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Huh, weird. The menfolk have had kind of a loneliness problem for about 15 years...
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This was dota in 2008 basically.
Now I'm sad.
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This is why I always drop solo and ignore my team in apex legends. I also disconnect as soon as I die.
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Lmao. Been on both sides of this.
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I started playing a game called Beyond all Reason and its got Lobbies. I forgot how much I hated matchmaking. Sitting in lobbies talking and deciding what to play is so much better. You get to know the types of lobbies and what to expect. If I want to get fucked up I join the Op lobby if I wanna chill I join the noob lobby. People recognize you after awhile and you make friends.
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The last bit is what killed world of Warcraft for me. When it changed from a world with the same people in it everytime, to automated group finders combining every possible world anyone could be in.
Not only will you never see those people again, for a while it was literally impossible to talk to them or friend them.
When they put out classic wow again, they updated it to have all these "new quality of life" features.
Thank god for private servers.
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There's some rose-tinted goblin welding goggles there.
Pugs for 5-mans used to be a huge pain in the ass. Especially for lower-level dungeons or for DPS classes (and especially the boomkins, the fury warriors, and the ret pallys).
Remember spamming city chat, LFG BFD?
And if you were a warlock, you were expected to run all the way there (remember not getting mounts until 40?), and wait for two other people, so you could summon the last two?
I haven't really played much since TBC, or at all since LK. LFG was a huge improvement. It had flaws, for sure...it did break the community a bit, as you said...but it made the game playable for people who didn't have hours to commit to getting ready for a 5 man dungeon.
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As a solo player in the early wow era, lfg was a massive pain in my backside. I literally couldn't progress without completing certain dungeons, and I couldn't complete those dungeons unless I grouped up. So I was painfully and perpetually stuck in a never ending loop of LFG.
It's the reason I left.
If you don't have a group to play with, or preferred to play solo, utilizing pick up groups when necessary, the game became an unplayable mess halfway through the level progressions.
They've "fixed" most of this now, but I have a hard time caring about the game now. I went back to it for a short while a few years ago, and while it's easier to nab a group for progression, the onslaught of go-fer quests numbed my brain to any lore that was being spouted by the quest givers, and it became a grind fest.
No sorry, just action.
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Everybody has different experiences. For me the game was okay but it was secondary to the friends that I met and played with. That shitty LFG experience pushed people to make and join guilds.
There's definitely a way works both ways.
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Yup and if you were on a low pop server or mature one with not many leveling. Forget doing dungeons at all.
DF and RF have their issues but it wasn't all fun before.
As a feral who needed random blues, I spent days trying to get groups for less popular dungeons, just to have the item not drop or get ninja'd
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WoW FEELS super fragmented right now.
I mean, when they finally gave in and released Classic I had no idea they would release 10 different versions of it. But that's mostly a different topic.
The shattered world of the main game is the big problem, cities and raids and events that exist only conditionally, like Undercity and Ny'Alotha with the attatched invasion.
Being able to meet and talk with players you can't trade with or craft for, whether they're Horde while you're Alliance, or they're from an unconnected server to yours. When you tell the latter they can send you a personal crafting order for the sword they keep asking for in Trade Chat, they can't.
And as a Blacksmith/Miner main, I get to experience the shattered state of instanced zoning more regularly, every time I fly out to get ore, with several ore deposits simply disappearing as I approach them or start mining them. I see them from the other side of a fracture in the world. When I cross over, the illusion fades away.
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I haven't logged on to WoW in a few years, but it's really interesting to hear what's become of instance handling. I was on the fence about it in '03-'04, when the discussion was about whether or not instanced dungeons (Lost Dungeons of Norrath for EQ) were a good idea long-term. At the time the discussion sounded a lot the discussions about fast travel. Or maps, for that matter.
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I remember all the hilarious impersonations I would do in Black Ops 2 on PSN. Everyone would be cutting up.
good times
....now everyone is in private parties
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Runescape is a game I have nostalgic memories of meeting people on, nowadays it feels like a single player game that I'm paying monthly for...
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dude, I miss lineage 2
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This makes me think of the song "Wave" by the midnight.
"We are hooking up with strangers we will never see again We are not a sentimental age"
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Man I should boot up TF2 again
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"but my community used to be made out of 12 people!"
Well too bad. That's why you're here on Lemmy now. You dislike strangers and love familiarity. I on the other hand love strangers and chaos. That's why I was on Reddit.
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Pretty solid. Explains why i stopped liking online-games which i was so damn passionate about 20yrs ago.
Beside being unable to compete with the youngsters 😁
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For me other than the lack of time it's the toxicity, if you have say one hour to play, do you really want to listen to some no-life cunt who has been playing all day screaming at you because they are tilted as fuck and need to blame everyone else but themselves? Well I certainly don't need that shit in my life.
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Oh right... I totally forgot about the toxicity. That also was very different "back then". Even though we weren't much less anonymous. Being decent and honourable just meant something.
We even played in a league with one player who sucked major ass and brought us down. But she had so much fun and that's what counted. Noone cared. Winning was great, but having fun and having a fair competition was greater.
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Honestly there second someone starts talking during a game I just go and mute them. 99.9% of the time it's really annoying. Once in a while you get someone who actually knows what they're doing and talking about, isn't a dick, and actually gives good advice or help. But that happens so rarely it's not worth it
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But thats also a design decision. Quarantine servers and moderation used to exist.
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I don't listen to any cunts in online games, voice chat is off. For some reason the kids these days think you can't play a game without a headset and mic on. I don't even own one of those dumbass headsets. I can still be competitive in FPS games without any of that too.
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I remember playing TacOps back in the day. Some Sundays were literally just me team speaking with the guys (and some girls) while sipping a beer and casually playing our doing team practice. I learned a lot about the different international cultures before I set my own feet out of the country.
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You can still still be competitive, you just have to be a bit clever about it.
I recently started playing mobile shooters... in an Android emulator with a mouse and keyboard. Destroying touchscreen kiddos with a proper input device never gets boring.
Some games are even smart enough to detect the mouse and keyboard and only match you with other players using external input devices, like CoD Mobile. That's one of my favorites because it's basically CoD: Greatest Hits. All the best maps from the old games are there. And new modes come out every week. It's so much better than modern CoD; takes me back to the days of playing CoD4 and MWII on the Xbox 360 when I was a teenager.
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I don't even want to be competitive, but stat tracking forces the issue. When you found a regular hangout place for a some team based game, you didn't need to worry about tracking every kill. You could just be helpful to your team in ways that K/D ratios can't track like throwing yourself at the opposite team when they're chasing your team member who has the flag for instance. Just not being a ragging asshole could get you a positive reputation.
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Winning this way wouldn't give me something. It's like fighting unarmed babies in full gear No judging here. As long as it's allowed.
Being accused of being a cheater (while ypu aren't) or people dropping the server when you show up, that's fun 😁
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Great, the loss of community now extends to video games as well
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You ate being isolated so no one will miss you when the government/corporations/they/whoever get you
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Engineered. Often you can't even communicate with people; cheaper than moderation.
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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.
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That first bit is a pretty accurate description of a lot of early online gaming.
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yup, sounds like my experience playing Unreal 2:XMP back in the day
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That was a big pull of WoW. You type "lfg" once in all chat and that could send you on a 20 year relationship with a guild with people who end up becoming your best friends.
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I knew most of the experienced bards on my EQ server in '03. Half the reason I bothered to develop my character was to try and keep up with them. Now pretty much the only thing that'll keep me playing online multiplayer is casino gamification, so I don't start.
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long live (classic) EQ :)
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Definitely describes my early Team Fortress Classic/TF2 time back in college. I'm actually still steam friends with folks from that time and I definitely still rock my "clan tag"! Sort of lame if kids don't have a chance at the same thing...
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I'm playing a mobile game that's pretty much exactly like that first part.
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For years I had thought I got old and don't have friends who play games as much anymore but this meme made me realize it's that I wasn't making new gaming friends.
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nice observation by anon.
i miss making friends in games and couldnt quite put my finger on why matchmaking was much worse and unfun than old multiplayer and this is it.
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They've abstracted away the social element. It takes so much work now to make a friend. After a game ends there's perhaps a summary screen or lobby, so you can add another player to your friends list, but you have no way of discussing that with them. Anytime I get a friend request, I think, who is this? Why are they friending me
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i tried just adding random people and once some japanese guy accepted and would play with me for a few days and speak words i did not understand
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Yup. Matchmaking is very lonely.
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we have successfully urbanized online games. the days of a small town feeling in new online games are over
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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.
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what i meant by “urbanized” is that these days, playing online games feels like living in a big city where there are a ton of people but it’s hard to feel like you know everyone. you can still make a group of friends and find “local communities”, but i think that’s distinctly different from the feeling of a small town where you know a lot of the people there.
all that being said, there are advantages to living in a big city instead of a small town. in this context, that would look like faster matchmaking times, making it easier to find a full server, etc. but i still wish games gave you the option of picking a community server. i miss having the option of joining custom servers and getting to know the locals.
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Nostalgia might be pushing a bit hard here. Even playing obsessively on relatively small games on a limited number of servers for hours every day, I never got to recognize people just by being there. Occasionally someone would friend you, but otherwise, you knew people for 4-5 rounds at a time, and then never saw them again. Internet, even back then, was a big place.
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Idk that was pretty frequent for me on TF2 community servers
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I had basically one TF2 server I would play on because that's the one I knew the people. It was like the community basketball hoop. If people weren't playing then sometimes I would text a friend and try to get a game going or more often than not just try again later. It felt natural and low-stakes. This meme hits hard.
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Hell, it still is pretty frequent for me to see a couple regulars on the TF2 servers i play on
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It was pretty regular for me. You find a server and usually the people hosting were usually always in there. Especially if it was a clan. That’s how I got into ever clan I ever joined.
You join a server and get to know the usuals and become friends. Still play with people I met back with the OG call of duty came out. We still play games together today. Never met half of em in real life.
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Naaah. I made like 40 longtime steam friends because of playing on the same gmod server. Was lucky to find a server that had the most insane creators on it. You went onto any other server, they used what we made on that one. Drunk Combine, tanks, jets (including working VTOL), we had artillery that worked the same way it did in World of Tanks. 95% of the players there were insane at Expression 2 - which was a scripting / programming language that let you interact with the physics of the game in awesome ways.
I put the best 750hrs of my life into that server. It was called "Unsmart's" after the dude that hosted it. Closed down after a few years when the people moved onto other games. There was a shortlived revival, but it was more of a "reunion" than anything else. Still have everyone as friends and could probably get them together by pinging the group if I wanted to.
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When is "back then" for you?
I played counter-strike during the beta days and team fortress when it was "classic" not "2"
I definitely had a handful of favourite servers (1-2 favourites, 2-3 backups) that I would play on and knew the regulars like an old country pub.
Now things are set up so that it's almost impossible to develop relationships with random folks online. Not just matchmaking but also more closed-off (hard to discover) groups on Discord etc..
CS1.6 and TFC was the golden age of online gaming and it's been downhill since then. Literally nothing has been improved upon and the community has become immeasurably more toxic.
We've lost IRC and dedicated servers and replaced it with matchmaking and Discord. Both objectively worse.
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Well the post is 6 years old so it's actually referencingthe internet 21 years ago. This kind of thing did happen back then. I'm remembering Halo 1 pc servers and recognizing names.
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This absolutely happened to me in Battlefield 1942.
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Yeah, the early BF games were where I found servers that were communities. We'd even host events like stunt flying or trick shot challenges where we'd throw a pssword on the server for a few hours so nobody could troll us.
Or for certain days of the week, we'd be running the Desert Combat mod. It was a different time in online gaming.
Another thing I miss from those days is friendly fire. I get why it had to be removed, but it allowed for big, overpowered thing like artillery strikes and naval bombardment that were as likely to wipe your own team as help without coordination.
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I also actively remember seeing someone from the same "clan" as you in a random free for all or capture the flag game. Always a great feeling.
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My dad (would be 71 if he were still alive) used to play an online flight simulator WW2 game back in the late 90s / 2000s until he passed in 2012. He made a bunch of online friends through that game who he’d have long phone convos with outside of the game. My mom had to call them up to let them know he passed. I think he might of met a couple in person over the years too.
I was never a gamer, although during covid I put an emulator on my Mac so I can play PS2 and N64 games. Last night for the first time in a long time I played THPS2 on my Mac. I’ve beat the game multiple times but it’s just fun to play. Never got into online gaming.
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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?
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I am a bit younger so chicken & waffels and a few other CS:S servers were that for me. Also Day of Defeat Source was underrated.
Also, the minigame servers... The mini games people came up with!
1 person shooting cubes at platforms whole others had to stay up, The prison, Piratewars, Multigames (the original fall guys), Prop wars, The one where there were like different power ups behind walls and then have different abilities.
But also battlefront 2 was like that for me. SMD clan with its almost mythical figurehead. Glitching servers, shooting the shit with other people trying to find new glitches. Those were the days.
While matchmaking is good for some games like Rocket League, it has really broken a ton of communities. I think that's why there aren't really "clans' anymore, because people aren't together enough to organize.
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Nothing wrong with getting older
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Except for my knees
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So much scoutzknivez and iceworld
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he_glass
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i was having lots of fun talking to people on call of duty until the game ended and it put in a completely new lobby. what the fuck happened?
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One of the last good public multiplayer experiences 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...
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Quake ]I[ was the last real multiplayer game.
Fite me.
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Use to play alot on a CS:Source minigame server, such good times. Was exactly like this, where you'd recognize players and make friends. I'm glad i was able to live this.
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I'd say Minecraft's multiplayer experience is close to what Anon describes as "good multiplayer", probably because it hasn't changed much in 15 years - there's not even an in game server browser (at least on the Java edition), and playing Minecraft in and of itself is usually a big time commitment so you're more encouraged to find a couple of servers you like and stick to them.
However, the last time that I feel like I integrated into a server's community was 4 years ago - a blank server list doesn't really encourage you to go looking for more, and it's been harder to commit time as I get older and have more responsibilities (that I ignore anyways, but still).
I think Lethal Company also has a lobby system without matchmaking, but I haven't played it so I don't really know.
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Joining a modded Minecraft server you'll always make friends eventually because after like 20 hours of being onine with the same people they'll eventually wonder what you are working on and ask to come see your base. Its a great social game.
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Gamespy back in the day. Could make core friends and join the same servers across games.
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Before that...QuakeSpy.
Quake kicked ass and defined my childhood and my adulthood. I was like 10 when that game came out.
I wanted to play that game so bad but my dad was hogging the phone line all the time!
So...I did some reading online. Found out how to build a simple network. Went to the computer fair and got some network cards that did 10BaseT or 10Base2. Went to RadioShack and got some coax, bnc ends, and terminators. Installed WinRoute on my dad's computer. Set it up to share his internet so we could both be online. Set it up so his computer would automatically dial when I wanted internet if he wasn't online yet.
Nearly 30 years later and now I'm a Network Architect.
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Hmm, it's pretty much the same as 15 years ago if you stay away from the smallest common denominator popular AAA games.
I've started playing squad again after my last try in 2020. I just favourited a couple of low ping well populated servers and have been playing on the same three or four that are working well.
War of rights only has around 150 players in the evening on public servers and they all enter the same one as this game is meant to be played in large squads as well.
Both games are great fun.
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I had a very similar experience a few years ago with Tannenberg. An eastern 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.
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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.
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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 :)
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Cannot upvote this enough. That nostalgia OP is on about is alive and well in holdfast.
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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
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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.
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It's the same sort of spirit with Chivalry.
"HAVE AT THE"
halberd spins intensify
"ARRRRRRGGG"
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Quake ]I[ was the last real multiplayer game.
Fite me.
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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. And we voice chatted in game for the non-competitive modes.
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Surf servers were the best, especially with actual rounds and weapons. Pure surf got boring, bit cs mechanics in a surf world was pretty fun.
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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.
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I've been playing it VR lately. Feels like old times. There's only a handful of players, of course (unless you play with flatscreen people which is possible, but too scary for me).
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Cpm mids for days
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Just play Mordhau. Playerbase is small enough that you'll see the same people over and over again.
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Do you still actively play? I used to play a lot a few years ago. I've been debating getting back into it but I'm not sure I have the patience to relearn the combat and I'm sure those who still play are monsters at this point.
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Yep! I don't get the chance as often as I'd like, plus Helldivers 2 fever has hit, but I still enjoy when I can.
The modded servers are insane. There's new horde mode options as well.
The skill ceiling is higher than ever before, but there is still a good distribution of newbs. I've been training my 1vX by concentrating the practice against bot. Do a local deathmatch, spawn a bot and ToggleDamage and ToggleStamina in the console and just play around without pressure. After that, do local Team Deathmatch in Arena, join Red, spawn in training sword and then "AddBotsTeam 2 1", then since the bots are quite good at circling, run to the side of a supply box and practice 1vX parrying. It's helping me not always commit to a riposte and keeping myself aware of multiple more things on the screen at once.
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That is very accurate. I play in spurts every 3-6 months and thankfully was at a baseline level to not get totally stomped every game but it's probably at least as bad as you'd expect.
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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.
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Man, Jedi Outcast was when my noob ass would get relentlessly kicked on saber duels. Good times as I was taught some common online decency
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Kinda sad I was too young to actively play Jedi Outcast multiplayer back when it was popular (and singleplayer-wise, I actually prefer it by a large margin...okay, except bossfights with Tavion and Desann, I hate them :D). It died off pretty quickly as Jedi Academy arose, and SWJKA ruled the landscape ever since. But in principle, they both provide that feeling :)
Took me a while to learn some undocumented stuff, such as rotating your body at the exact speed of side saber move so that the saber would remain in enemy's body the longest, dealing up to 200 damage. Then some folks learned even better underkicks to counter it instead of just evading it and getting some of the damage. Amazing times :D
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I used to roleplay as a pirate, pickpocket, swindler, and ladies man; laughably incompetent at them 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.
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Day of Defeat <3
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:(
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You can still play old games! TF2 still exists (istg if I die to that one soldier nolife in the 2fort sewers 1 more time)
Also SCP:SL is gonna get a big update soon and it only has servers -
There are definitely games that allow the first scenario to happen(by allowing people to host servers or by not having many players)
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COD 2 Rifle only 🫡
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New Feature Idea: A New Subscription to bring back those features.
Stop paying? Well you lose access to your friend list.
CEO Be Like: 🤑
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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.
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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 ...
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Ready gaming fires away in this Kraber g200 montage!
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This is happening to me now in squad.
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Yes, I find this too. Especially if you play on the same servers.
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Tribes 1 still like this. Always see the same dudes. They all killers too
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Well, tribes 1 is also a 26 years old game, so would go under the first part.
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Did you try the new netcode test? Just saw the discord announcement today
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Not yet. Gonna get back on it though.
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MechAssault, all the way back on the OG Xbox. I wish I could remember all the names. So many fun times had trying the stupidest things and somehow winning, like two of us in Raptors going on Ýmir and Loki hunting missions.
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I hit the bnet friends cap playing overwatch. It can be done if you pay attention to who's playing and be friendly.
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Yeah. Overwatch was pretty social back in the day. It's a different beat now.
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Well, atleast for the very top it's still the same. The best 100 players of nearly every game do still know each other.
However fuck what they've done to PUBG, fuck bots give map bans.
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I can't say I share exactly this experience, but I did have some experiences of old that I miss.
The only non-MMO I ever played multiplayer prior to ~2013 was Age of Mythology. I never played ranked or competitive, but I did play a shit tonne of fun custom scenarios. Escape maps. Arenas. One really fun Helm's Deep map that would always slow to a crawl once a larger number of units hit the field. I'd browse through the open lobbies and find something that struck my fancy, or create my own lobby and wait for people to join. Hours spent browsing the Age of Mythology Heaven forums for scenarios and reading people talk about them.
I do mind miss those custom scenarios. The new Age of Mythology: Retold feels much more focused on the ranked mode. Which I do also really enjoy. But there doesn't seem the same culture of custom scenarios that there was back in the day.
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Had the same experience with AssaultCube last year.
CS2 still has server browser. Even I have my own dedicated server.
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Had the same experience with AssaultCube last year.
Jesus, fuck, that's still around?
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I just spun up a server, and before I knew it, there were 16 players having the best time. I wonder if it could happen again, but I have no time to try it.
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Shout out to my TF2 clan. You were the best friends I ever had. 🫡
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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.
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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.
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It's unofficial but this is what everyone uses to play: http://bfmeladder.com/
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I definitely feel this way about gaming online. I miss Microsoft Ants.
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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.
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That’s more because few people seriously PvP in FFXIV, so you naturally end up randomly queued with the same people repeatedly.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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My experience playing Call of Duty: United Offensive. The community was so much better than online games today. Some times if I wasn’t in to it we’d just chat via text chat. Felt like an extended lan party almost
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Just play wow again, it still exists
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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.
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Classic* my mistake
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You know there's 3 difficulties above LFR that you can't queue for, right? Guilds do those
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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.
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This still sort of exists in matchmaking if you play enough.
When you're like top 1% of players you tend to see the same players a lot.
