They had a PVP mode you could do by linking with other players called Net battling. Despite it being a GBA series, (with some DS releases) it still has a strong online PVP community to this day, as well as a fan game that has been in strong development for a few years now.

The irony here is how much you’re acting like a child about this.

I just spent 20 seconds trying to swipe to the next image.

Stared at this for too long because of the “gif” text in the corner FML.

They were the same as they’ve always fucking been, you’re just older and have a better capacity to both notice it and be tired of it, so now you see it more and have a bias because of that.

Before the internet was big we had shitloads of counter monkeys hanging out at the comic shop willing to do either one and sometimes both of these to anyone who would, or had to, listen - with the most likely person being the dude working at the comic shop. Nerds have been doing this shit over comics alone for decades.