To be honest, I think the real switch is from when video games went from being in person only (arcades and consoles) to online (so you can play with anyone in the world). I think when video games are something you can only play by yourself or with friends, it is so fundamentally different of an experience than gaming today. And the corollary with this: that you could really only talk about video games with people you know, instead of via forums and Reddit.
To be honest, I think the real switch is from when video games went from being in person only (arcades and consoles) to online (so you can play with anyone in the world). I think when video games are something you can only play by yourself or with friends, it is so fundamentally different of an experience than gaming today. And the corollary with this: that you could really only talk about video games with people you know, instead of via forums and Reddit.
This is the correct take. Online gaming changed everything