Level designer defends Counter-Strike Texas school creation
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ May 9th 2007 at 11:02AM }
Last week a student in Texas was classified as a "terroristic threat" after recreating his school in the game Counter-Strike. This morning Kenn Hoekstra of Pi Studios had an op-ed piece published in ForBendNow. He defends the right of the student to create the school with the same basic reasoning used to jump start every creative individual: You write/draw/design what you know.Hoekstra writes, "I speak from experience when I say that just about every aspiring level designer starts out by building what he or she knows. In this case, this poor kid built his school because he was familiar with it. Over the years, I've personally constructed the house where I grew up, my old grade school and high school, my old work office building and my apartment complex in various level editors. Why? Because it was fun! Plain and simple."
Hoekstra better start running now because the Men in Black are probably going to be knocking on his door any second. Watch out aspiring game designers, keep your passion in the closet, because one day you too may be considered a "terroristic threat."
[Via GamePolitics]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Briz9 @ May 9th 2007 11:09AM
I remember thinking several years ago when I was addicted to Quake 2 how cool it would be if someone could model my school (Virginia Tech) into an FPS game. Sort of ironic, huh?
Todd @ May 9th 2007 11:12AM
Men in Black? This is merely the first of many steps to be taken in limiting the creative rights and freedoms of artists and game designers. Before long each of them will need to be screened and get an ID in order to work in the field. Heaven help you if you are an aspiring painter and you just happen to paint the courtyard of some college.
Jason Tyra @ May 9th 2007 11:20AM
I'm not on the side of the bad guys, but wouldn't common sense tell you that mapping out your school in a game that is made for shooting people just not a good idea? No matter what your intentions are, with all of the crap that's already happened it's just adding fuel to the fire.
Almack64 @ May 9th 2007 11:22AM
I'm just happy people are speaking about how crazy this situation is. Maybe if the backlash is strong enough this unfortunate occurance will expand the understanding of people concerning such things. (But I wouldn't put money on it.) I think more of us should reveal our own acts of "terroristic threat". Here we go A few years ago I helped to make a map of my college dorm building for CS. Come and get me.
Jeff @ May 9th 2007 11:39AM
"Terroristic threat" has nothing to do with being a "terrorist". The legal term of "terroristic threat" means any threat designed to cause fear. And it's been illegal in most places since long before most people in this country even knew what a "terrorist" was.
When I was in high school (and this was 20 years ago now) I was arrested for making a "terroristic threat" over the phone to a jerk at my school who had beaten up a girl I liked. It actually wasn't even me, it was a friend who was also on the line that said he was going to "burn your house down" on this jerk's answering machine, to which I replied "yeah!" I was hauled into the police station on the charge of making terroristic threats.
So please, complain about this all you want, but you're being just as sensationalistic as the rest of the media if you're going to go on about how this kid was labeled a "terrorist". Terroristic threats != "terrorist", and nobody labeled him as such.
And I'm sorry, but walking around saying things like "you could kill more students if you chained the doors shut" is a pretty stupid thing to do in the middle of your school, regardless of context.
Jonathan Tran @ May 9th 2007 11:49AM
I dunno, dontcha think instead of working with what you know, you should research cool things like public landmarks?
There was some kid in my HS that used to sketch fake blueprints of the rooms he was in. It was creepy but we figured thats how he dealt with the pressures of stifled architectural genius
HaloBreaker @ May 9th 2007 12:15PM
I got suspended from my high school back in 2000 for some sort of terrorist behavior. I stuck a business card in a CD-rom tray, they said "You could have taken down the entire school network." Right... Anyways it was a nice week off of school. I thought it would have been funny for the next kid to open the drive and out comes a paintball business card. Sorry but there's no loling matter here.
Roger @ May 9th 2007 12:12PM
id rather have this kid in jail than the asian who made the map. this kid needs some GOOD anal rape treatment!
Jake @ May 9th 2007 12:26PM
When I was 13, I got in a heap of trouble for making prank phone calls. We were recording prank calls Jerky Boys style.
Anyways, we were retarded, obviously, and kept doing it without getting into any trouble. But the cops knew it was us (small town). Rather than stop us, they kept waiting to get more information and more charges piled up so they could really bend us over.
Then one fateful day, my buddy was making a prank call. There were three of us. One kid on the phone. Myself making lunch. And another kid watching Daytona by himself because we hated racing. My buddy making the prank at one point stated "I am tha bomb" and other kinds of weird crap trying to confuse this poor old lady with various modern slang. (all our pranks had some kind of theme)
She called the cops and said she thought it was a bomb threat because he said "I have a bomb" and "I'm putting it in the church". The first part I can see the misinterpretation. The second part we could never quite figure out. Maybe she was half senile.
They grabbed us one by one at school, got us into a room with just the cop, and made up a bunch of crap about phone traps to get us to confess. Once they knew we made the calls, they start charging us for terroristic threats for making a bomb threat. But it wasn't a bomb threat. That is the messed up thing. They didn't seem to really care and assured us the courts would get it right.
We each fought the charge. In the end, the kid who made the call got off scott-free on the felony charge and got two gross misdemeanors. I got two gross misdemeanors and the felony, which would be dropped if I got into no trouble for a year. The kid watching Daytona who didn't even know about the "bomb" call got stuck for the felony and the misdemeanors because he had a prior record. He didn't even know about the call until the cops told him about it!! pwnage.
God Bless the legal system. I also got screwed once on a minor because the cops went to the wrong apartment on a noise complaint call (some dudes were jamming guitar and drums). When they realized their mistake (we didn't own any instruments, and our apartment number was different), they decided to give us minors instead. Not because we were drunk, but because we had beer.
One time I ran from my car to escape a DWI. Yes, you heard that correctly. Myself and 4 others exited my car and ran through a field 6 miles to safety. We were going down a gravel road, came over a hill, and there were two cops and two wreckers pulling a car out of the ditch. We saw them. They saw us. We ran like hell. None of us got into any trouble.
Lots of crazy shit happens. People with experience can attest to it. To be honest, I think this kid getting in trouble for a CS map is bogus. But it is not the weirdest thing I've ever heard or the worst screw job ever. That's for damn sure. Hell, my buddy got a felony for a call he didn't know about that was misinterpreted as a bomb threat. At least CS boy actually made the map and it was actually the school.
AirIntake @ May 9th 2007 12:32PM
@Jake
You're from the U.S. right? Wow, cops there scare the shit out of me. I much prefer talking to an RCMP, they are quite professional and respectful. City cops on the other hand are still assholes up here though...
REUYL @ May 9th 2007 12:42PM
We all know that this kid is no terrorist. In fact, I applaud his skills in graphic design! I think this is just a case of "wrong place, wrong time", and he'll be out of this mess soon enough.
rodan32 @ May 9th 2007 12:45PM
Ya know, this could be good training in case something did happen at his school. You'd have guys knowing all the best ways to snipe the potential shooter, where to flash-bang, and the best hostage escape routes. Seems practical, to me.
Micah Neumark @ May 9th 2007 1:32PM
I had a friend in College freshman year who made a CS map of his dorm area. The next year he got a part time job modeling different parts of the campus in 3D. VERY different response to a very similar occurence, huh?
Mindbleach @ May 9th 2007 1:44PM
@ Jason Tyra:
The reason there are a lot of home & school maps for games where you can shoot people is the wide availability of tools for making maps for games where you can shoot people. Doom has DEU, Quake has Quark, Half-Life has Hammer, Unreal has UnrealEd, etc. The fact that you can then add spawn points and drop in real or simulated opponents is completely secondary to the building of familiar locations, which is an excellent way to develop familiarity with a level editor.
Jake @ May 9th 2007 1:46PM
AirIntake,
You are from Canada?
Anyways, the cops in the US aren't all dicks by any means. It totally depends on the individual. I personally feel that pricks are attracted to that profession at a higher rate than nice people. Some people become a cop because their dad was or they want to make a positive difference in society. Some people become a cop because they were powerless in high school and want to have the power over others they've always craved but never had. They get pleasure from sticking it to people. You gotta watch out for them ones. Anyone from my home town that became a cop (small town so you know of them all) were kids that didn't get any ladies and weren't popular in high school. They were the chumps then, now they are the man.
But the thing is that even the dicks are going to put their ass on the line to save you in a real situation. It is just that when they talk to you about some minor offense they are going to totally disrespect you and love every minute of it. I've been given tickets (I have a bit of a record) by cops before where I was pissed about the fine or time, but could respect the officer for how they treated me. I only ask for a little respect and a possible reach around when they bend me over and take all my money, you know. Ease it in like a gentleman.
Kevin @ May 9th 2007 5:57PM
So, like if he did the high school on the other side of town, that would be ok, right? Or the mall?
Actually, I'll bet the high school map he made applies to like a dozen schools anyways. Everyone knows they recycle the floor plans whenever some county needs a new school.
scaryface @ May 9th 2007 1:59PM
This is kinda obvious. When I first learned to map in high school, i also created a counter-strike map of my school (well part of it; i gave up after a while, which is why i respect this kid for actually completing his) When brainstorming a map, theres an 80% chance that you're sitting bored in class. In that situation, it's pretty easy to be inspired to map your school.
Core @ May 9th 2007 2:48PM
Wow... I just had the great idea to create the university where I go to school in UnrealEd today... Guess I can't do that now, or at least show anybody for a while.
Rumor has it that my teacher created our art building in UnrealEd or Counter-Strike but he can't show it to students for legal reasons.
randomshagz @ May 9th 2007 4:01PM
I remember rolling smoke bombs down intersections, walking into subway ordering a sandwich and having a visible airsoft gun in my pants, I remember fireworks and Pistol Petes in parking lots. Things were a lot simpler back in 2001.
Looking back… I have no idea what we were thinking.
dull @ May 9th 2007 4:08PM
i wish someone put up a support site where people could upload a screenshot or two of controversial levels they've made. I've got a few from college. Maybe if the media understood just how commonplace it is to make levels of actual places... meh
Adrian Scythe @ May 9th 2007 4:40PM
I agree with Kenn Hoekstra. I did the same thing, just because it was familiar and something I knew.
That was in Doom/Quake/HLDM and thats quite a bit more reasonable to assume that making a map for CS and considering it a shoot em up plan. For heaven sakes its a "War on Terror" and your stopping terrorists in the school, not just killing, how could that be considered so... So stupid.
Pawsie @ May 10th 2007 8:21AM
this is first class bull crap.. Technically, it's his right to make a virtual design of a school.. like it's a right for someone to draw a building of a school. I think the kid can sue the school board.. you can't have the police 'search' someone's home JUST because of computer recreation.
It's just stupid people making stupid decision without thinking how stupid and unjustify they're being. I'm all for the safety of the school.. but you don't need a video game to start a shooting
NekoMode @ May 10th 2007 2:15PM
Not surprised. It was a poor judgement call but at that age we all have poor judgement. I know back in the day I was suspended for a grand total of 2+ months for 'terroristic' threats for having a map of my school, a Red Alert 2 strategy guide, and a retard who pulled a knife on me during a PE basketball game accusing me of wanting to bomb the school (this is right after Colombine) to take some heat off himself.
Yea rather than concentrating on the real problems like the kid who had not 1 but 3 weapons on his person and pulls them on fellow students they prefer to chase these imaginary threats. What did he get? Freaking 1 week suspension and cafeteria dish duity for bringing MULTIPLE weapons to school. What did I get for cooperating with their police searches, psychiatric evaluations, and all those hoops they made me jump through over such a ridiculous accusation? 2 month suspension before deciding 'screw it' and went to the local public school.