this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
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So this was definitely not my experience in the pre-matchmaking era of online multiplayer. Possible case of rose-tinted glasses?
I agree that matchmaking has problems, but going back to what was there before are unlikely to be a net positive I think
I don't think it's necessarily rose-tinted glasses, but rather not the experience that everyone had.
I was never super social in servers, so I didn't make random friends or anything. Even for me though, servers contributed to a better overall experience.
Much less toxicity: assholes just get kicked or eventually find their fellow assholes on the 'asshole server' that you know to avoid.
Much easier to have a chill/casual atmosphere: you can hop in and out, so nobody feels 'trapped' in an unfun game. Additionally, since you often jump into games that are in-progress, people tend to care less about winning or losing.
Easier to play with friends of different skill levels: every server would be a mix of skills, so joining with a mixed-skill party doesn't throw everything out of balance. Since people don't care as much about winning/losing it's much easier to fuck-around with your mates without anyone getting upset.
Matchmaking on the other hand is more convenient, but in my opinion a net loss for most people.
I think this is an understated problem. It's simply awful to be in a slowly losing multiplayer game that you feel you have no control over, and when you also simultaneously feel that you aren't playing with people you care about. It's pretty easy to start not caring about monitoring your behavior. After all, who cares if everyone in this lobby thinks you're annoying or awful to deal with, you will never see them again, and if you do they won't recognize you, so act out your frustration without fear of real consequences. I also don't think bans for "bad behavior" actually address the reason people behave this way, it just encourages them to hide it in more subtle ways that automated scripts can't detect, or that give them some plausible deniability.
Obviously both approaches had advantages and disadvantages, but OPs experience was definitely possible if you had the patience and luck to find a good community/server. But this also means there is a certain barrier because you have to do some work to find a good community/experience and can't just click one button to start.
And there are still modern games that have server browsers and they mostly tend to be less toxic imo, in part because people tend to know eachother a bit better and in part because servers generally have harsh rules, so toxic players often get kicked quickly.
And this is also where the disadvantages come in because there are admins who just kick anyone they don't like for whatever reason.