| Ganoncrotch said: All of the consoles you mention here require addons to give the console functionality, the Dreamcast was the first console built with the modem installed out of the box as I said. As for not being the first but most influential? No, that like others said here, the X360 was the machine which bought online play to the mainstream gamer, not the original console, which didn't even have online for the first year of availability. To suggest that future consoles having features from previous generations means that those previous gens created the "norm" just doesn't work unless you are going for revisionist history, consoles use what is available technology at the time of their release to try to get the most out of the system. The original xbox just wasn't the first machine to be designed with online in mind, nor was it the most influencial in bringing it to the mainstream. |
Although I understand where the other guy is coming from in regards to Xbox and online I agree with you here that DC is the execution that got the ball rolling as I remember playing games like PSO with 4 others online as well as Quake 3 which even had cross platform play with PC and it was the first time that quite a significant number of peopler had experienced that on console.
At the same time I disagree with you that Xbox wasn't the machine that brought online to the mainstream because it was and one game flat out highlights this, Halo 2, Live is the template for online services/platforms used by consoles and showed platform holders how to go about it. Halo 2 was heavily active for years after its release until the Xbox was phased out with people clocking tonnes of hours in online play, 360 built on what Xbox brought.
