What do you remember and miss about 2000s video game culture?

[Paperfox]

Games were fun. Perhaps because they were new and shiny, good graphics were awesome.

And no horse armor.

[Onikaroshi]

...less acess more like...consoles didnt have a lot of online play so it was limited to the pcs...of which cable access was still relativily limited

Over 50% of households had internet in 2000. It's not about gaming online, but information access.

[Xorzor]

- LAN parties with friends.
- Game trailers that were practically music videos.
- Integrity within game companies.

[Shiza]

Nice slew of assumptions you make there, but your reasoning is way off. It's just fucking funny to me, and it's nice to not have to act like I'm stepping on egg shells, instead being able to be completely thoughtless and driven by emotional reaction, saying whatever you want to say with no consequences beyond potentially being shunned by a group of people, which would never happen because of the fact that a majority of people engaged in that behavior.

The number of times I WISH I could fucking jump out of my car into someone else's and tell them how they fucking suck at driving is huge. Getting to actually do that in a video game among a huge crowd of other people also engaging in it was incredibly cathartic in addition to hearing some of the most hilarious shit talking I've ever witnessed. It was good times all around for hot-blooded people that constantly put on a facade of socially acceptable decorum.

For most of the time, it is toxic masculine behavior by omega males who fail to live up to any masculine trait and yet play the big bad alpha males on the internet. Everybody who is pissed by games banning people who harass others are people who desperately need to play the big guy on the internet, because they can't do so in real life because the majority of men and women will be able to easily beat them up. I for myself am happy to be able to report fragile little guys who think they have to act like douchebags online, because they are annoying. They can shittalk with their friends, if they are unable to find friends and social circles, they should overthink their behavior.

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Where are all of these?

Is it because killing nazis?
Having a minority main character?
Having a gay main character?
Having a female main character?

Such political soapbox cause I can't just play as generic white male super soldier in all games anymore!

But if you really think games in the 2000s didn't have political messages you thought wrong.

Guys who complain about politics in video games are predominantly just butthurt that its not far right politics in their video games.

[beanman12345]

no nickle and dimeing DLC's and microtransactions and having the full game when I paid.
Using Gamefaqs.com for walkthroughs when I was stuck on something, I just use google now.
Somewhat physical media. I still use it for some of my switch games, but most of my gaming is PC and that's all digital now.

[Roship]

I miss having true RTS games as a genre. Red Alert 2 and Command and Conquer: Generals were my childhood.

[Itori]

The only thing i really remember is 90% of WoW videos had down with the sickness playing.

Seriously though, i miss the old school RTS games, and RPGs where it took grinding and planning and your only real source of information was from friends, not "cant beat this boss, better go google a strat" i remember playing legend of dragoon when i first got my ps2 and having to restart the game because i was stupid and didnt lvl my healer xD

[SoulSoBreezy]

I miss the days when rampant negativity and preference shaming wasn't shoved down my throat

[Highelf]

You mean when people thought you were weird just for playing video games and the culture was basically nerd-only?

Yes, it was an exclusive club with people that respected it.

[Rotted]

The idea that games used to launch without it's share of bugs isn't exactly true.

More like you sometimes got a game with gamebreaking bugs, with there being absolutely no way for the devs to get a patch to you to fix them.

Course its not completely true

But it was extremely rare and for you to find those bugs you had to be "better" than the average gamer. I had the game boy, GBA, GBA sp, N64, PS2 and xbox as a kid over time. With plenty of titles on both. I can only recall one time there being a bug in a game. The hero save exploit in the original fable games. Sure there were bugs in games like Super Mario 64, but like I said above as an average gamer you'd never find them.

[BeepBoo]

because they can't do so in real life because the majority of men and women will be able to easily beat them up.

At least as far as I go, it's definitely societal expectations to be nice and cordial that keep me in line, not fear of people getting upset at insults or angry talking and then coming to blows.

I for myself am happy to be able to report fragile little guys who think they have to act like douchebags online, because they are annoying. They can shittalk with their friends, if they are unable to find friends and social circles, they should overthink their behavior.

Or society could stop being weak, learn to take criticism and improve instead of shut down due to feeling personally attacked, wanting to escalate things to physicality or spite people who call them out on their shit.

Why should I be punished because I tell someone the reality of the situation where they fucking suck at a video game and need to get better? Why would they take me seriously if I told them they should go kill themselves? Git gud or ignore it, or engage in the behavior. Stop being so fragile that YOU need to be insulated from big meanie heads because you can't or feel you shouldn't mentally need to take the stress. My best friends are the ones who are open, honest, and not-caring about how they're expressing their concerns, using the most direct and blunt methods of communication. They don't need to coddle me "well, you're doing this this and this good, but you could use some improvement here!" No, just "bruh you fucking suck, L2Dodge noob"

We'd be far better off skipping the cordiality and learning that civility doesn't matter nearly as much as the actionable point of the message.

[Rendark]

Games have never been made perfect but back then they didn't have lootboxes, cash shops, road maps and all that crap.

[Highelf]

For most of the time, it is toxic masculine behavior by omega males who fail to live up to any masculine trait and yet play the big bad alpha males on the internet. Everybody who is pissed by games banning people who harass others are people who desperately need to play the big guy on the internet, because they can't do so in real life because the majority of men and women will be able to easily beat them up. I for myself am happy to be able to report fragile little guys who think they have to act like douchebags online, because they are annoying. They can shittalk with their friends, if they are unable to find friends and social circles, they should overthink their behavior.

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Guys who complain about politics in video games are predominantly just butthurt that its not far right politics in their video games.

Isn't that how "progressive" themes in games came about, from butthurt far left politics complaining? Isn't that how anything is done nowadays? People being "offended" and throwing around the word toxic like its some new term that they came up with without any sense of consequence? Some people just want to play games for fun and not have anything political from either side being thrown in front of their eyes.

[Jastall]

Try to find me something worse than Denuvo.

SecuRom.

Games for Windows Live.

AC2 (and I think Brotherhood's) always-online requirement.

What would you know, all three of these came from the early 2000s. And I'm quite certain there are more.

[Babadoo]

i remember people not being as sensitive

That's the biggest one. When you could've called people gays and fags and it was normal. No one was crying.

[Dhrizzle]

Man, some really glorify the old days.

My favourite is people saying shit like "games were all made for passion, not just for money" when shameless cash-ins have been part if video games since at least the 80s. You just have to watch Angry Video Game Nerd or something similar to see how much shit was being shovelled at gamers prior to 2000.

[Kumorii]

My favourite is people saying shit like "games were all made for passion, not just for money" when shameless cash-ins have been part if video games since at least the 80s. You just have to watch Angry Video Game Nerd or something similar to see how much shit was being shovelled at gamers prior to 2000.

definitely, love the nes era where some games were just made for marketing purpose.

[Onikaroshi]

definitely, love the nes era where some games were just made for marketing purpose.

When it comes to shameless cash grabs



Almost killed gaming in the US, need I say more? lol.

[Shiza]

At least as far as I go, it's definitely societal expectations to be nice and cordial that keep me in line, not fear of people getting upset at insults or angry talking and then coming to blows.

Sure dude.

Or society could stop being weak, learn to take criticism and improve instead of shut down due to feeling personally attacked, wanting to escalate things to physicality or spite people who call them out on their shit.

Why should I be punished because I tell someone the reality of the situation where they fucking suck at a video game and need to get better? Why would they take me seriously if I told them they should go kill themselves? Git gud or ignore it, or engage in the behavior. Stop being so fragile that YOU need to be insulated from big meanie heads because you can't or feel you shouldn't mentally need to take the stress. My best friends are the ones who are open, honest, and not-caring about how they're expressing their concerns, using the most direct and blunt methods of communication. They don't need to coddle me "well, you're doing this this and this good, but you could use some improvement here!" No, just "bruh you fucking suck, L2Dodge noob"

We'd be far better off skipping the cordiality and learning that civility doesn't matter nearly as much as the actionable point of the message.

Uhm, no. You are probably just harassing people to feel better about yourself, if you wouldn't and weren't banned at some point for it, you would complain about it. Nobody will ban you for telling somebody how to play the game in a neutral tone. You get banned for harassing people, probably with with homophobic, ableist or misogynist slurs. And I mean, it has nothing to do with being fragile. I don't want to play with shitheads and I support companies giving me the ability to report them, so that they take away the game they purchased for money from them for being harassing shitheads. And why shouldn't I try to get the company to take away the games from you, if you insult me?

And I have to tell you, the way you talk about your best friends, it sounds like you are actually their bullying victim instead of their friend.

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Isn't that how "progressive" themes in games came about, from butthurt far left politics complaining? Isn't that how anything is done nowadays? People being "offended" and throwing around the word toxic like its some new term that they came up with without any sense of consequence? Some people just want to play games for fun and not have anything political from either side being thrown in front of their eyes.

And how does it hurt you, if you are not against women, PoCs or queer people in your video games?

[Lothaeryn]

The freedom of self hosted community servers with absurd amounts of moddability.

There used to be a server on Garry's mod called 'the nexus' iirc, one of the best modded server hostings ive ever played. Various minigame maps and userID account balances for playing them, spent on spawning equipment during actual battle maps with CTF and such. Such an amazing gameplay design mixed with unbridled creativity of systems that Garry's mod already provided.

You can't do that anymore with how games are hosted, it pisses me off to no end when companies force their own hosting then abandon them years later. It also stifles new game modes and paradigms from emerging. I highly doubt Starsiege:Tribes would have been as popular to garner a sequel if it wasn't for the Renegades mod.