And, another nail in the coffin for me. At this point, I'm in the doorway, looking out. Growing up as a kid in the 80's, I've watched the industry go from plug and play to... something else. Whether it's good, bad or somewhere in the middle one thing we can all agree on... it's entirely different. Streaming services, digital distribution, pay-to-play-online, DLC, chopping up games to sell in small chunks down the line, shipping buggy games and using consumers as beta testers, Amiibo.... it doesn't even resemble the industry I fell in love with so long ago. 

To me, it's like a marriage. Sure, you can stick it out. You can pretend that she's still the woman you met. You can push through, trying desperately to hold onto something for the sake of doing so... for the sake of those vows you made decades ago. But you know it and so does she... whatever there was that initially got you into it, it's no longer there. In its place is an imposter. Something different. Something else.

Sorry to get all prose on your guys. But, gaming has been a big part of my life and everything from the companies making and selling them, to the hardware, to the people playing them... it's all changed and what I loved about it is gone.

And, another nail in the coffin for me. At this point, I'm in the doorway, looking out. Growing up as a kid in the 80's, I've watched the industry go from plug and play to... something else. Whether it's good, bad or somewhere in the middle one thing we can all agree on... it's entirely different. Streaming services, digital distribution, pay-to-play-online, DLC, chopping up games to sell in small chunks down the line, shipping buggy games and using consumers as beta testers, Amiibo.... it doesn't even resemble the industry I fell in love with so long ago.

So which console games did you play in the 80's with free online modes?

In the 80's and 90's the model was simple. Buy one console which was stagnant and unchanging (internally) for five or six years and then buy complete games, fully tested which worked the moment you put them into your console. No charging controllers. No day one patches. No console updates. No DLC. Nothing. You bought a console, you hooked it up and then played the fucking games which worked instantly when you hit the power button. Simple. Easy. 

What we have now? It's not even recognizable. Now, whether that's better or not is subjective and up to each person's views and opinions. But it certainly isn't the same industry or business model anymore. That's my point.