What was your first mmorpg, and what about it captured your imagination during the first hour?

Amathe

My first mmo was Everquest. I started in a city called Kelethin. What first caught my eye was the city (which was suspended in the trees) was surrounded by a misty forest. I really wanted to know what was in that forest. Also some spooky music was playing that added to the overall effect. 

AnOldFart

Asherons Call and I was sold on the loyalty system when I read up.

Then I played the game and nearly failed a uni course...

Phaserlight

Vendetta Online.

June 2nd, 2003: I install this free public alpha test on a college research library terminal (because Eve is charging a subscription and no way Jose); as soon as I launch from the station I hear this WummWummWumm of the rotating disk, hear the chirping telemetry, switch to "Physics mode" and drift away in a Newtonian environment, then I'm all...


edit: I still play today

Kyleran

Phaserlight said:

Vendetta Online.

June 2nd, 2003: I install this free public alpha test on a college research library terminal (because Eve is charging a subscription and no way Jose); as soon as I launch from the station I hear this WummWummWumm of the rotating disk, hear the chirping telemetry, switch to "Physics mode" and drift away in a Newtonian environment, then I'm all...


edit: I still play today

You didn't just fall in love with this game, you were "absorbed by the collective."

Horusra

AC and that I could group or solo and get stuff done.

laserit

UO

 And I really don't know what captivated me for the first hour. All I did was hit dummies for the first +hour and then I proceeded to get my ass handed to me by a chicken

I think I'm just a sucker for punishment

Kyleran

Lineage 1, "The Bloodpledge" (few recall its full name) which I joined with great trepidation as I eschewed online games until 2001 as I felt gaming with total strangers was weird. 

So I log on for the first, start exploring "Talking Island" and wouldn't you know,  in a short time someone sent me a text. 

So I have this cautious conversation with this person about me being a new joiner and being a female character I assumed she was female IRL.  (Don't judge, in those days it was usually true)

So eventually "she" inquires about my age, which I decline to share as gaming wasn't exactly something universally accepted, especially for adults.

She freely admits to being 12 years old and is playing along side her father.

I quickly disconnected with no further comment, deleted my character and rolled a new one as I feared her father might want to hunt me down, which is what I would have done if I found a middle age man chatting with my daughter. 

I don't think I accepted another chat request for a week or so, when I decided to take the 10 minute boat ride to the mainland and started up a conversation with a "male" mage appropriately named "Garyth" and actually made a friend I'm still in touch with on Facebook today.

That said, after all these years, I still think gaming with total strangers is weird. 

Amathe

Kyleran said:

I quickly disconnected with no further comment, deleted my character and rolled a new one as I feared her father might want to hunt me down

This cracked me up. Great story.  

Scorchien

UO as well 20 years going now , altho now i log into mainteneance and maybe fool with alts ..

         But was just blown away ,In the first hour tho i know i was killed by a deer , then a giant Spider , then a snake .. but i was still just completly captivated by the immersion of that world , even today it still brings a sesne of danger that will keep you on your toes , even in Trammel ...

Tsiya

Asheron's Call 2. I rolled a Tonk and she had a tail, with spikes! Got into the game and got my first dropped drum, and we had an impromptu concert right in the starting area. Never looked back.

Hariken

2001 Anarchy Online was my first mmo. This was back when the whole internet thing was taking off. Man it was a fun time back then. I wasn't into gaming at all until a friend talked me into trying it out. Anarchy Online was different because it was sifi. My friend really had to talk me into paying monthly for a game so he offered to pay the first month. I guess he knew once i saw the game world i would be hooked. The first time getting in to create a character was what hooked me. The character creation for the game was way different from what it is today. You started out as a faceless clone and had to go to alot of different stations to complete what you were going to be. It was very creative. Also being greeted as a new player from the Ark system was cool. They asked if you needed help and would run around with you to help you figure the game out.

Azmodeus

Since everything now is called a mmorpg, my first was Leisure Suit Larry.

Flyte27

When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s things were a lot different.  The internet was available to only a small amount of people.  Not everyone had a PC.  Music, movies, cartoons, and books were more common.  Console video gaming was coming into popularity.  I spent more time in fantasy than reality I think.  My parents were busy working.  I was either playing video games with friends or playing pickup sports.  We were mostly left to police ourselves similar to the original MMOs. 

My first MMO was UO and I had a lot of fun in it, but my imagination really took off in Everquest as it fulfilled my dreams of roleplaying all the characters from fantasy movies, cartoons, and books I read as a kid.  Being able to play as a Dark Elf turned good (like Drizzt) or a Half-Elf Ranger like Tanis (Dragonlance) was quite enjoyable. 

i think this was part of the times as well, but it was quite easy for me to get lost completely in games during that time period.  I don't feel that anymore and I don't really see it with kids.  Perhaps they are warded against it by their parents who know what can happen if you spend too much time in fantasy world.  It's too bad though because unless you are fully enveloped in a game in this way you will never reach the highest level of enjoyment with it.  This is the case with most things in life.  If you overindulge you will harm yourself, but if you don't you won't reach the highest level of possible enjoyment it can bring about.  This was the case with movies and cartoons as well.  You could easily get lost in them and spend lots of time in the virtual world created by your mind.

AnOldFart

Tsiya said:

Asheron's Call 2. I rolled a Tonk and she had a tail, with spikes! Got into the game and got my first dropped drum, and we had an impromptu concert right in the starting area. Never looked back.

Wow AC2 sucked compared to AC1 but stop good to see fellow AC gamers.


@Kyleran I loved that story, I've had good experiences in mmorpgs but nothing as funny as that, that I can remember

Celcius

Ultima Online, started at the Trinsic Keg and Anchor. The thing that captured my imagination the most was that I was in a world filled with other real people...then proceeding from NPC to NPC saying hello! and trying to start a conversation with them...

Sovrath

I was playing a lot of Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind. I want to experience a full world such as Morrowind but one where my character would continually grow. The idea of a 3rd person game like Neverwinter Nights but a giant beautiful world Like Morrowind led me to try my "actual" first mmorpg.

Shadowbane.

I couldn't figure out the controls well, and moving seemed weird and then someone starting spamming invites and chats. I ended up deleting the game after 10 minutes.

I then tried Lineage 2 because my girlfriend was going to be visiting her "main office" in PA for a week and I thought "now is the time".

The movement made sense to me, there were all sorts of people running around everywhere doing things which made everything seem high powered energy and "alive". Met a few people while grinding and even did some grouping (this was all around Dark Elf Village.

Killed a low level red character outside the village.

Since online games were new to me I had the same feeling as Morrowind ... "what is out there?"

It was a great time. Played for over 4 1/2 years.

Iselin

AnOldFart said:

Asherons Call and I was sold on the loyalty system when I read up.

Then I played the game and nearly failed a uni course...

That was my first too but I was already well out of university by that point (maybe I should change my name to "OlderFart"?)

When UO came out i was all burnt out on Lord British and virtues having played all the single player games so I gave it a deliberate pass.

I was interested in EQ but at that time I had an ATI 3D card that didn't do whatever EQ required (Voodoo?) in those early days but AC worked just fine. That XP pyramid scheme though... weird man

But getting back to the title of this thread, not then and not ever has the first hour in any MMORPG ever done the trick for me. I need at least a good week or two before I make up my mind to stick around in any of them.

AnOldFart

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Asherons Call and I was sold on the loyalty system when I read up.

Then I played the game and nearly failed a uni course...

That was my first too but I was already well out of university by that point (maybe I should change my name to "OlderFart"?)

When UO came out i was all burnt out on Lord British and virtues having played all the single player games so I gave it a deliberate pass.

I was interested in EQ but at that time I had an ATI 3D card that didn't do whatever EQ required (Voodoo?) in those early days but AC worked just fine. That XP pyramid scheme though... weird man

But getting back to the title of this thread, not then and not ever has the first hour in any MMORPG ever done the trick for me. I need at least a good week or two before I make up my mind to stick around in any of them.

Old Fart more my mindset than my age

Iselin

AnOldFart said:

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Asherons Call and I was sold on the loyalty system when I read up.

Then I played the game and nearly failed a uni course...

That was my first too but I was already well out of university by that point (maybe I should change my name to "OlderFart"?)

When UO came out i was all burnt out on Lord British and virtues having played all the single player games so I gave it a deliberate pass.

I was interested in EQ but at that time I had an ATI 3D card that didn't do whatever EQ required (Voodoo?) in those early days but AC worked just fine. That XP pyramid scheme though... weird man

But getting back to the title of this thread, not then and not ever has the first hour in any MMORPG ever done the trick for me. I need at least a good week or two before I make up my mind to stick around in any of them.

Old Fart more my mindset than my age

It's both for me

My son was a teenager when AC came out and I and his mother had just separated. AC was one of our ways of spending time together in the evenings. That's one of the reasons I have additional fond memories of AC.

Avanah

Meridian 59 (Server 102) in 1996. The first hour was like WTH am I supposed to do? Graphics back then were like top notch. The MMO world was awesome. It had other people in it!!

Then went to UO Closed Beta and into release. Help Co-Found Fires of Heaven...I miss you guys...Roc, Myrlyn, Famine ,(Back then it started as "Company of the Damned") we were a PK Guild. 

Was accepted into EQ Beta in 1998 and played that into release and beyond.
Dabbled with the other MMOS of that Time until WoW Closed Beta in 2003.
Played WoW at release and beyond.

Some really great memories.

laserit

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Asherons Call and I was sold on the loyalty system when I read up.

Then I played the game and nearly failed a uni course...

That was my first too but I was already well out of university by that point (maybe I should change my name to "OlderFart"?)

When UO came out i was all burnt out on Lord British and virtues having played all the single player games so I gave it a deliberate pass.

I was interested in EQ but at that time I had an ATI 3D card that didn't do whatever EQ required (Voodoo?) in those early days but AC worked just fine. That XP pyramid scheme though... weird man

But getting back to the title of this thread, not then and not ever has the first hour in any MMORPG ever done the trick for me. I need at least a good week or two before I make up my mind to stick around in any of them.

Old Fart more my mindset than my age

It's both for me

My son was a teenager when AC came out and I and his mother had just separated. AC was one of our ways of spending time together in the evenings. That's one of the reasons I have additional fond memories of AC.

I had a great time playing WoW with my kids, had four accounts going at one time. I started a thread once in general asking Blizzard if they could come up with a family plan sub. I could not believe how negative the overall responses were at that time. 

Wizardry

Well i can't answer the topic fully because my first was Everquest but i never found it to be very good so i left after a week..I only tried it because a friend i was hanging out with in UT99 kept bugging me to try it so i did.So although my first it never really captured me at all.

I was already playing rpg's /single player and had an idea of how a game woudl be designed that i would like.So fast forward several years i meet a new friend from Bowling "lmao yeah i know,don't say it"A Sunday drinking sport ok.We were checking out his collection of games and we got talking about rpg's,he said i might like the FF series.

So  he began to show me and i was like i liek that stuff.Then he said a mmorgp was coming out and i was like oh yeah.he said he already ordered his memory pack to play the game for PS2 but i had a good PC so i dove in right away ahead of my friends.

What captured me was everything,just like i would expect world,no markers in the air,tough game to play and grasp fully and tons to learn.Then i was sold right away but i didn't even yet know the game had a translator to talk to JPN players nor did i know the game had a sub class system,it just kept getting better an better,i was playing everyday.

Iselin

laserit said:

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Asherons Call and I was sold on the loyalty system when I read up.

Then I played the game and nearly failed a uni course...

That was my first too but I was already well out of university by that point (maybe I should change my name to "OlderFart"?)

When UO came out i was all burnt out on Lord British and virtues having played all the single player games so I gave it a deliberate pass.

I was interested in EQ but at that time I had an ATI 3D card that didn't do whatever EQ required (Voodoo?) in those early days but AC worked just fine. That XP pyramid scheme though... weird man

But getting back to the title of this thread, not then and not ever has the first hour in any MMORPG ever done the trick for me. I need at least a good week or two before I make up my mind to stick around in any of them.

Old Fart more my mindset than my age

It's both for me

My son was a teenager when AC came out and I and his mother had just separated. AC was one of our ways of spending time together in the evenings. That's one of the reasons I have additional fond memories of AC.

I had a great time playing WoW with my kids, had four accounts going at one time. I started a thread once in general asking Blizzard if they could come up with a family plan sub. I could not believe how negative the overall responses were at that time. 

It was a good suggestion IMO, but gamers in official forums seem to be ultra-resistant to any type of change that the developers don't think of first... conservative bunch.

Smoey

I was on an AOL CD 56k modem free trial, a young minds first adventure into online gaming. I had seen a game advertised on Game Network. It was called 'The Legend of Mir 2', I always loved playing against my brother and friends so when I saw 50+ people just standing their in a town talking I thought it was awesome.

It took me 4 days to download using a download manager, I had to keep turning it on and off every time my mother wanted to use the phone. Once I installed it I entered my full name as the character name and jumped in, I picked a Taoist.

They could heal, have skeletons as freaking pets!!, get awesome abilities such as shooting an amulet with the Soul Fireball, then Poisoning them with some herbal shit you had stored in a poison bag. I'm 30 now so I'm going to sound old as shit, but there weren't many games 'back in my day' that were like this, WOW didn't exist yet. 

I jumped in, I had clothes that provided no protection I also had a wooden stick and a candle. I put the clothes on and the wooden stick. I ventured towards a shop keeper, he was fat and bought meat. I went out of the town towards some grass and found a hen. It took me more hits than I'd like to admit. I remember the dude I saw on TV said that if I held the 'Alt' and clicked a dead animal I could harvest some meat. I got some chicken ran back to the fat guy and sold it to him. I thought, hah that was piss easy, I'll be rich on here in no time. 

After venturing out a little further I found some deer and scarecrows. I levelled up to about three, went out further again and found a thing called an Oma, it made some funny sound and kicked my ass. I didn't realise I could buy hp pots as I just skipped all the other shops and found a way to make money. 

I dropped my clothes and some of my hen meat. I ran back to where I died and picked up my stuff. I realised from some gold I nicked from someone else's kill that I could lose my drops but I didn't realise I could drop items I had on me.  

It was around this time that I realised I right clicked on a book that disappeared, what it had actually done was given me my first spell, heal. I logged off at this point, when to their website and proceeded to print every page off so I had a reference manual so I didn't make the same stupid mistake I had made with the heal spell. I also printed off all the creatures, their levels. hp etc. 

I then spent years and years playing the game on and off. Rather than venture to the WOW side I drifted towards DAoC finding MMORPG.com in 2005.

Kyleran

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Iselin said:

AnOldFart said:

Asherons Call and I was sold on the loyalty system when I read up.

Then I played the game and nearly failed a uni course...

That was my first too but I was already well out of university by that point (maybe I should change my name to "OlderFart"?)

When UO came out i was all burnt out on Lord British and virtues having played all the single player games so I gave it a deliberate pass.

I was interested in EQ but at that time I had an ATI 3D card that didn't do whatever EQ required (Voodoo?) in those early days but AC worked just fine. That XP pyramid scheme though... weird man

But getting back to the title of this thread, not then and not ever has the first hour in any MMORPG ever done the trick for me. I need at least a good week or two before I make up my mind to stick around in any of them.

Old Fart more my mindset than my age

It's both for me

My son was a teenager when AC came out and I and his mother had just separated. AC was one of our ways of spending time together in the evenings. That's one of the reasons I have additional fond memories of AC.

When UO was out I was already a 27 adult with a daytime job, no more long holidays to play like when I was at school in the 80s...

You're not alone.

Youngsters....when UO came out I was 40, wife, 3 children and more than a full time job.
 when I was in school we had to play "board games" during the holidays.....

Uphill both ways and in the snow of course.

waynejr2

Dear Penthouse Forum.  Her name was Valerie and we were in High School together.  She lived on the family farm and she invited me over to the barn one night to help putting together the class float for the upcoming parade.   After everyone left that night we hung out. Now it wasn't called hanging out back then like you kids do today.  It was more like getting drunk and fing in the hay.  Needless to say, that was my first mmO.