Exploring Dead Games

Thanks for the crazy support guys, if you've got any other dead games similar (or not) to these, let me know, I might follow this video up in the future. Also as an important note, please don’t harass anyone in the video, be it players featured within maps, server owners, etc. Most of these maps are years old so don’t go bothering anyone who doesn’t want to be bothered, thanks. Also the music list is in the description if you missed it.

I went into Gmod and found a dark rp server with a single admin on, I joined and we talked for I'd say 5-6 hours while I was a thief using money printers to gain money. I bought a workshop and set uup defenses for no one, and had a whole base... with no one around me apart from the admin. The admin even turned off his god mode and got weapons and tried to raid me to entertain me, it was really fun and honestly it was a fun experience. Thanks Kevin. (March 10th, 2015)

walking through empty/dead servers is like the cyber equivalent of exploring abandoned homes. A little creepy, but heavy with melancholy, trying to imagine what it was like when it was lived in, and sad to see that that warmth has disappeared, never to return.

oh my god. i used to be a part of the clan that owned the achievement idle trade server at 32:02. i used to hang out in that server so much when i was in middle and high school in the mid 2010's. i recognize so many names on those screenshots, and i still have a few of the people from that server on my steam friends list. i even have some unlisted videos on my channel that are just clips and funny moments from that server. i never expected a video with 4+ million views to take me on a trip down memory lane. holy shit. updating to say I relisted a few of the videos!

Walking through dead games/abandoned group homes in games is.. eerie. Or sad. So many lost, or missed out memories

the weirdest thing about active worlds is that, servers cost money, so someone knows about all these servers, and is actively paying for them to stay up, despite that no one alive is playing them. Especially since some of them are decades old

17:25 This is rp_downtown_v4c_sgn, it was made for my community Sideways Gaming Network in early 2015. The server you joined is ran by an old community member who took over the gamemode and map for his own community. The gravestone was in fact made for a real person, my friend Joe had passed away during the development of the map and I requested the gravestone be added.

I think what is more terrifying coming from GMOD, is the loneliness you can feel when you're alone on those maps.

Visiting abandoned homes in MMOs is kinda sad too. I remember hoping on EverQuest 2 not too long ago and never seen a single person in the 4 hours I goofed around and I visited a ton of homes. You could almost tell when each player stopped based on their decorations.

This is basically internet archeology, digging up and exploring ruins of long dead games that were once populated with thousands of players. It reminds me of the time I once logged onto Second Life in 2020 only to see rows of abandoned digital property. In the early 2000s people would unironically sell houses and apartments for money, it was like an early version of Meta and NFTs.

Found my old Xbox360 and logged into my old Minecraft worlds. It was bitter sweet. It felt good revisiting all the old creations my friends and I would spend hours on, the "fancy houses" we tried so hard on, the military bases for fighting mobs. All the laughs and late night adventures we had in that game. Also hurt to walk around my old online friends houses and creations. Thinking about when I was gathering supplies and building, there were over here. Doing the same, enjoying themselves. And I realize I'll never talk to those people ever again. Never laugh like we did

Active Worlds was ahead of its time and heavily used for a brief moment. You can still see its influences today with things like VR chat. I don't think we'll ever get an internet that acts like that since 99% of internet activity is monopolized by the most brain-dead social media usage. The 90s/early 2000s internet was a wild time to traverse. Had to know how to find things back then compared to everything going through 3 sites like it does now.

Exploring the maps of Active Worlds, you can almost feel the ghosts of a once-thriving, virtual world where people would meet and hang out, make new friends, and create memories, but the life that these maps once had has faded, its players now long gone, and its place, is an unsettling emptiness. Former players that might return to explore these forgotten maps that were once an active hangout, will feel a sense of loneliness, but also a feeling of nostalgia for what once was will never be again.

There’s something about cozy, maximalist but empty servers that make my bowels get really warm

Finding that gravestone in DarkRp just hit me so hard. I've been dedicated to quite a few DarkRp servers long ago and the regulars on there become like family. Some people will spend 6+ hours a day every day on the server and you can always count on them being someone to talk to. Before Discord popped up these social game communities were the best thing around for someone who wanted a place to belong to. Still is in some ways. I bet that server is only still up in memory of Joseph. I know I wouldn't be able to let it go offline.

I played so much Gmod in middle school with my brother and friends, and this just brought back so many fond memories of servers we frequented and the communities that meant so much to me. Thanks for that

The Pokemon map during the TF2 part is Rustboro City, for the one person wondering. Definitiely one of the coziest video game towns in my personal opinion! I also know that Orange map very well, it's where I first discovered how fun sniping is in FPS games.

Isn't this creepy? Someone really put in so much work at some time in the past and now it's just been deserted for years. At some point, someone stopped building those maps and didn't know, this was the last time anybody would touch it.

Damn, that tf2 memorial map is actually really sad. It makes me remember all the old friends I used to have on various online games or servers, and the fun times, and also how we drifted apart. I wonder what happened to those people. Never really see them or anything.

35:27 omg what a throwback. I spent ATLEAST a couple hundred hours on the trade minecraft map(s). The first one was always full, so I usually played on the second one. I even remember saving my allowance money so I could donate to the server. The creator lived in Toronto, pretty close to me, so it was the best trade server I had ping for. The map was amazing. It had so many secrets and it was absolute chaos at all times. The boxing ring you found almost always head Heavy boxing matches going on. I remember placing bets on them! Good times..