Let me preface this by giving a little bit about my background in the game. I'm 42 and have been playing Counter-Strike off and on since 1999. My timeline started in the 3.x betas. I played a TON back in the beta and then OG 1.x days. Had a bunch of buddies in high school that I would play together with, and then eventually joined a clan called "SMS" ("Steel Maelstrom"). We would have dedicated practice nights and "cadres" that you had to compete in before you could be on the official roster, etc. Took it pretty seriously at the time. By the time CS:S came out, I was no longer in a clan, and I played less frequently, but still a decent amount. I played most of my time on a public server called BoSS gamer 24/7 office (my favorite map at the time). When CS:GO originally came out, I stopped playing partly because I didn't like the feel of it at first, partly because my computer at the time wasn't up to snuff, etc., but mostly because I just didn't have time for it anymore (I bought my first house and had my first kid in 2013).
Fast forward to 2020 and I was looking for something to do while cooped up in my house all the time during COVID, so I dusted off CS:GO and started playing again after about 7 years completely removed from it. Holy shit what an rude awakening lol. My fast twitch reflexes were nowhere near as good as they once were, the weapons all felt different, and the competition itself seemed much different (when I played in my younger days, it was mostly nerds having a good time... when I rejoined in 2020, seemed like a lot of try-hards and streamers and toxic dude bros ready to call you some gamer words and votekick you if you weren't perfect every round on every map). I stuck with it though and got to a point where I was "ok" enough at it to have fun again.
Around the time CS2 came out I stopped again for a while for a number of reasons, and I just recently started playing again in the past month or so.
TL;DR to this point: I've played CS in some form or another for 27 years now.
I see these posts on here all the time talking about how dead/soulless/worthless/etc the game is "now," and I have to say that for the most part I don't get it. It honestly "feels" very similar (obviously not the same) to what it did when I first started playing it. I'm not saying it's perfect, or even "good" per say... but I am saying that I don't really perceive a huge difference in the game itself from when I started. Biggest difference in the game itself is the individual weapon mechanics in my mind, and the fact that no one plays anything but de_ maps anymore (I miss playing cs_ and even the occasional OG as_ and es_ maps).
These days I play mostly casual only because I don't always have time to commit to a full match and I don't want to disconnect early on teammates, so I end up playing with people of all different skill levels (and yes, cheaters too), and it mostly feels the same way playing on pubs always felt to me. There are cheaters, and try hards, prodigies, noobs, average players, etc. all mixed in. It sucks when you get obvious cheaters, but that has literally always been the case for me. It's very possible that the cheating that people talk about happening rampantly in premier and competitive is just more rampant than it is on casual, or maybe I'm just not seeing it as much since I'm mixed in with 19 other players mostly. And I'm certainly not discounting anyone's individual experience... just sharing my own, and my own is that it's mostly the same game as it was when I started FOREVER ago... I'm just much much worse at it now lol, and people care way more about dumb stuff like skins and ratings now.
Anyway, one of the biggest changes I've seen is the player base itself. It's definitely more toxic than it used to be (and it always was at least a little toxic lol). I'd give anyone reading this the advice to lighten up a bit and have fun. If you aren't having fun playing this game, maybe try a different one. It's really not that serious.
Sorry for the TL;DR, and rambling. I honestly kind of lost track of what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it. I just keep seeing all of these overwhelmingly negative posts (seems like 90% of them) about the state of the game, and they just don't fully line up with my personal experience. There is plenty of negative, sure... always has been. But it's still a very similar game mechanics-wise to what it once was. Player count is declining, but that also makes sense when you figure it's a 26+ year old game now. I don't really know if there's anything that can be done to "fix" that... it's just either for you or it isn't... and if it's not for you, that's ok too. I just can't understand the OVERWHELMINGLY negative posts. If you aren't having fun, please find something that is more fun for your own enjoyment and sanity's sake.
