> The games, and their economics, certainly drove this shift. Company-hosted multiplayer servers helped cut down on piracy, opened up new revenue streams, and,

> The games, and their economics, certainly drove this shift. Company-hosted multiplayer servers helped cut down on piracy, opened up new revenue streams, and, certainly, made finding opponents on a moment's notice much easier. Indeed. I was (arguably) too old by the time LAN parties were a thing -- my generations' LAN party consisted of a bunch of guys huddled around a (single) home computer. But I do recall the outcry when SC2 was released w/o support for IPX (which wasn't supported anymore by Windows) or other means to play against other gamers server-less in a LAN.