Shedding Empire's Old Skin

The recently passed Christmas season prompted me

to finish an article I had started working on

several months before. In the process of shopping

for friends, I found myself in the local gaming store.

As my eyes ran across the vast array of games to

choose from (most of them pretty bad) a commonality

came to my eye. You've probably seen it too; lines

like "Spectacular network play!" or "Beat on your

friends in our modem/network mode!" and a whole

host of variations on that similar theme.

For a great deal of people, this is a very exciting

time to be on the Internet. The emergent technology

that enables us to do things over the network thrusts

us into a new era, where our expectations often pale in

comparison to possibility.