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The Quantum Leap Awards: The Most Important Multiplayer Games of All Time

Quake
[Quake] itself was certainly groundbreaking, but I single it out as more of a platform than a specific game. Among the many, many, many things that came out of the Quake development/mod community:
- GameSpy (then QuakeSpy) and other server browsers, now commonplace if not standard for all multiplayer games;
- Threewave CTF, which directly influenced just about every team based shooter ever made, even if it's not always obvious;
- Team Fortress, which more or less created the class-based shooter that games like Battlefield (and now Quake Wars) have run with;
- And Rocket Arena, the original one-on-one multiplayer experience. The same community would later move on to Half-Life, and in turn create Counter-Strike, the most successful non-MMO multiplayer, non-casual game of all-time
Jason Bergman, 2K Games

Pokémon series (Pokémon Red depicted)
The quantum-leap award in multiplayer gaming should go to the Pokémon series. Tajiri-san’s introduction of the collect and trade concept opened the eyes of every developer, all of whom previously believed multiplayer was either head-to-head or cooperative. What Pokémon created with this breakthrough concept was a true sense of community centered about a game – a kinship among people which transcended the immediate game environment.
With the inclusion of real-world Pokémon merchandise, and a constant flow of new, wicked-cute characters, it was easy for anyone to embrace the Pokémon lifestyle…not that I would ever admit to it
Anonymous
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