Earlier quoted context omitted.
Internet's been all downhill since Westwood Chat got shutdown.
It's all relative. There are some that think the Internet has been all downhill since September of 1993 [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
191–200 of 340 posts
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is pretty much how I felt as a long-time TF2 player super excited for Overwatch to come out, and then very sad once I realized what kind of game it was. You grab your friends and play Overwatch, while you play TF2 and meet your friends. And also a parallel, TF2 obviously still exists, but all of the servers I used to play on are gone now. Haven’t found anything else quite yet. FFXIV actually was super enjoyable…
I think the key distinction is the concept of "place". TF2 has (or had) a concept of "place" in the form of named servers. That made it possible to encounter the same stranger repeatedly over time. In contrast, Overwatch wants you to already know and specify your friends into their social-media graph and group up before going to a random/anonymous/ephemeral location. So you seldom knowingly encounter the same strange…
That's what I was imagining as well. There is no spatial link to see as common ground, and because you can't count on seeing them again you can't get to know them organically over time.
I notice it with stores I go to, I am horribly predictable with food places but because of that I can form good relationships with the people working there. They know I will be in again so they can afford to care more and get to know me.
Even here, I notice familiar name tags and I get to look forward to people's responses on certain topics I can guess they will be interested in.
Those experiences are harder to find online now and especially in games.
Fun annecdote, I found my first software job through Counter Strike Source, I played the same server for months and one guy would knofe me in th same spot at least once a session. He ended up having a software company and gave me an opportunity.
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the key distinction is the concept of "place". TF2 has (or had) a concept of "place" in the form of named servers. That made it possible to encounter the same stranger repeatedly over time. In contrast, Overwatch wants you to already know and specify your friends into their social-media graph and group up before going to a random/anonymous/ephemeral location. So you seldom knowingly encounter the same strange…
“Places” is exactly how I think of making new friends in adulthood irl.
Meatspace, the new spatially aware social networking site. No installation required. Make friends where your feet are!
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is pretty much how I felt as a long-time TF2 player super excited for Overwatch to come out, and then very sad once I realized what kind of game it was. You grab your friends and play Overwatch, while you play TF2 and meet your friends. And also a parallel, TF2 obviously still exists, but all of the servers I used to play on are gone now. Haven’t found anything else quite yet. FFXIV actually was super enjoyable…
This is a thing that's bugged me for a long time: the death of dedicated game servers. Game servers had to be run by communities, and they were gateways and feeding grounds for those communities. However, games don't typically use dedicated servers anymore; they use matchmaking. You're right -- matchmaking means you gather your friends first. More insidiously, it means you probably won't see the same players again, a…
I remember playing at a single server on CoD4 online. Because you went to the same server you didn't flame, because you would be playing with the same people the next time...
And lots came from that. I went to two LAN parties eventually with people from that server, after playing together and talking on TS for hours. It was a lot of fun and I miss that sense of community in games.
Now I click a button in League or Fortnite and they throw me in a lobby... Everyone is shit to each other because you never see the others again anyways.
Maybe it's just nostalgia though
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#195I can really identify with the author of the article. I used to be able to successfully distract myself from 'real work' a lot years ago, but lately, most of the internet is just plain boring to me, or even extremely hostile. I used to hang around several guitar forums which took up a TON of time, but I closed my account on all of them years ago when hostility and snarkiness accelerated to dizzying highs. It just sto…
THWAP
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
And leads to "toxic" behavior. If you behaved poorly in a dedicated server environment you could be banned from multiple servers in one go as each clan might host multiple servers. Eventually all that would be left for those people would be a handful of lawless servers, enough threat of punishment to deter shitty behavior, not enough of an impetus to buy a new cd key and reimpose yourself on others. In practice, most…
Going down the rabbit hole a bit further, I was always a bit pissed off with the 'match at exact skill level' method. The best thing I ever did to progress in skill in a game was to play with/against people far better than me. I don't want to learn how to beat people who are only as good as I am; I want to learn the techniques and skills to beat the people who are at the top of the game.
And lets be honest — thinking back to how a typical game in Team Fortress 2 went — sometimes just the complete and utter satisfaction of having an awesome killing streak at the expense of a bunch of n00bs (and after such a round the server would automatically rebalance the teams, so everyone gets a chance to meet their match).
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#197Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#198This guy seems to have not spent any time on Youtube, Reddit, wikipedia etc. It's easier than ever before to get trapped in curiosity vortexes of various kinds.
Yeah, it probably has been counter productive for me.
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#199I think a lot of people here are missing the point. Yeah, there's a lot more content to consume now. However, it doesn't feel like a community... it feels more like watching reruns on TBS. I remember making actual friends on message boards. Friends I eventually met in the real world. I don't think relationships like that are really formed anymore. Most of social media now is a broadcast, not a conversation. People (m…
I think a major factor is the fact that the internet is now mainstream. In the early days, you had something in common with everybody, simply by being on the internet. The place was silly with people absolutely floored by the idea that they were casually chatting with someone halfway across the continent, something only possible on very expensive phone calls until then. Everybody was also, by necessity, an early tech…
There’s still some of that in IRC. IRC clients serve as a barrier that filters out a surprising number of people.
Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just the new thought-terminating cliché for "things I disagree with".
So there's no such thing as toxic behaviour in your mind?
How could you possibly get that impression from what was written?
The claim was the complete opposite that almost any objectionable behavior is labelled as "toxic".
It is hence about as undescriptive as "liberal" is in American politics. That term many years ago had a well-defined narrow meaning but is now far removed from that (or like "literally" often meaning "figuratively" in common use ).