Mine was Final fantasy xi, dont get me wrong i love wow so much same with FFXI i always played on and off between the two, but never will i EVER FORGET ABOUT THE TIME I zoned to ronfaure for the first time as a level 1 elvaan warrior, the world the theme, the journey nothing is as expressive as that expansive immersive vast MMO, It was so cool to start in a French like knight city you can hear the flutes and the Celtic theme around Sandoria and as soon as u zone out of the city oh my goooooooooood, it was so immersive it felt real to me everything was real any type of progression through that GAME ALWAYS FELT PERMANENT Nothing has ever come close to it, its just a shame it was underated and unknown to the masses it was released in a wrong time to be honest it was too complicated to play on PS2, and the registration UGH,
, one time i stopped FFXI for 2 years fully right before the WOTLK launch and when i came back to the game i seemingly logged of in ronfaure when i logged back in i shed tears listening to the ronfaure themes this game is nothing like wow, everquest or FFXIV. iv had friends in that game where we made Static parties all the time from leveling groups up to Hardcore missions (quests) to access endgame areas/ loot / Storyline quests and lore some of the guys i met and played with still play the game but but… they ruined it in 2011 and than they kinda fixed it in 2013 but now its a total disaster the game feels like Ragnarok online through power creep and botting dont get me wrong the game still highly populated in the Asura Server i would pay 50 dollars a month for this game if they ever Re release it with the level 75 capp.
i had over 3000 days play time
i would definitely drop Classic wow instantly if they just announce a re release of that game yes i actually mean it INSTANTLY even if the game takes 2 years to come out again i wouldin’t want any MMO or Video game thoughts on my mind just to experience that vast immersive world.
GOD i hate HOW SQUARE MADE FFXIV, and took all the DEV’s there FFXI feels like on life support right now like EQ
also i dont mean to advertise or anything i just miss it when i play classic wow i just find small fragments of the experience i found in FFXI but hey its still the most fun MMO out there right now its sad FFXI retail players dont want a classic server i tried private too got to 75 loved it just the concept worked there and not the actual code/mechanics.
i saw one of the blizzard documentaries not too long ago about the mmos they played while making WoW i saw the old FFXI BOX Set my heart pumped so fast
Star Wars Galaxies very briefly. I played slightly before CU and NGE. Was a great MMO that was ruined by making it too cookie cutter and casual for accessibility.
multiple mmorpgs from that time - the most significant would be
ragnarok online
lineage
MUonline
Silkroad
Everquest.
but in neither of those i ever reached “endgame”
When WoW appeared it was complete revolution - since then i tried few new ones but wont lie - WoW is THE MMORPG for me.
i do swap it sometimes to FF 14 nowadays when im bored with it. but i will always come back . unless they do something like level squish and rob me out of all levels i got over years - this would be the gamebreaking experience that would make me quit wow.
Everquest and Runescape xD Before that I was RPGs only. Boulders Gate, Neverwinter night, daggerfall / morrowind, and tons of others I no longer remember the name of. Before that D&D xP
Fascination of wow came from the trailer they put on Warcraft 3 Frozen throne disc.
Matrix Online, Star Wars: Galaxies, City of Heroes. I never was into WoW back into the days, i actually was saying it was bad cause of the combat. But now? at the age of 37, i am LOVING IT. Now i know why the game was so big and still is. The world feel alive, dungeons are amazing, raids are amazing…its just so well done.
Anarchy Online! One of the most underrated mmo’s for its time. Had a dodgy launch but was great fun! Especially if you like twinking your characters!
Anarchy Online,
Quake 3 Arena
Project Entropia/Planet Calypso Had a Guild /Society in there,
Everquest II, I think that was before I started playing WoW,
On of the LOTR games around in 2000,
Played Runescape as a child and another one that I cant remember its name but had its own show on a gaming TV channel on Sky… it was too long ago to remember xD
. Years of grind and pvp and socialization 
so nice game, its a pity it went downhill after went f2p