By the time I was 9 years old, I was no stranger to the Internet. Online gaming had been around for about 5 years already, but it was still a relatively new concept. Gaming companies like Sega and Nintendo likely fought fiercely to come out with a uniquely online multiplayer game, but the infrastructure just wasn’t there. 1998 was the year where I’d play the occasional Yahoo pool or check my Yahoo Mail. Google hadn’t become the world’s dominant search engine.

I was introduced to Battle.Net, Blizzard’s online gaming system. Battle.Net would go on to take up countless hours of my teen and college years, moving onto Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft. It would provide me with entertainment and also with frustration. I remember asking my parents for permission to play Starcraft online on our old NEC. They agreed, but I’m not sure they understood the concept at that time. I took a seat with my parents behind me and logged on to the game after dialing up using our 56k modem.

In Starcraft, I joined a custom game that was based on a Lord of the Rings battle. My parents saw the name of the map and being the Sci-Fi geeks that they are, encouraged me to join. For the first time, I was playing with other people I had never met before across the world. I recall greeting them, “Hi. It’s my first time playing online”. They were receptive and welcoming. One of the players typed out a list of instructions on how to play the map. What hospitality! I battled against Sauron and the forces of evil with my newfound comrades, all through a Starcraft player-designed scenario.

The early Internet was used as a free market for exchange and expressions of ideas for the intellectuals privileged enough to understand how to access the Internet (LOL). Not many people knew how to use the Internet or let alone a computer at this point. Few recognized the powerful force of networking with others across the globe. The millennial generation were the ones who really popularized the Internet (and the Gen-Xers who had discovered online pornography). We don’t deserve all the credit here.

My mind is constantly wondering how far we’ll go with the Internet. Will Space X succeed in bringing satellite Internet to the entire world? Can we bring the Internet to Mars and the rest of our Solar System? Will we be able to upload our minds and experience true virtual reality? Look at the technological jumps we’ve made in 21 years! An adult in the 1980s would never have imagined we’d all be carrying around powerful computers in our pocket. As I played Starcraft on our beast of a desktop, the new generation plays Minecraft on their small tablet. What will be the next generation’s first online game, in 2039? What does the future hold?