Yeah, I'm not too concerned about it. I let the TV get updates just because they occasionally do fix things in the firmware, and I let washer/dryer/appliance connections go through so I can get notifications. Everything else LG is blocked, and my router hasn't allowed any of that hard-coded DNS tomfuckery since Amazon started using it to stop people from refusing Fire OS updates.LG shouldn't be a problem if you keep the TV offline.
Badass grandma.I had a console because we were poor “dumb” farmers. My grandmother introduced me to gaming. She played a ton of Atari 2600 and 7800. Then she got an NES.


Forgot to mention the biggest one of them all, World of Warcraft.All that said, it was around the Halo era that gaming started becoming more of a business. More players = more sales. To attract more players, lower the barrier to entry. Simplify, tighten the gameplay loop, increase the audience, roll in the dough. That’s the exact formula that produced TF2. Also EQ2 - but to a much weaker response. (Mostly due to being a weak product after all the changes to try to reach a larger audience than EQ1)
Yeah. Thought about mentioning WoW, but it’s really after like 2002ish it’s > 90% of games. It is easier to start talking about the exceptions.Forgot to mention the biggest one of them all, World of Warcraft.
My grandmother who was a dairy farmer had an Atari, and I believe it was my uncle's because he was the youngest out of the four kids.I had a console because we were poor “dumb” farmers. My grandmother introduced me to gaming. She played a ton of Atari 2600 and 7800. Then she got an NES.

Duke Nukem 3D demo over 28k modem 1v1. That's where I cut my teeth, and then it was Quake 2.Those who think Halo was peak are just younger.
Everyone reminisces about stuff you experienced when you were going through puberty. I graduated in 97. I can still recite more gangster rap than I care to. I want Starter jackets to make a come back. Etc.
Peak fps gaming for me was qwtf. Class based. Complexity. Skill, things like priming grenades. TF2 was an incredible regression. Just like each Elder Scrolls game is an insane regression and elimination of (imho welcome) complexity.
Prior to tf1, ROTT on the 486 PCs at the back of the lab, BNC network connextors. IPX/SPX instead of tcp/ip. Killing my BBS when Nate dialed in and sysop messaged me to fire up some Doom 1v1 over modem.
My reaction to Halo was poor, as in my opinion there were better things out there, years earlier.
All that said, it was around the Halo era that gaming started becoming more of a business. More players = more sales. To attract more players, lower the barrier to entry. Simplify, tighten the gameplay loop, increase the audience, roll in the dough. That’s the exact formula that produced TF2. Also EQ2 - but to a much weaker response. (Mostly due to being a weak product after all the changes to try to reach a larger audience than EQ1)

One of my best friends as a kid, his dad was an electrical engineer and worked for a power company. They had a PC in their parents bedroom, and Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny was on there. Those were the first FPS games I ever played.We had the Doom demo, or whatever it was on our unix stations at work for some reason back in like 93? 94? Then I got the full game on the PS1. Never had a PC until like 99' and go figure my wife buys me EQ for xmas that year. Big mistake on her part.

Duke Nukem 3D demo over 28k modem 1v1. That's where I cut my teeth, and then it was Quake 2.

When I worked at Taco Bell in high school, we would get off work at like 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., and always stay up for a couple of hours doing dial-up Duke Nukem. It was glorious because nobody was going to call your house in the early morning and kick you off. Nothing was worse than in the thick of a command and conqueror match for raiding Terrathan Keep in UO and somebody calls or your goddamn sister wants to blabber to a friend.DN3D was the first time I played a fps multiplayer. I remember my cousin had it installed and we played for like 30 minutes, then got kicked off because it was a long distance call and our parents weren’t willing to cover the expense more than that
My dad had a second phone line installed after getting kicked off the internet playing Warcraft II one too many times.When I worked at Taco Bell in high school, we would get off work at like 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., and always stay up for a couple of hours doing dial-up Duke Nukem. It was glorious because nobody was going to call your house in the early morning and kick you off. Nothing was worse than in the thick of a command and conqueror match for raiding Terrathan Keep in UO and somebody calls or your goddamn sister wants to blabber to a friend.
I guess it was that and the first Quake that one of the dudes from Taco Bell had on his computer. But one-on-one Duke Nukem in the movie theater level from the demo was glorious.

I don't know how to feel about this. Hilarious and enraging? Hilariraging? Something like that.My wife used to fuck with me. I never knew it till years later when she told me. But while playing EQ she used to go downstairs and unplug the phone line.