Anybody else have an MMORPG background before using virtual worlds?

[Noodles]

Now that I think about it, the closest thing I had to Second Life before Second Life was IRC.

 

[Brenda Archer]

Now that I think about it, the closest thing I had to Second Life before Second Life was IRC.

I did do a bit of IRC and MUDs. But my biggest early time sink was Usenet, before the disaster (but also for a while afterwards).

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Today is September 9657th, 1993.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Now that I think about it, the closest thing I had to Second Life before Second Life was IRC.

IRC and then palace.

 

[Ailsa Muliaina]

I used to play UO for ages, actually met Mr Muliaina in there many years ago. Then quit and moved to Wakfu because the combination of humour and cute is just perfect there. I tend to game across genres, so I do play really serious and gory games too, but games are like music for me, I put different ones on depending what mood I'm in.

I did briefly play some MUDs but I stumbled onto them really late on. Certainly long after I started playing UO. Still really fun and immersive though.

 

[Maggy Hazelnut]

I have a long list of MMORPGs that I played before joining SL. Contrary to what someone else said earlier in this thread, WoW wasn't the first MMORPG. WoW released in 2004 & there were quite a few games before that.

I started in MMORPGs with a little 2D online game called The Realm in early 1997 (it released in 1996). The Realm was online before Ultima Online which most think is the first MMORPG. My son & I started a little guild called Veni Vidi Vici & we moved that guild from game to game over the next decade. By November 1997 we moved to play the Beta of the original Everquest & it soon became a runaway hit. Our "little guild" grew to over 300 regular members & we became one of the first "power guilds" - at the time we were quite well known among gaming guilds.

Since Everquest we also played Everquest II, Dark Age of Camelot, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes/Villains, DDO, Warhammer, WoW & Vanguard. I might've missed one or two but those were the games we were big in. We also played a couple FPS games called Joint Operations & Left4Dead. Over the years we had a lotta fun & made a lot of friends. Some I've known for years & a few I've met in real life. In 2008 about 10 of the members left in the guild moved to Second Life & what was left of the guild gradually disbanded. Since then other guilds in other games used our name but we were the original Veni Vidi Vici guild!

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

WoW, EVE Online and City of Heroes didn't come online until after I was already in SL, though they all did take a lot of my time away from SL.

Before Second Life ... I did spend a lot of time in EverQuest, and grew to hate it with such a burning passion before finally breaking the habit. The franchise is dead to me now, I'll never touch it or its sequels again.

Do MUDs count as MMORPGs?

Would less than 500 concurrently online really count as 'massively multiplayer' though?

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

For the size of the Internet in the '80s, and running on a single server? Yeh.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

Now that I think about it, the closest thing I had to Second Life before Second Life was IRC.

Nerd!

IRC and then palace.

Nerd!

It will not surprise anyone that I also did IRC. I've said many times that SL reminds me of IRC, but with avatars and shopping. I've also told venue owners and Estate owners that being a venue "bouncer/hostess" or Estate Manager isn't that much different from being a ChanOp on IRC.

I also did some MMOing before SL, in fact the reason I didn't join SL before 2006 was because I was already paying MMO fees and didn't want to commit to another monthly fee. I also wasn't sure how well SL would run on the computer. (badly as it turned out).

I started EQOA (the PS2 EQ MMO) in early March of 2003 a few weeks after it had released, Marr's Fist server, mostly as an Elven Cleric. I did FFXI in 2004, Ragnarok server. Hume WHM/RDM mostly.

After SL, I didn't do much MMOing, because what I would have paid in MMO fees went into my virtual SL wardrobe. Yeah, I had the fashion monkey on my back. I did try the WoW trial in 2008, just to know a little about what some SL users were going on about. WoW is a LOT like EQOA, except for the interface. I fell into the healing and buffing groove well enough. But I didn't sign up and go monthly because.....SL shopping.

I've dabbled in several F2P MMO's since SL. Runescape (running under IBM's PPC Java on a Linux install on my PS3), STO (both PC and PS4), LOTRO (ran fairly well under Linux), TERA (PS4), Aeon (PC), DCUO (both PS3 and PS4), Neverwinter (PS4), BDO (PS4), Onigiri (PS4), FreeRealms (both PC and PS3). The one that has stuck with me the most is STO. While I'm no STO whale, I have spent money in the Zen store now and then to support the game...and pick up a few T6 ships. I lurves me my Pathfinder (which I own on both PC and PS4), and Modern Science Bundle for PS4 (Sutherland for FED, Laeosa for RRF, and Naj'sov for KDF). The Naj'sov being the only TRUE Klingon Science Vessel.

 

[Kara Spengler]

Nerd!

Nerd!

It will not surprise anyone that I also did IRC. I've said many times that SL reminds me of IRC, but with avatars and shopping. I've also told venue owners and Estate owners that being a venue "bouncer/hostess" or Estate Manager isn't that much different from being a ChanOp on IRC.

I also did some MMOing before SL, in fact the reason I didn't join SL before 2006 was because I was already paying MMO fees and didn't want to commit to another monthly fee. I also wasn't sure how well SL would run on the computer. (badly as it turned out).

I started EQOA (the PS2 EQ MMO) in early March of 2003 a few weeks after it had released, Marr's Fist server, mostly as an Elven Cleric. I did FFXI in 2004, Ragnarok server. Hume WHM/RDM mostly.

After SL, I didn't do much MMOing, because what I would have paid in MMO fees went into my virtual SL wardrobe. Yeah, I had the fashion monkey on my back. I did try the WoW trial in 2008, just to know a little about what some SL users were going on about. WoW is a LOT like EQOA, except for the interface. I fell into the healing and buffing groove well enough. But I didn't sign up and go monthly because.....SL shopping.

I've dabbled in several F2P MMO's since SL. Runescape (running under IBM's PPC Java on a Linux install on my PS3), STO (both PC and PS4), LOTRO (ran fairly well under Linux), TERA (PS4), Aeon (PC), DCUO (both PS3 and PS4), Neverwinter (PS4), BDO (PS4), Onigiri (PS4), FreeRealms (both PC and PS3). The one that has stuck with me the most is STO. While I'm no STO whale, I have spent money in the Zen store now and then to support the game...and pick up a few T6 ships. I lurves me my Pathfinder (which I own on both PC and PS4), and Modern Science Bundle for PS4 (Sutherland for FED, Laeosa for RRF, and Naj'sov for KDF). The Naj'sov being the only TRUE Klingon Science Vessel.

Is it any surprise that the first thing I did before compiling any new IRC client was to hack an IRCEMAIL into it?

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Was an Everquest junkie for a while, then spent inordinate amounts of time in Sims Online from the time it came out of beta to the time it closed down, then came over to SL. Along the way, I tried out EQ2 and Lineage II, but neither really caught on for me.

 

[Lewis Luminos]

I started on Guild Wars in 2005 but my group didn't stay there long and we switched to World of Warcraft shortly after. I really couldn't say whether that was before or after I joined SL - that was 2006 on my first account and I joined WoW the same year, definitely before the release of Burning Crusade.

So yes, MMOs first for me, but only just. I let my WoW subscription lapse just after the release of Legion (2016) and haven't even missed it.

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Started World of Warcraft in Jan of 2005. In that same year I joined Sociolotron, and players there introduced me to Second Life. (Leaving Socio for SL was the equivalent of "selling out" at the time.)

Oh, man.. I totally forgot about Sociolotron! I didn't last long though, as my character was raped within the first half hour of logging in.

SL here I came.

 

[Ghost Pepper]

I tried Everquest, I lasted about a week. Then played Asheron's Call for several years and Star Wars Galaxies is where I learned about There and Second Life. I got my first SL name from SW:G "Edav" by using it's random name generator. It came up with Edav Stenos.