Yeah, I remember fondly the custom servers, surfmaps, gungame (no, it's not a Call Of Duty-thing) mod, etc, etc. I miss those days, but I'm not sure I'd want to go back from other advancements we've made. Everything is much easier to get working and get into now. But the microtransactions for gameplay impacts is not an advancement I want.

We can only hope the gaming market keeps growing enough that indie developers can fill the shoes of AAA-games of yesteryear where we can have large enough playerbase and mod community and self-hosted servers.