What got you interested in MMO's?

[Obysuca]

Just an FYI, the reason you've not had any luck is probably to do with the fact you call girls "females" and use words like "friendzoned."

Except I never actually say "females" specifically to them? It's just everyone is so fricking touchy these days that if you call them a girl, they freak out, call them women, they freak out. Call them anything, they freak out. Example? This right here, you're complaining I used the word female. Just like if you're online and you don't have a clue on their gender, most people default to "him" and "he", especially if that's the gender of their character, then that person proceeds to flip the frick out, because they're not a guy.
It's almost as bad as when someone says "you" and thinks you're specifically targeting them when you're using the word as a general group of people.
And it's actually more women I've seen use the word friendzone, specifically at me, so yeah.

tl;dr - People are way too touchy and sensitive these days and need to grow up, rather than flip out on the word you chose to use. It's going to get to the point soon when it's safer to just not talk to anyone because they'll flip out for no reason.

[Welsper59]

I think it was mostly my imagination that got me to try MMOs. I was never an RP sort of person, but that doesn't stop me from imagining content, similar to how one would envision the characters and situations while reading a book. The idea of being able to play a video game online was unique to most people back then. I mean at the time, a lot of us heard of Yahoo Games and such, and that was groundbreaking to be able to play cards against other people online. Showing my age there.

While I did dab in some MMOs back then, the one that really got me invested in the genre was FFXI. I'm very glad that that game was essentially my first MMORPG. It pretty much set the bar for how you can start from scratch (besides just the name), and make people feel like they're part of this virtual world. The story, the music, the people, everything was set to keep you wanting to be there... for better or worse lol.

The want to be that loner that solos his way up in a genre designed for groups quickly became a thing for me. I get a lot of satisfaction defying the odds, when the game allows me to. Obviously, XIV isn't exactly the best example of this, but we're talking about the genre here, so whatever.

[LordLucavi]

I actually started playing MMOs when Final Fantasy XI was released stateside. Being a longtime fan of the FF series (starting with Final Fantasy on the NES, then Final Fantasy II (IV) and III (VI), I'd seen the new one, saw that it was online, and decided to give it a shot. I played that game from release until they broke it when they released Abyssea. I /tried/ WoW when it was released, but I was used to FFXI and WoW was just cartoony and bad. Just awful. I tried to get XIV, but by the time I had a computer that would run it, Gamestop was no longer carrying it and that's pretty much the only place to get things in my town. Once it ARR was released, I jumped on the opportunity. I did play a little Star Trek Online between FFXI and FFXIV, because I also enjoy Star Trek and FFXI got me liking the semi social setting of MMOs.

[azlewood]

Night elves but blood elves are the reason i stayed.
Vanilla WoW was my first mmo

[ohmRICE]

I was raised in a really rough neighborhood with a lot of crime so my parents weren't exactly keen on letting me wander around. ┐(´-｀)┌
Really liked .hack so I decided to just jump into the MMO scene to deal with the whole not being able to go outside much thing. First MMO was Mabinogi, I liked it since it focused on the social aspect and the world was so full of forests and plains; much better view than the abandoned buildings and overgrown lots outside!

Played from beta up until ARR launched then I came here since I got my fill of Erinn and wanted to give Eorzea a go.

[myahele]

This is actually my 1st mmo, but I did know about FF11 but it kinda just fell off my radar. So when I saw the "End of an Era" cgi clip, I was intrigued; I was even more surprised that ARR was the 2nd iteration of 14 since 1.0 failed.

I saw the trailers/ movies and the reviews were all good. Since it was also on PS3 I decided to buy it and fell in love ever since.

Also who can forget the commercials?

[Averax]

I always wanted to be a wizard in real life.

MMOs gave me close substitute.

There were other RPGs too, but MMOs gave me more what i was looking for.

First MMO i would regularly invest my time in was Wizard 101 *cringe*. I absolutely abhored turn based combat, so i looked desperately for alternatives. I was like 10 at the time, so my resources were limited.

I really wanted to play WoW, but being like 10 left me without that option. Gave the trial a go though.

I had to stick with Wizard 101 until i was like 11 or 12, when an opportunity to sub to wow was presented to me, and have been regularly subscribed ever since (i'm almost 20 now)

I was invited to the beta for ARR, but couldn't participate due to the fact that i was running on a budget laptop from walmart. This game kind of dropped from my memory for a while until something drew my attention to it again, i think i saw it on steam or something, because i bought the steam version and gave it a go. I had upgraded from my laptop since then, but i still couldn't play it on acceptable settings, and on top of that the keyboard/mouse setup felt very clunky, so i gave up

After i got a PS4 i saw it on there (honest to god i had no idea it was cross platform), and figured "Eh, why not one more go", and have been subscribed ever since." I thought the gamepad controls were so much more immersive than the keyboard/mouse. And even now that i play on my new rig, i still use a gamepad.

[FinaSel]

My first was Everquest. I think a friend suggested I play it. I only played for a few months because it was rare to be able to play with my friend, who had a higher level character.

Around the same time, I was really into Counterstrike for a very long time. I really enjoyed the teamwork and strategy involved and played a few professional matches.
One of my friends from that game suggested I try FFXI with him. I loved the community and the necessity of teamwork. We played together for a long time, but when he left, I also left.
Then I went without MMOs for 4 whole years.
Then I played Everquest 2 because I had an itch that needed scratching (very short time). Then I tried Mabinogi (Korean game), which was actually extremely fun and I miss dearly. The only problem was it was F2P (cash shop).
Then played Perfect World International, hoping it would be cheaper. Nope, much more expensive. But the open world PvP was really fun!


After that, one of my co-workers invited me to play WoW with him. I enjoyed the world, being in the guild, making friends with people who had similar interests.

Then I got a new job, and had to move to Japan. Little time for WoW and the time zone difference led me to quit.
I did FFXIV Alpha testing, but never went on to Beta because I knew I just didn't have the time.
Went without MMOs for 5 years.

Got a new job with tons more free time, started playing ESO because...you know...addiction. The world was enjoyable, but the lack of Japanese player base made it lonely. Not to mention 90% of the content was solo play.

And just recently...FFXIV

(Hey, I just saw someone else played Mabinogi!! Awesome!)

tldr: My friends invited me to play + Addiction after that.

[Lucinda_Lecore]

What got you interested in MMO's?

When I first heard of the concept, it intrigued me. I already knew of and played online options in games like C&C, Unreal Tournament etc, but this looked like something different. Being an RPG fan, I was already partially sold from that aspect. As the playing online part, I thought "great, this sounds like a really interesting concept!" and it was. In order to keep me with an MMO, the world needs to feel alive to me. I love world events and the constant change of things like markets, familiar players I see pop up every now and again, a culture within the world etc.

and what was your first MMO?

My first MMO was Final Fantasy XI. It was the box set with the first two expansions. Wow, that thing took forever and a day to install and update lol! I do miss it an awful lot, so many great times and memories.

[Lunaxia]

overreaction

...and this sort of thing too.