So this is absolutely true:

When I was 14, I wrote the (as far as I can determine) first parser-driven BBS in the world, basically creating the first purpose-driven, "multi-player" online adventure game, with the following caveats:

- Unis had such games themselves, but their access was limited to other university students and not the general public.

- It's also possible that someone else might have done the same thing before me, but I have never found any record of a such a BBS or online game existing prior to 1981.

The name of the BBS was 'New House of Wrath' and it featured a house that you explored via simple verb-noun syntax. Each room in the house was a BBS function (various text games which I wrote myself / a message base / a philez repository / a graffiti wall) as well as a simple underlying adventure in the style of Zork. The whole thing was written in sloppy TRS-DOS BASIC on a TRS-80 Model III and resided within 48k of memory including a primitive DB engine that I wrote. I still have a 8-pin dot-maxtrix print out of the code.

Shortly after my BBS went "online", a couple of multi-line BBSs sprung up, but these were straight BBSs without an overlying structure like mine.

At the time, I thought nothing of writing the BBS other than it was a fun thing to do. 80 Micro, the magazine that covered all things TRS-related, was going to write a story about my BBS, but nothing ever came of it. I ran it until about 1986 when I finally gave up because everyone was going to online service like Compu$erve and Prodigy.

I know I'll never get a single bit of credit for what I did, but I know what I did and I'm proud of my little contribution to the online world; that'll have to be enough.

*promote
A silly video from the good old days of COD-UO. It was the only online game I played from 2004 to 2012.

1. I tend not to like lists like these, so I always ensure that at least some answers are completely made up. In protest I will not reformat this list to make it more readable.
2. I was quite good at fencing. I was Irish national sabre champion, but that's a lot less impressive than it sounds.
3. I won Miss Fencing Intervarsities 3 years running. I'm male.
4. I'm a Monty Python fan to an unhealthy degree. I co-wrote the first Python FAQ online, based on actual questions that were asked frequently.
6. I have called every living member of Monty Python 'Michael' except Michael Palin. I called him Terry. None of them called me on it.
7. I have what amounts to a secret crush on someone here on the sift. They always say what I'm thinking, but far more eloquently than I ever can. I grin when they upvote me.
8. I have a Scaramanga-style extra nipple.
9. I have a son. My girlfriend's waters broke while I was watching Alien. I'm more proud of the second part than the first... lots of other people have tiny pet humans.
10. I was once kicked in the head by Armand Assante (a b-list-ish actor).
11. I can sing the names of about 20 particularly nasty diseases.
12. I'm batman.
13. I've been online since the 80s, but at this stage the web is pretty much read-only for me. I'm more active here on the sift than anywhere else, and that's not saying much.
14. I was in Russia during the 'invasion of Georgia' in 2008. In fact, I was in the mountains bordering the two countries and saw the situation almost first-hand. Before then I had little confidence in the news we get here in the west; now I have almost none. Stuff broadcast as fact was (to me) easily proven false at the time, and the subsequent UN report backs up my side of the story.
15. I teach tai chi.
16. One of my happiest memories is not sleeping with a hot (and very cool) Norwegian woman.
17. I once ran a marathon backwards. It's not as easy as it sounds.
18. My grandmother owned race horses, including one who holds a significant record in Cheltenham. She's quite famous here in Ireland (to a certain generation at least).
19. Online (and sometimes off) I tend to use anagrams of my name. The idea is that it's hard to find Noims from my real name (until someone ruins that), but not too hard to go the other direction. My avatar is based on the same principle. There are at least 3 other Noimses online, but I was the first.
20. My favourite piece of software is the vi editor (specifically gvim). I have no idea what my favourite book, music, or non-python film are.
21. I'm a keen gamer, but most offline. I hate Steam. I've been playing Nethack since the 80s, and still play in the devnull competition yearly... it's the longest running online game tournament there is.
22. I think one of the worst facts in the world is that marketing works.
23. I was in a metal band called the Bubonic Duck-Fuckers from Hell (BDF).
24. I used to be big into RPGs (role playing - not rockets). I once got first prize in 3 games in a single weekend convention with 4 game slots.
25. I love the number 12, and know all the powers up to 12^12. Consequently I dislike the number 5. I strongly tend to favour multiples/powers of 12 over those of 5.

I say we just gas all these gamer kids. And as they're dying, they can watch us smashing every cellphone in the world with a baseball bat and then collectively blow our brains out Russian Roulette style and then whoever survives rebuilds.

Then online games will be fun again.

Grabbed this the other night before looking and was extremely bummed to find it was an online game. I miss the tactical planning and squad control of the old R6 games.

has anyone made a multiplayer online game where a team can control a B17 with all the guns, turrets, bombing etc

One thing this video (and every other pro-net neutrality video ignores) is that there are valid technical reasons to have some content faster than others. In an ideal world, we should be able to mark some content as more or less latency tolerant.

Static webpages for instance; if your online banking or facebook or even videosift takes half a second longer to load, no-one really cares. But if your video stops for a second or an online game lags, that can ruin the experience.

Right now, if two servers send two packets, they are treated the same, even if one is time dependant (video/game content) and one isn't (static text).

That is the core argument against net neutrality. The problem is that it should be the content providers who decide what data is time dependant, not ISPs. Ideally, ISPs shouldn't even know what content is going through their pipes.

Just in case it's not clear, I do not in any way support the idea that ISPs should be allowed to slow or speed up content on their networks, any more than a construction company should be allowed tell drivers who drives in what lane.

1000Mbit doesn't necessarily equate to lower latency anyway, and then Up/Download speed isn't even that important for online gaming, unless you want to stream/torrent/uploadselfies while playing. It is however a nice number that's easy to stick on marketing material. I had a huge fight with an ISP a few years ago after they pretty much flat refused to do anything about crippling packet loss of 10ish% at peak times because it had a "negligible effect on bandwidth". Pretty sad that I get much more reliable net over ADSL copper lines at 10ish Mbit than I had on fiberoptic.

The Spy Who Ganked Me?

Ahhh, but if we're going to use the 'would it happen in real life?' postulate, I would point out that he was commenting as if he were a commentator, not as a player, so why was one player/team penalized?
I don't know why that would be a decent reason for this kind of thing either, most games are NOT like real life in most ways, even this game has many elements in it that are completely unrealistic in order to make it a fun, playable game. If the Xbox1 is going for this kind of unrealistic realism across the board, I think I'll stick with my ps3. I play games for fun, not to allow the speech police in my home. (That said, I don't play online or use the microphone/speech feature, so this likely wouldn't ever happen to me).
I'm just guessing, but is this a feature of multiplayer meant to keep people from spouting obscenities in quasi-public arenas in order to limit customer exposure to unwanted cursing? That would actually be reasonable, especially if it can be turned off with the agreement of both players in an online game.

What is it about CoD that makes multiplayer so toxic?

I play plenty of online games, but CoD is the only one where I've ever been called a "nigger fag".

always online games limit what games i will purchase, i have to make the decision of only being able to play the game sometimes or get something that lets me play when i want without limitation, but because i dont always get internet support on travel i have to choose wisely. so i will choose something else to purchase over drm games.

diablo 3 was a single play through on the classes i wanted to play, could not play the game where there is no internet so it was uninstalled when i was done getting the classes to 60, diablo 2 was (and is still) years of fun. when they announced Simcity4 as a always online, i decided that i will never purchase a copy of that game. sucks for a company i have fully supported up until now.

i refuse to support companies that make bad decisions. If a game is good enough to purchase, people will purchase it. you dont see bethesda crying about loss of PC sales of skyrim...

Very good point. I know many females who participate in online gaming or forums who choose neutral or masculine names and avatars so they are treated equally.

I also have many male friends who create female alter egos to get special treatment online - hand holding, gifts and ESPECIALLY an army of White Nights.

Your video, The 7 Deadly Sins of Online Gaming, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

I'm really surprised so many people actually give that big a shit about how the console actually looks. Seriously, how often do you sit and just stare at the console itself?

I've found myself migrating from my 360 to the PS3, it's just a better system for gaming. You can buy most new releases online (Games on Demand is pathetic), you don't have to pay for MP, you don't have to put up with MS's constant dashboard changes that are consistently awful, nor put up with superfluous BS like Avatars and the Welcome screen.

The only thing I don't like is the controller, and the PS4's controller looks great (except the stupid Share button), so I'm quite excited for the PS4, but also keen to see what MS will be offering and if they'll cock it up