Are there any modern games/communities that still feel like mid-2000s?

[Apis mellifera]

I remember playing games like the original WoW, Eve Online, SS13, tf2, Spore, and even beta Minecraft in its infancy, and I've been wanting to try to recapture that vague feeling for awhile. Back then we were all just skinny white nerds on our shitty home computers who had the technical knowledge to figure out how to work the damn things, and the free time to dedicate to picking up increasingly esoteric slang and l33t.

I've tried playing those old games, even found one of my first towers that I built and loaded up my copy of DOOM on floppy that I kept around for some reason, but it just didn't feel the same. It's like, I dunno, like the world's become too modern for the games and culture of my youth, something like that.

Everything is so different now, there's so much more money being pumped into game development, which I really should be happy about, but it all feels less like a community of shut-ins and just like another over-corporatised medium. Chat room/forum culture seems almost completely dead, or in the least overrun by reddit and tumblr refugees, and I feel weirdly alienated in this new, modern internet.

I just want that "feeling" back, whatever it was. I miss it.

 

[SomeDingus]

I’d say SS13 is still sorta like that as long as you can find the right servers. If you can find a private server that’s not on the hub then that’s your best bet.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

That was already mentioned in the OP, plus SS13 hasn't really had that feel for a while, might just depend on the server though.
Maybe hopping on some Battlefield 2 or Counter-Strike: Source servers could fill that niche? I don't know if BF2 still has community supported multiplayer projects or if EA has wiped them off the face of the earth again but it'd be worth checking at least.

Another I could recommend is Impossible Creatures.

 

[Crunchy Oats]

Content today stems from material you can afford to lose, and not ideas that come from people's hearts; because who wants to see their dreams misused by a poo-throwing audience that can't be trusted?

 

[Kromer Merchant]

I feel where you're coming from. I've found that whatever last remaining forums are left have a similar vibe to what you're currently looking for, Discord is a no go. Twitter is a no go. Oddly enough it feels harder than ever to find communities associated with what you're interested in, in the age of social media. Too many different personalities, everything's watered down.

Unironically, the retro games board on 4chan is kind of cosy. It's pretty slow moving and has decent posts.

 

[FAQnews Correspondent]

Private and online play for older games (older being 96-03 or so). Be it Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst (Ephinea), Everquest (project 1999), HellMoo, Quake 3, etc. These often end up having very tight nit communities that you can tell have many of the people of old. But keep in mind these communities are not exactly flourishing themselves, you'll be running in to the same 50-100 people, but I've had very good experiences with them since these communities are so far removed from the current online discourse. Granted the ones I'm talking about are older then what you're aiming for, but thats the stuff I'm more familiar with.
Its fun to feel like stepping though a time portal for a little while, but sad at the same time.

I'd say 100 is flourishing, as you also ran into a lot of the same people back in the day if you played on the same dedicated server. A good one is one that has a server browser that doesn't function anymore or relied on Internet Gaming Zone or MPlayer, but has an option for direct IP connection.

So many communities were left to die because the game didn't have a simple IP input option.

Discord is a no go.

Discord may work if it's for an old enough game, where the people use Discord only because it's the biggest option at the moment.