April 5, 2001

Computer Game Crashes NYU Network

The object of the game is simple: Kill or be killed.

Related Sites • Counter-Strike

our medical students today are facing serious charges that their computer game caused a system-wide failure of the NYU network. Ilseung Cho, Tim Wong, Peter Chuang, and Trevor Verga have been accused of knowingly pushing the network beyond its capabilities for up to 14 hours at a time while playing a multiplayer video game over the internet. Over the past several months, they are believed to have been responsible for numerous "slow-downs" of the medical center's internet usage, resulting in minor inconveniences.

Those minor inconveniences ended today at approximately 11am with an 8 hour outage of all network resources. Every computer was believed to have been affected, including terminals throughout Tisch Hospital and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitative Medicine. Academic Computing Services declared a state of emergency as they rushed to locate and fix the problem. Amazingly, no major medical complications were reported as a result of the outage.

"I didn't know what had happened," Justine Barletta, class of 2004, told us. "I was in the middle of printing out my histo transcripts at the library and suddenly everything went dead. We're just lucky that the test isn't until next week."

It took only a matter of minutes for ACS employee Steven "StevieB" Braunstein to locate the problem as having originated on the 12th floor of Rubin Hall. "As soon as it happened, I had no doubt who was responsible," he stated. "I know what goes on up there."

The computer game implicated in this near-disaster is Counter-Strike. It is a multiplayer game conducted over the internet involving as many as 24 people simultaneously. The object of the game is simple: kill or be killed. Critics of the game claim that the game's ultraviolence is damaging to the well-being of those who play it. Opposition to Counter-Strike culminated earlier this year when the Southern Baptist Convention called for a national boycott of Valve Software, Counter-Strike's sponsor corporation.

"I think its just plain disgusting." remarked fellow classmate, Amy Lin. "I mean, it's just so dehumanizing the way these guys pretend to go around shooting each other. And talk about obsessed - playing for hours and hours and hours. That's gotta really mess someone up." Although this opinion is a common one, particularly in light of today's network shutdown, it was not universally shared. Third year Mike Ng told us, "I just don't get what the big deal is. Come on, it's only a freakin' game."

Network administrator Martin Nachbar informed the New York Times that the four students have immediately had all computing priviledges suspended, pending a formal hearing. The accused declined comment this evening.