I started MonHunt on PS2, the very first one, it immediately hooked me in. At the time i’m looking for an MMO but offline and without the lag. It got monster to slap, thing to gather, quest to complete, weapon and armour to craft, pretty much fit the description on what i want, though i’m still a teenager at the time and i have no idea what the heck i’m doing, the game can be very non-descriptive at time. Also played monhunt 2 but skipped 3, and finally beat 4.
So basically it’s an MMO-like but 1-4 player, and you hunt giant monster while learning their move, then you carve up their corpse and craft new weapon with it. That’s it. But at the time the concept is so fresh people either hate it or love it.
But, who’s their competitor? They have none. All the other alternative have very specific community (artsy short film, science, etc)