The Future of Online FPS 
An article by Devin Ebert

The most popular form of gaming is arguably the Shooter Genre, preferably first-person perspective. The 90's saw fit to some of the revolutionary, from Doom, Wolf3D, and Quake all the way to Half-Life, System Shock 2, and Tribes. Now it is the 21st century, and we don't really know what to expect from the genre. Quake IV, or god help us all, Mortyr 2 could be the next titles in release. What can we expect from the future?

Two words: Online Shooters.

The hip thing to have out today is a FPS (First Person Shooter) that has fantastic multiplayer. In some cases it doesn't matter if the games have virtually no single player (Tribes) or virtually no plot (Quake III & Unreal Tournament). It is more important now to have amazing graphics then plot, for Deathmatch is a large draw for gamers. Counter-Strike, the world's most popular online shooter, has become a haven for Deathmatchers. When it was originally released in early 99', it was a new design style for a shooter. Working together as a team to achieve common goals drove the beauty of it. Once it hit beta 5.2 though, it began to attract a different type of gamer. People who didn't usually play teamwork oriented video games. Soon public servers became feeding grounds for the close-minded. It soon became about frags, not objectives. Common remarks heard in servers would be:

"LOOK AT MY SCORE! LOOK AT IT! WHY AREN'T YOU ALL LOOKING!!!"
"I hope they all die fast so I can kill again."
"What's an objective?"

These "supa-1337" gamers would play just for the thrill of the kill though, not the beauty of teamwork. The only safe place for clans was to play was in private servers and leagues. By the time CS went retail, it's fans were divided up among those who found the Quake III single player enthralling and those who used to play Tribes.