Gaming Roots

[froma]

This is a subject that has come up, inadvertently, in a dozen other threads. Yet it has never been discussed directly. What is your history with gaming? It would be interesting to see how we all converged to waiting for Vanguard.

I picked up my first video game when I was three years old; my parents were foolish enough to buy me a Game Boy. I haven’t stopped gaming since. Growing up, I went through most of the consoles. I had a NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. I even played a couple games on my Macintosh Performa. I always liked role-playing games, but strategy and shooters were consistently in close competition. Needless to say, for many years, I went from console to console; Blockbuster was my best friend.

This all changed at the age of 12, when I discovered the world of Norrath. It was the first game that I had ever regularly played online and I was instantly hooked to the idea of gaming with so many people at once. I played EverQuest for about three years. My rogue was leveled to 60 in that time and I was having fun banging my head against all of the end game content I could get my hands on. At the rate that expansions were being released, I was never without anything to do. After enough expansions, however, I feel the game really imploded; it had just become too big. What I had enjoyed most about EverQuest was the sense of community. I spent a year or two looking for a new online home, but nothing had the same feel as EverQuest.

After uneventful stints with PlanetSide and Star Wars Galaxies, I settled down with a shooter called Tactical Operations. It was a mod for the original Unreal Tournament engine… the “Counter Strike of UT.” The community I joined was a ladder for North American players. It was completely different than the MMORPG crowd. It was fiercely competitive, full of “pwnz0rs” and “noobsauces.” I found it strangely entertaining. Following a short, but rather successful, run on that game, I returned to MMORPGs. City of Heroes would be my next conquest. I thought that this would be the perfect game for me. I had been a fan of comic books since I could remember. What could be better than a super hero MMO? After playing the game, I can tell you: anything. CoH was a great concept but it was walking a tightrope from the start. Without any actual licensing, the game had to make sure that it was not violating any copyright laws while still providing “traditional” superhero concepts (claws, capes, lasers and the like). I found that the game lacked the longevity of other MMOs because of this.

My next major stop was World of Warcraft. For a while it seemed like the new EQ. It had solid graphics, great game play and a huge following. The only real problem with this game was the fact that it wasn’t very challenging to any massively multiplayer online role-playing game veteran. This ended up being WoW’s ultimate downfall. I have seen many people leave the game with feelings similar to mine. Once I quit playing WoW, my search for a good game continued.

So here I am. Trolling forums and waiting for Vanguard. How did everyone else get here?

[Aredhel]

I was born a poor, white elf on the wrong side of the trees from Kelethin!

is that hint broad enough!? LOL

[raghajabooy]

My gaming life started with a game I still consider to be one of the greatest games of all time Doom 1, I played Doom 1 and then later Doom 2 until the days of Quake 1, after quake 1 came a big difference shifting to playstation 1 and a bunch of games on that, then when Medal of Honor Allied Assualt was released it was back to the PC with alot of time with Red Alert and Tiberium Sun, Then came the Xbox and Halo 1, then I shifted back to PC for GTA3 and Vice City, after that came Medal of honor allied assualt, now playing games like Quake 4, FEAR, WoW.

[Flagg]

I remember playing legend of zelda on the nes at my freind's house that was the first game I ever played that I just had to own and defeat and redefeat. Right about a month before lucin came out I found everquest and played for a year and a half, "quit" rejoined a month or so later and played again for another year. During the time I played everquest I most likely saved money because I only played everquest that was my free time.
With vanguard there will be college and my girlfriend, but other then that I plan to be vanguard and more vanguard I really don't care if that makes me a addict or a geek it's what I enjoy /shrug.

[Jaeth]

Hmm, my first game ever has to have been... Some kind of Disney game I think? Aladdin/The Lion King/stuff like that. Oh, and The Incredible Machine. I loved that game! Later on I got a NES and... Super Mario Bros.! Played that game so much I can't believe I still have two functional hands.

Been playing lots of different games since then. Thief: The Dark Project is one of my all time favorites, I must say. And so is various NHL games - I played NHL 95 a lot, and someday got NHL 98. What a thrill! I also absolutely love the Prince of Persia games - the Sands of Time trilogy, that is.

And then, of course, my first MMORPG. World of Warcraft. Got into beta because my class mates wanted me to check it out. I didn't think I'd like it, but I turned out to barely sleep for two weeks! I met a Night Elf Druid on my test server that turned out to be Israeli and we had a lot of fun and I ended up joining her guild on an American server at release.

After about seven months I took a break from WoW and later on played Guild Wars. I didn't like the focus of the game, though, so I returned to WoW. Then, recently, I discovered Vanguard and I haven't really wanted to play WoW ever since, so now I'm here.

Currently playing Nintendo GBA/GC/DS games.

[Greymain]

My first computer game was core wars back in the 1970's when me and another techie fought for core memory during mainfarme maintenance!

Next came Rogue and Starwars played on mainframe terminals.

During this time I was playing tabletop D&D.

Went through Invaders, Ping pong loads of shoot-em-ups.

The first real RPG I recall (and still one of the best) was Dungeon Master on VIC 64.

Hooked I got every RPG game as it came out, Far too many to list, the Might & Magic series stand out as do Balders gate.

First MMORPG was Helbreath a Korean game on open free beta. Based on PvP and truly international it was a revelation. Total anarchy ruled with every scam, hack and cheat exploited to the hilt... The game was so alive.. you learnt to be streetwise or crashed out. Just surviving in the society was enough of a game. Throw in PK and PVP into the mix and I was gripped. It did not last the game moved to pay to play and launched a US Version which had no soul.

AC2 was my next MMORPG and despite all the problems I had a ball. It was here that we formed my guild "The Grey Company" and I had 50+ Friends to play with. Had so much fun that I played too much and upset the family. So I stopped playing for a while.

Horizons came next. Despite sever bugs Horizons was potentially a great game most of TGC had move to Horizons so we all joined up and the fun continued (though I controlled my play time).

EQ2 - Pretty game. but soulless again TGC joined on mass but it soon became apparent that EQ2 did not fit our play style, mixed level/ability groups no longer worked. We became bored and left for...

WoW - I developed problems with my left hand which makes PvP difficult so I went PvE in WoW. TGC went PvP which was the correct decision for them. I never found another good guild in WoW the game makes them pointless on PvE servers and although I raised a host of alts in WoW I was bored stiff.

[canardvc]

My Tragedy began with Amstrad CPC 6128 and games like invaders, pong or this kind of oldies.

It continued with Rick Dangerous and the like on Atari.

My parents bought me my first Nes ... Got 2 others afterwards. my favourites are : Zelda, Double Dragon and Probotector.
I went directly to playstation(s) later on but stopped at the PS one release : Gran Turismo, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy (particularily the FF tactics one) ... the list is a bit long

I began to play on my father's computer with Day of the tentacle. Since I have played a bunch of solo games, RPGs such as might and magic or ADD based rpg mostly, but RTS, shoots, and some other stuff too.

My online life began with Counter-Strike and Everquest (PvP server).I played CS for years (and still play sometimes to remember the good old feel it is) and EQ 2 years and half (I left just before Pop).
- After that : DAOC a bit, but quickly moved to ...
- SWG is nearly as memorable as EQ to me.I played it one year and half.
- AC2 but i did not like it.
- EQ2 beta some weeks
- Guild wars : 2 days (lol)
- wow one year, but I did not especially enjoyed it.

And now what ?!
V : Soh, why not.

[Jaeth]

Oh my, I totally forgot to mention the Heroes of Might and Magic series. Been hooked ever since The Sucession Wars. The Restoration of Erathia was a blast and I really enjoyed Armageddon's Blade. HoMM4 was a disappointment in my opinion - HoMM5 on the other hand looks like it'll deliver.

[Soulpainter]

*GULPS* this just might give away my age.
My first games were on the original atari, ya know..pong, kart racing, pit fall. Then, I upgraded into a HUGE computer....Commadore 64 baby..with external drive unit and monitor. I purchased a game calle Tellengard and I was hooked. I beat the game and ended up moving up a few years later to a celeron where I played the Pool of Radiance series.
I never care for doom or the other first person shooters so i was a bit aprehensive when I first saw the shots of EQ way back when. For about five years I had played Mechwarrior with the clan widowmaker. We were a tight nit group that fought well together and were hard to defeat. Each and every one of us was ex millitary and our khan at the time would bark orders over the com sets we wore all the time. It was great but was lacking something. Then, a friend of mine was doing beta on EQ and invited me over to watch. He wasnt happy with it....me, on the other hand, I was totally hooked.
I started playing EQ in the final Beta and then when it went live.
Pretty much only played EQ after that.
Cant wait till vanguard starts....Fience and myself are both excited about it!

[Jaeth]

Originally Posted by Soulpainter

*GULPS* this just might give away my age.

And so will a quick look at yer profile.

Originally Posted by Soulpainter

Cant wait till vanguard starts....Fience and myself are both excited about it!

Lucky you...