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.
Terraria and deep rock galactic are good starters, but this post sounds insanely paranoid for the wrong reasons. Just because you got infected with malware in the past doesn't mean you need to lock down your internet access. You'll gain nothing from it. All you need is an adblocker (+ something that blocks trackers) and not running suspicious files.
Just because you're connecting to a remote server (like any website ever) doesn't mean you're susceptible to attacks. Ditto for almost any modern video game, there are protections in place so nobody can run code or send you harmful files on your machine.
If a curious desire for awareness of the the details that surround me is somehow offensive or off putting I apologize. I find it is a catalyst for learning and contextualizing information in several areas of personal interest and plugs some holes in my ignorance.