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Comment by orliesaurus | Hacker News Reader

Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft are the new social networks right? Well when I was 15 and we used to play Counter Strike and Quake 3 the "social network" was hanging out on servers with maps just chatting and walking around the map aimlessly or just hanging out on IRC. So I can totally relate to how kids nowadays are going back to this sorta hangout. Text only can be boring (kinda like IRC for many people who couldn't tolerate it) but hanging out in servers, spinning around and doing stuff actively (albeit not productively for society) is actually much more fun. Now couple this with discord and all the in-game voice chat stuff + emotes and the ability to build anything. Yeah I can totally see why young kids wanna hang out in video games all day!

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I miss the old first-person shooters and the concept of self-contained servers (instead of a global user profile system). Games last for a couple hours, and everyone starts at zero and gets weapons & perks as the game continues (so newbies aren't stuck with bad guns while level 100+ players dominate the server). In 30 minutes of playtime or so you'll have earned enough points (by killing enemies, etc) to be able to afford any weapon you want, compared to now where getting to the top takes months of grinding. There was also no global profile system, so no need to worry about your rank, K/D ratio, etc.

As a result the games were pretty relaxed, there wasn't any rage and the chat conversations were respectful and actually substantial (akin to an IRC network). The game was Crysis & Crysis Wars (and unfortunately the developer ruined all that going forwards with the sequel).

That sounds a lot like a Battle Royale... which is also very popular now. If you ignore the "rankings" that is, and play each game in isolation which I tend to do.

How is that different from new shooters? In Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty etc you also start from 0 in each match. Leveling up gives you cosmetics only.

CoD is the odd one out, as levelling gets you weapons. But I don't think that's the issue, you unlock them all in a few dozen hours, a weekend for the average teenager.

The issue is modern matchmaking doesn't have the same community-building effect as joining the same few servers every day, getting to know the people you're playing with.

> Well when I was 15 and we used to play Counter Strike and Quake 3 the "social network" was hanging out on servers with maps just chatting and walking around the map aimlessly or just hanging out on IRC

I miss this terribly. I remember hanging out in a set of TF2 servers, playing Spy and contributing nothing to the team other than taking out engies, and listening to the regulars chat on alltalk.

My coworker once found his son playing Minecraft when he was supposed to be doing homework. When my coworker called his son on it, it turned out that the kid was actually using minecraft to collaborate with his friends and do their assignment.

I'm not sure if they were doing anything other than using the chat capabilities, but it's sounded like a fun way to meet up with your friends without having to actually go over to their house.

Your coworker got suckered by his kid

Maybe, but the homework did get done.

I would add also WoW to the list. I had friends that after a while would connect more to socialize than to play. And probably the equivalent in the 90s were MUDs, although they were text only.

I played with people on WoW who are still good friends who are now in high places. It was truly a generation thing. Like I watch Stranger Things and I think, I wish I was on the internet before the WWW with BBS, and with walkie talkies, maybe not so much the smoke demons, but then, during my teenage years it was WoW and that was a very special time for me.

I couldn't do it now, I've changed, the fabric of my mind has changed so that it just wouldn't appeal to me now, but back then it was great.

Would I want my son doing the same? 20,000 hours on a game over five years? Yeah I'm going to say no, but, things are different as a parent.

Wait a sec... 20k hours over 5 years = 4k hours/year = 77 hours/week = 11 hours/day. Seriously?

Easily. A lot of that time was probably spent mostly AFK doing other home stuff, watching series, reading and what not but I can relate to that played time. My character almost hit four digits days played before I ended up letting my subscription lapse after realizing I never logged on wow anymore.

Oh man, I have similar statistics for the MUD I played, it was insane.

However, the thing I found most fun about that was programming plugins to take the chore out of various tasks, so at least it helped me in that I had countless hours of programming practice.

Otherwise, my experience was the same as the GP's, I have many friends today that I met fifteen years ago on that MUD.

Yep, I hosted a minecraft server for a few years and most of it was just hanging out and talking to people, often with it open on a second monitor while doing other things

Oh yeah, we'd spend hours in Quake – 1, 2, and 3 – just doing rocket jumps and other acrobatics to see who could do the most insane stunts. Good times!

Well when I was 15 and we used to play Counter Strike and Quake 3 the "social network" was hanging out on servers with maps just chatting and walking around the map aimlessly....

Aging my self quite a bit here, but we used to do the same via text based MUDs. ;)

Not only could this be considered a return to the essence of social network, but it may be healthier than a single megabehemoth like Facebook controlling the virtual "third place". Even when games like CS or WoW dominated the gaming world, player counts would go through ebbs and flows, and a new triple-A title could splinter the community.

I guess it's a little more like the "Water Cooler TV Show" of the past. Let's have a whole bunch of studios (including some dark horses) compete for our viewership instead of one product attempt global domination.

The games themselves but particularly discord as well. Discord is the modern gaming social network. Talk and hangout with friends across multiple games.

I miss idling dozens of channels on GameSurge. Good times.

minecraft can be played in offline, single player mode just fine

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