Do you remember your first time playing FFXIV?

[Jericho]

I made 7 characters before deciding on my taru. Or whatever.

[Rubicon]

I remember our Lord and Savior Pookie Poo.

Honestly, I remember trying to set controller settings and not being able to target ANYTHING. It got better.

[Oscillate_Wildly]

My friend let me use her closed beta account, and Limsa was the only starting area. The game wasn't yet uh...'fixed' yet so I had to turn all my settings down to the very lowest and wander around as a mosaic blob. I never made it off the boat.

[Nipa]

I definitely remember not being able to equip that new weapon I had bought to try a new class. Obviously I had slain some rat and was stuck in combat mode. I uninstalled the game before understanding you had to use a key to disable that mode.

...

Yet I bought it, at full price, on release.

[Miquinee]

My 1st time was in Beta, was getting 15~20 FPS or even 8~ in LL .. lagging so bad

I remember when ppl didnt know how leves quest works, and just grinding on Dire Rats .. lol

I went in ward trying to find some new gears and WOahh!! everything is mixed up
I asked myself "do I have to browse through all this???!!"

Fun fun fun,

[Sovereign]

I remember getting an email on 6/2/2010 that started with...

We would first like to express our appreciation for your interest in
FINAL FANTASY XIV, and thank you for your application. It is our
pleasure to inform you that you have been selected for the role of
FINAL FANTASY XIV Beta Tester.

Applicants selected as testers will be eligible to participate with
the beginning of the second stage of the Alpha Test.
We hope that you will continue to assist us in improving the game
throughout the entirety of the Alpha and Beta Tests.

And I remember being ecstatic! I also remember the clunky character creator, the forced 720p window, only having LL available to start from, and running into all sorts of errors and lag. That said, it was still pretty epic when I made my first lancer and started trying to find Hob... (which took a damn long time, I might add!).

[Vahzl]

Took 3 days for the beta to install, patching was a nightmare, logged in after about an hour of farting about with the account management system, crashed.

Logged back in later, ran at around 2fps, was unplayable, and the chat channels were filled with awful spam.

6 months later, I got a new PC, capable of running this game without even an effort, graphics look great, but still has some tearing etc, stepped out into Limsa, someone told me I couldn't claim my Garlond Goggles on a character that was already created, so I remade it again, and then began the steady grind.

[Laiferr]

Oh man I don't exactly remember! I've been in since Alpha. I do remember character creation, and thinking how awesome it was. And my first time zoning from Limsa to La Noscea with the seamless zones, thinking it was amazing. And looking back and being able to see the city, rather than it being shoved behind ambiguous walls xD good times.

[Azurymber]

LOL I remember doing my first leve as a mrd in open beta. I didn't realize that specific mobs spawned for you and spent 30min trying to attack other people's fungaurs thinking that you had to attack them -right- when they moved. Finally i started another quest and realized a yellow spot appeared on the minimap.

good times :]

[Rinsui]

I remember fighting a goat during a stress test in alpha.
Server Lag was so incredibly high, we kept whacking at it for a whole 90 (!) seconds
before it finally turned and one-shotted us. THAT was the most fun I've ever had in
this game.