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Your humble narrator, waiting for those sweet sweet words: You were killed.

Having abandoned aspirations for a career in first-person shooter (FPS) games a long time ago for reasons related to nausea, disorientation, and an overall skill level that might be best described as Emo, I have nonetheless been fascinated with the genre since its inception, due in large part to game developers making tools such as Software Development Kits and Level Editors available to vibrant amateur communities who then ‘Mod’ their proprietary technologies into new games and gameplay experiences. The possibilities for making and examining architecture within this arena have been another story, seemingly dominated by an established set of conventions for map-making, as evidenced by a preponderance of precisely scattered wooden crates and redundantly symmetrical networks of dimly lit corridors.

To simply look at screenshots many would assume the Source Forts Mod for Half-Life 2 to be just another CounterStrike clone. All I can say to them is duck and cover. While surreptitiously perhaps, the developers of Source Forts have placed architecture and the act of making architecture at center stage, and in so doing have lobbed a 3pointD grenade into the Pantheon of FPS clichés.

As the following collection of YouTube clips suggest, Source Forts does find the archetypal ‘Red Team’ and ‘Blue Team’ engaged in some classic capture the flag action, however with one key difference. Prior to the ‘Combat Phase’ the two teams complete a ‘Build Phase’ in which each team collaborates (by means of the Gravity Gun) to position a finite number of panel and box elements bearing team colors. These panels can be used to create protection for the flag as well as offensive, defensive, and sniping positions over and above those presented by the map itself. The strategy employed during this phase (or lack thereof) significantly impacts the success of each team to score points and generally make Ceviche of each other.

This flies in the face of typical level-design wisdom, which is to carefully orchestrate possible tactics such that no combatant is given an unfair advantage. In Source Forts this control has been given over to the users and it is precisely the capacity for imbalance that makes every new round a uniquely gripping experience, heightened by the resonance one feels with such temporary structures into which one is personally invested with respect to their efficacy and yet have been borne of a deindividuated team effort. The added ability for the user to manipulate the game environment within a layer of ‘community involvement’ represents a tremendous step forward for first-person shooters - ‘Game 2.0’, if you will, perhaps perfectly at home as a very focused, purpose-driven corner of an open-ended metaverse, not unlike many of the games that have already been developed within Second Life.

Truth be told, the Build Phase was the only time I felt the least bit useful to my fellow fraggers, if only as a mule to transport panels from the spawn point to locations of those who actually knew what they were doing with them. Despite the sense of urgency associated with building and some minor differences of opinion among the ranks I found myself engaged in relatively civilized and collegial chatting with the same strangers who did not hesitate to team kill me just seconds later.

As a further observation, while all of the seventeen maps supplied with Source Forts have yet to be personally experienced, there was suggestion of some very familiar building patterns occurring over and over again, such as there being only so many ways to plug a ventilation shaft, for example. This was further evidenced by a form of Design Control Guideline appearing in the greeting message on one of the servers to which I was connected:

The opposing team must have a realistic chance of scoring on you. Do not create ridiculous bases that require a player to crawl through 100 meter long tunnels. This will also benefit your team because it will allow you to capture the enemy’s team flag quicker since your base will be more easily navigable.

Some might take this as a lack of imagination or creativity; others might see it as having arrived at the most efficient strategic solution to a map’s base condition with no need for further variation. A quick look at one of the official discussion forums showcasing fortress designs would suggest there is no shortage of either wild creativity or pragmatic problem solving. During the Combat Phase I found myself more often than not a deer in the headlights with its entrails about to be splattered, transfixed on the stunning sculptural and spatial beauty of our utilitarian efforts.

Needless to say I will be sticking around Source Forts for a good while, nauseated, disoriented, and admittedly, a little Emo.

Chip Poutine is the author of Virtual Suburbia - the Architecture of Second Life®, reviewed on the fly.