The Central Asia Democracy Project is issuing a call for papers on the popularity in Central Asia of Counterstrike. (Note for all retired gamers like me: it’s the Half-Life add-on, not the Command and Conquer sequel, as I had originally thought - the latter would have been really interesting from a historical perspective.) The game must tax the feeble computers at the Internet cafes, about half of which are used by kids playing it. Yet despite what must be incredibly poor ping numbers (do they still use that measurement?) they still play it. Why CounterStrike? Does it reflect some characteristic of the under-15 generation in Central Asia or is it an element of globalization that has reached even the back roads of the Tien Shan mountains? Email me with answers; if there are any logical or interesting explanations, I’ll post them here.