[nissyack]

The gaming industry has changed significantly over the years. Perhaps the most disappointing/harmful change has been the death (or near-death) of dedicated servers in favor of the convenient "quick play" style of gaming.

Many games used to utilize dedicated servers as the primary way for people to play with one another. This enabled growth of a community and encouraged people to act civil with one another. The more efficient and convenient "quick play" mode allows people to automatically find a game with random other players who they will likely never see again. This is almost certainly the reason for the toxicity that plagues gaming communities, as people have no incentive to act civil.

Thoughts? Does anyone else miss that experience of becoming part of a server/community and getting familiar with the people there? Was it worth it to move the gaming industry forward?

[illiaden2]

I definitely miss the days of joining one of my favorite cs 1.6 servers and seeing the regulars there and being able to chat with them and talk their lives or whatever bullshit. It's certainly a different feeling without the community aspect in that sense. These days, it feels like the community aspect is mostly elsewhere than in the actual game, if that makes sense.

Now you need to find a channel on Discord or a subreddit or whatever related to that game to get any kind of community.