The New York Times (gift link):

Surfing the web in the 1990s and early 2000s was a slower endeavor, and fewer people had access to the technology. But it is still easy to reminisce about the days when it felt like a public marketplace, with a good chance that someone out there had made a blog or GeoCities site about the niche topic you found interesting

Those robust online forums have since been flattened into algorithmic social media feeds or hidden on messaging apps, a shift mourned by several video games with a shared fondness for bygone internet eras.

First, I have to adjust my brain for having lived through an age that people have nostalgic fondness for.

But theirs is a feeling I can relate to. People owning their own corners of the web, learning who they are, what they care about, and most importantly…how they wish to share it.

I’ve been seeing a lot of this sentiment online lately — shout out to pretty much my entire Mastodon follow list — so it’s only right that this era can serve as the backdrop to rich storytelling.

I think my game backlog is about to get even longer…