A computer I had before this one was made in 2003, and could definitely not play most modern games. It could barely run Oblivion on the lowest settings. But even in the rural area where my parents lived, a place where cable tv was a recent invention, there was internet. And all you need to authenticate a game is a connection, it doesn't have to be a good one.

I live in Canada. Perhaps that skews my internet availability perception? I don't know. It seems that most places where gaming is big enough to have a market are going to have internet connections.