The good things passing away

[ctbaars]

Hello. The thread I just viewed about how long I'll be posting here got me thinking about places in the past that I used to go to heavily. There was a text based game called, "Federation (2)" that I used to regularly play. I began when it first went on AOL. Stayed though the "reset". But I had RL happening; this and other things faded away in my life, replaced by new things. Well, I just went back to the site and found out that it shut down.

http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/2018/180902/official01.html

RIP

 

[dasherHampton]

Do you remember the old Microsoft game zone?

I think it still exists in some form but its not what it used to be. My friends and I had a cricket league and used the zone to play games.

I remember starting random games of Age of Empires with my morning coffee for surefire entertainment. All of the people playing at that time were usually drunk and wrung out from playing all night. Hysterical.

 

[pete6032]

Do you remember the old Microsoft game zone?

I think it still exists in some form but its not what it used to be. My friends and I had a cricket league and used the zone to play games.

I remember starting random games of Age of Empires with my morning coffee for surefire entertainment. All of the people playing at that time were usually drunk and wrung out from playing all night. Hysterical.

I used to play Jedi Outcast on MSN Gaming Zone. Good times.

 

[brianmanahan]

I used to play Jedi Outcast on MSN Gaming Zone. Good times.

i played asheron's call and age of empires on there all the time!

 

[purbeast0]

You all remember when this forum used to actually be active? That was good times. Like when you could be on the page 1 of ATOT and refresh every 5 seconds and threads would have moved down like 3-4 spots. Now a days you have posts from like 2 days ago on the front page.

I was thinking yesterday about all the great parody threads we used to have. We don't even have enough threads now a days or users to even make them.

 

[realibrad]

You all remember when this forum used to actually be active? That was good times. Like when you could be on the page 1 of ATOT and refresh every 5 seconds and threads would have moved down like 3-4 spots. Now a days you have posts from like 2 days ago on the front page.

I was thinking yesterday about all the great parody threads we used to have. We don't even have enough threads now a days or users to even make them.

Tech forums are dying.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Millennials are tech-illiterate.

 

[ultimatebob]

Do you remember the old Microsoft game zone?

I think it still exists in some form but its not what it used to be. My friends and I had a cricket league and used the zone to play games.

I remember starting random games of Age of Empires with my morning coffee for surefire entertainment. All of the people playing at that time were usually drunk and wrung out from playing all night. Hysterical.

Those MSN Gaming Zone bastards basically put the place that I worked for (mplayer.com) out of business by switching from a monthly subscription fee to a free model. Microsoft could afford to keep their gaming service running at a loss because they made the money on the frontend with their game and ISP profits. Servers and bandwidth were hella expensive back then, though, so there was no way we could afford to run the service with just ad revenue.

The company tried to pivot by becoming a voice over IP company, but there were even more competitors in that space than there was in multiplayer gaming.

 

[Thebobo]

i played asheron's call and age of empires on there all the time!

Oh yea I played AC II for a year, pretty cool game until the servers shut down.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Millennials are tech-illiterate.

LOL....I dunno about that. IMXP, it's the 40+ crowd that's daft when it comes to their beep-beeps and boop-boops.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I kinda miss MSN Messenger. it used the XMPP protocol so you could use any messenger app you want. I had lot of friends on there I've made through various other places like games, some of which we may not have played anymore. When they pulled the plug on the network I lost contact with most of those people. Facebook Messenger is basically what replaced it, but I'm not giving my FB to random online people. Also it does not use XMPP anymore and there's no way in hell I'm installing their app on my phone. Come to think of it, what even happened to the concept of IM programs, what made them lose their appeal, how do people who only know each other online chat with each other without giving out their personal social media accounts now days?

 

[lxskllr]

Come to think of it, what even happened to the concept of IM programs, what made them lose their appeal, how do people who only know each other online chat with each other without giving out their personal social media accounts now days?

They aren't "built in", and they requires a couple grams of thought to setup. Facebook et al "give" easy access through a proprietary interface, and a pretty (cr)app. No thought required, and don't worry about what's going on behind the curtain. It doesn't concern you.

Regarding whether kids are "techier" now or before... I think "techy" kids of years past were more capable, with a better understanding of the underlying technology. Techy kids today may be more familiar with latest hardware, or the hot new (cr)app, but don't understand how it works on low level, or understand the implications of design choices. Might just be a percentage thing. The real techy kids are still there, but the numbers have been puffed with semi dumb users.

 

[Exterous]

Millennials are tech-illiterate.

The newer gen is up and about. I've heard them called the "iGen"

They aren't "built in", and they requires a couple grams of thought to setup. Facebook et al "give" easy access through a proprietary interface, and a pretty (cr)app. No thought required, and don't worry about what's going on behind the curtain. It doesn't concern you.

Regarding whether kids are "techier" now or before... I think "techy" kids of years past were more capable, with a better understanding of the underlying technology. Techy kids today may be more familiar with latest hardware, or the hot new (cr)app, but don't understand how it works on low level, or understand the implications of design choices. Might just be a percentage thing. The real techy kids are still there, but the numbers have been puffed with semi dumb users.

This is a common complaint I hear as people try to bring more tech to schools. Kids expect tech to be more accessible and available but need more instruction on how to use it