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...
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.
Yup. Matchmaking is very lonely.
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 :)
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.
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.
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.
Man I should boot up TF2 again
:(
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.
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.
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?
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.
New Feature Idea: A New Subscription to bring back those features.
Stop paying? Well you lose access to your friend list.
CEO Be Like: 🤑
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.
Gamespy back in the day. Could make core friends and join the same servers across games.
There are definitely games that allow the first scenario to happen(by allowing people to host servers or by not having many players)
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.
COD 2 Rifle only 🫡
Huh, weird. The menfolk have had kind of a loneliness problem for about 15 years...
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
Day of Defeat <3
Shout out to my TF2 clan. You were the best friends I ever had. 🫡
I definitely feel this way about gaming online. I miss Microsoft Ants.
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.
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 serversWell, 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.
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...
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.
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.
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"
This was dota in 2008 basically.
Now I'm sad.
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.
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
dude, I miss lineage 2
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.
