20 Ways We Played Games in 2002 (When Gaming Was About PEOPLE Not Profit)

20 Ways We Played Video Games in 2002 (Before Online Gaming DESTROYED LAN Parties)

2002. Gaming meant hauling your desktop PC to your friend's basement, spending two hours troubleshooting network cables, and playing Counter-Strike until 4 AM with seven sweaty friends in a dimly lit room that smelled like pizza and Mountain Dew.

Split-screen meant four people squinting at one TV, yelling at each other for screen-looking. Memory cards were your 80-hour save file on a piece of plastic you protected like nuclear codes. Cheat codes were secret handshakes with developers, not $9.99 "time saver packs."

When you beat a game, it ended. You saw credits. You felt accomplished. Then you moved to the next game, satisfied.

This documentary counts down 20 distinct ways we played games in 2002—from the ritual of reading game manuals in the car ride home, to LAN parties that required friendship and effort, to the death of split-screen that killed couch co-op, to the moment microtransactions turned players into payers.
Because the games got better. The graphics got sharper. The servers got faster. But the connection—the real, human connection—got weaker.

We traded ownership for access. Community for convenience. Split-screen for matchmaking. The satisfaction of "The End" for live service treadmills. And presence—actual physical presence with friends—for headsets and isolation.

Oxford research shows games can support well-being when they emphasize social connection. We didn't need research to tell us that. We lived it. We remember exactly what we lost when gaming went online.

BeforeWiFi explores life before smartphones and WiFi changed everything, the technology, gadgets, and everyday moments from 1990-2010.

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Timestamps:
0:00 - What Oxford Research Says About Gaming & Connection
0:53 - #20: The Ritual of the Manual
1:58 - #19: Memory Cards (Your Life on 8MB)
3:04 - #18: The Secret Society of Cheat Codes
3:58 - #17: The Art of Split-Screen
4:53 - #16: Blockbuster Friday Night Ritual
5:52 - #15: Demo Discs (Monthly Care Package)
6:59 - #14: Hauling Your Rig (The LAN Party)
8:05 - #13: The "Gold Master" Mentality (No Patches)
9:04 - #12: Buying the WHOLE Game
9:58 - #11: The Cyber Café Scene
11:05 - #10: The Original Voice Chat (Talking)
12:00 - #9: Strategy Guides (Coffee Table Books)
13:00 - #8: Clans That Were Actually Families
14:10 - #7: ZERO Microtransactions
15:05 - #6: The Right of Ownership
15:53 - #5: The Server Browser
16:36 - #4: Modding Was the Wild West
17:32 - #3: No Daily Chores
18:19 - #2: The Satisfaction of "The End"
19:19 - #1: Presence (The Death of the Couch)
20:49 - What We Traded for Progress

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