PC games that are old but still active

#1
Freak

Freak

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#1
Why are games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Payday 2 still among the most played games on steam after all these years?
 
#2
#2
Old school RuneScape, technically, has been active for 18 years. The engine it runs on was released in 2004 as RuneScape 2, shifted to RuneScape 3 in 2012. They retroactively released the RS2 servers in 2013 with a backup from 2007.
 
#3
#3
There is a still a sizeable Civilization 5 community. I don't know if you consider that old. It came out in 2010. Since Civ 6 sucked ass, everybody went back to Civ 5, lol.
 
#4
#4
Freak said:
Why are games like Left 4 Dead 2 and Payday 2 still among the most played games on steam after all these years?
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Mods for L4D2. There are thousands that added tons of content, improved UI, graphics, enemies/AI. I dont think most of them are "official" so you have to manually save the mods in the proper game folders, and otherwise delete/move/mod the existing game files.

That's no go territory for me but some dont mind.

I know Company of Heroes 1 typically has a bigger player base than Company of Heroes 2. 1 was so well done and balanced that you can replay a bunch. 1 has been around since 2006 or 2007, and 2 is probably 10 years newer but never got the same community support as 1.

Add Blizzard games to the bunch of long lasting games, even not their MMOs.

There are a large number of PC gamers that typically arent as "commercial" as their console relatives. Part of that is you can still run older games on new computers, consoles dont have that flexibility. Part of it is also the digital community is much stronger/supported on PC than consoles. Steam really was that far ahead of the game, and still supports any game you bought from them even if it was later removed (freaking EA). It also houses or links to a good number of the mods so you dont have to scrounge seedy websites as much for mods.

Also it seems like a lot of PC support for older games comes from overseas. When you can pick up a game for 5 bucks on a Steam sale it is a lot more accessible. That same opprotunity, overlap, and revivals dont happen as much with new consoles every few years wiping out availability.
 
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#5
#5
VolInNorthCack said:
There is a still a sizeable Civilization 5 community. I don't know if you consider that old. It came out in 2010. Since Civ 6 sucked ass, everybody went back to Civ 5, lol.
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I wish I understood that game. I think I’d like it if I “got” it. I just don’t. That and Divinity II. Games I know I’d love, if only I could comprehend them lol.
 
#6
#6
Christian Lowe said:
I wish I understood that game. I think I’d like it if I “got” it. I just don’t. That and Divinity II. Games I know I’d love, if only I could comprehend them lol.
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Istarted with Civilization 1 and have played them all up until 6. It was just horrible.
On another note... I still have the original Civilization 1 on floppy disks. Also have the original Star Trek game on floppys lol.
 
#8
#8
MMO are kinda low hanging fruit for this, but Final Fantasy XI came out in 2002 and is still very active. I tried it during the recent free-play period and there was so much going on, I had to stop.

World of Warcraft came out in 2004 and of course its still active.

More recently there's FFXIV which came out in 2010 and is the most popular MMO out there.

And GTA Online came out in 2013 and is so successful still that Rockstar is dragging their feet about making another one.
 
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#9
#9
Certain games just nailed their multiplayer and nothing has really surpassed them, at least in the eyes of fans. A prime example is Age of Empires 2. Age of Mythology was good, Age of Empires 3 was okay, but the competitive scene kept going back to AOE2. And now we've gotten an HD re-release a full-on remake of it (which essentially cannibalized Age of Empires 4).
 
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#11
#11
Aesius said:
Certain games just nailed their multiplayer and nothing has really surpassed them, at least in the eyes of fans. A prime example is Age of Empires 2. Age of Mythology was good, Age of Empires 3 was okay, but the competitive scene kept going back to AOE2. And now we've gotten an HD re-release a full-on remake of it (which essentially cannibalized Age of Empires 4).
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Is AoE4 not good?
 
#15
#15
PC games generally have a lot of longevity, well depending on the game. The modding communities for a number of games keep those games interesting. Some MMO's also have dedicated people even after those games died. For instance, my first two MMO experiences were Planetside and then Star Wars Galaxies. They have Planetside 2 now, but I don't really consider it as iconic as the first one. Star Wars Galaxies had an entire community band together to create an emulation of the game. It took years, but it's in a good place now. To the point where they allowed people to take it and make their own private servers. One server in particular built things that didn't exist before, including a brand new city that was pretty massive.

Even though the game is really old now, I still play it from time to time just because of the game it was. It's a great community. It's a sandbox and I just don't think any other game since then created something quite like they did. It allows for a great community because of the game mechanics of it being a sandbox. You can make your own cities. Those cities have mayors. Those people play together, build together, craft together. Have their own carefully designed shops to drive their economy.

Just a lot of freedom of who you want to be. I had a character for instance who was just a prospector. I built droids and those droids fought for me while I would salvage.
 
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#16
#16
@LucidZ PC games generally have a lot of longevity, well depending on the game.
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Call of Duty died like a month into release on PC every year until they made it cross platform. That always confused me, why it never translated from console juggernaut to PC in the PS3/Xbox 360 era.
 
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#17
#17
Christian Lowe said:
Call of Duty died like a month into release on PC every year until they made it cross platform. That always confused me, why it never translated from console juggernaut to PC in the PS3/Xbox 360 era.
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It's a different set of gamers. PC gamers dont care as much about new as they do good. Or at least a big chunk. Typically PC gamers were gamers before it became a thing with big MMOs, and a new game, in a franchise, every year is going to wear out the fan base as they will 100% stick to what they like when things begin to slip.

EA started out huge in the PC world with Command and Conquer. Once they started branching into first person shooters they quickly lost their way. The PC fans left them. Console fans....not as much.
 
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#18
#18
Christian Lowe said:
Call of Duty died like a month into release on PC every year until they made it cross platform. That always confused me, why it never translated from console juggernaut to PC in the PS3/Xbox 360 era.
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I couldn't tell you. I only really got into the early COD games. I think maybe there is a mixed reaction with cross platforming. For instance, when the Halo pack came out on PC people were complaining about the advantages/disadvantages of controller vs keyboard/mouse. Though if you want a healthy game, it makes sense to have more players.

I think maybe there is something to say about matters of taste as well. Simulation warfare or arena shooters are popular on PC. Historically games like Quake, Doom, Team Fortress, Counter Strike...stuff like that. Or simulation like ARMA, Hell Let Loose, Squad. Or other games like Escape from Tarkov. Or the days of Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer. (I used to play a ton of that.)

I'd say Battlefield is likely more popular on PC than COD. I kinda drifted away from that sort of shooter. I like simulation mostly if I play any shooters. Prefer the more tactical, slower pace, realism.

There is a channel I've been watching for years, a guy named dslyecxi. He has his own outfit on ARMA that do actual missions together. If you die, you're gone. The missions are well planned out, but sometimes it can be unpredictable in the most funny ways. They did one simulation a long time ago of a Vietnam era map. They limited the tools they usually use. To where only certain voice channels were open, like their command element. But the teams had to rely on runners to relay messages mostly. At one point his team scaled a mountain and they I guess didn't read the terrain right and a bunch of guys fell to their deaths. lol

https://www.youtube.com/c/Dslyecxi

I haven't owned a console since the days of the first XBox. I really just like PC gaming. I'm really into strategy games. Like the Total War series. The historical ones like Rome I and Rome 2 - Medieval 2 - Shogun 2 - and the fantasy ones of the Warhammer series.
 
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#19
#19
Volwark said:
MMO are kinda low hanging fruit for this, but Final Fantasy XI came out in 2002 and is still very active. I tried it during the recent free-play period and there was so much going on, I had to stop.

World of Warcraft came out in 2004 and of course its still active.

More recently there's FFXIV which came out in 2010 and is the most popular MMO out there.

And GTA Online came out in 2013 and is so successful still that Rockstar is dragging their feet about making another one.
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I still believe that GTA V is the greatest video game ever created.
 
#20
#20
Godfatha said:
I still play Counterstrike Source although it’s going on 20 years. Sometimes simpler is better. That was also a good time for games before it became so dependent on DLC and in game purchases.
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Did you ever play FireArms? It was another mod of Half Life. I was big in that community for years.
 
#22
#22
Godfatha said:
Never have. I’ll have to look it up on Steam. Much like CS?
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Similar. I don't know what you'll find on Steam for it. Later in it's life, the development team fractured. Some people stole the source code for the game and then released a version called FA: Source. It was a big soap opera of legal battles and hacking for several months with the community divided in half and warring lol. It was quite an entertaining time to be a gamer back in the early 2000's.
 
#24
#24
Some old PC games have epic gameplay and should never die. Heroes of Might & Magic 3, Civilization 2, etc.

I'm glad they remastered the original Age of Empires. I've been playing the Definitive Edition.
 
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#25
#25
Demoniac said:
Some old PC games have epic gameplay and should never die. Heroes of Might & Magic 3, Civilization 2, etc.

I'm glad they remastered the original Age of Empires. I've been playing the Definitive Edition.
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The original AoE? Or AoE2?

2 is about as good as it got. Never enjoyed 1 as much.
 
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