Counterstrike is 25 years old

The title pretty much sums it up. A quarter of a century ago,
"Counterstrike" was aborn as a Half-Life mod. It's been going strong
ever since, and remains one of the most popular PC games since.

And, honestly, it's not that "Counterstrike" has reached 25 years that
I find so surprising, as that it's only six years older than Doom.
That's the era of games we're talking about. And yet it still
inexplicably remains a top-performer on Steam.

(Okay, not really so inexplicable. It's a fun game, sure, but it's
real draw is as the engine for the gambling industry that has grown up
around it. So long as it remains a viable source of income for so
many, it's never going to drop off the most-played charts).

I never really got into "Counterstrike". I'd burned myself out playing
online matches of "Doom" and "Duke Nukem" and "Quake" and "Unreal
Tournament" and by the time "Counterstrike" became anything but that
weird mod the kids in the corner were playing, I was distancing myself
from online gaming.

(I did play a bunch of "Tactical Ops", though, the long-forgotten
"Unreal Tournament" clone of "Counterstrike". Better graphics, better
bots, and smoother gameplay. But it lagged in maps and a smaller
development team meant it never achieved parity with its better known
"Half Life" rival).

And nowadays, even if I were able to show interest in the gameplay,
I'm so outside the community (and -lets be honest- aging reflexes mean
I couldn't compete with those damn whippersnappers anyway) that I'd
have a hard time getting back into the scene.

So I can't really get myself to care about "Counterstrike" anymore. It
was never really my game, and it certainly isn't offering me any
incentive to become my game today. But happy birthday anyway. Even if
it's for all the wrong reasons, remaining popular for 25 years is
something of an achievement.