When EQ came out I had 3 male roommates, all active duty, stationed in boring-ass Jacksonville FL. 2 of them got into it pretty heavily, and when I used to watch them play the third made some jokes about how girls were bad at video games and made good cheerleaders for the guys. I immediately rolled my first toon, a troll SK (not ideal choice for a first toon in 1999, turns out, but I was trying to be hardcore with my limited understanding of how this game worked).

Not sure exactly when I got hooked, but I remember 2 conversations with the roommate whose computer/account I was using. The first was when he said something like, "um, so it used to be that you'd log off before I got home. Then you started logging off right when I got home. And now when I get home you promise you'll log off soon..." And I apologized and kept doing the same thing.

So the second conversation I remember was him coming home with a new copy of eq, some RAM and an updated video card for my comp and telling me I'd have to reroll a new toon but that he'd help me transfer my stuff.

"You... You bought me a game and upgrades?"

"Yeah, you owe me $200 but I'll take $40 off if you let me keep your old SK."

So I realized I was hooked and was introduced to RMT on the same day. :P

I started when I was 8 or 9 playing with a relative who I didn't see often. I made a gnome wizard on my own and at some ridiculously low level PRE KUNARK I travelled across the world by foot to join his group that had been camped out for months on Kerra Isle. I obviously liked the game before that, but when I saw the cat people for the first time I was hooked. I love cats IRL. But really it was the exploration that I loved. Luckily I never went so hardcore that there is still more for me to explore after all these years.

I started in the real 1999 in Kelethin, within 2 minutes I had fallen off and died. I was now even more naked and no corpse.

I started shouting in OOC that I couldn't find my corpse. After maybe 2 mins a bard sent a tell, and then found my corpse for me. He gave me a Fine Steel weapon, something like 5pp, helped me kill some bats, and then took me to Orc Hill at like level 3

And then I saw a group there, particle effects flying all over, and I was hooked