Your MMO History

[GetFoesReqd]

Well, the first "MMO" I played was not really an MMO, but it was a big MUD called GemStone 3. This was around the time Ultima Online was big.
-Next was Asheron's Call (shoutout to the one other person in the thread so far that played that).
-Then I tried Dark Age of Camelot but didn't really care for it.
-After that was WoW, off and on from 2007 to 2014.
-I played Tera for a little while, and I liked it, but not enough to quit WoW. Still love my tabby cat with a spear though.
-I tried ESO when it came out, and it was alright, but the multiplayer aspects made playing with friends nearly impossible so I didn't stick with it.
-And then FF14 which I still play of course.

As for what I prefer about 14, the short list would be the glamour, the ability to play everything on one character, the gratuitous fan service to lifelong FF fans like myself but still maintaining its own unique story, and wrapping it all up in a way that makes even the fan service make lore sense, and 90% less poop quests than WoW had. There are really hundreds of reasons, but that is a quick summary of some big ones. ^_^

[CatStarPrime]

Well, the first "MMO" I played was not really an MMO, but it was a big MUD called GemStone 3. This was around the time Ultima Online was big.

I was wondering, what we'd be allowed to count as a MMO

My first was the original Neverwinter Nights, back when AOL was still pay-by-the hour.

Gemstone III (good ol' Wehnimer's Landing!)

Ultima Online for a bit (got frustrated at all the disconnects and quit)

DragonRealms

Hercules and Xena for a bit (another Simutronics title)

Runescape - only dabbled.

City of Heroes (Alas... )

Star Wars: The Old Republic (loved the stories, think they made it too easy in later patches)

EVE Online (hated the spaceflight physics model so much, couldn't stay)

Black Desert Online (couldn't stand the grating "voice" of the spirit)

Blade & Soul (didn't like the realtime combat actions and combo mechanics)

Wildstar (hate hate hate jump puzzles)(but soooo beautiful - and the swimming and water physics... so nice)

Dungeons & Dragons Online (the graphics... ugh)

Dabbled in WoW, never went past L20 (can't take all the eye-searing colors and cartoony toons)

aaaaand FFXIV.

And I am a SQUEE fan from way back, as to why I'm here.

[Bacent]

Ether Saga Online - They had an in game program that lets you farm items while AFK
NeoSteam - The one MMO RPG I was able to slaughter people in (Had an attack build that dealt damage based on how many buffs you had up, and I usually had about 16 buffs at once)
Fiesta Online
Toontown (One of the best MMOs I've ever played in my life and if you don't agree fite me, cerberus server wolves den) But seriously, I loved the cartoony take on an MMO and the fact it was turn based made me like it even more. Played this first when it came out, and my only RPG experience was stuff like FFX and Paper Mario (Aka other turn based RPGs)
Maplestory (lawl)
FFXI - Got bullied in this game back in 2006 when I played on the PS2 and couldn't look anything up online (One ethernet cable, and it had to be unplugged from the comp and put in PS2), so never played it much
The Secret World - A nice, dark atmospheric MMO RPG, sadly it's free to play now (When I paid $25 for the original game before it became 'Secret World Legends') and if you want to open their loot boxes, you have to save up either special daily currency to buy a key from the shop, get 3 dungeon attempts per day, or buy keys for their boxes with IRL currency
Aura Kingdom - Meeeeeh
Earth Eternal - It was browser based, and eventually you had to have a facebook to log-in
Wizard 101 - Again, I like turn based combat, but the fact you had to either have a subscription, or 'buy' an area to be unlocked sucked.


Though in almost all MMO RPGs I hate having multiple characters. In XIV I can play every class as one character, which I really appreciate (Seeing how each job gets their own storyline mini stuff, I like it even more). Only reason I have a second character (Creamy Grandma), is mostly for an inside joke with friends, so I can make things weird in the FC.

[CainCrimson]

PS Home
Perfect World
Dc Universe Online
Vindictus
Final Fantasy XI
Warframe
Twin Dragons
MAG
...and a lot more that I cant remember the names too

I'm a Final Fantasy fan, they have a good track record of providing the things I like most in a long term game:
-starting from nothing and slowly making myself stronger over time
-a great story giving purpose to the actions im performing
-fun

[Aeilyi]

MMOs that I've played for more than three years
- Runescape (2008-2011)
- Shaiya (2011-2013)
- Vindictus (2013-2017)
- and now I'm here

MMOs that I've played here and there but only a few months
- Allods
- Tera
- Guild Wars 2
- Rift
- ArcheAge before it went bad
- Blade N Soul
- Revelation Online
- Dungeon Fighter Online
- Warframe
- Black Desert Online
- I think there's more but can't remember ...

FF14 has cat boys and raids. FF14's grind is not too bad and manageable.
Even though FF14 housing may not be BDO-level ... it will do.

*shamelessly shows off my apartment* \[T]/

[ElazulHP]

In no particular order I've played:

Star Wars Galaxies
Saga of Ryzom
Guild Wars 1
Eve Online
Dofus
Black Desert Online
Elder Scrolls Online
World of Warcraft
Runescape
Lord of the Rings Online
Dungeons and Dragons Online
DC Universe Online
Star Wars the Old Republic
Everquest
Everquest II
City of Heroes
Age of Conan
EDIT: Also, before all of these I used to play MUDs (Multi User Dungeons) which while not technically an MMO are essentially the text based version of one. The main one I played being "WoTMUD - Wheel of Time MUD"

So I've played a few MMO's before. Final Fantasy 14 is one of the only ones I've played, quit, then revisited later on. The only thing I can think of that is unique to this game is being able to level and play all classes on a single character. Pretty much everything else is bog standard MMO fare though it's executed very well for the most part. What really draws me in to this game is the story though.

[CashLion]

Old Ones:
Maple Story
Digimon Battle Online
Runescape
Some generic fantasy game I don't remember the name of
Some other unknown generic fantasy game, but you had guns for some reason

Current:
FFXIV (obviously)
Star Wars: The Old Republic (whenever a new expansion releases)
The Elder Scrolls Online (I will get around to playing the expansions...eventually)

FFXIV has the best blend of storytelling, gameplay, and updates. Some of these games had no plot that I can remember (Maple Story, Digimon). Some had more basic gameplay (Elder Scrolls) and others had slow/dull endgame content (Runescape, aka GRINDING: THE GAME). Others do not release good content regularly between expansions (Star Wars). FFXIV manages to fill all these holes; it has an epic fantasy-style plot, the gameplay is interactive but not overbearing, endgame content is a bit grindy but variable enough to be entertaining, and SE keeps things fresh with the patches.

And that is not even mentioning the fantastic community that FFXIV has. I still remember being in one of the main towns on Runescape the day Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out and some dude was running around screaming, "Snape kills Dumbledore!" with a mob of angry players following him. Screw that guy.

[duvvvv]

I started in 2002 thanks to Ragnarok Online, it was pretty much the only MMO I played until 2012-ish (but I did try a plethora of KMMOs, many of which I don't remember, there was MU and RAN Online I think, never got to end game);

then I got tired of the P2W aspect of the RO server in my country, and fortunately some friends in college invited me to join them in LotRO in 2012, then around 2013-ish they invited me to play Neverwinter, while we're also still quite active in LotRO;
also around 2013 I've seen reviews of GW2, so I thought of building a PC for it, bought the game but never really got to end game because the college friends didn't play it regularly either. still have the game installed but I'm waaay behind content;

then in 2014 I started playing FFXIV because an old RO guildmate invited us but I stayed in Behemoth instead of Tonberry where they play on and off, been active since;
also sometime in 2014 I have stopped playing Neverwinter, tried ESO but also pretty much quit after 3 months, tried RO2 with the old RO guild, but we didn't make it to end game either, quit after a few months;

2015 was just FFXIV (sometimes logged in to LotRO or GW2 but never really progressed)

2016 came Tree of Savior, and again my old RO guild decided to try it out, even bought founder's packs, but we pretty much disappeared after a few months;

2017 was some FFXIV at the start and end of the year, in the middle was RO Renewal with the old RO guild. we kinda made it to WoE like the old times for a few months, sadly the ranks thinned down so...

2018 old RO guild decided to try Dragon's Nest mobile, my nearly obsolete iPad can't play it, so nope, sticking with FFXIV and my FC xD

TLDR;
- I started playing certain MMOs since 2002 because of 2 groups of friends: the college gamer friends, and old RO guild
- still playing FFXIV because of the FC <3

basically, you'll find me playing an MMO because of people

[LLSmoothJ]

Phantasy Star Universe (Bring PSO2 to the West, you jerks).
Perfect World
Dynasty Warriors Online
DC Universe Online (Still playing after a 1+ year break).