Student gets expelled for modeling a counter-strike map...

"Sword ownership rights have been under heavy fire since they were determined to be the leading cause of death during the Siege of Acre in the third crusade."

Heh...

Freedom of expression.

His right to express whatever he wants, even if it is offensive, as long as its not illegal.

Modelling a map after a building, no matter what building, is not illegal.

Miguey said:

...after his school.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/03/student_counterstrike_map_texasschool/

Wow. What do you think, was it right or wrong to expel him, did they take drastic measures? Sorry if this has already been posted...

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Interesting article. I found the sword ownership section (weapons of mass decapitation) really weird though.

But anywway, not the point.

It's a lose-lose situation. One the one hand, the kid was merely making a game map, and if he's a beginner what better to way to practice modelling than to emulate a physical space you already know. I used to dream about having paintball fights in my school; this is merely the virtual equivalent. It was bad luck that a kid who went to the same school played the map and got caught.

On the other hand, we live in sensitive times. While I don't believe there is any link between real life violence and video games (at least without other real-life influences) the school was trying to act in a responsible manner, especially so close to the Virginia Tech tragedy.

School's have a responsibility to keep their areas safe, and actions like this fall under that umbrella. It's just unfortunate that those who run the schools are so out of touch with the youth that they perceive any instance like this as a threat.

Ironic.

My school has a map modeled after the dorms for Counter Strike. Fun one too. (Or so I've heard)

Honestly after all the shootings lately I support their move. Even though it is a game someone could get a little too wrapped up in it... and... yeah...

Now I want to play CS... <.<

JPT said:

Honestly after all the shootings lately I support their move. Even though it is a game someone could get a little too wrapped up in it... and... yeah...

Now I want to play CS... <.<

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Now, you see, thats a reason people in America lose their rights.

"Well, maybe" and ad nauseum paranoia leads to the revoking of rights "for your own protection".

If you're playing this game and thinking "I wish I could do this in real life", you really should admit yourself to a mental institution.

Whoever approved this kid getting expelled is a wuss and should be fired.

As Benjamin Franklin once said...

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty not safety."

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A boy in my school made a CSS map and modeled it around the lunch hall put it up on youtube but he wasn't found out by school staff and even if he was the school wouldnt really care.

Gamespot gave an update on this on their recent podcast...apparently the school is letting him graduate with his class now, as long as his parents agreed to take all the "weapons" he owned and confirmed that he wasn't a danger to himself or others. They also found out that the "swords" were actually "decorative knives" that had been completely dulled and wouldn't hurt anyone. Leave it to the media and school to jump to conclusions so quickly.

I think the whole thing is just ridiculous and blown out of proportion. It'd be really fun to play a counterstrike map modeled after any building that I'm at frequently, not because I actually want to kill people in the buildings in real life, but because it would be a fun interactive experience. It's not like he made character models after his principal and teachers...that might be a little overboard and I would probably see those as warning signs for something bigger. I still find it funny (although it's not at the same time) that after how many years since Columbine, we still can't get school security right.

The Virginia tech shooter didn't make any video game maps, but he was clinically insane and made threats to people and constantly made teachers feel uncomfortable, yet nobody did anything. The day of the shooting he had time to kill people in the dorms, film a ridiculous video of himself & take pictures, mail them out to NBC, then return to the school to go on and kill 25+ people. This country will never make sense to me.

psychofreak said:

As Benjamin Franklin once said...

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Yes, in a United States populated by less than one million, still under British control, with bombs and machine guns and tanks and electricity and airplanes still over a hundred years in the future, that makes plenty of sense.

dpaanlka said:

Yes, in a United States populated by less than one million, still under British control, with bombs and machine guns and tanks and electricity and airplanes still over a hundred years in the future, that makes plenty of sense.

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Are you intentionally trying to be daft?

By your logic, every bit of Western philosophical thought is invalid and irrelevant because of technological progress.

The power of ideas and the ultimate test of their validity is their ability to withstand technological and social change.

What we also see is the tendency of individuals to believe their era is somehow unique. We think our wars are the most world-changing and important to have ever been fought. We believe the changes in our lifetime to be the most definitive that the world has ever faced. In the end, it's not. Terrorism has been around since the dawn of time. We've been killing each other with gunpowder weapons for a milennia. What difference does it make whether we do the killing with a machine gun or a musket?

Besides, most worthwhile ideas were thought of in eras that were obsolete. Maybe we should abandon modern economics and capitalism because they were developed before the internet and wireless phones.

I started modelling my house in Quake 1 when I was younger. But I set my sights to recreating a local valley which was a pretty awesome map in the end! Now I want to model my house in Bellas Room style.

I'd never model my school/college/uni. In this day and age it's just asking for trouble. Regardless of how many dreams I've had of wanting to turn my old school into a giant paintball arena.

I wonder what his mother's reaction to him getting expelled was.

Shanesan said:

Now, you see, thats a reason people in America lose their rights.

"Well, maybe" and ad nauseum paranoia leads to the revoking of rights "for your own protection".

If you're playing this game and thinking "I wish I could do this in real life", you really should admit yourself to a mental institution.

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Well in the age where people (literally) kill for shoes, iPods, etc and once every month or every other month there is a school shooting I would think that a little "paranoia" wouldn't do too bad. I mean seriously. Think of what might have happened if we didn't beef up our security after 9/11! Wouldn't you apply the same strategy towards other things too?

JPT said:

Well in the age where people (literally) kill for shoes, iPods, etc and once every month or every other month there is a school shooting I would think that a little "paranoia" wouldn't do too bad. I mean seriously. Think of what might have happened if we didn't beef up our security after 9/11! Wouldn't you apply the same strategy towards other things too?

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Paranoia is bad no matter the situation. Calmly thinking about the situation and reacting appropriately is another matter alltogether. Don't evern confuse the two.

Oh. Our security was lax before 9/11. It wasn't beefed up. It was just brought up to the level it was supposed to be at.

This map was made weeks to months before the VTech shootings. Just more power-tripping by old-fashioned administrators who don't understand video games.

I wonder if this would be trouble now:

Watch the short video.

Invisible guns on a college campus.

that seems like it would be fun to play a map modeled after your school... maybe over the summer i'll try that

I wanna make a CS map of my school now...

Man only in the United States do we see those kind of things happening...

If you really want to prevent school shooting work on your family values and stop blaming everything, especially games, games have done nothing but immense good to my life.

If it weren't for games my English would so crappy I couldn't even be writing on these forums. Games are interactive entertainment besides they provide some advantages such as improved hand-eye coordination, reflexes and visual perception and like I said they teach you a few things especially English.

The point is, stop blaming everything you can and do something about it, people in the US ARE nice people but their legal system is so stupid I can not bring myself to understand how things work in that country. Making a CS map based on a school has nothing wrong with it... stop living in such paranoia and ruining the life of every person you can.

It is no wonder so many people see the US in such bad light...

Shanesan said:

Freedom of expression.

His right to express whatever he wants, even if it is offensive, as long as its not illegal.

Modelling a map after a building, no matter what building, is not illegal.

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Not sure what country you're from. There's no such thing as "freedom of expression" in the Constitution. It's really a shame that "freedom of speech" has been twisted by uneducated Americans in the last several decades.

darkwing said:

Not sure what country you're from. There's no such thing as "freedom of expression" in the Constitution. It's really a shame that "freedom of speech" has been twisted by uneducated Americans in the last several decades.

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Think again. Over the years numerous court decisions have expanded and broadened the First Admendment's freedom of speech concept to include various forms of expression, to the point that freedom of speech and freedom of expression are synonymous terms.

as i was reading the title from the homepage i was thinking, 'why would someone get expelled for that. pretty stupid... (clicked link, as it loads..) unless he made a map of the school or something."

truth is this is a v. tech reaction. If it hadn't had happened he probably wouldn't have had such a severe punishment. is it a big deal he made it? probably not, at the same time he that thought should have entered his mind before he made it, and he should get punished for that, if i didn't. which it doesn't appear he did.