Urinsane pointed me out to this editorial all about "The Attraction of Counter-Strike" it's a pretty damned interesting read and here's a snippet of it.
Pretty nice read and well it has some good points and some odd ones..but overall it's pretty interesting to read on this slow newsday.I'll tell you this, there is no singular reason for the success of Counter-Strike. There is a pretty darn big list of reasons of why Counter-Strike is in the position it is in. What exactly makes a game a success and attractive to gamers is a riddle every game developer is always trying to solve. If I knew the perfect answer to that question I would be putting out full page ads in PC Gamer proclaiming you to be my bitch. Instead I'm going to try and analyze the circumstances, decisions, and coincidences that have contributed to the worldwide success of Counter-Strike. Chances are I wont cover everything, in fact I am certain of that. I am however going to break down what I feel are some of the largest factors that have played in the success of Counter-Strike.