Your first ever MMO experience

[Hollyday]

Up until now I've been very staunchly a single-player only kinda girl. I'm not ashamed of the fact that the main reason I play games is for the story rather than gameplay, and so my gaming history to date has been almost entirely made up of RPGs. However, over the last year I've been trying to broaden my gaming knowledge and gotten into FPSs, puzzle games, action/adventure games etc. The last big thing I wanted to avoid though was MMOs - I don't know why, but they just didn't appeal.

My favourite game of all time is Star Wars: KOTOR, and with The Old Republic going free-to-play I thought I'd finally get rid of my prejudice against MMOs. And when I realised that I could play without having to interact with anyone else I was even happier - sure, the other players running around stealing my kills was a mild annoyance at first, but I decided to ignore them.

During a particularly hard mission last night I was defeated, waiting for the countdown so I could get a medical probe to revive me, when another player runs up, revives me and invites me to join their group. AND IT WAS SO MUCH MORE FUN! Of course, that's what everyone else knew all along, but I couldn't believe how much fun it was to interact with other players in the game.

So, to the point: Tell us all about your first experience with MMOs - where you as prejudiced against them as me? Do you still hate them? or are they your favourite type of game, and why?

 

[Padwolf]

My first experience with MMO's was World of Warcraft. I was never prejudiced against them, to be honest I didn't know anything about them until WoW. Gods I did love it, I made all different characters to try out every class but through these years I've stuck with the hunter. I had a backstory for her, a personality for her, a wolf friend, the wolf she's had since the day she stepped foot in Ashenvale by accident by going too far in The Barrens. It was amazing, a whole world to explore and be a part of, a lot of lore to pour over. I still love WoW, I still play on it with my old orc hunter. I've made some good friends on WoW, one of which I still talk to and have known for over 6 years now and is one of my closest friends. I don't do many of the dungeons and raids though, I had a guild but I never really had the time to go on their raids and things. It is great fun to have a good talkative guild and to run around with them on occasion.

I love getting new mounts, especially the flying ones. I love flying around the world on my drake, I also love running around on my skeletal warhorse. I want to get as many mounts as I can! I don't play it as much as I used to, a few hours a week now if that, but I still get into it and love it. WoW just added something special to my life really. I had a nice routine, get up, go to school, get home, go out with friends, read, do homework, then WoW in the evenings. I loved it.

 

[madwarper]

My first MMO experience was hanging around my friend's house watching him play Old School EverQuest. Then, I finally got my own computer and account after Kunark came out.

It had its moments of being fun, but there were more than enough rage inducing moments. Soloing was nigh impossible (for nonDruids), so you'd have to find a spot with enough people to group with, but not so much that all camps were taken and all groups full. Also, for a game named EverQUEST, Quests were far and few in between. I had quit shortly after Legacy of Yaseak (SP? the one with the Frogloks) expansion.

Skip ahead a few years and DDO went F2P, so I tried it out. While soloing is more possible that EQ, it's still better to play with a full group to get the full effect (especially with a Rogue for disarming traps and unlocked chests). And, since everything is instanced, in that you'll never see another player outside the hub towns if you don't want to, there's no such thing as kill stealing.

Skip ahead a year and LotRO went F2P, so I tried it out. While every class is soloable to end game, some (Hunters) are more of a challenge than others. There really isn't any kill stealing, since the first person who tags a mob gets the kill, it can lead to griefing. Either if you have an opening attack with a charge time and someone tags from under you or once you tag it someone else hits it, which reduces the amount of exp you get. Though, in the latest expansion, it seems they're taking the new content in the ways of GW2 and having all kills shared between all people who attacked it.

Skip ahead a year and GW2 is released, so I bought a copy. There are some serious balance issues in later game content. I was trying to explore the lvl 75 map, which was devoid of any other player and there was nothing but events that required a massive group. And, trying to go around them was nigh impossible because every other mob pulled you, rooted you, or froze you. If you were spotted, you might as well starting looking for a respawn point.

So, I enjoy MMO's in general, but I appreciate them even more when my gaming fun is not beholden on the availability of others.

 

[SonicWaffle]

So, to the point: Tell us all about your first experience with MMOs - where you as prejudiced against them as me? Do you still hate them? or are they your favourite type of game, and why?

Do MUDs (text-based MMO, basically) count here? Because as a child, I had a go at the Discworld MUD. Around 14 years later, and I'm still playing, because the game is amazing fun. It isn't my favourite game in the world, but it's the one I keep coming back to - I've probably racked up a year of playing time over various characters, I've been to MUDmeets, I've got a strong group of friends there, and I even met my current flatmate through the game.

In terms of more conventional MMO games, I played WoW up to about level 20 or so, and it put me off them entirely. It was probably the dullest and most repetitive piece of crap I've ever played. Go here, kill that, rinse and repeat. I'm told it gets better when you start doing raids, but I didn't have the patience to grind my character up that far.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Either Ultima Online on private server or Anarchy Online when the 'vanilla' went f2p, can't remember which one was first.

Didn't have any prejudice against them, on the contrary i was excited.
And MMO's remain my most played genre to date.

 

[hazabaza1]

I think it was this game called Soma online. Had a weird human/devil thing. Devils got stats per level and humans gained them progressively like in Elder Scrolls or something.

 

[King of Wei]

First MMo experience was Runescape back in ....2007, I think. Never considered playing games on the computer before that, but wanted some co-op with a few good friends of mine so went searching for a game. The game was fun, though repetitive as all hell as most MMOs are. Spent more hours mining essence than I did actually fighting things.

Most fun I had with the game was forming and leading this raider type clan thing, though it immediately fell apart after my computer crashed ... yay viruses. We'd trick players into the wilderness and ambush them to loot their stuff and then sell it back to them for a significant markup. We'd also protect people while they mined rune ore in the wilderness and kill them once they're done, so we get the payment for protection and the ore to sell. My favorite thing we did though was infiltrating other clans. We'd worm our way in to different clans and find ways to antagonize them, like spreading rumors that one clans thinks the other clan is a bunch of pussies, or get one of our members to harass members of the other clan, then provoke a retaliation. We'd try to arrange for a clan war in the wilderness. Then when they got together to fight we'd bring reinforcements from our own clan, plus any members we could convince to join us from the warring clans, and annihilate the both of them and get a ton of good equipment! Most fun I've ever had on a multiplayer game.

I stopped playing after they took the PVP element out of the wilderness and created the grand exchange. I'd like to think they were actions taken specifically because of our clan but I know that's not true, fun to dream though. I am trying to get back into it now and while the mechanical tweaks they've done with it are pretty awesome, it's just not doing it for me anymore.

 

[felbot]

that would be wow, I didn't even know what it was going to be i just played warcraft 3 at the time and heard there was a new one out, when my brother told me i would be playing as only on character I thought he meant i would go around as only 1 character like in war craft 3, you know kinda like how you moved in a moba.

I can't remember my initial reaction to the game though i loved the things that happened when you leveled up.

always wanted to take on dead mines by myself too, though back then they had a giant saw robot to kill, now they just have a goblin going piggyback on a ogre, boring.

 

[Iyon]

EVE Online would be my first MMO. It certainly wasn't a... forgiving game for new players and especially to someone who was completely new to MMOs. Before EVE I was actually rather prejudiced toward MMOs, mostly because I had yet to see one that looked to be particularly fun. When I finally decided to try an MMO I wanted a game where I could be self sufficient but still had opportunity to work with others. EVE fit in that category pretty well and seemed to be different enough from the other MMOs I was more hesitant to try, so I figured it'd be worth a shot.

It's definitely a game with a steep learning curve but it's made getting started in other MMOs seem much easier by comparison. Unfortunately I've been rather turned off by MMOs lately. It seems like every one I play just ends up feeling really grindy and boring.

 

[Dragoon]

First MMo experience was Runescape back in ....2007, I think. Never considered playing games on the computer before that, but wanted some co-op with a few good friends of mine so went searching for a game. The game was fun, though repetitive as all hell as most MMOs are. Spent more hours mining essence than I did actually fighting things.

I stopped playing after they took the PVP element out of the wilderness and created the grand exchange. I'd like to think they were actions taken specifically because of our clan but I know that's not true, fun to dream though. I am trying to get back into it now and while the mechanical tweaks they've done with it are pretty awesome, it's just not doing it for me anymore.

Pretty much this for me too, I used to love the thrill of fighting in the wildy then they went and ruined it all.

 

[Cabisco]

I tried world of warcraft, didn't like it. Tried Ultima Online and didn't like it. Tried Eve Online and while I liked having a ship and pretending it's startrek I didn't actually really like it. Tried Star Trek online and liked it, then got stuck in the galaxy map thingy and couldn't get out and thought 'fuck it' and never went on it again.

MMOs and myself don't get on well

 

[Ljs1121]

Like a few others, it was Runescape. I was hopelessly addicted to it for a while. I first learned about it from a kid in my school in my sixth grade year, I think it was. I kinda want to get back into it at some point, actually.

First MMo experience was Runescape back in ....2007, I think. Never considered playing games on the computer before that, but wanted some co-op with a few good friends of mine so went searching for a game. The game was fun, though repetitive as all hell as most MMOs are. Spent more hours mining essence than I did actually fighting things.

Most fun I had with the game was forming and leading this raider type clan thing, though it immediately fell apart after my computer crashed ... yay viruses. We'd trick players into the wilderness and ambush them to loot their stuff and then sell it back to them for a significant markup. We'd also protect people while they mined rune ore in the wilderness and kill them once they're done, so we get the payment for protection and the ore to sell. My favorite thing we did though was infiltrating other clans. We'd worm our way in to different clans and find ways to antagonize them, like spreading rumors that one clans thinks the other clan is a bunch of pussies, or get one of our members to harass members of the other clan, then provoke a retaliation. We'd try to arrange for a clan war in the wilderness. Then when they got together to fight we'd bring reinforcements from our own clan, plus any members we could convince to join us from the warring clans, and annihilate the both of them and get a ton of good equipment! Most fun I've ever had on a multiplayer game.

I stopped playing after they took the PVP element out of the wilderness and created the grand exchange. I'd like to think they were actions taken specifically because of our clan but I know that's not true, fun to dream though. I am trying to get back into it now and while the mechanical tweaks they've done with it are pretty awesome, it's just not doing it for me anymore.

That sounds incredibly fun.

Also, they made the Wilderness non-PvP? That's the most ridiculous thing ever.

 

[Souplex]

My first MMO was Runescape back in 01'.
Runescape is basically "Baby's first MMO". A bare-bones MMO distilled down to its barest essence.

 

[Akytalusia]

my first was AnimeMUD. never had anything against MUD's. i was young and naive and thought that playing games with lots of other people was just the coolest thing ever. naturally, i grew up and learned the truth, but that's life, yo.

 

[Pipotchi]

Ultima Online, only MMO Ive ever played. not even sure how long ago? Well before 2000, I remember the fallout from when that guy killed Lord British, it was a golden age

I wasn't there mind I just remember the lols

 

[thiosk]

My first experience with an MMO left me with 15-20 lbs of extra weight, a wasted year of graduate school (i spent roughly 20% of the year logged in, in total hours, according to the /played function), and fewer friends because of ignoring them.

Your mileage may vary, but the modern MMO targets a well-defined addiction center of the brain. Thus, I say go grab the baldur's gate enhanced edition and run through planescape: torment instead.

 

[Fursnake]

My first MMO was playing Asheron's Call with my dad. Good times and I miss MMO's like AC.

 

[Zeldias]

My first MMO was Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds back when I was in 8th grade (so 1999 or thereabout). Looking back on it, it was a pretty poor game, but at the time, I thought it was incredible. I used to bum PC Gamer magazines to read and was enchanted by stories of people playing Ultima Online and so I threw my entire imagination into the game. Of course, it helped that the girl who was my first love introduced me to the game .

I stuck with it for years, though. I remember right after registering, I was anxious that I'd made a mistake sending that money order in, and while wandering the wilderness looking for sheep to farm (for wool to sell), I came across a ton of players fighting a giant turtle with snakes on it's back. I later came to find it was the end of an event where avatars of the gods were attacking the land or something. We all healed each other and worked together and eventually killed the thing. It was incredible. Left a huge impact on me, and even after bouncing from MMO to MMO (with the only ones that left a strongly positive impression on me being Anarchy Online and Warhammer Online, although I played WoW for a few years mostly due to friends, my at-the-time fiance', and my guild), I still didn't give up hope that I'd have a similar experience in another MMO somewhere down the line. Eventually it did happen in Guild Wars 2, but I don't find myself as drawn into MMOs as I used to be. Maybe it's the dearth of roleplay these days or unengaging narratives. I'm not sure what it is, but that's all a digression.

I went on to join a player-run subpath (basically a sub-class that was run by players that required roleplay and an application to join for access to new abilities, items, and roleplay opportunities), and had some fun living in the wilderness. Married myself a Barbarian lass and had a good time. Unfortunately, though, as I was grinding monsters in a dungeon years later, I suddenly had the revelation that all I was doing at this point was spending time in a glorified chatroom, beating up monsters to gain experience to get stronger to beat up monsters to gain experience to...You get the point. I can tolerate that in certain games that feel more skill-based (Monster Hunter), but not in something with such static combat. Shortly after, I stopped paying on my account.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Fist ever? Champions Online. Only played it like 3 times before I got bored. Second was DC Universe Online. That one lasted for several months before I got bored. And 3rd and last was Star Trek Online. That one lasted the longest before I finally got bored. I actually joined a Fleet (read: Guild) in that one.

 

[Jorec]

Runescape, back in the wee year of 2004 I think. I kind of missed EQ and Ultima because I was a little kid when those came out.

It was fun for a time but I got bored of it eventually.