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What was your first experience with MMORPGs?

Sephimoth

Member
MMO nostalgia thread.

I started playing a game called Dransik (later renamed to Ashen Empires) back in... early 2000s I guess.

hQHVtox.jpeg


This was in the early days of the internet, and it blew my mind that there was a huge world in the game and real people were scattered across it doing their own thing. It sounds dumb writing it now, but if you were there at the time you probably know what I mean.

You'd bump into randomers in town and they'd all be conversing and trading, and you'd see guilds out hunting together. Sometimes it got exciting when someone ran into town alerting everyone there was a PKer (player killer) at X, at which point the entire town would empty to go hunt them.

Being the rascal that I am, I soon joined a criminal guild myself, and we used to go out touring the hunting areas looking for targets to kill and loot. Spawns for crims were miles away, so if you got killed, you lost gear.

I've tried MMOs over the years since, most people are just doing their own thing, its basically like a single player game. I miss the glory days. really had to be there to experience it.
 
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MiguelItUp

Member
City of Heroes was mine, and man, I LOVED it. Before then I thought the idea of subscriptions to play games was pretty stupid (I was also a kiddo, lol).
 

Drake

Member
original Guild Wars. Man, I played that game so much. I remember I had full Fissure of Woe armor on multiple characters.

I remember you could 2 man the beginning part of the underworld with certain builds. That's how I was able to get enough Ecto and Obsidian Shards for the armor sets.
 
Text only MUD’s back in the 1990’s. Very fun. Then Rift, which I also enjoyed. The SWTOR, which was ok but couldn’t help but be a disappointment since we all really wanted a single player KOTOR 3 instead.

I barely dabbled in WoW. I just never had time to get into it or was already playing something else.
 
Ragnarok Online was my first proper MMO that I played long term. Played a few others around the same time but did not get into them like I did with Ragnarok.
 
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Roberts

Member
I loved playing LOTRO with a few friends of mine. I think we got as far as Lothlorien before I jump off as it was taking way too much of my precious time, but first? I don't remember which one came first: Everquest or Dark Ages of Camelot. I don't remember specifics but have one very strong visual memory about Camelot where people from two realms met to have one huge battle. I don't remember how many people participated but it felt huge and something I had never seen before in a video game. It also brought my computer (or internet connection) to its knees.
 
Tibia.

My friend was a Tibia addict. He convinced me to play it one afternoon after school, and made me go through all the early levels just to kill me as soon as PVP was available and take all my loot after.
He gave it back, but we kept trolling each other in the game and we never made any progress.

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Anarchy Online. at the time I had heard from friends about MMOs and have a couple friends who were hardcore EQ players. but the overall look and feel of EQ doesn't really catch my attention. then AO came out and it's like the first big sci-fi MMO back then and I kinda like the style, so went in on it. played a Doctor to max level and even did some raiding and got a piece of some kinda rare armor. even did an 18 hours session one time to grind for that final level to max.
 
Started with EQ during the Ruins of Kunark expansions, hopping around a lot before finally settling on WoW which would not only end up being my favorite MMO of all time but ranks as one of my favorite overall games as well. Last one I played was Throne and Liberty which, while decent, just didn't hold my interest for long.
 

Halfkut

Neo Member
Ragnarok online

was living in a share house with a bunch of mates at the time, None of us really played these sort of games but for some reason we all got hooked.

Used to drop acid and have marathon sessions on the weekends, it was so much fun. I miss being that free
 
I tried to play Phantasy Star Online in Dreamcast but my copy was already registered so I couldn't play online. Then in 2005 I was hooked on WoW for a good 6 months, haven't touched it again since. But man that was a revelatory experience.
 
Ultima Online, one of the best games ever made.

Realized after reading a few other posts - MUDs, sure, I suppose they count. Was playing those too! Fun times...
 
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IAmRei

Member
ragnarok-online-2.jpg


years and years "wasted" :)
ah yes, it's also almost my first MMO as well, though I only played one month,
got some people who toxic in that game soon after 1st month and left ever since.
never played MMO anymore ever since as well.

in my region people not playing it immersive,
like grouping outside the gate, which slow load the game more
or not using city as intended, so the town is not populated well and feels empty
worsen my experience...
 

RavageX

Member
City of Heroes was mine, and man, I LOVED it. Before then I thought the idea of subscriptions to play games was pretty stupid (I was also a kiddo, lol).
Same here. To this day it and Knights of the Old Republic are the only MMOs I ever spent money on.

What's funny is I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but that was a well done MMO in my opinion. I enjoyed the fact there were actual stories.
 

Holammer

Member
UO, but that was on expensive dial-up internet so I only played it for a 200h tops, I returned (got the 2 first expansions) and played for a bit when I got ADSL, but I spent more time on EQ.
My first experience while trying it on a friends account was struggling with the controls, getting killed by a PK at a cemetery. Then getting chased by a pig because still had not figured out how to attack.

My favourite town to hang out in was Vesper because of the music.

 
UO, but that was on expensive dial-up internet so I only played it for a 200h tops, I returned (got the 2 first expansions) and played for a bit when I got ADSL, but I spent more time on EQ.
My first experience while trying it on a friends account was struggling with the controls, getting killed by a PK at a cemetery. Then getting chased by a pig because still had not figured out how to attack.

My favourite town to hang out in was Vesper because of the music.


Best times in that game are earlier on, fond memories of not knowing what the hell I'm doing and getting abused, killed, murdered, looted... but finding my way regardless, becoming stronger against the odds of the world. Amazing game, memories I will never, ever forget. One of the absolute closest to my heart. I was very sad when Trammel came and destroyed the entire social ecosystem. Terrible decision.

And for me, Moonglow for life. I still remember, I was playing at a friend's house and we would alternate. One day he was walking around Britan and in the library near Lord British's castle for some reason there was a moongate on the second floor ( a permanent one ). We took the gamble and went in to an unknown island it seemed... and after examining our cloth map that came with the game, we determined we were in Moonglow. After exploring the island, it became home. I ended up placing several small houses there and love that town to this day. A home away from home.
 
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All of my friends played World of Warcraft back in 2004 so I caved in and tried it. My expectations were very high but I was bored quickly and realized I absolutely hate MMORPGs (and that it wasn't anything like Warcraft 2, which I loved 😅)

Haven't touched one since, everything I see looks like ass and well they just aren't for me.
 

Ozzie666

Member
Ultima on-line, then Everquest which really was a big deal from 1999-2004. I consider Everquest my first true MMO, because it consumed life and became a job for years. No one has time for 8-16 hour raids now ;)
There were some really good MUDS too which are still around to this day.
 

JORMBO

Darkness no more
Asheron's Call from 1999 to 2017 when it shut down. I did have some breaks throughout those years. I'd consider it one of the best games ever made.

For a game that came out in the 90s, it was more complex then MMOs out today.
 
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Runescape was my first brush with the genre, but short lived for me. I also played a trial of Everquest and wasted way too many hours on Maple Story. Only MMO I've played since were Planetside and Planetside 2.

For everyone saying PSO, that wasn't an MMO.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
yea, it was UO and EQ. I actually got EQ day one, for some reason the date sticks with me - 3/16/1999.

I was so excited abotu UO but it came out in such bad shape it was a little while before I played it, after the first expansion came out. But it was great.
 
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Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
EverQuest_Online_Adventures_Coverart.png


Made me realize I hate MMOs.
This is mine unless we count phantasy star online, then it’s PSO.

I loved this game and I was in 7th grade at the time I think. No clue wtf I was doing. No clue how I figured out how to run this and convince my parents to pay a monthly fee.

Then came final fantasy xi online after and my entire life changed. Best game ever made.
 

Jinxed

Member
Push play, close your eyes, welcome to 1997 all over again...



Fuck this was simpler times, the nostalgia...

And now the best, 1999
 
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ssringo

Member
Everquest. I was in the military at the time and another guy in my unit convinced me to give it a try. Gave me some stuff to get started and left me to it. It was okay but there was other (more enjoyable) games and I wound up dropping it after a couple weeks. Turns out that some of the stuff I was given was (apparently) quite valuable and the guy that gave it to me wanted it back and wound up paying to reactivate my subscription just so I could return the gear.

After that I played FF11 for a bit before WoW pretty much took over my gaming life for a decade.
 

Weezard

Neo Member
Everquest, played it hardcore all the way to the Planes of Power expension.

After that WoW till Mist of Pandaria.

Then I became a father and did not have time for MMO's anymore :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 

GymWolf

Member
Played one month with the beta of ff11 that they gifted with some vg magazines, and that's it, first and only experience with the genre.
 
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