Legend

There's a new guy in my community group that I've been getting to know and I learned a pretty amazing thing about him. We were carving pumpkins at our social activity night and the boys ended up talking about video games (a topic that usually comes up in our conversations). I didn't believe it at first, but the new guy in our group, Minh, created the most popular PC online game of all time, the Half-Life mod Counter-Strike. I was pretty shocked to meet the legend. I have a little background on him.

Minh, also known by his online nickname Gooseman, first picked up Quake in 1996 and began playing with the SDK (Software Development Kit) for it. With it he created his first couple of mods, called Navy SEALs and Action Quake 2. While in the middle of his fourth year at SFU, Minh came up with the idea for Counter-Strike and became friends with AQ2's webmaster Jess Cliffe.

Jess and Minh, known as the "Counter-Strike Team", began work on Counter-Strike while Minh was studying at SFU. Minh did all the modeling, skinning, animating, and coding while Jess did public relations and the website. Minh spent about 20 hours a week making the mod, putting his studies secondary, and released the first beta in June 1999.



Minh later graduated with a degree in Computer Science. Both he and Jess joined Valve Software in 2000 and continued to work there with the release of Half-Life 2 and the new Counter-Strike: Source last year. In 2003, GameSpy ranked Minh as the most important reason Half-Life has been so popular five years after it was released.

Minh, has since left Valve looking for new opportunities in Vancouver. I believe he's searching for something deeper too in his life which is how he ended up coming to my church. He's asked some great questions about Jesus and Jesus' death on the cross in our bible studies. I am greatly encouraged by his honesty and desire to seek God.

Peace.