I'm old-naughties internet café crew from around the era of the original Counter Strike through CoD MWF3 and Battlefield 2042. I wouldn't mind reliving the nostalgia of that era, and have more than enough machine to do it now. I have zero tolerance for micro transactions, gatekeeping, or software as a service business models. I have little interest in Steam as anything more than a single banking transaction, and I will only connect to something online that is documented and strait forward when it comes to multiplayer networking stuff.
My networking is about like a locked down corporate connection. I can play something like 0 A.D. that has a few required and documented connections needed for multiplayer, but won't connect to discord when it requires around a dozen raw IP addresses on random ports with no documentation.
Do any of you know of games that fit those requirements and are worth spending money on?
::: spoiler I probably seem annoyingly specific...
...or even paranoid, but I've both downloaded a PDF in the past that wrecked a machine with malware from a 3rd party datasheet on vintage computing hardware, and I find that isolating myself from ads and data mining at this level is best for my mental health with isolation from disability; i.e. it is not just arbitrary pedantism in my mind.
I ask because the casual camaraderie could be good for me while pressure to be a consumer at the expense of my family is harmful. Plus I view subscriptions for anything like software as a criminal skimming scam I am not interested in at all. Hopefully you can understand the specificity, and slight excentricity, even if it seems silly at first. I'm not judging anyone for their practices, trying to make a statement about my standards by comparison, or expect anyone to adopt my practices. I don't think like that at all. I'm curious, exploring what I've assumed is not possible for me, and stating the needed info only. I'm also on Fedora WS, with the NVDK kernel module, and can't change my UEFI secure boot keys in the OEM bootloader, so I can't alter kernel space unless I figure out Keytool to boot into UEFI directly.
Looking for a CS/CoD level experience. Steam might be okay, but I haven't tried it and am skeptical of anything marketing oriented. I really don't want to see ads or hype of any kind. I'd much rather ask around and go in search of my options when I feel compelled. In other words, I'm aware of my susceptibility to suggestive marketing and am not okay with others manipulating me through that mechanism so I avoid it all together. I will not enter the space at all unless those terms can be met.
I was just skimming a fedora mag post on gaming and it mentions that Steam packages Proton but there are community maintained versions with more advanced features than are possible on the Steam Deck; the most popular being Proton Glorious Eggroll.
Xonotic was one I played some. It has a different hectic vibe that is not really in that CS/CoD space I liked though. I like to feel like I have a measure of control and not in a situation where reckless speed has an advantage.
I don’t think there are online multiplayer games like CoD or CS that don’t require a platform like steam or good old games to buy, download, and run. I’m not actually sure what you’re trying to do, but if avoiding marketing is your goal I recommend you run steam and change the default page it opens to to be the library where your games are and not the store
You can disable the news pop up that opens with steam, and it opens to your library, not the store page.
The only "hype" it'll show you then are the news on the library pages for the games you own.