One community-made Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map is seemingly offering Russians an alternative view of the war in Ukraine. While Valve's Counter-Strike has been among the most popular live-service titles to date, the game is currently seeing a notable uptick in interest thanks to the recent reveal that Counter-Strike 2 is officially in the works. Now, it appears one community is looking to leverage this popularity to shed light on the situation in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine continues to make a distinct impact on many industries across the spectrum, including the gaming sector. Over the course of 2022, companies ranging from Take-Two and Ubisoft to Sony have restricted Russia from its services with others like Riot Games, Microsoft, and Epic even going on to raise funds for Ukraine. In one of the latest developments, one community is reportedly utilizing a CS:GO map in an effort to reach the Russian masses to report on the present circumstances of the war.
Counter-Strike players have often found creative means of using the game's community map aspect with some CS:GO players recreating popular locations from franchises like The Witcher. Now, a Finnish newspaper called Helsingin Sanomat is using the same feature to share details about the war in Ukraine among Russian gamers owing to the title's popularity within the community. A custom-made map dubbed "de_voyna," a fictionalized Slavic city, was released today that aims to echo some of the cities that have been destroyed over the course of the war. More interestingly, the map contains images and voice recordings captured by the newspaper's journalists on the ground situation, all of which players can interact with in-game.
However, this isn't the first time a Valve product or service was indirectly involved in the war efforts. It was recently reported that the Ukrainian military is using the Steam Deck to remotely control turrets. Here, the Steam Deck runs a custom UI that allows the operator to be up to 500 meters (1,640 feet) away from the turret. The custom version is reportedly capable of installing any anti-personnel or anti-tank weapon as well.
In any case, even though the Finnish newspaper's de_voyna map was launched in line with World Press Freedom Day to reach the millions of Russians playing Counter-Strike, it's worth noting that Valve wasn't consulted prior to the community-made map going online. So it will be interesting to see how long the downloadable map will remain online, should the company take any action.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is available for PC and legacy platforms.
Source: Fast Company