Much controversy has spawned since Justin Germain’s recent editorial piece debuted. Community reactions to his extremist views were rivaled only by the reactions to his own ill-conceived arguments. This is why I am choosing to write this editorial piece; I have become a self-appointed champion of the community, organizing their chaotic voices into some bombastically coherent statements.

We’ll begin by addressing the seemingly simple question: what is Counter-Strike? To even begin to answer this question we must adopt a multi-perspective approach. The game means many things to many different people, so we must first recognize their unique points of view. The following is a categorical list of types of gamers, and what Counter-Strike means to them

The Faces of Counter-Strike

The Casual Gamer – This is quite possibly the largest, most important, and most widely recognized category of gamer. These are people who game recreationally, losing interest in games as quickly as they gained interest. Their motives for playing Counter-Strike are shallow ones—their friends are playing, they have 15 minutes to kill, or they want to test the latest update. These people are primary targets for game companies, as they buy and play numerous games, never specializing in one game for an extended period of time. Through a slow evolution, Counter-Strike has adjusted itself to accommodate this category of gamer, ensuring that everyone—even the casual gamer—can get at least one kill.

The Competitor – These people primarily enjoy playing the game because of its immensely large following and tournament scene. To these people, Counter-Strike is just the medium arbitrarily designated for competition by the general gaming populous. Destrukt and Fatal1ty are very stereotypical competitor-type gamers.

The Rebellious – This category of gamer is best known as the “cheaters.” It entails those who cheat both to purposefully anger others or for recognition of being good at Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike’s immense popularity naturally attracts more game-cheat programmers, enabling cheaters to gain easy access and use of their cheats.

The Outcasts – Those who are shunned by their peers—perhaps for particularly indecent bodily odors—and those who just prefer solitude find that Counter-Strike caters to their condition. To these people, Counter-Strike becomes a portal, controlled by them, in which they can safely interact with people in an environment free of prejudice and shallow judgment. Anti-socials will often prefer online interaction to real-life interaction, but only a psychologist may know why for certain.

The Practical – These people are practical individuals—they take into consideration the cost of playing the game, the availability of the game, and heavily weigh the costs of a long-term investment in playing the game. Counter-Strike, as a daily activity, happens to be one of the cheapest methods of self-entertainment across a spectrum of activities. In addition, the player-base is so large that Counter-strike is available for play at any hour of the day or night. When comparing the costs of playing Counter-Strike to the cost of playing tennis in a club, Counter-Strike is the obvious choice for the practical.

The Miscellaneous – This includes novelty Counter-Strike playing dogs, Podbot v.1337, and anyone else unbefitting all other categories. Often times a miscellaneous will play Counter-Strike on the contingency of accidentally clicking the wrong icon on their desktop.

The Balance Scale: Positive Aspects of Counter-Strike

This may surprise some parents out there, but Counter-Strike can actually be beneficial to play. All too often, Counter-Strike is found to be at the mercy of an outdated tradition: generational-criticism. Have you ever heard stories of your grandmother lecturing your dad on the diabolical influences of rock n’ roll music? These sorts of brash and incomprehensive judgments can lead to stagnation in the societal acceptance of the game. I’m going to try to clear-up some misconceptions about Counter-Strike by first discussing the positive aspects to playing. Without further ado, I present to you the positive aspects to playing Counter-Strike:

Technology Education

Counter-Strike can drastically increase a person’s technological know-how by providing course material for those eager to learn. A computer programmer with nothing to program cannot learn simply by analyzing programming syntax. Instead, he needs a project in which he may submerge himself. Counter-Strike acts as this metaphorical project for a wide range of eager individuals.

To become more competitive, gamers actively learn the differences between competing computer hardware, so that they may augment their computers with the best technology. While configuring their games, they often learn advanced Windows skills such as dealing with file extensions, application proficiency, and editing the Windows registry. Counter-Strike also popularized the skills-movie, which dozens of people are learning to make on a daily basis. The skills involved in producing one of these movies include capturing and creating video, post-production editing, sound editing, and fluency in a plethora of digital-image programs. The list goes on and on, with Counter-Strike being credited as both the enabler and the catalyst for all these interactive teachings.