Blog Archives

« csde_bridge: It's Here Working from the Core »

Smarties for Statistics (Apr 25, 2005)

Here are the current statistics for all my official (well, originally at least) CS maps, according to ServerSpy:

Counter-Strike: Source
1 de_dust2 5231 1262 22.8%
2 de_dust 3236 1475 14.1%
6 de_cbble 1147 441 5.0%
13 de_tides 163 59 0.7%

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero
1 de_dust2_cz 423 75 24.3%
3 de_dust_cz 132 30 7.6%
20 de_cbble_cz 19 7 1.1%
25 de_tides_cz 16 12 0.9%
~ de_sienna_cz 0 0 0%

Counter-Strike 1.6
1 de_dust2 4762 1264 28.9%
3 de_dust 1211 436 7.4%
8 de_cbble 415 190 2.5%

In all, right this second, that's about 16,000 people playing my maps, a quarter of the entire CS population... according to that one source, anyway. There may be fewer, there may be more. If they all play for just one hour, that's over 2 years of total play time. It's ridiculous. At that's just one point in one day... think how many hours are spent each week, each year... thousands of years of total playing time, just on a few maps. Take into account all the maps, all the players, all the years... Counter-Strike has sucked more time out of people than most TV shows can claim to own. You could spend you entire life playing CS and not come close to the total amount of time that has/will be spent playing it, although that would be an incredibly bad way to spend your life.

There are about 50,000 people playing Counter-Strike right now. That's a lot.

The figures are absolutely ridiculous. I do not believe them. My brain is not wired up to accept them. I live in denial. Dust, Dust 2 and Cobble are just maps I made which people talk about a bit, occasionally. They're not popular.

Here's my promise - I shall give one pack of Smarties to the first person/team/company who makes an FPS map that completely overthrows those figures by tripling them (40,000 players at a point in time). Also, another pack to the first person who can convince me the CS numbers above are real and true. If they're particularly successful, I'll offer two packs, but that'd be it.

See, this is the sort of encouragement people need! I'm sure Dust 2 hasn't been overthrowed because simply put, no one cares. 16,000? It's just a few digits.

Edit: Right now, at a quarter to midnight GMT, there are now about 90,000 people playing CS, about 30,000 playing the maps listed above. Interestingly, more than twice as many people are playing HL1/CS1.6 (65,000), than HL2/CS:S (30,000). Completely silly.

Edit 2: ...and now, at 20:45 GMT (Tuesday), there are closer to 150,000 people playing CS in all its forms. Whoa.

« csde_bridge: It's Here Working from the Core »

user comments

Liquorish at 14:08 on Apr 25, 2005

Don't think I'll be getting those smarties. Great work ;)

smeerkat at 16:43 on Apr 25, 2005

I believe those numbers. But I don't like Smarties.

daveh at 14:41 on Apr 26, 2005

Smarties are goddamn nice.. mmmm..

Knight at 16:23 on Apr 26, 2005

Its simple Why theres more 1.6 players then Source players.

1.6 is polished,
Source isn't.

Your source maps are horrid, your 1.6 maps are the most beautiful thing i've ever seen.

dave at 17:25 on Apr 26, 2005

Knight: I'm not sure I agree with you there.

There are more 1.6 players because CS1.6 is one of the few popular games that run well on aging PCs. Many other people just don't want to buy a new game - they enjoy CS1.6 as it is.

The CS:S maps are beautiful. Seriously. I remember when I first saw Dust and was completely taken back by the amazing job Valve had done. The other maps, particularly the rejigged Train, are absolutely amazing in their appearance, detail and recollection of the gameplay of the originals. They really make me feel like I'm `there'.

CS:S is far more polished than CS ever was. It had professionals working on it from the very beginning. CS was originally an amateur effort, and this still shows occasionally.

But that's just my opinion, as yours is yours.

m0nKeY at 17:45 on Apr 26, 2005

It's the imperfections that make CS 1.6 so good, and what made it the game it is.

daveh at 09:40 on Apr 27, 2005

I would say, CS:Source is an awesome game. It's just slightly off the ball gameplay wise - but it's not as bad as people try and make out! ;-/

esky at 05:19 on Apr 28, 2005

So dave, aren't you ever tempted to stick a billboard in one of your maps and rent it out for ridiculous amounts of money? Granted Valve approves of it...

dave at 17:09 on Apr 28, 2005

It wouldn't make ridiculous amounts of money. Secondly, I dislike obvious adverts. Thirdly, I've done it once already.

esky at 18:29 on Apr 28, 2005

Well the whole advert thing hasn't been very big thus far, but if done right it could work... maybe a billboard wouldn't be appropriate in a dust map, but when I play NFS:U and see billboards I certainly don't mind that they're real adverts. If anything I wish they were more diverse, rather than just one company. With the sort of exposure you get from your maps, you don't think you could negotiate a deal most games aren't in a position to do? I've always wondered about it.. in either case, I assume when the one you've done already is the web site on dust2 right?

dave at 22:03 on Apr 28, 2005

Well, it's never as clear-cut as that. Maps are only one part of the game... if I somehow made £100k off a CS:S map, should I get all the money? What about the people that designed the game, the sounds, the weapon models, the textures, the code, the marketing, the funding? How do I split it fairly? It's a raw deal for lots of them.

Yes, Dust2 is the one already. That was a slightly rugged affair.