In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, an experiment has gone awry. Valve introduced the fully-automatic CZ75-Auto in February as an inexpensive alternative to the ubiquitous P250 pistol. But now the spider has swallowed the fly whole, and the CZ75a is everywhere.
“Our goal was to increase variety in pistol selection, but the CZ is starting to have the opposite effect,” wrote Valve. “So in next week’s update, you can expect us to make some pistol changes.”
A few months ago, the P250 accounted for more than 70% of pistol purchases in CS:GO. Valve’s dev team designed the CZ75a to provide “new gameplay opportunities” for pistol users: fully-automatic, with identical stats to the P250 but low on ammo, it required precision and discipline from its wielder.
The idea was to increase the variety of pistols players were using – and initially, it worked. CT purchases were split mainly between the CZ and P250, and uptake of the Deagle and Five-SeveN remained unchanged.
But in the last couple of months, the CZ has come to dominate pistol purchases, cutting down the usage of every other alternative.
“Even small changes to gameplay can have a large impact on the rest of the game, and often this impact won’t be observed until a few months later,” said the dev team. “In the case of the CZ, it took over three months for player behavior to shift.
“As a result, whenever we make a change to the game, we generally try to give the community time to learn and adjust.”
Expect adjustment in next week’s update. How often do you log into CS:GO these days?