Aside from recalling my most embarrassing days (of which I have quite a few), I do wish that my memory were better than it is. There are so many great moments from my past that my brain’s locked away, which is why I genuinely cherish the ones that remain bold and vivid — or the ones that unlock when a trigger happens.

I don’t recall everything from the past two-plus decades of MMORPG gaming, but I suppose that means that the times that do pop out at me were something very special indeed. So today I wanted to take a trip down my own memory lane and share a few MMO stories that feel like they happened yesterday. I’m indulging, here.

Perusing the MMO boxes at game stores

My early MMO history is one of both reluctance and fascination with the burgeoning genre in the opening years of the 2000s. I’d heard horror stories about EverQuest additions from my friends, so I kept holding out for a game that would be perhaps less grindy and more user-friendly. That didn’t stop me from going to Gamestop and Media Play (RIP!) to thumb through the oversized PC boxes and allow myself to be tempted by this new “online play” thing. I must’ve picked up Asheron’s Call’s box at least a dozen times, and in a different universe, that might’ve been my first MMO.

Being killed by a sheep in Final Fantasy XI

I did make a number of abortive entries into MMORPGs in those early years. One of them happened when the Final Fantasy series put out its very first online RPG. I’d loved Final Fantasy 7 through 10, so why not 11? After struggling mightily with the overly obtuse payment system, I jumped into the game, stepped out into this massive world… and was promptly pwned by a fluffy sheep. It was so undignified and ridiculous that I gave up on the game right then and there. Who wants to play an MMO where a sheep is more mighty than you?

Playing the two-week headstart in LOTRO

Obviously, I have many, many Lord of the Rings Online memories, but the one that really endures from 2007 is when Turbine gave founders or whatever a two-week headstart — yet we could level up to only 15. Those two weeks really became something special, as we combed through the starting zones, worked up a small army of alts, crafted, and explored this Tolkien environment while wondering what levels 16 on would hold.

The silly office design of City of Heroes

All of my City of Heroes’ memories are now condensed into a concentrated ball of super-jumping, costume contests, dance parties, and running countless warehouse, cave, and office missions with groups. It was some of the best grouping I’ve ever had in MMOs, to be honest, and while the combat was noisy and headache-inducing, I amused myself by observing the absolutely bonkers office layouts these places had. Let me just say this: If there had ever been a fire in these buildings, those office workers would be toast trying to figure out the precise path to an exit.

The absolute vibes of Anarchy Online

While I did try to play Anarchy Online during its disastrous launch back in 2001, it wasn’t until 2003’s Shadowlands expansion that I spent any serious time with the title. Even by then, I had no idea what I was doing, but I absolutely grooved on the otherworldly atmosphere, that amazing synth soundtrack, and the strange game design. To this day, I can recall that Shadowlands starting area with stark clarity, as I don’t think I ever progressed much past it.

Cliff diving in World of Warcraft

It was still the early months of World of Warcraft’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade, and our fun-loving guild looked to every opportunity to hang out together. One day, we had a small group getting ready to run some dungeons in Hellfire Peninsula when my friend Valorie said that she needed to go AFK as we waited for other party members to show up. For whatever reason, she put me on /follow so that her character would go anywhere I did.

I was a Druid at the time, so the second she left I did a running jump off a cliff and activated my flight form. Val’s blind lemming was not so fortunate, and she went splat at the bottom moments later. Her curses still ring in my ears to this day, but we all had a good laugh as well.

Playing RIFT for the first time at PAX

I have the softest of all soft spots for Trion Worlds’ RIFT, one that started way back in 2010 when I first encountered the game at PAX. I’d heard nothing about it before then, but the devs at the show grabbed me and threw me into a team running a dungeon together. The silky smooth action and the successive discoveries of this MMO’s amazing soul system hooked me right then and there. I couldn’t wait for it to launch after that point.

Getting my daughter’s name into Guild Wars 2

Sometimes being bold and weird pays off! So before Guild Wars 2 came out, ArenaNet was holding a press junket during a PAX West. After the presentation, we were milling about with the devs when I got a few minutes with the studio head. I don’t know what possessed me, but I told him that my first daughter had been born weeks before and I’d love it if they put her somewhat unique name into the game somewhere.

I wrote it down on a slip of paper to give to him, and I guess that paper ended up in front of a developer because my daughter became a minor Sylvari NPC whom you can still encounter in the personal story to this day. No, my daughter doesn’t play Guild Wars 2, but she does love the fact that she’s got a namesake in this title.

Guild Wars’ Hall of Monuments scramble

Staying around the same time period when everyone was looking forward to Guild Wars 2 coming out, ArenaNet announced that players could rack up unlockable rewards for the MMO by accomplishing a bunch of tasks in the original Guild Wars. I’d only played that title sporadically and never fully before then, but that huge carrot dangling got me into a multi-month marathon to get enough points to grab as many goodies as I could. It was a great way to see that game from start to finish, and I actually used many of those unlockables in the sequel, so it was win-win!

Going back home again in WoW Classic

In 2019, something happened that we all thought was impossible: Blizzard relented in its stance against releasing a legacy version of its popular MMO and released WoW Classic. Like many of you, I’d been playing the retail version off and on since 2004, but by 2019 I’d almost forgotten what the original game felt like.

That is, until I logged in during the opening night and was hit by a freight train of nostalgia. I’m not going to say that I choked up or anything, but my eyes might have been a little misty as I got to “come home again” to one of my formative MMORPG experiences. Classic unlocked so many dormant memories, and it was — and continues to be — a delightful romp through a world that was and is again.

Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten takes an MMO topic and divvies it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. Got a good idea for a list? Email us at [email protected] or [email protected] with the subject line “Perfect Ten.”