My first experience with an online community was back when I was in middle school.
I lived in a cabin, out in the middle of the woods. Had just moved there cause it was dad's dream to "Own a cabin, in which he could hunt from his porch."
Well, we had 56k connection with American Online. So I couldn't play any games, or else it'd disconnect almost instantly.
So the only thing we used the internet for, was bills, YouTube, and wikipedia searches for homework.
Well, one day, I'm checking out the features of the internet, seeing what I could, etc etc.
And one thing I see, is "Chat Rooms".
So I click it, and it shows me all these different chatrooms… gay rooms, hobby rooms, cooking rooms, then I see "RP rooms".
Roleplaying.
I was interested, so I joined a room called "Red Dragon Inn". Had the most people and all.
There were others I joined later like "Red Dragon Inn Hall", "The Forest", "The Crypt"… etc etc.
But Red Dragon inn always had like, 30 people.
So I go in, and role play as best as I could…. it was medieval set so I was the armoed guy with the huge sword.
It was fun at first, but then, I got my first encounter, with an online retard.
The guy, who has to be the meanest person around and make others cry.
First time seeing one of these people, and I was stuck thinking "Why would he do this? What would make him do this???"
And I had a very bad experience then, and later, in that same room, I relized… i was creative. When I made characters, I actually got indepth. I was different I relized.
Everyone else usually was "Dark Elf, with the Katana, who sat in a corner, drinking blood-wine, and was ALWAYS faster then you."
Thats what they did, they modded themselves. You could be so fast, that the FLASH was a retarded turtle compared to you, and they'd always be faster.
You attack them, they dodged. They attack you, you dodge, they call you newb and laugh.
I started relizing, there are alot of d**ks online.
So I stuck to the Resident Evil chatrooms….
I got REALLY creative there… and would spend hours roleplaying. Till this one guy starts talking about RuneScape.
I ask "Whats RuneScape?" he explains, tells me the website… I go try it out.
Even with 56k, it ran pretty good! So I got a membership, started playing.
Had loads of fun, then went to Halo Combat evolved since even with 56k, I knew how to kill people.
And I had fun with that too.
Then after that, I went to MapleStory… and thats when I joined MMOTales.
Eventually, I started wanting more… like, better games, better online… faster online.
And over and over, i kept getting better games, and finally got Cable internet.
And here I am!
All this online, all this GearsOfWar, Halo, Perfect World, MapleStory EVE…. all this started with me entering a chatroom and saying
"The door of the tavern opens, entering inside comes ~ …. me.
~Grimno (I miss those chatrooms…)