CS:GO Behavioral Psychology

This note is about my personal observation of CS:GO (Counter Strike: Global Offensive) and it’s “win condition” dynamics which may affect behavioral psychology of player. Look at the most played online games on earth, we know it with numbers actually, for example DOTA2 is having +820.000 players online and CS:GO +320.000 players playing the game at the moment that I write this small note. If we consider a little bit critically, second most played game online at this moment, is a real time killing simulator, endless repeatation of rounds within war.

We are in a society which, discussed a lot about how to protect kids couldn’t even protect themselves. We are realy good at asking others to not do something but we our own society loved it in many other ways. TV’s, movies, news programs, live war broadcasts from deserts and warships… I remember one moment whan I was playing the game as a Terrorist team, you know it was head to head match going like 14/13 and we are 13, which means last 3 round to win, last 2 round to draw, and last round to lose for us. In so much war experience that we had such long and intense game, everyone was angry and furious like monsters.

I wish to imagine what I told in team channel as same as any war moment you can imagine, everyone listens my distorted voice from a walkie-talkie quality, I told that In this game I realize that when you play Terrorist, main aim is to plant the bomb. This is what everyone knows, but no one things about further of it, they did not internalize it enoughly, in order to be better player. In Terrorist, players must focus to moment where bomb explodes. Not planting it, because defuse of the bomb statistics are higher than explosions. Terrorist players must dedicate them selves to hear the bomb exploding, not “winning the round by killing”. Terrorist players get in advantage when bomb explodes, more money than killing everyone. It is because best efficient way, which players should sacrafice themselves until that explosion, not fighting with survival instinct.

Fight to die, not to survive…

The war period and events happened around the world nowadays is enough to understand this psychology, “bomb explosion” takes attention, no one bothers with being alive after explosion of it. This level of dedication is formed by a CS:GO within my instincts.