The Case for Source by Casey

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Some time ago, while rumors were swirling about Valve’s newest project, there was talk in the community as to what would be the next big game, and how much longer Counter-Strike would last. Many new games have come and gone, but Counter-Strike has continued to thrive . A new era began with the official confirmation by Valve of Half-Life 2, and the Counter-Strike community was soon in uproar that no mention of an updated version of CS was made. Many CS players at the time demanded that Valve acknowledge the contributions of Counter-Strike to Half-Life’s success as the number one online FPS for years running, and release such an updated version of CS. Many demanded that this new version of CS be a free mod available to any owner of HL2, just as CS was to Half-Life. Others demanded that this new version be the same as the original, with only graphical updates. When it was confirmed that the newly dubbed Counter-Strike “Source” would be packaged for free with Half-Life 2, the community was once again abuzz. After months of anticipation, the community was finally given what it wanted. Or was it?

As the dust has settled, it has become somewhat of a consensus that Source has been rejected by much of the CS community, just as Condition-Zero was before it. While some are happy to finally be given a new chapter, for better or for worse, to a game well over 5 years old, others deem the new game as simply “not good enough” to replace the old CS. The future of Source is now up for debate, and much in the competitive gaming community is at stake either way. Thus, this presents several questions: What exactly is wrong with Source; what is right? Why has Source failed thus far to become the community’s game of choice? Who’s stopping Source? Why make the change? What does it take to make Source succeed?

While there are not clear answers to any of these questions, the community does itself a great disservice by not attempting to answer them. Thus, we shall examine some of the causes and possible solutions to the community’s issues with Source.