HAPPY BIRTHDAY XBOX LIVE
"There’s no doubt that when cataloging the achievements of the Big X, the revolutionary service known as Xbox Live changed the face of how we played our video games. Games had been online before, of course, and consoles like the Dreamcast had tried fervently to take the gaming world online in a big way, but these were bonus features that came with goofy add-on gadgets and complications.
Today, most players are online no matter what they’re doing. My friends lists on all consoles surges with activity at all hours, with players party-chatting while on multiple games, watching movies together, or playing online in massive sessions. This is how consoles are defined in this modern age, but their ability to provide a streamlined, robust system for linking players together. Others tried to put the market here, but Xbox didn’t just bring players online, it moved the industry forward.
I can’t stress how big of an evolution this has been for video games. Do you remember the film The Cable Guy? Jim Carrey plays the titular character, a socially maladjusted cable service technician that worms his way into and subverts the social life of Matthew Broderick’s life. At the end of the film, he engages in a legendary monologue about the Internet, how it will unite the world and “play Mortal Kombat with a friend from Vietnam.” The original Xbox quite literally did that, and modern gaming was moved a step upwards ever since.
In honor of the console with the greenest menu screen, give thanks to your hard drives, shakes hands with your PC brethren, and gather up in a party chat with all your friends, no matter what system you hail from. It’s a time for celebration"
Article extracted from ... http://pikigeek.com/2011/11/15/5-ways-the-original-xbox-changed-the-face-of-gaming/
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