General Discussion

Ultima Online actually had its first live test in early 1996, it was termed as many are an alpha test.

That said I started playing UO in 1997 for the bulk of my time in UO I played on the Catskills shard. I loved UO, it was my favorite MMO to date and no game since it has been able to capture that magi for me. I have played most all of them, including the bulk majority of the free offerings and some are better than others.

I played UO for 4 years roughly. EQ for 3-4 years, with a few breaks here and there. DAoC, SWG, AO, and so on down the line. Oddly enough never got into AC despite giving it a couple of tries, and I never bothered to try Shadowbane. Other than that I have played pretty much all the commercial releases up to and including Vanguard, PotBS. Hell I even played the Matrix Online.

UO, EQ, and WoW so far have been my favorites. Not that each was without issue, because CLEARLY they all had their own problems. But UO offered the right mix of things and no game has put them all together since then which makes zero sense to me.

It was one of the first, and clearly the one that was the first major commercial success. Why people would stray so far from a successful formula and failed to return to it is beyond me.

I started playing MMORPGs with Everquest in 1999.  I played EQ1 for about 5 years and then I joined a closed beta test for a game called World of Warcaft (maybe you have heard of it) and I enjoyed WoW for about 1.5 years including my 6 months of Closed beta.

I have played most of the games listed to the left here and none have been able to keep me playing for long. 

I wish I would've stuck around in UO.  My friends kept telling me how much fun they were having, but I'd already caught the FPS bug at that time.

I tried Asheron's Call and EverQuest, but I'd have to say FFXI was probably the first MMORPG that I really played for any length of time.  (>1yr in FFXI, <3mo's/ea for AC or EQ). 

I'm comfortable in saying that I've been in and out of MMO's for about 8-9 years.  I'd say I've been 'hardcore' into MMO's for about 5 years though. 

My meaning for 'Hardcore' = >20 hours or more a week w/ multiple accounts for a game and often playing more than 1 game. 

Originally posted by TdogSkal

I started playing MMORPGs with Everquest in 1999.  I played EQ1 for about 5 years and then I joined a closed beta test for a game called World of Warcaft (maybe you have heard of it) and I enjoyed WoW for about 1.5 years including my 6 months of Closed beta.

I have played most of the games listed to the left here and none have been able to keep me playing for long. 

Tdogskal ..........have you tried Rohan or Requiem or AoC yet? if not ...I think you would enjoy playing them. I think in the next year those 3 games will really take off . But it will depend on how the open beta's go and what they add for content to make game play even better. But the closed beta's I had a blast playing.

Around 4 years it seems, although I just realized it's more like 3 years... My first MMO was WoW.

8 years, started off with some crappy free to play mmos that I played for like a few weeks each can not remember the names of them though only that they sucked lol, my first proper mmo that I played was Shattered galaxy, but Planetside was the first mmo I played for more than a year ( 2 years on and off) so I count that as my first since the others are not really worth mentioning.

Have not played an mmo for almost a year now there just isn't anything decent out there. waiting on TCOS and Jumpgate atm. If Warhammer gets good reviews I might try it, I always wanted to try DAOC but I missed it in its hayday so never bothered, even though War looks WoW like if its RvR is good Ill give it a shot.

Since 1999 (I was 11 years old when I started MMOs). My first was Asheron's Call

  It has been 11 years for me.  I started playing The Realm Online in 1997, back when I was 19.  Ahh the Memories.

The first real MMO was UO and I started with it right after release.  For the fellow that thought he played DAoC in 1995, there was NO DAoC at that time, there was no Mythic at that time.  Whatever you were smoking it has addled your mind.

I agree, I have never had the fun I had in the original UO in any other game yet.  Namely the skill system let you make your character into anything you wanted to.  One reason I ditched EQ soon after it came out. 

Ever since I was 8...