re: First video game that blew your mind

For me, another good one was the original Planetside on the PC.

First time I logged in to the game and got dropped into Sanctuary and saw 300+ players in tanks, buggies, AA vehicles, aircraft buzzing around including dropship I was blown away at the sheer scale of it. No screenshot or video could ever capture the scale of that game.

People split into 10 man squads, and 3 squad platoons.

Then I realized that you could have approximately 1000 people from 3 factions logged in at once and if all 1000 decided to show up at the same base and duke it out then so be it.

My Outfit at its peak would have 70-100 players at night coordinating on Teamspeak and rolling everyone in sight.

I have never been able to go back to a Battlefield or COD type of game since then.