Counter-Strike Map Of School Causes Outrage

from the conflicted dept

Fri, Mar 29th 2013 5:49am — Timothy Geigner

On the heels of our last story about someone who raised the public's ire over a "real-world" Counter-Strike map, it seems these stories may only become more prevalent. This seems particularly likely given that the threat of legal action doesn't seem to serve much of a deterrance against those that wish to be creative with game maps in this respect. You had to know that this gaming envelope was only going to be pushed further. Such is the way of things. It's something of a one-up culture. In addition, I should note that I tend to think that punishing this kind of creation is generally wrong. It's a game map, nothing more.

However, I will admit to being heavily conflicted when I came across the story of another Counter-Strike map controversy, this one resulting from the creation of a map based on a local secondary school in Port Moody, British Columbia. The reaction from the locals upon discovering a video of the map on YouTube was, understandably, negative.

"We have rainbow-colored lockers, and it's our field of dreams... and then to watch the video game, and see people shooting up our field of dreams, it was just so disturbing," Alex Devlin, a teacher at Port Moody Secondary School, told CBC News. "I believe it's just a game, it's not reality... but a lot of kids don't live in reality, right," another local said.

Let me start off by saying that I get it. Given recent tragedies suffered on the North American continent, I completely understand the discomfort locals, especially parents, might feel discovering a map of their school being built in a game that is all about shooting. I won't begrudge them their animosity. However, I am extremely pleased that cooler heads prevailed in this case.

The map's creators helped their causes greatly when they published their own website to respond to their critics. Far from antagonizing, they decided to explain why they had chosen the school to serve as inspiration for their game map.

The map was this because it's architecture and design is rather ideal for the game's tactics. Furthermore, this is a location we are quite familiar with already. Additionally, supporters and fellow alumni are also likely familiar with this location, which makes it an ideal common ground for this game and its intended audience.

When you push the admittedly understandable emotional response to the side, their explanation makes a great deal of sense. Local gamers wanting to play a game they love in a fictional representation of a place they know. Once I took a deep breath, I realized that some of the games I love most, and some of those I'm looking forward to the most, feature real locations that I'm familiar with. Any game, for instance, that features the city of Chicago, regardless of the game's genre, is likely going to get a look from me, because I love the idea of playing out a fictional game in the city I love. This is no different, even if the game in question is one that involves weapons and shooting. More importantly, it certainly isn't something that should require legal action. Fortunately, the police in the area agree, saying so in what I would consider to be a surprisingly reasonable response.

Although the creation of such a video game is likely ill-conceived in the current climate, it does not constitute an offence. Investigators from the Port Moody Police Department have interviewed the developer of this game and have concluded that he does not pose a danger to the staff or students of Port Moody Secondary.

In the end, that's all that matters. There is no safety concern in making a map of a school for a game. It's just a map.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: counter-strike, schools, shootings, students, worries

31 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:06am

I think a more accurate title might have been:

Initial outrage over counter-strike map of school fizzles
from the I-guess-that's-not-a-big-deal-now-that-I-think-about-it department.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:20am

Nice
Glad to see that Canadian cops, at least, aren't willing to expand their beat to fictional worlds.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:22am

With a title like that , I was expecting a story about the school shutting down and expelling anyone who played video games. Also SWAT and NSA and CIA and all the other acronyms descended swiftly on the town.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:23am

Re: Nice
Fictional worlds are the province of Jurisfiction. The will send someone out Tuesday Next to investigate.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:24am

Unless there are missions involving players killing kids, I can't understand the outrage.

If it's soldiers killing each other, and there are no kids or teachers involved, then who cares?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Joseph M. Durnal, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:33am

Map of Store
I remember fondly making a map of the computer store I worked at for Duke Nukem 3D back in the mid 90's. We did them for a few other games as well. I think it is common for a group of gamers to create maps of places that they are familiar with.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Brent (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:42am

i make maps on Warfish, an online Risk site, and the most popular maps are always the ones people have some background with, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, the United States, the entire world, etc. I think it makes perfect sense that a more immersive game would benefit from a highly detail oriented and locally know map such as a school, however, i think the timing is in bad taste. that said, if it was a good map i wouldn't be bothered by playing it. After all, one of the best maps in Black Ops was Nuketown which was a mocked suburban neighborhood complete with cardboard cut outs of kids and families (that get's nuked at the end). That map was made by the game designers...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:46am

I think several factors play into making this a story.

The us versus them attitude fostered by party politics; people are expected to have a definite opinion.
Th paranoia fostered by governments to justify their intrusion into every-bodies life.

Press sensationalism, with reporters trying to create stories out of the slightest incident. The one or two people who react make the story, ignoring the hundreds that shrug and go so whats the story.

The increased visibility of actions wnen the Internet is used to circulate stuff,it allow minor things to become a trigger for pushing a political agenda.

An analysis of why this became a story would be more interesting.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
W Robison, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:55am

Really?
Really?
So let me get this straight, movies like Olympia Fallen and countless others depicting destruction of Americas infrastructure, buildings and history is OK? But all hell breaks loose from a map?

Sorry for double post
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 6:56am

Maybe of the e what we need to do is return to the morality of the middle ages.

In Spain during the Inquisition the authors would have experienced a very dynamic understanding before subs-crumbing to their own wildest desires for deliverance from the physical world.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 7:01am

WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE
[ link to this | view in thread ]
That One Guy (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 7:09am

Re: Really?
But see, movies are fictional representations of death and killing and other violent actions, unlike video games which are... um... also fictional representations of death and killing and stuff...

Yeah, I really don't get the people who don't even bat an eye at violent movies but completely flip out over violent games.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TasMot (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 7:11am

Nuclear Bomb Explodes during Football Game in Baltimore----you better duck
People like to see places they are familiar with in their movies/games. "The Sum of All Fears" blew up a nuclear bomb during a football game in Baltimore. It grossed close to $200 million. You know what? Nobody was actually hurt or killed (or do we count the bits in the computer). There is an old expression that I think aptly fits, "Get a Life" and I want to add, "Stay out of Fiction if you can't handle it".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 7:12am

I made one in high school. It never got past our group of Counter Strike gamers though. It was a bunch of fun.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Akari Mizunashi (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 7:27am

So, make a map, publish it online, and get a police visit.

Be a moody pair of teens or an off-their-rocker gun nut, who is noticed by their community, but don't get a police visit to measure threat level.

Yep, let's just keep blaming games for the problem.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 7:45am

Re: High School layout
I always wanted to do something like this, but never had the means when I was in high school in the 90's. It really was a perfect layout, too.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=37.648163,-120.919073&spn=0.002508,0.002411&t=h&z=19

The older high schools in town were just rows of classrooms open to the outside, but the new school was designed to look more like a fortress (or prison).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 7:53am

I did the same in high school
When I was in high school here in the US I actually created a map of the school for Quake II. All my friends thought it was awesome and the one adult that saw the map was a teacher at the school. He was impressed by the work I had put in and made me show him the program I had used to create the map.

As a side note, none of my friends or myself ever went on a rampage, nor are any of us in jail for any reason. Most are married, have families, and still play shooters online with each other.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Wally (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 8:46am

"Although the creation of such a video game is likely ill-conceived in the current climate, it does not constitute an offence. Investigators from the Port Moody Police Department have interviewed the developer of this game and have concluded that he does not pose a danger to the staff or students of Port Moody Secondary."

That there is simply a scenario of "better safe than sorry". Hell I'd be stoked to see Columbus or Cleveland mapped out for a game.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 9:02am

We have a map of the building we work in for Left 4 Dead 2. We are working on adding some of the stores down the street (Tim Hortons and Dunkin Donuts) with one of them eventually being one of the safe rooms.

The map of our work building is quite accurate.

Hasn't caused any of us to want to blow the building up. You know, outside of the feelings we have from working here ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 9:26am

Re:
What is the problem with killing kids and teachers?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 10:07am

Re: Nuclear Bomb Explodes during Football Game in Baltimore----you better duck
I'd like to see the numbers on that. I bet it was especially popular in Baltimore.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 10:09am

Did one of my school for Doom 2 20 years ago,
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jeff Rife, 29 Mar 2013 @ 10:10am

Better than paintball
Making a computer game map of an area any playing with virtual weapons is just another extension of the same games we have played for years.

Doesn't anybody remember playing whatever form of "shoot the guy on the other team with your cap gun" when they were young? Paintball is the modern extension of this and is quite accepted.

Would the school district, parents, etc., rather have the kids break into the school and have paintball games there?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Mar 2013 @ 10:21am

Re: Re: High School layout
The rumor (that I'm guessing was just an urban legend) was that my newer high school (in the 90's) was designed by an architect who also had designed prisons.

I've always thought that high schools and college campuses would make the best places to play paintball or capture the flag or any games like that. It's also true for FPS computer games.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Uriel-238 (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 10:59am

Cops & Robbers
Play Counter-Strike, and The Terrorists Win.

Often.

Did anyone else play that as a kid? Y'know pointing your finger and screaming bang, and acting out death scenes as collateral to encourage your opponents to do the same?

Counter-Strike is essentially the best computer version of that very playground scenario.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JEDIDIAH, 29 Mar 2013 @ 11:23am

It's our Independence Day!
Apparently the nuking of Houston triggered cheers in movie theaters down there.

Given the national character of the state of Texas, that kind of reaction is not surprising.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Paul R Dillinger, 29 Mar 2013 @ 11:32am

We made levels for our high school and our neighborhood in Duke Nukem 3D WAAAYYY back in the day (1996). It was the challenge of trying to make something that looks like a place you know. I don't see the problem. We were kids learning real world skills with computers, and for the most part we're all well educated and productive members of society today. I didn't try to go shoot aliens at my high school either (much more practical to do it on a PC).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Internet Zen Master (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 12:47pm

Re: Re: Re: High School layout
If it's an urban legend, it's a popular one. I've heard of a couple high/middle/(hell, even) elementary schools that were supposedly designed with the original intention that they were going to be prisons before they got converted to schools at the last minute. Would explain why some students felt like they were in prison every time they had to go to school (aside from the usual explanation).

'Course, these are all bogus myths, but one thing is for sure: architects for schools in the 90's had no originality.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Deirdre (profile), 29 Mar 2013 @ 4:12pm

Re: Re: Nice
Oh Yeah! You got my vote for Funny.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Broseph, 8 Apr 2013 @ 12:05pm

Name of map
wat is the name of the map
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Kony 2013, 30 Sep 2013 @ 7:46am

must of took him along time :/
[ link to this | view in thread ]