[Puke]

hows this:

i remember when i read the first review of SEIV, and when i first installed the demo. When that crummy envelope first arived in the mail, with that flimsy paper CD holder. The first stellar construction, the first game i finished, the first game i played Online. The first PBW game.

i remember the summer i spent playing CIV-1, maybe two years after its release. I remember my only multiplayer game of SMAC. (it was fun!)

i remember when playing games Online meant playing your daily turn, and waiting for everyone else in the game to dial in to the BBS and play their turn. As in TradeWars 2002, Operation Overkill, and other greats.

i remember when playing multiplayer games meant sitting next to a friend infront of an Atari 400 (upgraded to 8K RAM) and trying to time your button clicks to grab land faster than the guy next to you (M.U.L.E.). Or when it meant hotseat text-based games on an IBM-XT, or hotseat Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in its first incarnation. I remember that it was easiest to play Escape from Castle Wolfenstein with two players, because it took one to move and another to aim / do actions.

Now mulitplayer games mean glassing the planet of someone you have never met, or silly click-fest / frag-fests that have more to do with how much money you have spent on your computer and internet connection that how good you are at the game.