1998 Was The Year of the PC

This brief editorial on Goozer Nation recounts the PC gaming scene as it existed in 1998. If you were spending many a night at your computer desk like I was that year, you’ll most likely recall playing Might and Magic VI, EverQuest, Baldur’s Gate, and Fallout 2, among other RPGs. Here’s a snip:

1998 was the year DSL really started to creep into the PC scene. This was the perfect setup for fans of Everquest. For the first time gamers could be part of a bigger gaming world, hundreds of players interacting and being part of something that was becoming mainstream and hadn’t really been done before, at least on this level. Well, there was Ultima Online but Everquest was something different. It took player interaction to the next level, this game paved the way for the MMORPGS we know and love today. Hundreds of players playing at the same time and socializing was something the consoles could not replicate at the time.

Speaking of RPGS, the PC was already showing that it too could have epic role-playing games. Baldur’s Gate is a great example. This masterpiece showed console gamers what PC RPGs were capable of. Graphically, most games could smoke what FFVII had to offer. Baldur’s Gate had better graphics, multiplayer, a dynamic story, and spanned multiple disks due to game content not just music and movies. Fallout 2 was another great example, nothing this mature and humorous could be done on a console. The level of gore, sex, and violence was through the roof. The idea of sci-fi RPGs instead of elves and magic was revolutionary to PC gaming.

Errr… Fallout 2 introduced us to sci-fi CRPGs? Ignoring the fact that Fallout 2 isn’t sci-fi to begin with, the author seems to be oblivious to the fact that Edu-Ware’s Space preceded Fallout 2 by a full 20 years and we’ve been treated to a plethora of other sci-fi RPGs ever since (the StarQuest series, the Buck Rogers series, the MegaTraveller series, and the Shadowrun series, just to name a few).