Counter Strike kept boredom at bay in Mars500 experiment

Remember our earlier story about the Mars500 experiment? Well, it seemed that to help keep boredom at bay (and I am assuming that this also means making sure they don’t get on one another’s nerves, while finding a reasonable outlet to express their frustration at being cooped up), the all-male crew of a mock spaceship indulged in a fair bit of Counter Strike, the hugely successful and popular Half Life mod that took the world by storm more than a decade ago.

Accordign to Russian Alexander Smoleyevsky, their cramped, windowless module at a Moscow research facility were split into teams, where three Russians were on one side (obviously) and went up against a couple of Europeans and one Chinese in round after round of Counter Strike, where he wisely stated that, “We know that flies can turn into elephants in space so whatever conflict arose, we tried to nip it in the bud.” I do wonder why they chose Counter Strike when there are way so many other more visceral FPS (First Person Shooters) titles in the market, and surely one of the Quake series would have deserved a place on their computers?

Ah well, at least there is no Angry Birds multiplayer…yet.