The yr 2000. An odd time to look again on, through which everybody wore silver garments and the air was thick with 5/10 Eric Cartman impressions. And an particularly hilarious time to look again on on the planet of PC gaming, firstly due to how a lot issues have modified, and secondly due to how little issues have modified.
Working example: the massive function in PC Gamer UK’s June 2000 concern issues itself with the rise of esports. “Play video games all day, receives a commission as a lot as David Beckham” proclaims the contents web page. “Only a pipe dream? We put skilled gaming below the microscope.”
You couldn’t get a extra 2000 meeting of phrases and concepts in the event you wrapped them in a sarong and made them hearken to Sisqo. However what’s actually placing is that though esports was in its infancy, in some methods the discussions we have been having about it 25 years in the past mirror those we’re nonetheless having in the present day: has it actually damaged into the mainstream? How viable is it as a profession? How can it broaden as an leisure product?
The 2 skilled players below the aforementioned microscope in 2000 have been Amir Haleem and Sujoy Roy, a few Quake III maestros who’d made their identify at occasions just like the Frag 3 CyberAthletes Skilled League and the Insomnia LAN events. After taking appreciable prize cash (£10,000 from Frag 3, for instance) in alternate for demonstrating their deft goal with a railgun, each had lately stop their conventional jobs when PCG spoke to them and have been trying to discover a technique to earn a residing long-term as professional players.
As of 2025, Haleem is CEO of a blockchain enterprise and Roy is head of partnerships at OG esports, having based quite a few initiatives supposed to additional professional gaming’s infrastructure. Neither discovered long-term viability solely from competing as gamers. Maybe they have been too forward of their time—it’s definitely true {that a} quarter-century later many gamers have confirmed it’s doable to construct a profession lasting a decade or extra, however there are nonetheless questions concerning the sustainability of a professional gamer’s commerce, and burnout is a big concern.
Gore by no means adjustments
Additionally to be filed away below ‘eternal PC gaming conversations’ is the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary ‘Video Nasties’ that aired on March twenty third 2000 and provoked fierce debate all through the next summer time.
Amongst varied visceral media the doc took goal at have been violent videogames, and thru the flimsiest of pseudo-psychological premises from quite a few specialists, some fantastical claims have been made. Individuals who steal automobiles and joyride them might have performed Carmageddon and GTA. Gamers of violent video games usually tend to interpret actual world conditions in a hostile method. Advert nauseum.
The doc was the subject of PCG June 2000’s letter of the month. Reader Dan Emerson identified quite a few inaccuracies and wild assumptions featured within the doc, though there’s egg on his face now 25 years later, when Name Of Responsibility’s 100 million month-to-month energetic customers all habitually commit every day killing sprees and the human inhabitants of Earth nears extinction. And that’s to not point out the rising drawback of Gen A youngsters who exit with pickaxes, dismantle SUVs with them and use their element elements to construct makeshift forts in all places.
A few of our issues in 2000 have been way more quaint. Workforce Fortress 2 was due out very quickly, for instance, within the autumn of the identical yr. Screenshots from the time confirmed a sport that seemed suspiciously much like Workforce Fortress Basic, and aside from the actual fact it was being made by Valve and had an honest advertising price range, it’s troublesome to faucet again into why everybody was so hyped for it again then.
This was lengthy earlier than the ingenious leftfield flip into Pixar’s visible territory. Earlier than we knew how hilarious it was to observe a Scout buzzing round a Heavy 4 instances his measurement, shouting “Boink!” “Boink!” “Boink!” whereas smacking him with a metal bat. TFC was already obtainable to players on the time, so fairly why everybody thought-about this very comparable sport to be a seismic occasion has been misplaced in time.
“TF2 will nearly definitely strike gold as a result of it builds on the profitable TFC blueprint” writes Ross Atherton in PCG June 2000’s preview. “It’s within the particulars, although, the place TF2 threatens to overwhelm us with its sheer bounty. Rocket launchers have a hazard space immediately behind them—stand there and also you’re toast. Flame-throwers will fill rooms and trenches with volumetric fireplace, not the nasty bitmaps we’re used to.” Proper, I’ve bought some information about these rocket launchers, Ross…
Halo says goodbye
TF2 had competitors for GOTY standing in 2000, although, within the type of Bungie’s absolutely-coming-to-PC-and-PC-only “potential Half-Life beater”, Halo. Arms up who’d forgotten the merry dance Microsoft led us all alongside throughout Halo’s reveal, through which it was initially pitched as a PC shooter—sure, a number of on the again there, good.
“Bungie have saved sometimes quiet concerning the precise system of management”, stories Matthew Pierce in PCG’s preview. Yeah, that’ll be as a result of they have been designing it for a controller proper from the off. And in the event you wanted any reminder that these have been the pre-teabagging, hateful voice chat days, how’s this:
“Eradicating character lessons from each the single- and multi-player video games means the specifics (driving tanks, utilizing missile launchers, sniping and so forth.) can be found to all, heightening the necessity for good communication and co-ordinated teamplay.” Yep, would have been good if we’d completed that.
The summer time droop was a factor then, simply as it’s now: the one notable sport to launch this month in 2000 and discover its manner into PCG UK’s opinions part was avant-garde journey sport The Longest Journey, which acquired a somewhat austere 79%. Far more effusive, although, was the {hardware} part’s in-depth take a look at an rising wi-fi know-how referred to as Bluetooth, which was “aiming to be the reply to the tangle of wires that sits across the again of your PC.”
Bluetooth had actually been round since 1998, however was simply approaching mainstream adoption in 2000 through hands-free kits for cellphones and, PCG posited, the potential to community machines wirelessly with as much as 1MB/s information switch speeds. Half marks for that one—Bluetooth did certainly vanquish the cable-spam spewing from our peripherals, however good luck internet hosting an esports match on a Bluetooth connection. Even Amir Haleem and Sujoy Roy would have turned their noses up at that in 2000.
What does this glimpse again at a second in time reveal, then? That June’s at all times a bit quiet for giant releases. That Valve video games generate hype on a developer identify alone. That Halo was telling huge fibs to the PC gaming press, and above all, that violent video games positively flip us all into murderers.
