i've personally played quite a few mmo's and must say .. my first mmo prolly still is the one that gets me the most

TIBIA 

._. before u go omg that low graphic game!

look at the death penalty...  its just huge lol they reduced it a bit with this update but if u dont have the blessings (wich cost alot of cash) u loose over 3 lvls at lvl 100 and 1 lvl takes most people 3-4 days of casually playing (not power gaming lol)

also its the only game that ever made me shake when i was "near dieing" (adrenaline rush _/)

so yeah a honorable refference for darkfall tho ... even tho deaths diddent hurt me alot there they did piss u off  for "loosing to that damn orc" :p

so what in ure opinion is the most hardcore game u played and why?

I'm torn between FFXI, Eve online, and Everquest 1 when it orginally came out

FFXI requires alot of time to form parties and exp, and also make friends/get involved ina community.

Eve online is literally a virtual world, plenty of things to do and they really do impact the game. Getting seriously involved with a coorperation can be a little demanding.

EQ was very close to a virtual world, but in the end focus was on leveling. Lot's of exp'ing and most players actually feared dieing. Dungeon runs were extremely dangerous due to the fact you could loose all equiped gear deep down in a dungeon, and never get it back.

played nearly every mmo out there and the only one that you have to plan and fear mobs is EQ1 which makes for a very fun game with most every encouters posible if you can figure out how do do it.

Ultima Online during its early launch days, talk about unforgiving at times lol

Hardcore as in insane amount of free time wasted, I'd say Lineage 2.

UO I played very casually.

You can waste as much time as in the old gender of games, but the time commitment needed to be the top dog is a lot smaller than it used to be in the early days of MMOs.

I would go with Ultima Online at release and then the original EQ back on the Rallos Zek server. The death penalties sucked but the guild wars we had upped the ante that much more.