BZFlag
Shares rank 12 of 17 multiplayer shooters by recommenders
Free, open source multiplayer tank shooter that people remember fondly and still play on a smaller, active community.
6 people recommended BZFlag in Hacker News comments and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
5 of the 6 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Battlezone Online: BZFlag in the Browser”.
Summary written by Claude from 8 comments.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- mixed feelings
- 0
- warn against or regret it
- 2
The record
Recommended in 2 of 12 months
In 2 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
- Recommended in 2 threadsNeeds 5 or more, not met.
- 5 of its 6 recommenders came from one threadNeeds half or less, not met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 8 of the 8 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Nostalgia for past multiplayer gaming
“I used to love bzflags. It’s still being developed and it’s a great game.”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Which dead app or game do you wish someone would rebuild?” “there's a real hit of nostalgia”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Battlezone Online: BZFlag in the Browser” Still developed with small active community
“Come take a look, the community shrank over the years but we're still having fun.”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Battlezone Online: BZFlag in the Browser”
Other multiplayer shooters people recommend
The four most recommended other multiplayer shooters, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arc Raiders | 44 | 7 | 10 | 81% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Counter-Strike | 19 | 10 | 17 | 53% | 9 | — | — |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 18 | 8 | 17 | 51% | 9 | — | — |
| Marathon by Bungie | 13 | 2 | 13 | 50% | 8 | — | — |
| BZFlagThis page | 6 | 0 | 2 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
Also compared with Overwatch 2, Team Fortress 2 and Fortnite.
What people said
All 8 opinions about it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“BZFlag suffers from inbreeding, where a couple of abusive admins can harass and ban players”
“Come take a look, the community shrank over the years but we're still having fun.”
“This is a slop port to TypeScript / JavaScript?”
“Super high skill ceiling. That was some of the best gaming.”
“I played this game a lot, and it was somewhat responsible for me learning the linux server environment.”
“One of the few amazing open source multi platform games”
“there's a real hit of nostalgia”
“I used to love bzflags. It’s still being developed and it’s a great game.”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.