the unique advantage of the landing environment. Since Tencent intervened in CF, the number of simultaneous online players has been increasing day by day. However, "Counter-Terrorism OL" and "Counter-Terrorism OL2" represented by "Century Tiancheng" have been in decline due to pressure from various aspects, until they completely withdraw from the FPS online game stage.

Since the peak glory of "CS 1.6", Valve has been constantly trying new ways. After all, the IP content of "Counter-Strike" is rich. However, the various attempts made during this period, such as "Counter-Strike: CZ" and "Counter-Strike: S", failed completely without exception. From 1999 to 2019, "Counter-Strike" has never been forgotten by players in the past 20 years, but it accidentally got lost halfway. Fortunately, V Agency finally settled down to explore every value of it and saved the "Counter-Strike" IP. As the saying goes, to untie the bell, you must tie the bell. The emergence of "CS: GO" is responsible for taking over the task of "CS1.6".

?In order to allow "Counter-Strike" to achieve greater success, Valve proactively cut off all support for "CS 1.6" events, causing almost all e-sports event organizers and professional players who were watching to decide Move to a new game. It only took less than a year for the two to successfully complete the replacement. After the unboxing system was launched, players who were resistant to it gradually gave in and became addicted to it.

20 years of ups and downs, 20 years of never giving up. "Counter-Strike" is no longer just V's money-drawing brand, it carries the feelings and memories of countless old players. Maybe there will still be newbies joining the "anti-terrorism" camp in the future. When we tell them about the past 20 years of gaming, we should also be able to help but smile.