Those ‘core tenants’ stay with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which Valve is making for new players to ease into, as 12-year-old CS 1.6 ”looks like crap.”
”It was really important to us when we started working on Counter-Strike: GO that it was still Counter-Strike. There are a lot of modern shooters out that do a lot of different things – I play them, they’re fun – but they do something different in the competitive scene, where it’s not just about skill, it’s about all these other things,” said Chet Faliszek.
”It’s about how many people you killed; you got a kill-streak of three people and now you get something cool, or you played 1000 hours so you have a loadout that’s different.” Valve are keeping CS: GO an ‘equal opportunities killer’ by not overloading with perks.
”For us, every match starts on equal footing – it’s how you do inside of those matches that’s going to determine what you can purchase, what you can buy and how you play. And then when you’re encountering the person in the game, either they beat you because they’re better than you or you beat them because you’re better than them.”
”We’ve kept that, but we’ve made it easier to get into by updating the graphics.” Some keep firing up the old Counter-Strike because of what the rules offer shooter fans.
”A bunch of people still play 1.6. There’s this theory that it’s because they have lousy computers, but no – they like the skillset, the set of rules, and that’s what they want to play. But the thing is, trying to get new players to play that is hard because it looks like crap.”
”It’s a 12 year old game now and we admit, it looks like crap. So to that end, we want to make the graphics look better, so that it’s more accessible for people to come into it.”
Valve are pursing skill-based matchmaking so everyone benefits. ”The biggest underlying thing we’ve done that’s different is if you join a game of CSS right now, you might be playing someone who’s played for seven years, or someone who’s been playing for 2 days; you might be able to run over some people, or they might destroy you,” he said.
”This limits what we can do to make good players better - if we empower them, it just means they’re going to destroy the lower end.”
”So we’ve introduced skill-based matchmaking which means that when you jump into a game, you’re always playing against people at the same competitive level as you – so as you get better, you’re playing against better and better opponents.”
How is that skill calculated? ”It’s a system called ELO. Quite a few different companies are using it now. It’s about who you’re playing against and how you do.”
”There are a lot of different factors that go into it – KDR, how well your team does – it’s a lot of maths but it reflects how, overall, you’re doing.”
Check out the full interview between Chet Faliszek and VE3D. Are you excited that those CS 1.6 rule sets are getting a major facelift with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive?