You only needed one copy of the game and one PC for you and your friends to play together. Every class in school had at least one guy who had his own PC, who often invited friends over to play after class and since commie blocks are particularly walkable, we could all return home on our own.
I spent a good chunk of my preteen years like that.
[0] really badly translated to what directly translates back to "flaming buttcheeks".
H4 didn't make such a splash because even though it was better balanced, it felt like a downgrade in many respects.
I went to a different middle school so when I regained contact with my grade school friends they were already either exploring alcohol and sex or got sucked into WoW - in one case even both.
Anyway H3 left a mark on my generation thanks to its great replayability and social aspect that fit well into post-communist reality, with walkable, but hideous architecture and absent parents, majority of whom were working overtime(by western standards at least).
But H3 flaming buttocks was the best, because then you could talk and party whilst only one person at a time was distracted.
Ah, youth