My history with MMOs

****This page is still under construction****

I've been playing MMOs for about 5 years now. Like most players, I started out with Everquest. However, I didn't start out with the PC version. I got my first experience with their PS2 game, Everquest Online Adventures, or EQOA.

Everquest Online Adventures
A disease is born, a lesson is learned

I began playing EQOA the day it was first released, which was 2/09/03. I had migrated over with a few friends from my Socom clan. My first character was a Human Magician. I spent a few hours goofing around with my friends and learning the ropes of both the game itself and MMORPGs in general. Things were new and exciting, and at the time EQOA had quite a few players. After learning a bit more about the game I decided to make another character. ( The first step towards my terrible battle with "Alt-itis" or "Altaholisim" ) It's been so long, I don't even remember what this character was.....It might have been a Wizard. This character didn't last long, and was soon replaced with another. This time it was a Human Ranger. This is the character I spent most of my time with.


I would play for hours on end, having a good time and learning more about MMOs. At the time I wasn't really interested in leveling too fast or even reaching the cap. I was content to play with my friends and find new monsters to fight. Some of my most fond memories are of me and one friend, Fred, fighting the prisoners at the prison in Antonica until the wee morning hours. Ah, good times....good times. I also remember spending far too much time messing around in the Commonlands and watching the various Orcs turn into Undead at night time.

Eventually, a lot of my friends quit playing. Most went on to other MMOs, like DAoC (see the next section) and the original Everquest. I was in a Guild at the time, so all was good. Unfortunately, as I was having fun playing for hours on end, my body wasn't (See the "About Me" section.) and I got pretty sick. I ended up spending a few weeks in the hospital, and this soured my taste for EQOA. But it also taught me a valuable lesson in MMOs. When I got home I continued to play EQOA for a few more days, but I just wasn't into it. I decided to quit. Fast forwarding a bit, we come to my next MMO:

Dark Age of Camelot
Getting better now....

I kept in contact with a few of the people I played Socom/EQOA with and learned about DAoC from one of them. This was my first venture into PC gaming, and I was amazed at the depth this game had over EQOA. There were so many Races, Classes and Zones to explore; not to mention about 5 times as many players. I believe my first character was a Briton Armsman. I played him for a few days, learning more about the game and meeting people. Now, this game was terrible for my altaholisim. There were so many classes, I had such a hard time sticking with just one. I spent months going from character to character, never advancing past level 10 probably. (I don't really remember....) However, I finally found a character I really enjoyed playing in the Necromancer. I played him quite a bit, and got him to about level 30. (It took FOREVER to level in this game.)


I played on and off for a few years, but it became apparent that DAoC was dying, and the developers had no interest in fixing issues or revamping animations. (One of my biggest gripes with this game) So eventually I moved from the Hills of Camelot to the Planes of Vana'diel in:

Final Fantasy XI
Japan + MMO = Not so good....

I began playing FFXI like most of my other MMOs, at launch. (In America at least.) I've never been a big fan of the Final Fantasy series, so the only reason I was interested in this game was that it is an MMO. I learned quickly that this game is unforgiving. You can lose experience, and past a certain level it's impossible to solo. It's also very much a possibility to get yourself killed fighting an even con monster at low levels, even starting with full health/mana and using your one hour ability. Needless to say, I didn't like this. I really liked the art style in this game, so I stuck with it a bit longer. As always, I made a ton of alts and never really advanced a character to a level of any significance. I've always been a lone wolf in MMOs as well, so learning that you HAD to party was no good for me. After a few months I decided to quit.

I've returned several times over the past years, but always end up quitting again. The art style, classes (I love the subclass system) and animations always drew me back... But, I vowed never to play again in 2006. During one of my breaks, I heard about:

Star Wars Galaxies
Before it was ruined.....

City of Heroes
Who knew fighting crime could be so much fun?

I heard about this game from one off my old EQOA buddies. He told me how he was in beta and told me I should try signing up. I did, and I got in. From the beginning, I knew this game was going to be unique and fun. My first experience with the character creation system was something I'll never forget. I spent almost 2 hours messing around with all the costume options and whatnot. After finally decided on a costume I entered the game as an Illusion/Radiation Controller. Surprisingly, I played this character throughout beta and remade him to play well into the live release. I made a lot of good friends in the Beta scene, and made a name for myself. I was THE ORIGINAL Illusionary Man! Partying in this game is an amazing experience. It's action packed and requires everyone to participate. (No sitting back and pressing the heal button) One thing that most modern players don't realize is that in beta you could actually lose levels. It was a terrible feature, and was luckily removed for the live version.

When it first launched, the game was jokingly called "City of Blasters" as almost everyone played a Blaster. Controllers were a rare site. I loved this game, and I still do. I continue to play it off and on to this day. I've been playing since early beta, but I've never reached the level cap with any of my characters. To this day, I believe my highest is 42.... (Altaholisim strikes again!) During one of my breaks from this game, I started playing:

Everquest II
Before the taint of WoW....

World of Warcraft
You can't kill it....

Guild Wars
It's not really an MMO....

I started playing Guild Wars during one of my breaks from WoW and CoH/V. It's not really an MMO, and I never got totally into it. The style of PvP didn't appeal to me, and the PvE content was limited. I don't think I even finished the first Campaign. I also hated the healing system. However, I always thought the ability to hire npc's to group with you was pretty cool.

Age of Conan
Insert words here....