The Daily Grind: How long have you been playing MMOs?

Runescape, since before the 3D conversion.

EverQuest.....Ahh the good old days of dial-up

First semblance of MMO was diablo 1, and I fell in love with online RPGs. My first MMO would be when I betaed Darkages by Nexon in 1997, and played that MMO for a very long time. Shattered Galaxy and Ragnarok online for a long while before I started playing pretty much all mmos.

Started in November 1999 with Everquest, to which I have been subscribed ever since, with just a single break of 6 months.

Started in '99 with Ultima Online, played everything online since. :)

Beau

I guess my first MMO was Guild Wars and i played it since Beta.

My first MMO was COH, so however old that one is, is how long I've been playing MMOs.

About 8 years. My first MMO was the beta of Ryzom, then went to SWG for six or seven months and quit just before JTL was launched. After that it's been a mix of WoW and several other MMOs.

My first experience with MMO gaming also began with Ultima Online. I've played many different releases since then.

My first was Meridian 59, which I played for a year before the launch of Ultima Online completely eclipsed it in 97.

First played Runescape in 2005. I have heard of MMORPGs before but i didn't understand what the abbreviation meant (and honestly, it was a little scary and "technical" sounding) so i didn't look into it until a friend MADE me play Runescape.

I started playing MMOs 20 years ago this year (fall semester, 1991). Back then they were called MUDs, and they were text-based . . . so, before the "graphics" conversion I guess you would say. I can't remember the name of the first MUD I played, but it was hosted @ Indiana University.

I started with some space game with a name I can't remember and Kesmai on CompuServe, followed by Shadows of Yserbius on the Imagination Network and SSI's Neverwinter Nights on AOL. That was in the pre-internet days. Once the internet came along (no more paying by the minute!), the first game I played was either UO at launch or Meridian 59. I can't remember which came first.

Since the Final Fantasy XI Beta on the XBOX 360. Great times.

Or Phantasy Star Online on the XBOX if you count that as an MMO (It's not, it's just a multiplayer game like Halo).

Wish I could go back to those times, I was new to gaming and everything was so grand and exciting. Now I can tell what a MMO is all about from playing it for a little while, or just following the info put out.

Like many people, the first "true" MMO I was exposed to was Ultima Online, though I never really got into it at the time.

I guess I am old but started on Neverwinter Nights on AOL and Shadows of Yserbius on INN. I played MUDS prior to that as well. I beta tested and played UO and Darksun online

Everquest 1999 - 2001 (Quit cause of Luclin)
Planetside 2003 - 2004 (Quit cause of BFRs)
Star Wars Galaxies 2003 - 2005 (Quit cause of the NGE)
Everquest 2 beta 2004 - Dec 2004 (Quit cause WoW killed the population)
World of Warcraft 2004 - 2005 (Quit cause BGs killed world PVP)
EVE Online 2003 - 2011 (Still playing)

Tried every MMO under the sun including UO, DAOC, WAR, AoC, Horizons, Rift etc etc. The above list is are the only MMOs I liked and played for more than a month.

EVE Online is the only MMO I play today because it's the only one where the developers know how to maintain it without ruining it. They don't add loads of BS that kill off the world like instances or battlegrounds. They don;t add things that break the rules like WoW does with it's story how all of a sudden you can kill elites or something solo for the sake of story.

Still waiting for a new MMO since 2005 and I hope SWTOR comes along and blows me away, though having linear space makes me sad.

Do MUDs count? Then since Gemstone 3, Modus Operandi and that one space game they had. Never played Ultima Online proper, my time there was spent mostly on the test server. Been flitting from one MMO to another ever since, with my longest stays in FFXI, SWG and WoW.

It was 9+ years ago...late 2000 or something like that...it was Legend of Mir, an awesome game, even if it is the most hardcore grindy character progression ever. But then again, i was 13 at the time, didn't know much about MMOs