Tags

REVIEW: The ability to play against other gamers from around the world is the single defining characteristic that separates modern videogames from their relatively simplistic 8 and 16-bit history.

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, if you wanted to test your skills against someone else, they’d need to be sitting on the sofa next to you – or if you were feeling really brave you could make a visit to your local arcade and put your money where your mouth was. If you were lucky enough to have access to a prehistoric dial-up modem and a decent PC, you could maybe set up a patchy Doom deathmatch, but this was almost unheard of. For most gamers of that era, multiplayer was strictly restricted to people in the same room.

That all changed with the advent of broadband internet in the early 2000s. PC gamers took advantage of these smooth, lag-free connections and the first batch of net-connected consoles brought online gaming to the masses.

READ MORE: Blizzard’s Overwatch aims for accessibility

Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast tested the waters but it was the original Xbox, and specifically Halo 2 that really opened the floodgates. Suddenly, all you needed was a relatively cheap console and a net connection and you were instantly competing against players from Australia, the US and Europe – and talking to them via chat channels at the same time.

This was amazing and appalling in equal measure. It was awesome being able to compete against strangers from far-flung corners of the globe but as is so often the case, there was always a minority of idiots trying to spoil the experience.

If it wasn’t angry teens screaming abuse, it would be griefers actively going out of their way to try and ruin the game for everyone else. Then there was the so-called “hardcore” crowd instantly turning their noses up at anyone they could dismiss as a “noob” (ie, anyone even slightly less experienced than them).

from Eve’s Feed http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/80517555/Overwatch-Multiplayer-masterpiece-puts-the-fun-back-into-online-shooters