"Counter Strike was originally created by fans. The world's biggest game studio has been created with the help of 20,000 volunteers. Thousands of people have signed up to help develop a community-built massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMO). Developer Dave Perry and publisher Acclaim are building a professional MMO with the help of ordinary people. One of the users will be chosen to "direct" a future game and will receive any royalties earned.

The original goal was to try to develop a title faster than if it was done by professional developers alone, he said.

The project, known as Top Secret, is looking for artists, writers, designers and audio technicians from the ranks of ordinary gamers.

"With 20,000 people signed up we are already the biggest development team in history. "We will end up with 100,000 people on this team. if 1% is any good, we are good to go." Gamers have been able to sign up since last week and Mr Perry said he had been overwhelmed by the response. "There is a real pent-up level of interest we didn't expect. We have touched a nerve." There is a tradition of non-professionals creating content for the games industry. The 1998 PC game Half Life spawned an entire industry when fans created a modified (mod) version of the title, called Counter Strike."

Rest of the article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6422333.stm
--------------------

I wonder how many people VO could get if the devs asked for (free) help....

/me raises hand...

oooo, it's the elfwood of mmorpgs!

Probably a lot...if VO was written in the same manner as CS in that it had all the tools necessary for production professionally created already. It's not a realistic comparison. VO needs much more than mods.

Also, can we really consider CS a role-playing-game? That's a pretty loose interpretation.

the statement is MMO, not MMORPG

so yes it can; technically, even thought whoever wrote this used the entire name in their article, but acronymized it as mmo.