The Russian government controls all news about the war of aggression against Ukraine in its own country. The Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat has come up with a project to circumvent this media censorship: It has created a map for the first-person shooter “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” with a secret room in which some war images can be seen. They should draw attention to the circumstances in Ukraine with the accompanying text.
The map is called “de_voyna” and can be downloaded for free via the Steam workshop. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is also available for free. There are no online servers with the map – if you want to look inside, you have to open a game yourself and go to the start in the observation mode.
About the three console commands mp_limitteams 1, mp_autoteambalance 0 and bot_kick you can remove all virtual players to explore the map in peace. The console must be activated in the settings under “Game” (“Activate developer console”). A hotkey can be assigned to the console under “Keyboard/Mouse” and then “UI”.
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Map “de_voyna” in “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive”
Cellar room with war pictures
“Voyna” is a fictional place with a typical apartment complex. As a character, everything is completely normal – only in observation mode can you float through a locked front door and then into a twisted basement room.
There Helsingin Sanomat shows some self-made pictures from the war. Such can be inserted as textures in “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” with reasonable resolution.
As a matter of principle, there is no cutting-edge news and there is probably a healthy dose of PR in the campaign. However, the project shows once again how video games can be used to exchange information.
According to Leetify, “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” had more than 1.6 million active players as of July 2022 – the majority of the first-person shooter is Russian. Player numbers have fallen since the war began in February 2022.
(mma)
