"You take the point"

Anyone who's known me long enough knows how much I've hated CS (and for the record, I'm talking about Counterstrike here, not Computer Science or that other thing from high school) for the past 3 years and how I'd basically take every opportunity to bash the game and anything and everything to do with it.

So I have a confession to make.

About a week ago, for some odd reason I decided to download and install CS Source. And I've been playing it just about every night with my roommates, including our 'adopted' roommate. (Sanju, I expect you'll be paying your share of the rent this month)

And the thing is, I actually enjoy the game. How's that for irony?

So that got me thinking, why did I hate the game in the first place? I used to play it a lot before I stopped. In fact I think I played it pretty frequently for a whole year. (at about during betas 5.x through 7.x) And the answer to that was obvious. I just couldn't stand the scene. Online, at LANs, the whole damn thing. Cheaters online. Immature 12 year olds with too much money at LAN places that have nothing better to do but scream out your location to their teammates once they die. And don't even get me started on the competitive scene. People playing for the sole purpose of simply beating the competition. It wasn't even about having fun anymore. (And on a side note, I think this is why I stopped playing Q3A/CPMA)

I got a lot more out of playing CS the past week than I ever did in that entire year. It's a lot more fun playing when your sole purpose isn't to win, and annihilate the competition.

So here's my advice to anyone wrapped up in the whole 'pro' gaming scene (and I know a few of you read this) - take some time out and start playing a random game you've never played before with a few friends. You'll be surprised at how much more fun it can be.

And that's the thought for the day.


On a completely unrelated note, I should note that playing Super Smash Bros. Melee has the same effect on your sense of time as weed in a hookah. Suffice to say that cooking while playing isn't a good idea, or you're probably going to end up with some very burnt pasta and smoke alarms going off all around your apartment.

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