yo this was good.

agree with this pretty wholeheartedly though i will pose the question "what about minecraft?" not until microsoft implemented Realms (which are controlled/moderated by end users but hosted by microsoft) were there developer hosted servers but one could argue that a similar toxic culture emerged in that playerbase

maybe we could point to the commodification of video game servers where minecraft servers are run by actual companies, now, often hosting game mods where players can pay to receive in game rewards?

I agree, playing on the TF2 server I frequented literally led me to being who I am today, I made friends I still have, realised I was trans and depressed, and ended up getting into media stuff pretty much as a result of people I met there. Couldn't do that with matchmaking.

I guess it also did get me into league of legends so it wasn't all good

that's a really good question! i never really got into minecraft multiplayer so i don't really have any experience on the subject. one thing i wish i had expanded on more in the original post is how increasingly homogeneous the communities of different games are now compared to before. i can't speak with any authority but if i had to hazard an unsupported guess, maybe some of it is spillover from other games contemporary with minecraft that did have managed servers. i don't really know though.