So what happens when the ideals of a commercial world impose upon the ideals of a community/free project? Does it get better or worse? These are just some of the questions people have been asking themselves since CounterStrike became a semi-commercial product.

The problem comes when you realise that you can't have two separate product lines and even with the greatest of freedom, you can't expect a commercial product to require the update of a new version every other week, although many often do despite that.

So whether CS likes it or not, ultimately both the free and commercial ends must remain compatible and connected, meaning major additions on a semi-regular (monthly) basis are almost totally out of the question. CounterStrikes problem is that this is why many people kept playing it, every other month or two it'd change (rarely the core elements), often quite dramatically.

Nobody likes an old horse, they are only good for eating =)

The fact is that unless you're truly hardcore, then levels, gameplay and weapons eventually start to bore. Now that CS is commercial this could impact the community, although it's not as if this wasn't going to happen anyway, every project, game and development fades given enough time.

We've been playing CS since Beta one and we can't remember a single night when we haven't logged into a server and fragged a few off. However the effect of commercialisation has already started to take its toll on CS, although slow, it could escalate if nothing is done.

Next >>

<< Previous