And you thought WoW was addictive

We're used to playing "Warcraft" and "Command and Conquer" and various other multi-player games on the PC. For me it began with "Dune 2000," the first real-time strategy game set in one of my favorite universes. Now you have kids who barely know how to read logging on to online games. 

But the first real multi-player game is "Spacewar" created in 1962 to display something interesting in the CRT monitor. Here's the text of a 1971 Rolling Stone article about the groups of computer guys playing the "first intergalactic spacewar olympics." There's also great info on the development of computer graphics, hacker culture, and the internet.