When home computers first came out my brother tried convincing me to get one. I thought they seemed a waste of money. I remember him having to load several floppy discs to start programs and it took forever.
It wasn't until after several generations of computers years later that I decided to bite the bullet and get one. Papyrus had come out with their 1st version of NASCAR RACING and I had to have a computer to play it. I think my first computer was running WINDOWS 3.1.
I still avoided getting internet service for several years. My computer was little more than a big gaming platform. Before you knew it, I was hosting network parties out at our farm. We'd daisy-chain close to a dozen computers together that my co-workers & friends would bring over. They were more into wargaming with games such as Warcraft, Starcraft, Command & Conquer, Diablo, etc... - but I was able to get them to join in with racing sims. I ended up with 3 computers of my own so that my two boys and I could each have one. I even got steering wheel/brake/throttle controllers for each one.
As time went on I kept upgrading the computers with better video & sound cards. Our monitor sizes kept getting larger too. As the system requirements for new games became more demanding it became hard to find off the shelf computers that would run the newest titles so I began building my own.
Now that the boys are grown up and have moved away. I've slowed way down on the computer upgrades and rarely do gaming other than solitaire but I still regularly use the 4 computers we have in the house and garage. I DO miss those racing sims though. Maybe I'll have to dig them back up.