Many of us who grew up in the 90s are well aware of the popular first person shooter game, Counter-Strike. Being an avid fan of video gaming, I remember getting into trouble during my primary school days, for leaping out of school early and using my lunch money for Cyber Cafes. Counter-Strike really help developed me into a competitive gamer during my days back in college.

How did this small game evolved into a worldwide community today? Counter-Strike was first released in 1999 by Valve on PC platform. Started as Half-Life, when I first played the game, I was on the Single Player mode completing objectives before I actually head out for the real battle. I transformed from a gamer who knows nothing, not even what controls or weapons to choose, to an expert over the years. After a huge success, Counter-Strike 1.6 was then added in the frame, enabling both single players and multi-players to battle it out. The game is split into two teams: Counter-Terrorist and Terrorist,
with three objective, which is to either plant or defuse the bomb, rescue the hostages, and esorting a VIP in order to win the round.

There are different ranges of weapons and equipment to choose, from : Pistols, Sub-machine Guns, Shotgun, Riffle, Machine Gun and an assorted tray of grenades.
At the commencement of the game, each player are given a fixed $800 amount to buy weapons and more money can be obtained through killing an oppenent and rescuing hostages.
Players can also manually adjust the game setting so that a maximum monetary value of $16,000 can be added on.

The game itself is created by two creaters; Minhe Le and Jess Cliffe. Cliffe and Le went on creating a much more realistic gaming experience for gamers worldwide, launching Counter-Strike:Condition Zero, Source and the latest Counter-Strike, which is Global Offensive. Known as CS:GO, Valve released the game for all platforms including XBox and PlayStation 3 in 2012.
Since the game was first released, in terms of landscape, it has evolved into a much more futuristic look. Since its debut up until now, Counter-Strike has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide.

Though the game is continuously evolving, Counter-Strike still retains its strong user base, which proves to show that the community is continuously going strong.

Written by: Shazmyir Rahman