FPS World is a modern spin on the pop-up shooting gallery with a gaming-themed spin.  

"I gave it a try and for about three bucks you get forty shots of semi auto action," says South Korean-based reader Peter. "You get to slap a second magazine in and the shooting range is done up to look like a typical fps scene."

Though one is obviously dwarfed by the comparison, both figures are impressive in their own right. And both speak to the health of their form of multiplayer gaming. For console games like Modern Warfare 2, multiplayer's meteoric growth is commonly understood. But for LAN parties, still playing games like Counter-Strike, their resilience and persistence are most frequently seen among college-age gamers on campus.

"If anything, I think it's growing" says Nathan Etzell, a senior at Oregon State University, whose 300-member OSU Gaming organization has a prewired, 30-person LAN room at the bottom of a dormitory where at least two large parties are held per term. In January, his club will meet the University of Oregon in the second "Civil War LAN," a gaming tournament named after the schools' football rivalry.

But there is a sense that the PC LAN party — like fraternity parties, all-nighters, streaking, whatever — are something whose time and place comes on a college campus. Out in the cold hard world, PC LAN and direct server support in new titles is dwindling in favor of console multiplayer and proprietary hosting services. Most notably, StarCraft II will not support LAN gaming as it shifts to Blizzard's Battle.net. And dedicated servers are out under Modern Warfare 2, which is now running multiplayer with a combination of Steam and the recently created IW.net for Modern Warfare 2. Both sequels' predecessors had a strong history in dedicated servers and LAN gaming, leaving some gamers feeling betrayed, and some LAN enthusiasts feeling marginalized.

LAN gaming is not gone from the off-campus civilian world. But annual convention hall events with big budgets, entry fees, prizes and sponsorships are different creatures from six people linking up to play Warcraft III. While the former will definitely still happen after you graduate, the latter is less likely. Those six-people sessions are most likely made among fellow gamers, who are likely to find each other in a class, or perusing a bulletin board in a student union.

"Their age group usually involves a lot of what PC gamers are," says Keegan Gormley, whose Big City Gaming in downtown Eugene, Ore. offers constant system-linked gaming and monthly tournaments. "They're mostly college-age students who, in their spare time, enjoy playing a game like Counter-Strike, or another game they've played for a long time."

The players in his $5-an-hour "stadium," — eight consoles connected to high definition, Major League Gaming-standard panel monitors - are largely middle- and high-schoolers, Gormley said. Younger kids are less likely to LAN, he said, because of the accessibility of consoles and the desirability of their most current games.

"There's much more deep-rooting in PC gaming," Gormley said. "Someone who gets into a game on the PC can end up playing it for years," he said. "On consoles, I've seen people drop Halo for Call of Duty, then drop Call of Duty for Flashpoint. For PC gamers, mostly, it's whatever they originally clicked on and killed with."

And that helps explain the persistence of LAN gaming. The standbys of a LAN party are usually real-time strategy games such as StarCraft, or WarCraft III, then shooters such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress 2 and Unreal Tournament. TF2 is the most recent of these, releasing in 2007, with others having roots going back to the late 1990s. There's a reason for this.

"It's what people are good at," said Patrick Chinn, one of the University of Oregon organizers for the Civil War LAN, which will be held Jan. 22-23. "One reason people want to play an older game like Counter-Strike is because they've played it a long time and they've gotten good at it. We've done tournaments for games that are brand new, and there'll be some attendance, but they're not as well played."

Plus, by this point, the support histories for the games have either controlled for or patched out of existence most means of cheating. "The tactics in a game like Counter Strike have become so refined that there's no real dick move you can pull," says Dylan Leeds, a senior majoring in digital art at Oregon. And for whatever in-game legislation doesn't cover, LAN gaming offers another control: Being physically in the presence of your opponent. It cuts down on ragequits and unsporting behavior.

"You're more likely to respect someone if you know you're going to see interact with them after the game," he said.

And that speaks to another quality of LAN gaming that, unlike its numbers, can't be replicated or really improved: the human contact of it all.

"If you're playing online by yourself, the hype's really not there," said Josh Bothun, an Oregon senior majoring in computer science and music technology. "It's like you have to intentionally create it for yourself, but you get a completely different experience when people are around you."

LAN parties have an anecdotal culture that just can't be replicated by solitary multiplayer gaming. Often stretching 24 hours or more, they're salted with tales of inside jokes and hyper-caffeination. At major tournaments in the civilian world, bragging about casemods and your rig are their own sideshow, similar to a custom-car show.

"It's more about community," says Gormley, the game store owner. "It's being able to shoulder-shove the person you just killed. It's less about yelling at someone over a mic, and more about actually giving that person the evil eye.

"It gets so elitist online, sometimes," he continued. "It seems like a lot of people don't want to play online console games because they don't get the game in its first week, don't level up their character in time, and then they feel like they can't compete."

It might be easy to assume that anything other than gaming over the Internet, as opposed to a LAN or WAN, is redundant, a relic, or headed for obscurity. But system-linked games bring something to the room that proprietary multiplayer services can't: One's friends.

To use an apt college metaphor: "It's like drinking online versus drinking with friends," Chinn said. "Drinking a couple of beers and IMing with friends is not nearly as much fun as actually drinking with your friends."

Nowhere is the realization of flight grander or more satisfying than in video games. When done right, flying in a game can leave a lasting impression on both players and developers that impacts every game they play or make going forward.

Telltale Games designer Mike Stemmle pointed this out while demoing Tales of Monkey Island Episode 3 for me in September. I asked what gameplay inspirations helped him develop for Monkey Island and after a moment's pause he said, "Kingdom Hearts."

"Oh, because it has pirates?" I asked.

"No," he said. "It's the flying." The way the game introduces flying the player -– about halfway through its storyline after you've been running and jumping on the ground the whole time -– was like a revelation in game design for him. "Because once you get [to fly in Never Land], it's like you knew it was coming. It just felt right."

There's a fantasy fulfillment that comes with flying in video games. And even if flying in a game is just another way to get from point A to point B, it's appealing to a part of your senses that you don't use very much in everyday gameplay.

"We live in a very X, Y world," Dark Void Senior Producer Morgan Gray said. A veteran of flight games like X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and X-Wing Alliance, he knows his Z axis and isn't afraid to build his games around it. "If you look at … shooters, when they first came out, everything was flat. [There was] a roof over your head and walls on all sides. It was only really when you got to games … where you had enemies [above or below you] where you had to start exploring the Z axis."

Like Doom players that had to learn to use the mouse to enjoy Quake, your average gamer has to put in effort to master flight. Instead of thinking in only one or two directions, he or she has to think in a 360 degree bubble where enemies can come from any angle. They have to be aware of their character's (or aircraft's) physics so that they don't get lost when trying to execute a turn. Some games make it easier for the player by limiting the range of flight to forward-only like Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon; other games like Dark Void layer on tutorial after tutorial to make absolutely sure you internalize the controls before cutting you loose in the wild blue yonder.

By that same token, developers without Gray's flight-filled background have to work a lot harder to implement flying. Whereas Gray can look back over both his career and his childhood and see Chuck Yeager's face mocking him after Gray had crashed and burned in Advanced Flight Training, some developers only have memories of Star Fox or Wing Commander as their flying inspiration. They don't realize that there's more to flight than getting off the ground.

"Don't get me wrong," says Gray. "[Wing Commander's] level design was great, the ship design was great, progression was great. The actual nuts and bolts of flight? All pretty arcade-y because [it didn't feel] like there was meat to the simulation."

Developers with traditional level-making experience on shooters or adventure games that have the walls on all sides and the roof overhead have new challenges when making an enjoyable flying sequence or full game. They have to relearn how to organize a level around enemy spawn points in spaces with no walls or roofs.

"You really need to use enemies not only as a way of making a challenge for the player, but as defining space because [players] have to have that frame of reference for ‘where am I in the terrain?'" said Gray. "If you get [the timing right], it really gives the [flight] meaning and puts a plot to the [enemy] encounters. It's different than ‘And now we walk you in this room and find the blue key,' because you don't get blue keys in the air."

He compared a perfect flight level to a map called De Dust in Counter-Strike. To him, it was obvious that some developer had sat down with a stopwatch and timed how long it would take enemies to reach players when spawning from two different points on the map. That developer knew exactly where the player would be and what they would be doing when the enemy got to them, and they build the level outward around the player from that point.

Flying levels, Gray said, should be built the exact same way.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the upcoming Avatar for the Wii. A flight level with a giant lizard bird was the centerpiece of a demo given to me by creative director Daniel Bisson and he wasn't shy about telling me it was the hardest level to design. In early efforts, the enemies spawned too fast and the Wii Balance Board was over-responsive to even the slightest shift in weight, causing the lizard bird to pitch wildly and slam into spawning enemies. As the level developed, they added more environmental boundaries like tunnels and trees to define the flying space and confined 360 degree movements to quick time events.

So what began as a flying level instead turned into an arcade-style on-rails experience. Sure, you're up in the sky on the back of a bird. But, there's not much fantasy fulfillment and no raw freedom in having your hand held.

The trick is keeping reality from ruining fantasy. Yes, it's a lot of work to pilot an X-Wing in the Star Wars: Battlefront games; but if you get to blow up a TIE Fighter as a reward for your patience, you don't mind sinking effort into learning how to be a pilot. Likewise, War in the upcoming Darksiders would look silly with a pair of wings sprouting from his burly back; but hijacking a gryphon from an angel for a quick joyride through a ruined city appeals to the fantasy of the character and doesn't last so long that the game needs to bog the player down with real physics.

Above: The lone flying level in Darksiders.

With Crimson Skies and flight sims on side of the spectrum and our Star Foxes and Panzer Dragoons on the other, there are so many ways gamers can fulfill the fantasy of flight. Each new game that introduces a flying segment or builds its entire experience around the thrill of strapping on a jetpack builds on the collective fantasy gamers and developers share of taking to the skies.

The ultimate dream of flight in games, says Gray, is this: "I don't know where I'm at, but I'm having fun."

Image Cred — Kingdom Hearts
Title Image: The Fall of Icarus, Peter Paul Rubens, 1636

English Russia reports that

"it was impossible to put an attention of those hopeless men off. The game was drawing to a close and the ladies were sweating as much as they could, but the eyes of the tough players were nailed to the screens tight."

In the matchup, the team forZe bested rival Virtus.pro.

I pulled ten pics from English Russia, galleried at left. There are tons more at the link.

Hot Gaming [English Russia, thanks to Kevin!]

Having left Valve after saying nothankyou.jpg to the pressures of creating a Counter-Strike sequel, Le now has an office in South Korea, where he and a small team are working on a game called Tactical Intervention.

"I enjoyed Counter-Strike," Minh told IGN, "but I wanted to have my own game. I was never able to put in all the cool features I wanted because the people who played Counter-Strike would [complain] about all the changes. They liked the game as it is."

Don't expect something too different from Counter-Strike. After all, this is another take on a tried and tested formula, not an attempt at something brand new. So again it's terrorists vs agents, but the twists Le are adding include the presence of civilians throughout levels, and the inclusion of attack dogs, which can be used to stun opponents.

Tactical Intervention is for the PC, and should be out by the end of the year.

The Next Counter-Strike [IGN]

Cherie and Nicky Blair were named directors in February. Nicky Blair, 23, is apparently roommates with Gabriel Moraes, 22, who launched Magnitude Gaming in 2007.

Not one to pass up a chance to attack games AND a politician, the Daily Mail ran the story this morning under the headline: "Cherie Blair and her son join firm linked to violent computer game."

The game in question? Counter-Strike.

Moreas defended the company, saying:

"Magnitude has never been involved with games containing any kind of street violence. We had one game involving soldiers in military combat but it had a rating of 18-plus and was a team game. We stopped involvement with that game some months ago."

Cherie Blair and her son join firm linked to violent computer game [Daily Mail]

All standalone Half-Life titles (including Team Fortress Classic) are a whopping 66% off, meaning you can buy all seven of them for just $17. Or, if you want to be selective, Half-Life will cost you $3.40, Half-Life 2, $6.80.

Also on sale is the "Valve Complete Pack", which bundles *deep breath* Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic, Day of Defeat, Deathmatch Classic, Half-Life: Opposing Force, Ricochet, Half-Life, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life Deathmatch: Source, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Portal, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead.

Phew.

You can get that pack for $90.

Unable to concentrate on school because she was up late at night, she dropped out to focus on her gaming and join Swedish team Pink Zinic full-time. She's also working as a model "for a friend".

This seems to be a nascent trend of late with a 16-year-old in Raleigh, N.C., whose parents have let him drop out of school so that he can focus on a professional gaming career via Guitar Hero.

We do wish the both of them the best of luck — wherever their roads take them.

17 year-old Zinic.inzane: "I quit school for CS" [SK Gaming Thanks, Lawrence!]

Apparently on May 19 of last year, the victim was playing CS against his "friend" in an internet cafe when things got nasty. Two separate fistfights broke out between the pair, and when they eventually left, the accused set upon the victim, beating him in the head and torso until he died at the scene.

The boy was found guilty of intention to inflict grievous bodily harm, and sentenced to four years detention in a juvenile prison.

Компьютерные игры закончились смертью [ГЛАВНАЯ СТРАНИЦА, via Planet Half-Life]

The Associated Press report on the shootings - which will be the same one run in countless newspapers/websites across the world - sadly tries to slip in a link between Kretschmer's playing of Counter-Strike and the murders.

A 17-year-old who would give only his first name, Aki, said he had been studying this year with the shooter at a private business school, and described him as a quiet, reserved person.

Aki said the two played poker together, both in person and online, as well as a multiplayer video game called "Counter-Strike" that involves killing people to complete missions.

"He was good," Aki said.

They're not BLAMING the attacks on Counter-Strike. Far from it. But why describe Counter-Strike like that, if not to try and drum up or somehow prey upon people's ignorance? Really, AP, we'd expect better from the likes of you.

Teen kills 15 in Germany before taking own life [Associated Press, via GamePolitics]

MBC Game also broadcasts Warcraft III, Tekken and Counter-Strike. As game site Siliconera points out, all three home consoles are available in Korea; however, none of them have reached the popularity of PC gaming. Perhaps that guy's gray vest will help.

Starcraft TV Network Gives Halo Wars Its Own Show [Siliconera]

Quoth Valve:

There's a new Steam Beta client available. To access the Beta, go to File -> Settings, and on the Account tab will be a drop down. Select Steam Client Candidate, and then allow Steam to restart itself. Here are the specific changes:

- Updated game overlay web browser to support generic web browsing, including web sites that use flash
- Fixed games list scrolling behavior with pageup/pagedown and mouse wheel
- Many back-end Steamworks changes in preparation for a Steamworks SDK update

PC gaming is starting to enable and expect a level of multitasking that is seriously starting to concern me. But I guess when you're camping out as the Sniper and you've got nothing better to do, might as well schedule a credit card payment, or update your Facebook status.

Steam Client Beta Available [Steam Users' Forums, via Evil Avatar]

But the figures for Valve's other games — which similarly don't include games sold via Steam — Counter-Strike, The Orange Box, Half-Life 2 and more, are just as impressive. According to a report from Gamasutra, the original Half-Life has amassed 9.3 million sales over the past decade. The sequel, released just four years ago alongside its digital distribution platform, added another 6.5 million to Valve's retail sales.

The impressive sales for the original Half-Life are at least due in some part to the enduring popularity of free mod Counter-Strike. Even with that option, however, over 4 million gamers snapped up copies of the standalone, less expensive Counter-Strike package.

Valve didn't disclose its Steam numbers, probably saving those for PowerPoint presentations for publishers interested in signing on to its digital download service. But if the drop between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 sales is an indication of the number of folks who went for the Steam version, we'd say the business is probably a success.

Last year's collection The Orange Box topped 3 million, with Gamasutra estimating that the recently released Left 4 Dead will beat that by a good 600,000. Impressive.

For more number fun, hit up the original report.

Analysis: Valve's Lifetime Retail Sales For Half-Life, Counter-Strike Franchises [Gamasutra]

Van Gogh's De sterrennacht (The Starry Night) is widely hailed as the Dutch post-impressionist's masterpiece - a landscape drawn from memory and a perfect example of the Master's fascination with the nocturnal.

Also, it makes a kick-ass Counterstrike map.

de_vangogh: Counterstrike goes "The Starry Night" [Offworld]

Color me horribly late to this party — this clips is almost a month(!) old — but seeing the Haunted Mansion from Disney World and Disney Land so accurately recreated in Counter-Strike: Source initiates my post reflex. The map, de_haunts, looks nigh unplayable, but I suppose I'll find that out for myself later tonight. The map is part of a Halloween themed pack that includes nods to Silent Hill and F.E.A.R.. Must download now!

The www.joe.to forums Halloween 2008 mappack [NIPPER Maps]

The seven titles we owe it to: Doom, Quake, Tribes, Battlezone, Unreal Tournament, Counterstrike and Battlefield.

If nothing else, at least the past two or three years of FPSes, multi- and single-player, have combined to give us standardized controls, which makes picking up a new title infinitely easier to play — especially when it comes to free looking. It's now pretty much left stick = movement, right stick = head, with no fruity switching of camera angles or other unnecessary twists. Also, Y or triangle is use, B or circle is jump, etc. If you think that's a minor gamer assist, ask yourself the last time you used two different copiers or fax machines with the same set of commands.

Ed also argues that single-player FPSes are constantly delivering great new titles, but multiplayers have been "the same old for quite a few years now." I just can't see it that way. Maybe structurally they are the same, but characters, missions, game story, that's what gets me into an FPS now. True, a new gameplay innovation that's widely adopted will beat the best written game for sales, but I ask you, what else could a multiplayer FPS be doing right now?

How 7 Games Created the Modern Team Multiplayer FPS

Completely interactive, a Counter-Strike Source server is attached to the sculpture. When someone dies in the game, it shoots leaks a stream of "blood" across the wall, a "physical manifestation of nebulous kills" in the words of Harmon. Players who would like to participate in the exhibit can do so by using the command "connect 129.15.76.103:27015" in CS.

Sculpture on Exhibit [riley.harmon via MAKE]

With Counter-Strike 2, there's a big question between, do we go start over from scratch and build a whole new game, do we do something that looks more like Team Fortress 2 that is rooted in the old game but has a ton of new stuff, or do we just sort of take everything that's new that we've released and put that out in a new box.

I think we're leaning more towards the two more radical places than just sort of rolling up the new box and re-skinning the box and putting out all the new stuff.

The New York Post, not exactly a bastion for accurate and fair reporting, decided that "sick shooter" Steven Kazmierczak's interest in Counter-Strike three to four years ago made a better headline than the fact that he was off his medication when he decided to go on a rampage in an Illinois classroom.

The man who gunned down five people and wounded 16 in an Illinois classroom rampage was a loner who preferred studying to partying and was obsessed with an ultra-violent video game, dormitory mates said yesterday.

Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, played the wildly popular game Counter-Strike while studying sociology at Northern Illinois University in 2003 and 2004.

"He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud," said dorm mate Ben Woloszyn, 24.

What they failed to mention was what dorm mates likely told them next, or at least told the Northwest Herald, that just about everyone in the dorm played the game.

But both men said that if Kazmierczak seemed disconnected from the other students, it could have been because he was an older student living alongside underclassmen.

"I guess he was polite," Rice said. "He was just really quiet. I wouldn't have guessed he would do anything."

Kazmierczak often would play the video game Counter Strike, a first-person shooting game, the roommates said, but they were quick to add that the game was nothing unusual for dormitory halls.

It's also worth noting that over the nearly 1,700 articles published about the shooting the only two that mention the game are the Northwest Herald and the New York Post. That didn't stop Thompson for shooting out an email this morning crowing about getting it right. It's nice to know that he cares about what's important in this shooting, that a college student played video games at one point in his life, not that six people are dead and a country traumatized.

Our condolences go out to the families of those killed and to Kazmierczak's family.

COLLEGE KILLER CRAZY FOR VIOLENT VID GAME [New York Post]

According to the AFP report on the matter, the prohibition on selling CS and EQ was actually passed in October of 2007, but was only recently enforced by PROCON, the national consumer protection agency. Good work, Brazil. Glad all of your problems are sorted out now that the video game police are tackling the tough issues!

Members of the Kotaku Brazilian Connection wrote in to let us know about the ban. Their letters are after the jump and provide some insight into the local video game market.

From Pinguin:

Since 01/17, Counter Strike and Everquest are banned in Brazil. The decision came from a federal judge, based in the Consumer Rights, saying that it puts in danger the life of buyers. You can see the full decision in this site. (in Brazilian portuguese)

The counter strike was banned because, in experts opinion, teachs war strategies.
Everquest was banned because of their quests. The Brazilian judge, claims that, some quests ask for the user do good things and bad things, leading the user to pscicological problems.

In Brazil, those games were rated to 18+, by the Justice. In the past, before those rates exist, games like Carmagedon, Grand Theft Auto and Postal were banned too.

But, we still can play Postal 2, Manhunt (the complete version) and all the other games. Everquest isn't even [sold] in Brazil!

From Romulo:

Since 17/01/2008 the games "Counter-Strike" and "EverQuest" are been confiscated in the Brazilian state of Goiás by the PROCON, an organism created to defend consumer rights. The decision is extended trough all brazilian territory, the games were considered "[improper] for consume" and "nocive to the consumer health" offending some articles of the brazilian "consumer defense and protection code", a law that is usually used to protection the consumer against big companies.

Here in Brazil a single judge can make a decision that is valid in the whole country, this is the case, but other states are not confiscating the game as they think there may be something wrong with such a decision. The judge also classify CounterStrike and Everquest as being "nefast".

Acording to procon and the judge, Counter-Strike is described as "a game where drug deales sequestram and take to a morro thre UN representatives. Police invades the place and is received with bullets", the text also affirms, without showing names ou researches, that "in the vision of specialists that game teaches war techniches". Thats not counter strike´s but user generated content, CS_rio is a very popular map and played a lot in Brazil.

The reason to justify the ban, "violent games ou that bring violece are capable of forming agressive individuals, its evident is strong power of influence, reforcing agressive atitude on some individuals and social groups.", they go even farther when justifying everquest ban, [everquest] "takes the player to total nonsense and heavy psicologycal conflicts, because the quests he receives may be good or bad."

EA Brazil released a note claiming the content cited is not from counter strike but user generated, and say it´s waiting for a judicial notification to take legal action.

From Hank:

This is kotaku user HANK-SP, from Brazil, reporting that the brazilian state of Goias has banned the games Counter-Strike and the RPG EverQuest. The decision, taken by a court in Goias, is extented to all Brazil. The federal police IS already taking away copies from these games, altough EverQuest is not officially released in Brazil. Procon, brazilian governmental foundation for consumer defense, argued, on its website, that Counter-Strike is a game where "Rio de Janeiro drug dealers kidnapp and take to a slum three UN representants. The police invades the place and is welcomed with bullets. (...) In the vision of experts the game teaches war techniques". As for EverQuest, Procon states that it "takes the gamer to complete moral conflict and 'heavy' psychological conflicts; for the tasks that are given to them could be bad or good. (...) Violent videogames that use violence are capable of forming agressive individuals, making it evident that is strong its influence on psyquism, reinforcing aggressive attitude against certain individuals and social groups". The web site also states that anyone who sees these games being sold, that they should contact Procon for the arrest of the games. All this information has come from UOL, Brazil's biggest web portal, owned by Brazil's biggest newspaper "Folha de Sao Paulo". http://jogos.uol.com.br/pc/ultnot/2008/01/18/ult182u7954.jhtm In another news, UOL reports that EA has already answered that Counter-Strike doesn't have any Rio de Janeiro, any slums, any funk soundtrack, neither UN comissioners. http://jogos.uol.com.br/pc/ultnot/2008/01/18/ult182u7956.jhtm

Thanks for taking the time to write in, guys. Keep us informed of any developments, if you have the time.

Brazil bans popular video games seen to incite violence [AFP/Google]