What got you into MMO's and why? I am curious, everyone has a different story. 

I first started playing EQ because I had heard it was like playing a tabletop RPG (pen and paper) with hundreds of other players. Not a bad analogy from my point of view back then. Currently though, I am missing my old Dungeon Master =(

Originally posted by Ifeedtrolls

What got you into MMO's and why? I am curious, everyone has a different story. 

My friend talked me into playing World of  Warcraft.  Looked interesting so i gave it a try and now i'm hooked.

It started with finding a game to play cooperatively with friends that seemed to be endless fun.

THet hought of playing a game with more than 2 or 3 friends. More like 50-60+ got me all excited. I ran out and bought this game called Everquest i was hearing about. Many many many hours later.....

My Wife and I were looking for a multiplayer online RPG. We bought Diablo and Ultima Online one weekend and decided to try both. Diablo's PVP was filled with hacking and cheating which kinda killed that one quickly. We then fired up Ultima Online. We played the crap out of that game. The RP, the PVP, the absolute insanity of the player interaction at times... it was just an incredible online experience. About 3 or 4 months into playing UO I told my Wife that I'd be willing to bet money that Massively Multiplayer Persistent State Worlds (the term UO used on their box) would be the platform of the future of gaming.

I've been fascinated with MMOs since then and I've been amazed at how the plaform and the tech has evolved and changed over the years.

well i think it was because 1 of my friends dragged me into flyff, and because of that i saw how much fun mmo's where and i founded more new mmo's and stuff.

I saw a banner ad for Sierra's (at the time) The Realm when I was about 14, and now 16 years later I still play MMO's.

I played tabletop dungeons and dragons at one stage of my youth, only to find that most of the people I played with are total pathetic a*****es.

So i went to MU online to have crazy mindless fun.

Well i don't really remember i only know nobody pointed it to me. I think i was just searching for a good RPG on the net, and i found UO. I remember very well asking myself whos retards would be stupid enough to pay a susbcription for a computer game, but then so many people was saying how revolutionary this game was. And i had already played the Ultima series long before, and i knew how good they were. So i payed the first month. And it was a perfect timing because i couldn't play pen&paper anymore, my team was grown up since long and lost in the wild, and role playing was fading away.

Saw EQ1 in the shop when it first came out and I liked the look of it, really miss those days they were really fun and the excitment of descovering new things was brilliant and then sony got hold of it grrrrrrrrrr soe sucks.

Ragnarok Online. There was a trial version of it in a gaming magazine. This game was soooo bad but I really enjoyed it.

Originally posted by Palebane

I first started playing EQ because I had heard it was like playing a tabletop RPG (pen and paper) with hundreds of other players. Not a bad analogy from my point of view.

Exactly my thought when I saw the box in Software Etc.  The clerk who rang me up laughed a little and warned me how addictive EQ was, he said people affectionatelycalled it Evercrack and that I'd be saying good bye to my social life. I sorta chuckled and didn't pay him much mind. He was right. I had stopped playing dnd in any sort of active capacity probably about a decade before, and hadn't enjoyed my last actual night of fantasy wargaming 5 years before that day when I stumbled onto some friends playing in a lounge in my dorm and rolled up a char to test the waters. EQ tho was different, I could actually see the gameworld in 3d! I had seen the ultima online box before but it didn't impress me with its generally 2d feel but to actually see a fully rendered 3D world, it was the dream of every DM and dnd player, play with other players anytime, as long as you wanted in a fully fleshed out world and all in your perverbial pajamas! I had missed out on my first opportunity to play in a virtual 3d world when Club Caribe came out for Quantumlink  in the late 80s just as my friends and I stopped using Qlink because of the huge fees one could amass online and though I had long hung up my Monsters' Compendium I figured a test drive of the latest advance in gaming could be a lark, so  despite the warning, I bought myself a ticket to "adventure in Norrath" and I was "into" mmorpgs, up to my eyeballs. After a very intense 8 months though, I realized you can't satisfy a desire for real accomplishment in a virtual space and laid my Evercrack pipe down forever. Since then I've played a few others like Knight Online (steer clear) and City of Heroes, but I'm not subscribed to any at the moment (like so many here) and just occasionally enjoy a free mmo or free trial of various p2p mmos (or possible free reactivation) here and there. I personally enjoy my time  discussioning real life stuff in mmos most. People are interesting. 

Originally posted by Palebane

I first started playing EQ because I had heard it was like playing a tabletop RPG (pen and paper) with hundreds of other players. Not a bad analogy from my point of view back then. Currently though, I am missing my old Dungeon Master =(

Exactly the same.  I'd played tebletop RPGs for years, even managing a couple of RPG stores, and I'd played one-person computer RPGs since the days of the Acoomodore 64, Atari ST and Amiga.  Then, a magazine I bought had a disk with a free trial of Everquest on it, and that wast that, heh.  Been playing MMOs a LOT since then, though sadly they're are just a pale shadow of what an RPG should be.  They'll do until an ACTUAL mmo rpg is made.  I just hope I don't die of old age waiting.

I started playing EverQuest in 2002. My best fiend was into the whole fantasy theme and I was more into the sci-fi, contemporary themes. A month after we played together, he passed away in a car accident. And ever since then I think I have taken up his passion for the genre. RIP Jason.

room mate was a manager of an EB use to bring home games all the freakin time (he got 30% discount). seriously he spent like 2k one month on old systems and games. anyway, he brought home Phantasy Star online for the Dreamcast, and we'd play that for hours. eventually got tired of taking turns(one typed other played, or we'd have one of our friends type) bought my own dreamcast and PSO game. was alot of fun for awhile even tho there was really nothing to PSO but grind instances and hope a rare would drop. then duping and gamesharking ruined the game and became pointless.

got ripped off so many times in that game because there was no trade function, you had to drop items on the ground and pick the other guys item and hope it was what it was suppose to be traded. and all the item looked like on the ground was a green cube lol didn't know till it was in your inventory.

ran into my first "rper" in that game, tho he seemed to be using rping as an excuse to rip people off. me and a couple others are in the same instance with him. he had stole something from some one in a bad trade we was trying to talk him into giving it back.he starts going on about how he's the leader of this secret undercover theives guild and blah blah blah for like 20 min. me and my roomie/friends sittin there reading it all and was like wtf? (more than likely had been drinking)

i chime in "wait a minute you are a theif" he says "o did i steal from you before too? lol" i said "yes you stole 20 minutes of my life with that lame ass story" we then booted the admited thief from the group or we left i don't remember how it worked on there. still don't really consider PSO an MMO tho but according to this sites list it is.

after i quit that game i didn't play any for year/s i don't remember how long it was, but one day i got a demo disc in the mail from Sony. it was for Everquest online Adventures for the PS2 and got hooked on that game for years, still to this day my longest stint in an mmo.what hooked me about the game was the mage (pet class) i like the idea of controlling the pet through my character that i was already controlling. kinda reminded me of that PS2 game "Summoner" wich i had liked. tho anymore i really can't be bothered with pet classes, tho Aion's Spirit summoner had me hooked from the get go when i started playin that.

Well, 

   When I was young, 11 or 12. Just over a decade ago I was into text role playing. Dragonball z specifically. I joined this huge text based rpg , anyways, word got around that there was this new browser game out. Runescape. I thought I would try it. So I quit Habbio Hotel and Neopets, the two games I was playing. So I tried Runescape and i'll admit it I liked it. I played it for a good 5-6 years. Level 118 baby. Thats right. I gave my account away, for free, to some newb and no I don't regret it, I just wanted someone to enjoy Runescape as much has I once did.

 In Grade 9 till 11 I was an avid Diablo fan, I played with a girl-friend(not girlfriend) of mine from High School. We use to go raiding and questing and leveling, every night all night.

In the last few years ive seen advertisements for MMO's everywhere, I am a forum owner, so mostly my time is dedicated to that and I am moderator on various forums. But I decided, if I split the time I forum with the time I game, I can join some MMO's , so I did. Though I do miss my childhood gaming.

SWG, because it was a SW IP.

Playing MMOs was the only way I could "hang out" with my oldest brother whom I hardly ever saw and looked up to quite a bit. It was so much fun being able to play games with my family members from long distances when I hadn't sat down with them to play games since our DnD days. EQ was the game that really got me addicted to the genre, and both my brothers played.

I did play UO before that, but I don't remember why I started playing UO. 

If you want to go way back to first multiplayer PC gaming experience I would even go as far as saying Co-op Descent was my first forray into "online" gaming, playing 2-player co-op Descent with my brothers friend over a dial up connection. It was so cool to be able to play PC games with others back then!

UO, made my first char a GM fisherman / mage and was just hooked. Went from UO to Daoc and that was it lol. Instant lifelong addiction to the genre.

Been looking for something as good as either one of those ever since :(

Edit: Actually been playing EvE online for years. It just as good as either of those games (imo). It is just utterly completely differant than either of those lol.