I've been playing Counter-Strike again after a 7-8 year hiatus, so this video is timely. It's fascinating to see someone's journey from coming in absolutely new to become a confident, capable...
I've been playing Counter-Strike again after a 7-8 year hiatus, so this video is timely. It's fascinating to see someone's journey from coming in absolutely new to become a confident, capable player in something that has an extremely high barrier to entry.
What makes this one extra interesting is that NakeyJakey, in his usual way, is also tracking his emotional journey alongside his skill journey. At one point he has a bit of a reckoning with becoming one of the toxic players he didn't like up to then, and suddenly self-improvement becomes one of his goals in his Counter-Strike journey.
I don't have time to watch the video, but as a regular player for whom the difficulty curve and the desire for more are both increasing, your comments tracks for me. They've perfected the gameplay...
I don't have time to watch the video, but as a regular player for whom the difficulty curve and the desire for more are both increasing, your comments tracks for me.
They've perfected the gameplay loop to the degree that I don't care if it's simple, that there's only a couple handfuls of maps, and not many more gun choices. What keeps me going back is the thrill of that shoot or be shot moment with other people who are all on top of their game.
It's crazy and my group of pals love it. No more Age of Empires slow-burn for us - we're here for the adrenaline!
What really made CS2 accessible to me, an adult with a job who can't spend 40 hours a week to get good, was the availability of the arms race and deathmatch game modes. Those just allow me to run...
What really made CS2 accessible to me, an adult with a job who can't spend 40 hours a week to get good, was the availability of the arms race and deathmatch game modes. Those just allow me to run and gun like the good old days, and I instantly respawn rather than waiting for a round to end. After all these years, the gunplay in CS is still top notch.
I can't wrap my head around the gambling. I like cosmetics, and have been known to purchase a pack or two for some of my favorite games, but just can't understand spending hundreds on a single...
I can't wrap my head around the gambling. I like cosmetics, and have been known to purchase a pack or two for some of my favorite games, but just can't understand spending hundreds on a single item. I'm not trying to imply it doesn't exist. I'm pretty sure I have a family member who has fallen into this horrible trap. I just can't fathom how it got so bad.
A lot of people are just susceptible to gambling. It doesn't do much for me. I think I opened a case or two (literally) back in the day and called it quits. I went to the market and bought a few...
A lot of people are just susceptible to gambling.
It doesn't do much for me. I think I opened a case or two (literally) back in the day and called it quits. I went to the market and bought a few cheap skins directly that I thought looked nice for a couple of cents each and that was that.
But gambling is a problem everywhere, and has been for centuries. The latest wave of gacha and sports gambling is another symptom of a larger societal problem. Gambling is gambling, but more people turn to it if they feel hopeless. That one win will turn things around and remove the desperation or looming economic downturn they feel is just around the corner.
Casinos have always been somewhat-to-strictly regulated, depending on your location, so some entrepreneurial individuals figured that they could hire hordes of psychologists to make an unregulated market as captivating as possible.
Some games have worse odds than casinos do! All while using tactics that casinos are not allowed to use.
We're only now seeing some push back and even that movement is small. The Netherlands and Belgium banning loot boxes won't fix the problem, it just moves it a little. Non-gamers understand what betting is in a casino or on a sports match, but they don't even know gaming lootboxes exist.
But millions become billions, and suddenly we see lobbyists overturn sports gambling bans left right and center. Making gambling ubiquitous, normalized, and continuously available for addicts.
Gambling is insidious, and recently it's overtly trying to capture the largest audience it ever had.
For me, I'll open a few cases here and there, but yeah, if I really want as skin I just go buy it either on the Steam market or one of the 3rd party markets. I do spend more than a few cents (I...
I went to the market and bought a few cheap skins directly that I thought looked nice for a couple of cents each and that was that.
For me, I'll open a few cases here and there, but yeah, if I really want as skin I just go buy it either on the Steam market or one of the 3rd party markets. I do spend more than a few cents (I think I bought like a ~$200 knife?) but I'm not even buying/selling all the time, I just get what I like and keep it.
The skins just look super nice in the game, and I guess once you want that, the gambling is just the thrill. I have opened some crates too. But my most expensive skin was something I bought...
The skins just look super nice in the game, and I guess once you want that, the gambling is just the thrill. I have opened some crates too. But my most expensive skin was something I bought outright because I liked how it looked. The AK47 empress
This was a nice watch, thank you for sharing. Counter-Strike used to be my life in the early 2000s. After a hiatus during the existence of CSGO, for some inexplicable reason, I picked it up again...
This was a nice watch, thank you for sharing.
Counter-Strike used to be my life in the early 2000s. After a hiatus during the existence of CSGO, for some inexplicable reason, I picked it up again around six months ago. I play a lot of DM and use services like Refrag, but I also play occasionally with a group of friends. As mentioned in the video, though, I do not play the Premier mode for the sole reason that it brings up a type of competitiveness in me that I do not like and am too self-conscious for at my current age. The competitive mode is good fun as there are no stakes and your performance is not tied to some arbitrary number. None of this is to say that I don't like improving at the game, I certainly do, but chasing a number seems futile.
I also quite like following the competitive scene. Things used to be extremely different back in my day when we used to compete for lunch money and now some players are millionaires, and that's exciting to see.
As for the gambling aspect, it is a dirty business. Valve regrettably enables these websites to thrive and prey on teenagers who don't know any better. I can't imagine how destructive it would've been for me. If I recall, some countries have taken some steps to curb Valve's detestable practices and I hope more countries follow suit with more restrictive regulation.
If anyone wants to play from time to time, let me know!
Interesting video! Thanks for sharing. It brings back a lot of memories from my CS:S days and playing competitively and in ladders. I'd criticize the length of the video, but I can still talk far...
Interesting video! Thanks for sharing. It brings back a lot of memories from my CS:S days and playing competitively and in ladders. I'd criticize the length of the video, but I can still talk far too much about crazy CS/BF/CoD games that stuck with me. ;) Condensing my own stories to 83 minutes would be a miracle, haha.
I like that this was more of an emotional documentary than just another video about learning a new game or refuting/confirming biases. I wish this kind of thing was talked about 20 years ago, because competitive games really are team-building exercises and opportunities at emotional growth (and anger management with support from your peers). We all have things we can do to improve and wanting to improve and learning to accept an L and move on is so crucial to avoiding toxic mindsets.
I like that this Youtuber wanted to change and grow emotionally when hitting that toxic low-point. That's an important trait to have in life and it reflects well not just on players but on achievers when there is an attitude shift. Team games rely heavily on that interpersonal connection and maintaining good vibes in the face of adversity. Especially when adrenaline is pumping and maintaining that high and keeping the level of gameplay elevated becomes important for smooth transitions from one round to the next (and keeping your teammate from ragequitting).
I also like that there's a lot of positivity in the top comments -- including towards that one player, who actually commented on the video. Very cool. It's nice to see some positivity around the gameplay aspect.
Now to wait 20 years to watch a similar video on Deadlock. :)
After watching this, and also being an avid Overwatch player, I downloaded the game and spent a couple of hours playing. I had fun but in literally my first game I encountered a cheater. This was...
After watching this, and also being an avid Overwatch player, I downloaded the game and spent a couple of hours playing.
I had fun but in literally my first game I encountered a cheater. This was casual, but still.
Yesterday night I was playing a match and got killed 1v1 by someone that was clearly wall-hacking, and it made me think:
How can I practice in a safe environment if casual is radically unbalanced for non-cheating players?
If the situation is representative of state of the game, I am worried about getting into comp. (along my general ladder-anxiety). Would you play in a real game of poker where your money is on the line and 20% of the other players can see your hand?
How can I handle the emotional baggage of playing an adversarial game, knowing some people are just.. not putting the work in? I don’t really understand their mindset.
I’d love to learn to play the game, it just feels like a bad investment. I’m open to changing my mind tho, feel free to chime in :)
Oof, that sucks. I somehow have yet to encounter a single blatant cheater after hundreds of hours. Apparently this is something that is also very dependent on region. The general advice I hear is...
Oof, that sucks. I somehow have yet to encounter a single blatant cheater after hundreds of hours. Apparently this is something that is also very dependent on region. The general advice I hear is if you play during the peak hours, that's best because that's when the most people are playing and the chances of running into a cheater are lower.
But in terms of your questions:
The best practice is actually covered in this video: deathmatches, aim maps, utility maps. They can all be found on the Workshop. Casual is actually not very good practice because the game plays very differently, and you'll be dying in ways that won't happen in Competitive modes a lot. Competitive is actually the real trial run mode.
Premier actually has strict requirements to entry (I believe it's paid, or requires a certain amount of hours) so it's gated away from cheaters (yet not a panacea, apparently there's plenty of them in higher levels). Competitive does not but also sometimes you will be dealt a bad game and have to stick it out. Cheaters make it suck but blowout games are just as bad, it's no fun being stuck in a game where you know it's going to end 13-2. But this is part of that competitive mindset where you just have to acknowledge you'll need to get some practice in. The good news with cheaters at such low levels is that they're relying purely on aim-shoot, not map awareness or team plays, so there are actually more opportunities at lower levels to defeat them by focusing on learning the other (arguably more important) parts of the game.
Honestly, I find these types of games to be the most stressful and rage-inducing things in my life in many ways. But it's not any dissimilar from real life competitive games. I play on a weekly casual rec dodgeball team and sometimes we have games where everyone gets real frustrated because the other team are very cavalier about the rules and just do not take it as seriously as we'd like them to. They don't have aimbots, sure, but they have the same kind of attitude. Since picking up CS, I've found myself having an easier time dealing with capping those emotions off better than my teammates. I suppose the thing is that this is just how a life with competition goes and it's best to find some avenue to acclimatize to it.
OP already gave good advice. I'd like to ask a question though: how sure are you that your opponents cheated? Because, especially as a new player, it can be easy to assume cheating when your...
OP already gave good advice. I'd like to ask a question though: how sure are you that your opponents cheated? Because, especially as a new player, it can be easy to assume cheating when your opponents might simply be reading information you don't realize you're giving away.
That said, the lack of working anti-cheat is still one of the top complaints from the community. Things have improved recently since Valve allegedly reintroduced their overwatch, and trust factor systems. The latter of which tries to match you with similarly trustworthy players. It's not known what factors into the score, but the best way to stay in the green is probably to avoid toxic behavior in order to not get reported.
If you haven't already, consider purchasing the prime status upgrade to limit matchmaking to other paid accounts. This should help filter out at least the most casual cheaters who won't invest into throwaway accounts.
I've been playing Counter-Strike again after a 7-8 year hiatus, so this video is timely. It's fascinating to see someone's journey from coming in absolutely new to become a confident, capable player in something that has an extremely high barrier to entry.
What makes this one extra interesting is that NakeyJakey, in his usual way, is also tracking his emotional journey alongside his skill journey. At one point he has a bit of a reckoning with becoming one of the toxic players he didn't like up to then, and suddenly self-improvement becomes one of his goals in his Counter-Strike journey.
I don't have time to watch the video, but as a regular player for whom the difficulty curve and the desire for more are both increasing, your comments tracks for me.
They've perfected the gameplay loop to the degree that I don't care if it's simple, that there's only a couple handfuls of maps, and not many more gun choices. What keeps me going back is the thrill of that shoot or be shot moment with other people who are all on top of their game.
It's crazy and my group of pals love it. No more Age of Empires slow-burn for us - we're here for the adrenaline!
What really made CS2 accessible to me, an adult with a job who can't spend 40 hours a week to get good, was the availability of the arms race and deathmatch game modes. Those just allow me to run and gun like the good old days, and I instantly respawn rather than waiting for a round to end. After all these years, the gunplay in CS is still top notch.
I can't wrap my head around the gambling. I like cosmetics, and have been known to purchase a pack or two for some of my favorite games, but just can't understand spending hundreds on a single item. I'm not trying to imply it doesn't exist. I'm pretty sure I have a family member who has fallen into this horrible trap. I just can't fathom how it got so bad.
A lot of people are just susceptible to gambling.
It doesn't do much for me. I think I opened a case or two (literally) back in the day and called it quits. I went to the market and bought a few cheap skins directly that I thought looked nice for a couple of cents each and that was that.
But gambling is a problem everywhere, and has been for centuries. The latest wave of gacha and sports gambling is another symptom of a larger societal problem. Gambling is gambling, but more people turn to it if they feel hopeless. That one win will turn things around and remove the desperation or looming economic downturn they feel is just around the corner.
Casinos have always been somewhat-to-strictly regulated, depending on your location, so some entrepreneurial individuals figured that they could hire hordes of psychologists to make an unregulated market as captivating as possible.
Some games have worse odds than casinos do! All while using tactics that casinos are not allowed to use.
We're only now seeing some push back and even that movement is small. The Netherlands and Belgium banning loot boxes won't fix the problem, it just moves it a little. Non-gamers understand what betting is in a casino or on a sports match, but they don't even know gaming lootboxes exist.
But millions become billions, and suddenly we see lobbyists overturn sports gambling bans left right and center. Making gambling ubiquitous, normalized, and continuously available for addicts.
Gambling is insidious, and recently it's overtly trying to capture the largest audience it ever had.
For me, I'll open a few cases here and there, but yeah, if I really want as skin I just go buy it either on the Steam market or one of the 3rd party markets. I do spend more than a few cents (I think I bought like a ~$200 knife?) but I'm not even buying/selling all the time, I just get what I like and keep it.
The skins just look super nice in the game, and I guess once you want that, the gambling is just the thrill. I have opened some crates too. But my most expensive skin was something I bought outright because I liked how it looked. The AK47 empress
This was a nice watch, thank you for sharing.
Counter-Strike used to be my life in the early 2000s. After a hiatus during the existence of CSGO, for some inexplicable reason, I picked it up again around six months ago. I play a lot of DM and use services like Refrag, but I also play occasionally with a group of friends. As mentioned in the video, though, I do not play the Premier mode for the sole reason that it brings up a type of competitiveness in me that I do not like and am too self-conscious for at my current age. The competitive mode is good fun as there are no stakes and your performance is not tied to some arbitrary number. None of this is to say that I don't like improving at the game, I certainly do, but chasing a number seems futile.
I also quite like following the competitive scene. Things used to be extremely different back in my day when we used to compete for lunch money and now some players are millionaires, and that's exciting to see.
As for the gambling aspect, it is a dirty business. Valve regrettably enables these websites to thrive and prey on teenagers who don't know any better. I can't imagine how destructive it would've been for me. If I recall, some countries have taken some steps to curb Valve's detestable practices and I hope more countries follow suit with more restrictive regulation.
If anyone wants to play from time to time, let me know!
Interesting video! Thanks for sharing. It brings back a lot of memories from my CS:S days and playing competitively and in ladders. I'd criticize the length of the video, but I can still talk far too much about crazy CS/BF/CoD games that stuck with me. ;) Condensing my own stories to 83 minutes would be a miracle, haha.
I like that this was more of an emotional documentary than just another video about learning a new game or refuting/confirming biases. I wish this kind of thing was talked about 20 years ago, because competitive games really are team-building exercises and opportunities at emotional growth (and anger management with support from your peers). We all have things we can do to improve and wanting to improve and learning to accept an L and move on is so crucial to avoiding toxic mindsets.
I like that this Youtuber wanted to change and grow emotionally when hitting that toxic low-point. That's an important trait to have in life and it reflects well not just on players but on achievers when there is an attitude shift. Team games rely heavily on that interpersonal connection and maintaining good vibes in the face of adversity. Especially when adrenaline is pumping and maintaining that high and keeping the level of gameplay elevated becomes important for smooth transitions from one round to the next (and keeping your teammate from ragequitting).
I also like that there's a lot of positivity in the top comments -- including towards that one player, who actually commented on the video. Very cool. It's nice to see some positivity around the gameplay aspect.
Now to wait 20 years to watch a similar video on Deadlock. :)
After watching this, and also being an avid Overwatch player, I downloaded the game and spent a couple of hours playing.
I had fun but in literally my first game I encountered a cheater. This was casual, but still.
Yesterday night I was playing a match and got killed 1v1 by someone that was clearly wall-hacking, and it made me think:
I’d love to learn to play the game, it just feels like a bad investment. I’m open to changing my mind tho, feel free to chime in :)
Oof, that sucks. I somehow have yet to encounter a single blatant cheater after hundreds of hours. Apparently this is something that is also very dependent on region. The general advice I hear is if you play during the peak hours, that's best because that's when the most people are playing and the chances of running into a cheater are lower.
But in terms of your questions:
The best practice is actually covered in this video: deathmatches, aim maps, utility maps. They can all be found on the Workshop. Casual is actually not very good practice because the game plays very differently, and you'll be dying in ways that won't happen in Competitive modes a lot. Competitive is actually the real trial run mode.
Premier actually has strict requirements to entry (I believe it's paid, or requires a certain amount of hours) so it's gated away from cheaters (yet not a panacea, apparently there's plenty of them in higher levels). Competitive does not but also sometimes you will be dealt a bad game and have to stick it out. Cheaters make it suck but blowout games are just as bad, it's no fun being stuck in a game where you know it's going to end 13-2. But this is part of that competitive mindset where you just have to acknowledge you'll need to get some practice in. The good news with cheaters at such low levels is that they're relying purely on aim-shoot, not map awareness or team plays, so there are actually more opportunities at lower levels to defeat them by focusing on learning the other (arguably more important) parts of the game.
Honestly, I find these types of games to be the most stressful and rage-inducing things in my life in many ways. But it's not any dissimilar from real life competitive games. I play on a weekly casual rec dodgeball team and sometimes we have games where everyone gets real frustrated because the other team are very cavalier about the rules and just do not take it as seriously as we'd like them to. They don't have aimbots, sure, but they have the same kind of attitude. Since picking up CS, I've found myself having an easier time dealing with capping those emotions off better than my teammates. I suppose the thing is that this is just how a life with competition goes and it's best to find some avenue to acclimatize to it.
OP already gave good advice. I'd like to ask a question though: how sure are you that your opponents cheated? Because, especially as a new player, it can be easy to assume cheating when your opponents might simply be reading information you don't realize you're giving away.
That said, the lack of working anti-cheat is still one of the top complaints from the community. Things have improved recently since Valve allegedly reintroduced their overwatch, and trust factor systems. The latter of which tries to match you with similarly trustworthy players. It's not known what factors into the score, but the best way to stay in the green is probably to avoid toxic behavior in order to not get reported.
If you haven't already, consider purchasing the prime status upgrade to limit matchmaking to other paid accounts. This should help filter out at least the most casual cheaters who won't invest into throwaway accounts.