Day fired up the discussion by saying the following:

“The thing that draws most of the crowd to HL is probably CS. This is said to be *the* most played "game" online, with more players than any "real" game (remember, CS is just a mod). This is just stuff I've read mind you, I can't guarantee that it's really so popular.

Anyway, why is HL/CS more popular than RS? Personally I think of RS as way better, I can't even begin to describe how much better I like RS than any other game :) I suspect the difference in player amount is of the same reason that the Quake and Unreal series are so popular - most people just prefer Quake-style games with minimal amount of realism (CS players beware - CS *is not* realistic, even if I've seen some CS folks be convinced that it's more real than real life). Why, I do not know. Perhaps they just haven't "seen the light" and realised how fun TacSims can be.”

CaptFarrell quickly followed up with a rather lengthy comparison he had previously “threatened” to write:

“From the day it came out, HL had given it's fans something to expand their game with - packaged on the CD was Worldcraft, the same package that Valve used to make the maps for the actual game. Therefore, it wasn't long before brand new, never seen before maps were brought out for the game.”

“Rainbow Six NEVER had anything for creating new maps, the best that could be done, for maps, was adding extras to the existing maps that came with the game by editing a text file that controlled the map. The bonus for this was you knew that anyone who joined already had the map - the changes could be quickly uploaded to the client since it's only text.”

“When the first patch for HL was released it opened a massive door for the fans - the mods were now possible by the release of a Software Development Kit (SDK) around the same time. This was contained the tools to modify the engine however you want and was available in 2 flavours, the standard SDK - downloadable by anyone and only containing the MP components of the code - and the Professional SDK - only available by emailing Valve and then signing a Non Disclosure Agreement so you could obtain the code for the complete game. This produced a huge number of mods for both SP and MP aspects.”

“Valve continually released patches for HL - mainly for bug fixes, or to add maps and models for the game. This standard caused a huge uproar with the 1.1.0.0 patch as this changed how the engine ran and made almost every mod made obsolete. At the same time, they released the SDK 2.0 and dropped the NDA required for the professional (now called full) SDK. This, for the modders' benefit, gave the old source code and basic instructions on how to adapt old mods for the new code. The great benefit of Valve's mod system was the way that new mods were given a completely new directory of their own. There was not one file was overwritten when a new mod was added.”

“R6 wasn't always like this, there were mods that could completely change original files without leaving an option to replace the originals - only a reinstall would do this. Rogue Spear added a Mod folder to the mis, but even then, people still sometimes changed the original files, as it was easier to do. The release of Urban Operations brought the mod handling to a much improved standard. Finally, RSE released the tools they used to create the maps for Rogue Spear/Urban Operations.”

The good Captain brings up a very good point...:

“One flaw though - it requires the use of 3DS Max - a 3D package which costs around $3000. But, already it has proven beneficial. Brand New maps are flooding into the R6(RS/UO really) scene (old maps are appearing too, already we have Mint and Airport converted for the nostalgic among us).

...and also confirms Day’s suspicion about CS being the most played multiplayer FPS:

“ The plug-ins are even bridging the gap between RS and HL by the conversion of Counter-Strike(CS) maps for Rogue Spear (CS is THE most played online multi-player FPS in the world - there are more people playing CS that for all of HL's other mods and all the Quake 2 and 3 servers combined)”

“Finally, it should be noted that HL is a game engine, where R6 (and it's successors) are not an engine but dedicated games with only a limited scope for modification requiring much more effort by the fans to create something wholly new”

Day returns in order to continue his “quasi-rant”:

“One thing that I forgot to mention in my quickly-written post in this thread last night (or perhaps I didn't forget...but just forgot that I didn't forget..) was that one of the reasons so many more people play HL is because whereas RS is RS and very little more (not even the most skilled modder can work miracles and turn it into Quake 4), HL can be whatever you want. The modding possibilities are endless. So if you buy HL, you get dozens of completely different games for free. This results in a massive fan base, as some people like Wasteland, some like Action HL, some Matrix HL, and some CS.”

“This brings me back to one of the points of my previous post, which is why people prefer CS over RS. Some CS players have no clue as to what the R6 series is. Some CS players like realistic TacSims, but don't know of any except for CS. Some don't like realistic games such and RS, but do like MP5s and such, and thus turn to CS for a jump-run-gun Quake-clone in a CT vs T setting.”

Farrell brings back old memories in the AGR-S regs, from the Dark Age before they found each other, and thus low-lag llama-less games:

“the benefit HL has is, thousands have it, so if you want to play online you can jump onto a public server - if it's full of llamas, you can EASILY find a better one R6 doesn't have this benefit - I remember searching for ages on MPlayer to find a good server with decent people”

“ /me hangs his head...I left RS when I found CS - mainly because it had a better netcode (for me)”

Day, unfortunately, has not been quite as lucky in his pursuits for fame in the CS community:

“That's funny, I have these "CS-weekends" every now and then when I play CS for an entire weekend, all day and night (almost). No matter how much I tweak and what server I join, I always end up having lag problems, even when the ping is some 80ms. In RS, on the other hand, I can play without problems on 120-150ms connections (which, I believe, is my average RS ping), and not encounter serious SNAFU'ed games until I reach the 250ms mark (somewhere around that). Also, I wish I had more information on the RS netcode. I can't really say I like the HL one, jumping out from behind a wall, shooting off half a magazine before jumping back, only to fall over dead two seconds after I reached cover is not my idea of fun. Strangely enough, I've experienced exactly the same thing in RS - strafe out, shoot, strafe behind wall, die. Fortunately, this is much less noticeable in RS, and for some reason RS is much more playable even with alot of lag, whereas CS is all fooked. At least, it is on my PC/connection.”

They both agree on one thing though:

CaptFarrell: “but I've quickly got annoyed with how unrealistic it is for a game that has realistic weapons”

Daywanderer: ”Which is why I never play CS for the realism, but rather to have some variation from RS without having to go totally "Quake".”

The conclusion? Judge for yourself. But take a brief look at the popular games today: Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress, Tribes... All not-so-realistic, run, jump ‘n shoot, no-nonsense first person shooters with few realistic elements, if any at all. Shooters like these have been vastly popular since the Dawn Of Man (otherwise known as ‘Wolfenstein 3D’). This could indicate that a majority of the players in the world prefer Doom-style bloodbaths with plasma rifles and akimbo sawn-offs, rather than TacSims with realistic weapons, damage, and the lack of a jump key.

Another point of interest is that most popular games today are more or less easy to create modifications for. The Rainbow Six games never had this convenience. As one can easily see by taking a look at the explosion of maps and mods that spawned the release of the 3D Studio MAX tools, the R6 community has been craving for larger modding possibilities for an extended period of time. The heavy price for the necessary tools is still an obstacle that will need to be bypassed though, if the modding community is to reach it’s full potential.