Private servers are good for building a community (I know, we all have fond memories, mine is SWJKA, especially in the later, JK+ times), but they fail to put players into skill brackets, meaning that if you enter the game later or don’t spend your entire life playing it, you’ll eventually fall off as pros will insta-kill you everywhere.
Anon is a nostalgic gamer
Submitted 5 hours ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/609fc7a1-f1eb-4a27-8664-2c31918f4f63.jpeg
Comments
Allero@lemmy.today 45 minutes ago
AccountMaker@slrpnk.net 1 hour ago
I had a very similar experience a few years ago with Tannenberg. And easter front WW1 shooter that, at least at the time, I don’t know the current status, had just enough players in the evening to fill up one server, so I’d play with the same people night after night. It never felt empty because of that and it was great fun.
Cethin@lemmy.zip 37 minutes ago
Isonzo is the newer one. I haven’t played it in a few months, but it’s similarly small but I never felt close to anyone there.
I play Squad fairly frequently, and it’s got a similar feel to what the OP is about. You choose your server with a server browser, and it’s frequently got a lot of the same people there all the time. There’s some servers that are more casual, and they end up cycling players more so you don’t recognize anyone. The more experienced focused servers draw from a much smaller group though, and they play more consistently.
Kyatto@leminal.space 5 hours ago
Game companies have definitely done their best to try and make multiplayer gaming more and more lonely. I settled in quick to single player cause at least I could have fun and not simultaneously be lonely and dominated by some hyper competitive toxic game matched tryharding BS. Me
ma1w4re@lemm.ee 5 hours ago
Team fortress 2
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Don’t be silly, if you want to get dominated by another random person in tf2 then you need to first buy bot immunity
OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings, Battle for Middle Earth lately (I believe the game came out in 2004?). Anyways, the small pool of players isn’t as fun as you remember. The greentext notes giving up based on team matchup, and oh boi is that a big problem.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 14 minutes ago
I really wish BFME2 could get a remaster in the fashion of the Age of Empires Definitive Editions. I only ever played single player back in the day but I’d love to be able to easily install it and play some multiplayer games.
Shame the rights won’t allow that.
GenitalHurricane@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
This basically describes my experience with counter strike pre-1.6… like 1.3 thru 1.5, circa 2002-2005. Lost thousands of hours of my youth negotiating knives-only rounds and doing stupid totem pole camping on de_dust while 1 guy on the other team tried to AWP everybody. Am I old?
mctoasterson@reddthat.com 4 hours ago
So much scoutzknivez and iceworld
Windswept@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Nothing wrong with getting older
atmur@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
The last good public multiplayer experience I had was DiRT 3. Simple lobbies, small player count, people randomly joining and leaving and everyone was chill. You’d occasionally get that guy who was stupidly good, perfect lines through every corner, and the entire lobby would try so hard to keep up. Loved it.
One time I stumbled into a lobby where the host was “hacking” but instead of cheating for an advantage, he was selecting weird car class and track combinations for the entire lobby. Stuff that the game wouldn’t normally allow. Shit like trailblazer cars on rallycross circuits. So much fucking fun, one of my favorite memories from that game.
That must’ve been what, 4, 5 years ago? DiRT 3 released in 2011, so…oh my god DiRT 3 came out 13 years ago…
rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
Quake ]I[ was the last real multiplayer game.
Fite me.
Godric@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I HIGHLY recommend Holdfast: Nations At War for the same experience nowadays. There’s usually 1-2 full 150 player servers running in the browser, and you start to recognize the slaughterers and shitters over time.
It’s a Napoleonic era musket shooting game with locational open VC that gives bonuses for teamwork and line-firing. Recently I’ve been talking mad shit in a ridiculous accent matching whatever faction I’m playing at the time, and people are now recognizing my name, which is kinda warming :)
atlas@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
honestly for the amount of people on those servers, i’ve had surprisingly few bad experiences, everyone is always either roleplaying or just being ridiculous and it’s always a great time. 10/10 would recommend holdfast
Godric@lemmy.world 41 minutes ago
Honestly it’s fantastic, hearing other people’s Voice Chat by default (you can mute people) results in amazing moments of both heroism and clownery.
Even when there’s that occasional shitwit taking advantage of unmoderated VC, I’ve noticed just calling them out and mocking them has a great chunk of the server join in on dunking on them.
Great game, great community, VC makes it fantastic.
kryptonidas@lemmings.world 2 hours ago
COD 2 Rifle only 🫡
RandomVideos@programming.dev 1 hour ago
There are definitely games that allow the first scenario to happen(by allowing people to host servers or by not having many players)
RinseDrizzle@midwest.social 2 hours ago
Anyone remember PlayStations All-stars, Sony’s shitty answer to Smash Bros? My lame claim to fame is I had one of the nastiest Heihachis in the scene. Always played in purple thong. Saw people mention me a few times in forums.
Game was bad and hachi kinda busted, but seemingly only a few of us who ever got real nasty with it. Kinda fun just being a monster on that silly game and showing off maximum old man butt.
rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
Quake ]I[ was the last real multiplayer game.
Fite me.
Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 1 hour ago
Counterstrike Source was later and still had these tight knit communities on the gun game and surf community servers. There wasn’t any matchmaking in the client either.
Jesus_666@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I think Rainbow Six 3 might also qualify.
Then again, nothing will ever compare to the Rocket Arena 3 scene where every kill was due to skill. You’re a complete noob who got a few lucky hits with the rocket launcher? Skill. The other guy jumps in front of you just as you happen to pull the trigger? Nice air rail, well played. I never saw anyone ever complain about losing.
That community was just so refreshingly positive and welcoming, probably because there were no stakes. A match was over in maybe thirty seconds and then you’d watch until your next turn. And that was it.
In modern competitive games people have a ranking and they feel stressed when a game goes badly because they might lose precious Elo. This goes to the point where you get yelled at by your own teammates for not knowing the meta because they can’t make it to the next rank if you pay like it’s a game.
50MYT@aussie.zone 2 hours ago
Cpm mids for days
hector@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
There’s this guy so damn good with the Kraber on Titanfall l 2 Northstar on my server I never was able to kill him …
themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
Ready gaming fires away in this Kraber g200 montage!
Thcdenton@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Tribes 1 still like this. Always see the same dudes. They all killers too
fatalicus@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
Well, tribes 1 is also a 26 years old game, so would go under the first part.
tehmics@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Did you try the new netcode test? Just saw the discord announcement today
msage@programming.dev 2 hours ago
Had the same experience with AssaultCube last year.
CS2 still has server browser. Even I have my own dedicated server.
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
New Feature Idea: A New Subscription to bring back those features.
Stop paying? Well you lose access to your friend list.
CEO Be Like: 🤑
can@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
:(
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 5 hours ago
Just play wow again, it still exists
robolemmy@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
But with raid and dungeon finder, guilds mean almost nothing and everything is just about grinding as fast as possible. I quit wow after matchmaking ruined the intimacy of raiding with a good guild.
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
Classic* my mistake
Rolder@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
I dunno man my mythic raiding guild is still plenty tight knit. Has a heroic only team as well that I believe is also pretty tight.
You still need a solid raid group if you want solid raid progress. Not sure what else you are expecting exactly.
kionay@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Sounds like you might enjoy WoW Classic
glimse@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
You know there’s 3 difficulties above LFR that you can’t queue for, right? Guilds do those
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 4 hours ago
So this was definitely not my experience in the pre-matchmaking era of online multiplayer. Possible case of rose-tinted glasses?
I agree that matchmaking has problems, but going back to what was there before are unlikely to be a net positive I think
ECB@feddit.org 2 hours ago
I don’t think it’s necessarily rose-tinted glasses, but rather not the experience that everyone had.
I was never super social in servers, so I didn’t make random friends or anything. Even for me though, servers contributed to a better overall experience.
Much less toxicity: assholes just get kicked or eventually find their fellow assholes on the ‘asshole server’ that you know to avoid.
Much easier to have a chill/casual atmosphere: you can hop in and out, so nobody feels ‘trapped’ in an unfun game. Additionally, since you often jump into games that are in-progress, people tend to care less about winning or losing.
Easier to play with friends of different skill levels: every server would be a mix of skills, so joining with a mixed-skill party doesn’t throw everything out of balance. Since people don’t care as much about winning/losing it’s much easier to fuck-around with your mates without anyone getting upset.
Matchmaking on the other hand is more convenient, but in my opinion a net loss for most people.
HeroHelck@lemm.ee 5 minutes ago
so nobody feels ‘trapped’ in an unfun game.
I think this is an understated problem. It’s simply awful to be in a slowly losing multiplayer game that you feel you have no control over, and when you also simultaneously feel that you aren’t playing with people you care about. It’s pretty easy to start not caring about monitoring your behavior. After all, who cares if everyone in this lobby thinks you’re annoying or awful to deal with, you will never see them again, and if you do they won’t recognize you, so act out your frustration without fear of real consequences. I also don’t think bans for “bad behavior” actually address the reason people behave this way, it just encourages them to hide it in more subtle ways that automated scripts can’t detect, or that give them some plausible deniability.
aski3252@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
Obviously both approaches had advantages and disadvantages, but OPs experience was definitely possible if you had the patience and luck to find a good community/server. But this also means there is a certain barrier because you have to do some work to find a good community/experience and can’t just click one button to start.
And there are still modern games that have server browsers and they mostly tend to be less toxic imo, in part because people tend to know eachother a bit better and in part because servers generally have harsh rules, so toxic players often get kicked quickly.
And this is also where the disadvantages come in because there are admins who just kick anyone they don’t like for whatever reason.
Olhonestjim@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
I used to roleplay as a pirate, pickpocket, swindler, and ladies man; laughably incompetent at all, under this username in a tiny, indie RPG called Rubies of Eventide. I was never a strong player, but I got a reputation for funny in-game banter. Playing a different kind of person enabled me to punch above my weight in social skills.
jecht360@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
I definitely feel this way about gaming online. I miss Microsoft Ants.
ArgentRaven@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Anecdotal, you still learn people and you can build a community reputation playing PvP in FFXIV. We don’t get to choose the map, and you’ll still see some people only once, but you get to know who’s who. The problem is, it’s not as fast as fortnite or other games. Which is a large turn off for many. But the slower (just barely slower) pace is more forgiving towards people that are middle aged and can’t compete with top tier fortnite/ League of Legends, etc types.
Rolder@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
That’s more because few people seriously PvP in FFXIV, so you naturally end up randomly queued with the same people repeatedly.
FancyLad@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Shout out to my TF2 clan. You were the best friends I ever had. 🫡
affiliate@lemmy.world 47 minutes ago
we have successfully urbanized online games. the days of a small town feeling in new online games are over
Zagorath@aussie.zone 16 minutes ago
I don’t think urbanised is a good word to describe that alienation. The urbanism movement has as one of its key goals the creation of more vibrant local communities. It’s more like suburbanism.
imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 4 minutes ago
The urbanism movement exists to help remedy some of the downsides of urban living. One of which is social alienation and isolation as a result of the scale and diversity of cities.