I think another big big hole in modern competitive gaming is the lack of a "pickup" game that you can wander into when the competitive scene is too trying. As you mentioned, self-hosted servers with silly rules and communities of people who know each other used to fill that role on TF2, the early CoDs, etc.
But for me a bigger missing component of modern games is mods. Mods, being disavowed from the core game, carry no responsibility for perfect balance or matchmaking and don't give players the same high stakes incentive for maximizing ELO. They also let the modders design things that don't have to accelerate a profit loop, and therefore expand design potential.
Most of the games in your article used to be mods themselves, and it made me think of how, irl, the stoners and fuckups at ultimate frisbee games that got too intense would wander off to play spikeball, which is now a proper sport unto itself. Maybe a modding community -- or, abstractly, constant goofy offshoots of formalized rules -- is a sort of necessary component of a healthy competitive ecosystem.
honestly a really good point! love the analogy of ultimate frisbee. I sometimes feel a bit torn up about the modding scene because it does rock but often it can just be unpaid labour that the company (or mostly anyone except the actual people who made the mods) profits off. I remember buying half life 1 because i wanted to play some mods on it and I cant imagine how many people bought warcraft 3 and never played a game of vanilla warcraft. But its a great point that a lot of innovation in games has happened through these mods, so it feels like we're losing a lot by modding not really being allowed anymore.
I think that very early modding was basically really easy and could be done as a hobby. Think AoE2 custom editor or Warcraft3 (I think) where there is an in-game editor tool and designing stuff is really just a mode of the game itself.
Stuff like minecraft and roblox basically does have that Spirit of the Mod, but they're a concession from design to sandbox that I personally find a little nihilistic. It's a form of enshittification that Roblox itself is basically developed by cartels of thugs who manipulate kids into working for micro-transactions/free. But this is also an offshoot of the modern internet and attitudes towards its malleability.
I think another big big hole in modern competitive gaming is the lack of a "pickup" game that you can wander into when the competitive scene is too trying. As you mentioned, self-hosted servers with silly rules and communities of people who know each other used to fill that role on TF2, the early CoDs, etc.
But for me a bigger missing component of modern games is mods. Mods, being disavowed from the core game, carry no responsibility for perfect balance or matchmaking and don't give players the same high stakes incentive for maximizing ELO. They also let the modders design things that don't have to accelerate a profit loop, and therefore expand design potential.
Most of the games in your article used to be mods themselves, and it made me think of how, irl, the stoners and fuckups at ultimate frisbee games that got too intense would wander off to play spikeball, which is now a proper sport unto itself. Maybe a modding community -- or, abstractly, constant goofy offshoots of formalized rules -- is a sort of necessary component of a healthy competitive ecosystem.
honestly a really good point! love the analogy of ultimate frisbee. I sometimes feel a bit torn up about the modding scene because it does rock but often it can just be unpaid labour that the company (or mostly anyone except the actual people who made the mods) profits off. I remember buying half life 1 because i wanted to play some mods on it and I cant imagine how many people bought warcraft 3 and never played a game of vanilla warcraft. But its a great point that a lot of innovation in games has happened through these mods, so it feels like we're losing a lot by modding not really being allowed anymore.
I think that very early modding was basically really easy and could be done as a hobby. Think AoE2 custom editor or Warcraft3 (I think) where there is an in-game editor tool and designing stuff is really just a mode of the game itself.
Stuff like minecraft and roblox basically does have that Spirit of the Mod, but they're a concession from design to sandbox that I personally find a little nihilistic. It's a form of enshittification that Roblox itself is basically developed by cartels of thugs who manipulate kids into working for micro-transactions/free. But this is also an offshoot of the modern internet and attitudes towards its malleability.