Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Video Game Websites in the early 00s

webdesignmuseum.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 95 posts

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#31

Post by crims0n »

psunavy03 wrote: post #27
tsumnia wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one from my old AOL days. We originally just used email, AOL message boards, and a scheduled weekly chatroom, but once the Web took over it merged into Starmen.net [2] Since we're on a "reminsence about legacy Internet" trend right now, here's the opening to [1]: "What most people forget to remember is that it’s not just about the game. It’s about the people, it’s about the newsletters, it’s about the discussi…

The problem is "fandoms" as a whole have now become such toxic hellscapes I'd rather just enjoy the game/movie/TV series myself and completely ignore what anyone else's opinion of it is. I don't need things that bring me joy to be ruined by the most obsessive weirdos in the world.

Sites back then had benevolent dictators that curated an experience for fans. I think in many ways it worked better than the democratized communities we have today.

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#32

Post by bsimpson »

SunshineTheCat wrote: post #14

Ah yes Flash. I had just started learning how to build static HTML sites and was going down the road of learning flash instead just as I saw Steve Jobs came out in opposition of it. I decided to turn back to regular HTML/CSS and then PHP. Turned out to be the right move but I still kinda to miss those old flash sites.

Standards wonks love dancing on Flash's grave, but overlook the massive dent in culture that we lost.

Maybe vibe coding will unlock a similar indie ethos for a future generation, but the frameworkification of the web and centralization of the App Stores has been bad for the last 20y of creativity.

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#33

Post by roywiggins »

crims0n wrote: post #31
psunavy03 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is "fandoms" as a whole have now become such toxic hellscapes I'd rather just enjoy the game/movie/TV series myself and completely ignore what anyone else's opinion of it is. I don't need things that bring me joy to be ruined by the most obsessive weirdos in the world.

Sites back then had benevolent dictators that curated an experience for fans. I think in many ways it worked better than the democratized communities we have today.

All fun and games until the one person running the site crashes out and rage quits, taking the site down with it.

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#35

Post by Klonoar »

crims0n wrote: post #31
psunavy03 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is "fandoms" as a whole have now become such toxic hellscapes I'd rather just enjoy the game/movie/TV series myself and completely ignore what anyone else's opinion of it is. I don't need things that bring me joy to be ruined by the most obsessive weirdos in the world.

Sites back then had benevolent dictators that curated an experience for fans. I think in many ways it worked better than the democratized communities we have today.

It wasn’t so much “benevolent dictator” as it was “you’re in my house, so quit being a dick”. Toxic fans certainly existed but this approach usually led to them splintering off to create their own thing that’d inevitably wither away.

(You can perhaps substitute “wasn’t so much” for some form of “in addition to”)

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#36

Post by bombcar »

roywiggins wrote: post #33
crims0n wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sites back then had benevolent dictators that curated an experience for fans. I think in many ways it worked better than the democratized communities we have today.

All fun and games until the one person running the site crashes out and rage quits, taking the site down with it.

The thing was you had so many sites that losing one or two was sad, but not hugely destructive.

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#37

Post by bombcar »

ronsor wrote: post #22
Klonoar wrote: post #16

Video game sites back then were cool, yes. Now do video game fan sites. These have in so many ways been replaced over the years by generic ad-ridden wikis but back in the day games often had crazy interesting fan sites for specific video games. So many unique designs and layouts were done for those niche communities and so many of those designers and developers went on to do really cool things in the future. What an…

> generic ad-ridden wikis This is the fault of Wikia (now "Fandom") which jam-packs every wiki full of ads and auto-playing videos they'll helpfully reopen for you if you accidentally close them.

You can fight back against Fandom by being willing to use https://miraheze.org

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#38

Post by eterm »

markus_zhang wrote: post #25
eterm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm gutted PlanetHalfLife isn't listed/shown here, I used to visit that site religiously around then.

Yeah HL introduced me to modding :) I used to visit it everyday waiting for the next chapter of They Hunger to get released.

I'd completely forgotten about that! They Hunger was a masterpiece. Not one I'd ever want to re-visit though, because nostalgia is best left not closely examined.

But a golden age, of txt file walkthroughs downloaded from gamefaqs with news mods and patches off PCGamer discs to explore because there's no way I was ever downloading those on a 56k modem.

Re: Video Game Websites in the early 00s

#39

Post by asukachikaru »

hnlmorg wrote: post #26

I don’t know if it’s pure nostalgia talking here, but games sites back then were made to look fun like they were part of the game. Verses now when they’re a dull and corporate.

The manuals as well. Loved the WarCraft III and Diablo II ones. They were legitimately part of the game experiences as lore was told there. Now the publishers don’t even bother to include a single sheet.
Post reply on HN