The moment you were hooked

[hedbonker]

I did this here about 9 years ago or so. So it's high time for another. Lots of folks have joined here since those early days...

I had never played an MMO before EQ. Some folks at work started telling me about it and raving about it. So I bought it and it sat on the shelf for a month or so until one Saturday I was bored and decided to install it and try it out.

After installing the base game and Kunark (that came with the base pack), I went in and created a character. I made a high elf Wizard. I chose Wizard because it sounded powerful. No other reason. I put most of my points into CHA since in previous single player RPGs, CHA got you better prices from merchants.

So, I log in and start checking my character out and see that I have a note to turn in to my guild master. After doing a bit of checking and wandering around, I give up trying to find the guy and OOC for some help (after trying to ask some NPCs where the GM was, in true newbie fashion)...

While I wait for some help, I decide to try out the beg skill. I target the banker and click beg. He one shots. After I recover I OOC for directions again.

Another caster comes up and tells me to follow them and I do and they take me to the GM. I remember thinking, how in the hell did you figure out where this guy was???

So once I get all set and I have my new robe, I head out into Gfay. Looking around I remember thinking that the graphics were pretty crappy... So I kill a few bats, a few wasps and get owned by an Orc Pawn.

The next encounter I manage to kill the pawn and he says that the legions of Crushbone Orcs will be after me now and I am like "Holy crap!" so I run over and hang out by the guards until it dawns on me that it was a hollow threat...

While I wait for the Orc army to arrive and slaughter me, I am looking at my skills and see that I have bind wound among other things. And I notice that people are asking for a bind in OOC. So I OOC that I can bind and that I am at the Felwithe gates.

So some human comes over and asks me for the bind and I start binding wound on him - I won't repeat what he said here, suffice it to say that he was neither pleased nor amused at my naiveté.

About this time I am thinking the game is kinda meh. Nothing special. So I decide to follow the path out of the Felwithe newbie area and see where it leads me...

So I am running along and then finally I crest this hill and I see Kelethin in the trees in all it's glory. I see a ton of players all over the place with particle effects going off all over and all kinds of activities going on.

It is at this moment that it dawns on me that this Everquest is something special. That it is a vibrant, living breathing world. And it is at this moment that I am hooked.

What's your story?

[Endorra]

I had never played a 3d game, nor an MMO. Just Nintendo side-strollers or isometric rpg's.

I rolled a DE necro because they sounded badass. Spawned in Neriak 3rd gate.

It took me 2 hours to find the necro guild and get out of the city. At the newbie log a 50 necro was standing with his 49 pet and wearing an SMR. I was awestruck.

[Madbad]

First time I dirt napped a fucker in qeynos hills I was in

[Tenagra]

There was this used game store I used to frequent after school to try stuff out, think about what i'm gonna trade in for the next big hit, that sort of thing. I start to notice the two fellas working there are getting into this game but they're sitting across the room from each other on diff computers. I kinda watch them a bit and notice one of them is in EC tunnel. I inquire about all the erratic NPC behavior and then he tells me "Oh nonono.. those are players." WHAT? That completely blew me away. I convinced mom to let me pick it up.

Fast forward a week or so I've got the game with Kunark in my hands(I think this was a month or two before velious was announced). I roll a Human warrior and start in freeport. I grind away rats and whatnot eventually making my way into EC. I meet up with a gnome who invites me to his group and we kill some bears and creep torwards WC. I remember trying to stay on the trail thinking it would be my safe haven.

Completely immersed and the rest is history. Stopped around PoP and hadn't returned for many years. I wanna say it was 6-7 years ago I discovered P99. I got everything running and loaded into freeport again and nearly cried. The emotions that rushed through me seeing the game as it was when I first started was overwhelming. I played for about an hour and realized I couldn't commit to it at that point in my life and had to uninstall it to avoid the temptation of coming back and sinking every waking moment in Norrath. Returned recently and have been loving it. buncha great people on here.

Thanks for everything p99 team.

[Keza]

Couldn't tell you sadly. I started when I was around 10 or 11. Right before Kunark. My first character was a DE SK which was very unfortunately named Cabalas, resulting in me abandoning them in their upper 20s due to it sounding so similar to Cabilis. The saddest part is my dumbass self was trying to name him Cerberus, which was probably taken long before I even started playing.

My fondest memories are of pyramid/ruin groups in Nek, along with soloing at n00b13 log. Orc/Derv camps of course in the Commonlands and tons of pillar/highway groups in Oasis. I also have a certain fondness for LoIO, but maybe that's because no one ever goes there on p99 in lieu of spending 90 minutes waiting for an MM group to fight over camps.

But when was I hooked? I have no idea. Probably from the very beginning. I was a dumb kid. Everything was amazing. I guess everything still is. Except the horrible class imbalance and some awfully balanced zones like Dalnir.

[bigjeff100]

Man.. I remember goin to ma'best friends house. His dad and him both played EQ.. It was still classic at that point, no kunark.. Anyways, i had never seen such a game. But i was content just sitting there.. Watching him play EQ.. It was such a cool thing.. He also showed me Tribes, and Starseige that weekend..

Long story short, months and months later when my family finally purchased a computer- Kunark was eventually released, and i think i picked up EQ right at the release time. I also picked up Tribes and Starseige hahaha.. Man, lookin back, Tribes was pretty damn cool too haha..

And that's a wrap- Oh side story, the very first time i skipped school ever.. Was to play EQ with homey.. We both sat at home praying to god family/friends didn't call and hear a busy tone which would spell the end for us.

Livingston? Remember these good times?!

[tacomagradd]

I started as a ranger just before Kunark came out. Some super powerful (lvl 20) wizard named Eberwhar gave me a fine steal rapier, and I thought I was twinked out! I saw some other ranger at the Kelethin bank in full ivy etched with bladed thullian claws and knew then and there what I wanted to be when I grew up... I first joined a really small guild called the Darkleaf Traders, who helped each other a little but accomplished few things.

After getting a few levels, I started trying the Ivy Etched quests, and other quest with help from a higher level wizard who ported me to the Karanas... In my run through the Karanas, the wizard went LD and I was lost running that vast zone without sow or any knowledge of where things were. I stumbled upon this ogre camp and my mind was totally blown when I saw a Hill Giant approach the ogres and start an epic battle with all the ogres. The natural interaction between the NPC's made me feel like I was in a realistic functioning world. I eventually made it out, realized rangers were a horrible starting toon and rolled a necro in order to get some starting out cash via tailoring.

Good times.

[Jauna]

the first friday night i was home alone and there were some elf titties on a box back in my teens.

[ZiggyTheMuss]

I rolled a high elf wiz first and put as much points into STR as I could because I figured I could be a half melee/half caster battlewizard! I was shocked when it didn't work out well for me. Still played that guy to 32 or so I think.

I think the moment I knew I was hooked was level 13 on that wizard in the oasis. I must have KS'd some human monk who started bitching at me then challenged me to a duel.

I didn't know how it worked but talked crap back to him and medded up. Then I realized I had to type /d to accept the duel so I tracked him down over the next hill and he was killing a croc. So I dueled him then root nuked his ass. The tells he sent me after confirmed that this was going to be my go-to multiplayer experience!

[Bardp1999]

Storming the gates of Blackburrow - I became instantly addicted to Gnoll Fangs