[Weekend Open Forum] People who have been gaming for just a few years might take online functionality for granted. After all, with the latest generation of consoles you just need to pop in the game disc to start playing with someone across the globe – provided you have an Internet connection and in the case of Xbox 360 owners, signed up for an Xbox Live subscription. But to get where we are today many years have passed since the early days of dial-up and BBS turn-based games – or PLATO time-sharing systems if you go way back, according to Wikipedia.
You could say I was a bit late to the party if you consider remote gaming has been around, in one way or another, for almost four decades. But it was not until the mid-1990s that online games really blossomed. Around that time a friend borrowed me a copy of Command & Conquer, which included two CDs, one for the Global Defense Initiative (GDI) and another for the Brotherhood of Nod, in order to make multiplayer gaming possible with a single purchase of the game. We had unreliable dial-up connections, but that didn't stop up us from playing until the wee hours of the morning.
I was blown away by the real-time strategy element, so it was a while before I started paying more attention to the first-person shooter genre that is also wildly popular amongst online gamers. Ironically, bearing in mind how the gaming landscape turned out, my first steps into the computer gaming world were made on a Mac.
We've asked you before about the first video game you ever played and the ones you are looking forward to. Today we want to know which title got you started into online gaming and which one has you hooked right now. Discuss.