EverQuest - Started late 99 / early 00. My first MMO, obviously awesome. Eventually raided in a semi-casual guild on Tunare through Velious / Luclin, and then later in PoP after my DAoC break.
Dark Age of Camelot - Played on release day, my second MMO and just as awesome as EQ. In ways, better. I had never been a PvP player, but the added excitement of fighting other players got me addicted in a whole other way. Eventually the addition of the really lame raid content and impending expansion caused me to quit and play EQ from PoP -> GoD.
After this I don't really remember the order I played other MMOs and I'm too lazy to look up release dates. Throughout all of this I'm playing EQEmu servers off and on, the first being Winter's Roar where I eventually became a quest designer and left during the C&D.
Shadowbane - I was hoping for another epic PvP game like DAoC but I was very disappointed. Quit after a month or two.
Final Fantasy XI - Bad UI, no one wanted to group with my class which I made specifically to get groups (White Mage). Apparently Japs preferred Red Mages or Bards or something... couldn't solo, gave it up after a month or two. I was very impressed by some things like the airships but the actual gameplay was awful.
Long period of not playing MMOs / dicking around with free shit like RO after this.
EverQuest Progression - Brought me back into MMOs, played a shaman in the top Sleeper guild (Insidious Vision) and then later in Realm of Insanity after the merge.
Vanguard - Initially loved this game for a few months; although it had some very obvious issues I had a lot of fun. I was playing with my room mates. One was a cleric, and during one of those "this game is a sinking ship" patch messages after the 2nd month or so, clerics became the best tanks/healers/dps in the game and I was like meh fuck this. I always say the same thing about Vanguard: it was 50% the best game ever and 50% the worst game ever.
World of Warcraft - Some friends from EQ Progression dragged me in, I had avoided it until then. Played very casually as I had a lot going on irl. Had fun for a few months raiding after work and shit, until I got really bored around Sunwell. We were stagnant after Vashj as our members' few brain cells couldn't combine to make it through Hyjal or the last boss in that space ship instance.
Age of Conan - Originally I didn't care about this game and was looking forward to the new game by Mythic, the developers of DAoC (Warhammer). A guy from work got me to play the open beta and I had a lot of fun. It was capped to level 13 or something and I was playing a kinda OP class (Tempest). I had a lot of abilities and running the PvP matches was fun as hell. Unfortunately I bought the game and realized that the open beta was capped because the game sucked after Tortage. The open beta with the low level cap and instant PvP matchmaking was the pinnacle of this game.
Warhammer - Was so very similar to Age of Conan. I played the open beta which was capped at about 20. Most players were around this level, so there was constant PvP battles around the 2nd tier keeps. Had a blast in open beta, until the game released with no cap and no meaningful PvP. Everything that was right about DAoC was wrong about this game. In 2001 I was playing DAoC on a shitty Dell and dial up and never lagged even in massive 100+ man RvR fights. DAoC was also much more advanced in relation to when it was released than Warhammer. However in Warhammer you couldn't put 20 people in the same keep without crippling lag, and I had a ridiculous gaming rig I just built and cable internet. An abomination that severely dropped my opinion of one of my favorite game developers.
Afterwards... lots of emus (EQ/DAoC) and free shit. A truly great MMO hasn't been made since DAoC.
Probably forgot some stuff. I played some other games here and there that I didn't mention like Eve - did the free trial and decided the game was cool but not for me.
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