It’s well known that video games today are disposable pieces of slop. Modern multiplayer games tend to fall into one of two categories: they’re abandoned after a while and the servers are pulled (sometimes comically fast, like with Concord), while other games are endlessly changing “live service” games where they get endless updates and free content at the expense of having microtransactions in all their predatory varieties. Just like how arcade gaming died in favor of “redemption games” that act as gambling for kids minus the regulations of casinos, video games have fallen victim to endless microtransactions and FOMO events designed to keep people coming back to play for another week or so. They’re designed to maximize money at the expense of the core experience.
Many new games come and go, and oftentimes nowadays the servers are pulled leaving the games unplayable or crippled. Most notably, this has led to a “stop killing games” campaign in the EU and other countries; where people get tired of buying games only for them to be unplayable when the developer yanks the servers leaving no way to play this game anymore.
Yet, old games seem to last forever. Case in point: Epic’s other game. Epic Games these days is best known for Fortnite and the controversial (due to bloat) Unreal Engine 5. But in the late 90s and 00s, they were known for another game franchise: Unreal Tournament. Unreal Tournament was a huge game at the time, yet it’s been pulled off stores, had the original master list shutdown, and abandoned so hard that Epic literally told a fansite who they entrusted the source code with that “yeah you can make a downloader for UT, just don’t host the files and download them from IA“. Epic would even link the game download from the official site giving it an unofficial nod of approval. The end result? Far more people are playing UT99 than in the past as you just need to download it there and play it.
An even more dramatic example is Counter-Strike 1.6. Despite two major sequels that people cared about (Source and GO/2) and the latter being a F2P game with a thriving market that’s become somewhat of a meme (with gambling/crate opening sites and all linked to it), 1.6 still has a huge, thriving community. Every day, it still has around 10k players a day playing a FPS from the early 2000s (and this isn’t counting cracked copies for a game that’s $10 on Steam, boosting the number higher). While FPSes branded as “boomer shooters” (along with genres from that time like immersive sims, movement shooters, etc.) might come and go in vogue especially with indie devs, CS 1.6 has never died period. It will be played until the heat death of the universe.
