Marine aviators use online gaming concept to enhance training

Before the dawn of online gaming, video games and computer games primarily featured two to four players sitting in the same room looking at the same screen while using a controller or keyboard to play a game where they either raced or battled with or against each other. Games such as Mario Kart, Goldeneye and Super Smash Brothers provided hours of entertainment and camaraderie for gamers as they competed with and against their friends and family. When online gaming came into prominence in the early 2000s, it allowed gamers to play with friends, and mostly complete strangers, from anywhere across the globe. Today, the multi-billion dollar industry connects more than 2 billion gamers across a broad spectrum of different types of games such as strategy, first person shooter, and role playing games. U.S. Marine Corps pilots stationed in Cherry Point, North Carolina have taken a piece of the concept of online gaming and used it to enhance their training.