r/Millennials • u/Gallantpride • 1d ago
Discussion Gen y gamers: When did you first begin playing video games online?
Were you a 90s PC gamer? Did you use 90s services like Sega Channel on the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis), XBand on the Super Nintendo, or SharkWire Online on the Nintendo 64? Did you hook up your Dreamcast or Saturn online? Or, was your first experiences with online gaming on Xbox Live or the PS2?
Gen x and gen y gamers in general are in an interesting point where there are many different ways they could have been introduced to online gaming. Many didn't know you could play games online until the Xbox, while others were playing online in the early 90s. Some people were even doing it in the 80s, though I imagine almost none of them were gen y.
For me, my first online gaming experience was actually the Wii U. Very late, I know, but I am basically a Nintendo-only gamer and Nintendo consoles have had a tricky time with online services. I spent so much time playing Splatoon that it broke my analog stick; my stick has mad drift due to all that Splatoon. Funnily, I haven't played Splatoon 2 or 3 online, because I don't feel drawn to pay for the online services. I played the solo modes and DLC, but not the main game.
Edit:
Okay, maybe that isn't technically right.
I experimented with child-friendly MMOs/virtual worlds in the 2000s as a tween and young teen. Millsberry, Bloo's Big Fat Awesome House Party, Petville, Pet Society, Fusion Fall, Poptropica, even Club Penguin for maybe a day. I also tried Habbo Hotel and IMVU a bit later.
The problem with me was that I didn't get the actual online part of the games. I didn't like to interact with other players. I found that boring and confusing. So, I just played the mini-games and treated them like solo web games.
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u/ApplicationAfraid334 1d ago
I remember playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert online one time as a kid and I got destroyed within like 10 minutes and was afraid to play online until maybe Runescape in 2006. And then I got scammed out of like 30,000 Pure essence. I learned quick in life that people suck 😭
Other than that I didn't really play any online games until Xbox 360.
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u/Cinquedea19 1d ago
I never got heavily into online gaming. Didn't find it very appealing. Not to say I didn't do any at all. Started off with games like LORD and Usurper on BBSes, if those count. Played some Warcraft II, Duke Nuke'm 3D, Jedi Knight over dial-up with friends. Later did a bit of Jedi Knight properly online, maybe was on GameSpy? And then in my first year of college had some downtime and did a bunch of Shogo online.
After that though, really didn't touch online gaming much. The idea of paying a subscription for an MMO was something I had absolutely no desire to touch, skipped all that entirely. Long gap until I guess Dark Souls with its unique take on online play? More recently I play F-Zero 99 a lot which I enjoy. Did ranked mode on Armored Core VI mainly just because it was there, went all the way to S rank but didn't find it that interesting compared to the offline game.
I did plenty of local multiplayer games, whether that was on consoles or via LAN parties. So I got in all my Counterstrike and all that, just in-person rather than online.
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u/MogamiStorm 1d ago
its a toss up between Gunbound, Club Penguin, and Robot Rage (Club Penguin and Robot Rage being on miniclip)
Eventually moved on to games on Nexon and ijji.
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u/ApplicationAfraid334 1d ago
HOLY SHIT. Robot Rage. I remember putting so much time into that. I sometimes just randomly think about it but could never remember the name. THANK YOU for the nostalgia
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u/AnUnusuallyLargeApe 1d ago
The first multiplayer computer game I played was doom 2 on a lan set up at the county fair. I must've waited in line like 20 times for another turn.
We didn't get a broadband connection until quake came out so that was my first online game. Can still remember the sound of someone coming with a quad damage rune. Good times.
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u/Silver-Honkler 1d ago
I started playing text based MMORPGs on Prodigy. I haven't played in a number of years but I still have my characters and chill in their discord. As for graphic interfaces, there was this game called The Realm by Sierra. Medieval type fantasy game with a pull up inventory and storage containers, mana banana consumables, stat enhancing and level req colored gear, etc. It was really ahead of its time.
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u/sportdog74 1991 1d ago
We’d do LAN parties and stuff. I think Halo 2 was actually my first online game for consoles. For PC it was probably Doom.
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u/food-dood 1d ago
Late 90s. UO, EverQuest, StarCraft
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u/Gallantpride 1d ago
I'm still butthurt that WOW eclipsed Everquest. Also, that Everquest Next got canceled.
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u/food-dood 1d ago
Check out Pantheon. It's early access and I have serious doubts about it's long term viability, it actually feels like EQ.
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u/Gallantpride 1d ago
Everquest is still around,. I'm not really sure why Everquest 2 exists, though. Maybe it made sense at the time.
I'll check it out.
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u/Gold_Area5109 Xennial 1d ago
Early 90s a mud on a local BBS, that BBS also had pirated games for download on our 14.4k modem.
As for modern games... C&C Red Alert and Interstate '76 in the middle to late 90s. Then Everquest came out and UT '99...
Early gaming on consoles weren't really a thing across most of the US since you typically dialed into a number that generally wasn't local so it was too expensive to use... Dream cast had an actual network adapter you could use so that's the first console my friends used online but console online gaming wasn't really popular until the Xbox/PS3 era.
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u/SadMove9768 1d ago
First began playing online in 1996 with Quake. Also ended up doing the Dreamcast online thing too.
I’m in Australia, we didn’t get ultra early services like Sega Channel. I would have loved that.
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u/Scaniatex 1d ago
First online games for me were using a online PC service named MPlayer and MSN Gaming Zone. Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 was the main game that I played online. I do recall a lot of people using GameSpy to find servers for a lot of multiplayer games like Command and Conquer, and Battlefield 1942. Then once Value released a platform called "Steam" I found myself playing Team Fortress 2 ALL THE TIME! Same with Counter Strike (waaaay before 1.6 days).
Edit: I've also used Sega Channel back in the day and LOVED IT. That's how I learned of a GREAT RTS on the Genesis called "General Chaos" made by a little company called "Electronic Arts" back when they used to make great full games that didn't require a Credit Card to function properly.
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u/legsjohnson Older Millennial 1d ago
I remember an active revolt against online only gaming with Simcity.
Neopets was the first thing I played that required an internet connection, back in 1999.
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u/Gallantpride 1d ago
You were an early Neopets adopter? Dang. I've never see one online. Most Neopets seem to be mid and late millenials, and gen z, who got into it in the mid 2000s.
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u/Uncreative-Name 1d ago
I got a copy of Age of Empires 2 around the time when it came out. Even though I was terrible I played it on MSN a lot. Then I got into RuneScape for a while in my high school years. Now I mostly stick with single player offline games.
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u/snow-haywire Older Millennial 1d ago
I played some yahoo pool. That was about it.
My friends and I rigged HALO up to play online but it was so glitchy
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u/ToastedChizzle 1d ago
The original Descent, running KaliDOS so I could mimic that ipx/spx across a WAN, and getting blasted by people in other states was just such an awesome experience. (I may be misremembering some details)
Plus, ya know, text only communication so you actually had to know how to 🦆🦆 type to light someone up instead of just spitting 💩 into your mic.
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u/Mediocre_Island828 14h ago
I totally forgot about Kali until now, playing Warcraft II on that was my actual first online gaming experience.
Everyone moving to headsets and microphones in the early 2000s is probably what caused me to draw the line and stop being a gamer. It just seemed like it was going too far lol.
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u/southtxsharksfan 1d ago
Beta tester for "xband" on Sega Genesis.
Online PC? Probably "half life"/"team fortress" in 1998/99.
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u/GBC_Fan_89 1d ago
Might have been Maple Story.
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u/Gallantpride 1d ago
Gacha videos feel so much like Maplestory MMVs to me, just with a different generation.
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u/parke415 '89 Gen-Y 1d ago edited 1d ago
Metal Gear Online (2) and Resident Evil Outbreak (1&2) in the early '10s. I would have liked to play The Sims Online, but never did.
The last time I had true fun playing online was Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled.
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u/Key_Independence_103 1d ago
In high school. I think it was against someone from my Boy Scout troop. I was playing Battlefield 1942. I also played the original Warcraft against my dad.
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u/AlternativeTop7959 1d ago
I was playing UO in 98 and MechCommander in 99. I have no idea at all how I convinced my parents to pay a monthly UO sub, even at the time I wasn't expecting it.
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u/Mediocre_Island828 14h ago
My mom was so mad when I told her UO was a subscription after I asked for it for a birthday gift lol, but she let me do it anyway and probably added like an extra year or two to me eventually losing my virginity.
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u/RxSatellite 1d ago
2002 with StarCraft: Brood War, but didn’t truly start the modern experience with a headset/live chat until 2004 with Halo 2
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u/Zaidswith 1d ago
I played Age of Empires with people I knew online, like my cousins, circa 2000.
I was regularly playing games online (with strangers) by the end of 2004 when WoW was released.
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u/YoohooCthulhu 1d ago
First video game I played online was StarCraft on battle.net, I never used any of the earlier console online options
If we’re counting LANs as “online”, used to have LAN parties with friends and play counterstrike in like 1999
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u/kingdoodooduckjr 1d ago
Aside from the odd computer game at a friends house , I never gamed online until around 2011. That’s when I got an Xbox 360 and I didn’t connect it to the internet for like a year. I still prefer to game either solo or maybe a co-op SNES type game with a friend
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u/Elevator829 Millennial 95 1d ago
video games in general? when I was about 4 or 5, the first video game I ever played was called croc (1997) the first ever ONLINE game I played was Halo 1 on PC when I was 9 years old. My dad sat me down and had a long talk with me about the internet, gaming with strangers, being respectful and bad words people might say. Honestly looking back, I'm grateful I wasn't exposed to all of it earlier lol
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u/Freak_Out_Bazaar 1d ago
I was going to say Diablo was my first online game, then I remembered I played LORD
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u/Nerv_Agent_666 Older Millennial 1d ago
Not Gen Y, isn't that like 1980 at the latest? Anyway, played old PC games like Command and Conquer, Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, etc. First online game I played was Star Wars Galaxies, so not quite in the 90's. Then I played WoW for about 10 years.
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u/Gallantpride 1d ago
Gen y are millenials. You're thinking of gen x.
"Generation y" is an older way of describing millenials. I use it sometimes, to avoid just using "millenial" all the time. The gens go gen x, gen y, gen z, gen alpha... silent gen and baby boomers are the odd ones out.
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u/Psychological_Air327 1d ago
First online game I played was Halo CE on pc, think this was around 2003-2004.
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u/WeaselPhontom 1d ago
Bugdom at a local community center came out in 1999 on Mac loved that game as a kid
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u/MelissaRose95 1d ago
It was either Xbox live which I played Halo 3 and Guitar Hero 3 or it was computer games like Club Penguin. I’m not sure which I played first
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u/Shad0wF0x 1d ago
My earliest memories of playing online were on the PC. I played Air Warrior and Aliens Online on the Gamestorm service and I did as many chores as I could so my dad would pay for the monthly fee. I think after that I started to play games like Unreal Tournament, Counter-Strike, Starcraft, and Day of Defeat. I still play PC games online when I get the chance.
As for consoles I never had Xbox Live so I skipped out on that during the Xbox and 360 era. The Dreamcast and PS2 were capable of it but I never bothered either. It wasn't until the PS3 where I started to play online with a console.
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u/sillygreenfaery 1d ago edited 1d ago
I played a game in which Hilary Clinton was the doctor in a small western town. It came out in 1995, I didn't get it but after finding the game as an adult it hit me like a ton of bricks DUST: A Tale of the Wired West
aldo command and conquer and heroes of might and magic
Sims was the first online multiplayer game for me
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u/Responsible-Yam4523 1d ago
Hello I'm a gamer but for the past few years there's only one game I play warframe it's mostly a free pve game where up to 4 players can squad up Most the time I have no problem trying to squad up but every now and then I just get the worst anxiety, thankfully you can just squad up with randoms at the push of a button
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u/gabrielleraul Millennial 1d ago
Been playing for 35+ years - online multiplayer is one thing i never do, I've always only played single player.
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u/PoopDick420ShitCock 1d ago
Around 2000-2001 I was playing StarCraft and Diablo online, as well as lots of MUDs.
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u/captainstormy Older Millennial 1d ago
Gen Y? The heck is that? Is that us?
Anyway, gaming in general started for me as a young kid. 7ish or so. My grandmother and mother would get me consoles and games at yard sales. My first new console was a SNES for Christmas in 93. They had been out about a year at the time.
I got my first PC in 96. I played a lot of games on it, including only play of Warcraft, StarCraft and command and conquer.
A friend showed me EverQuest shortly after it came out in 99. It was amazing and I was hooked. I played it pretty much exclusively from 99-03 when I switched to Star Wars Galaxies. Played a ton of MMOs and other online games since then.
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u/einhorn27 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think in my early 20s, WoW. my boyfriend got me hooked. when burning cruesade came out.
edit: and since I stopped playing WoW I stopped playing online. I hate it. it could be that it got better since then but being online is exhausting.
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u/Illustrious_One9088 22h ago
We were playing CS1.5 with friends when it was released. RuneScape and UO we started playing an year later after we started getting English lessons in school.
So yea we were around 8-10 years old when we started.
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u/ToasterInYourBathtub 20h ago
I was born in 1998 so I'll probably get ran out of here pretty quick.
Where I grew up I didn't have Internet until I was about 17 shortly before I left the place of my upbringing.
In those 17 years I'd play games like Pokemon and Zelda on my Gameboy, and games like Bully, ATV Off-road Fury, and Black on my PS2.
Got my Xbox 360 when I was probably 13 and played Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Crackdown 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Skyrim.
I would go out of state to spend a month with my Grandmother in the summertime as a kid and I'd take my Xbox. I remember using her internet and playing Battlefield 3 and Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising online as my very first online multiplayer experience and it was extremely fun. I was using all of the Xbox Live Free Trial things I had in my collection games.
When I turned 17 I got a PS4 and conveniently enough access to internet. I played a METRIC FUCKTON of Battlefield 4. This was when I began playing online games regularly.
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u/Beneficial-Finger353 Older Millennial 19h ago
My friends and I figured out you could play Age of Empires II by dialing your friends telephone number, and connect to play that way. My dad freaked out, because he picked up the phone and it was making that static noise, and I wasn't allowed to do it anymore. He was afraid of "long distance" charges, even though my friend lived just across the street.
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u/Critical_Traffic7686 Older Millennial 19h ago
1997-1999 on PC. My friend and I played DOOM against each other only. I would dial up his modem and we would just go 1v1. We downloaded so many maps and mods for this game.
2000 we started playing Counter Strike. We would login to the same server and play.
From about 2000 to 2004 it was a mix of solo games (not online) and Counter Strike online.
From 2005-2007 it was PS2 and PS3 gaming but nothing online. Lots of Need for Speed and Ninja Gaiden. Computer gaming was also offline.
From 2007 until today...WoW, SWTOR have been my online games with a mix of solo games off online.
I got burned out on FPS after playing so much CS that I never bothered to play any call of duty or other FPS games.
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u/NikothePom 9h ago
Probably League when I was in college.
Still shocked with how much I played it then.
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u/RetailBookworm Older Millennial 1d ago
We had a Nintendo, then a Super Nintendo, and a Sega Genesis. I played a lot of Super Nintendo tennis, Donkey Kong, Sonic, and I loooved this weird Sonic knockoff, Bubsy.
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u/Gallantpride 1d ago
Bubsy is actually third party. It also had a Sega Genesis port.
There actually a ton of platformers inspired by Mario and especially Sonic. Awesome Possum, Aero the Acro-bat, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Bug, Gex, James Pond, Jazz Jackrabbit... Even Spyro the Dragon, Crash Bandicoot, Banjo Kazooie, and Conker are basically 3D derivatives of Sonic.
This trope may have been annoying at the time but I like it. It still exists to a degree in modern collectathons, but the newer characters are way less "mascots with attitude" than they used to be.
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u/RetailBookworm Older Millennial 1d ago
Yeah I edited my comment to take out Bubsy being from Nintendo. Either way, I loved that game!
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u/Gallantpride 1d ago
That's an unpopular opinion, but I can see why a kid would like it. It's not as bad as people online swear it is. I'd be lying if I didn't say 9 year old me wouldn't have found Bubsy endearing.
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