Late 2004. Bought a ffXI Brady games guide for like 5$ for some reason. The guide itself turned out to be absolute shit as far as teaching you anything about the game but nonetheless it somehow got me pumped up about the game and wanting to own and play it. Wanting to know more, I found a couple forums where people gave newbie advice and told funny stories about the game. I found the idea of playing online with others in a wide open world to be mindblowing(hadnt played a single online game at this point.

Started begging parents for it nonstop as a Christmas gift and ended up getting it. I'll never forget the feeling I had when I logged in for the first time and saw people running around everywhere . I proceeded to have loads of fun and had many unforgettable experiences on that game and many awesome memories.

And this was just FFXI.