When did you start playing Guild Wars?

I actually didn't start playing until march 2007. I was actually aware of it from late 2005 as one of my friends kept telling me about how good it was but I didn't actually start playing as I was too interested in Runescape at that time haha (which I obviously regret). Since then, i've played on and off ever since 2007.

I think I started in 2006 too, bought Prophecies first, on which I stood until Nightfall was released. Then, I bought Factions because I wanted the Flesh Golem so bad for my Necro (even if my main is a Monk !).
I started with my bestfriend, then moved to a PvE-Roleplay guild where I found my boyfriend and amazing people that are now real life friends.

I started during the last original beta weekend sometime back in late 2004/early 2005. I remember I was on dial-up with a really subpar laptop and it pretty much took me all weekend to download the game and get my very first character created.

I have been here ever since and started playing with a second account in June of 2005, then of course added a couple more accounts for mules/storage and tooling around. A lot has changed in those days both good and bad, but I'm glad that we can still play whenever we want over 11 years after launch. Much to be said for that.

/age on my current account says 122 months ago, but I actually started in the beta in late 2004 but unfortunately that account was taken from me

I started in 2006 with Factions being my first campaign played. At the time my comp and internet were so bad that I could barely load into Shing Jea. I quit for maybe a year and started back playing and I've been on and off ever since

I started in 2008 after a year of harassment by a very young student of mine. I created a ranger in Proph and was hooked from the start. What a beautiful village Ashford was and what a frightening shock the Searing was! I was in Maguuma before I knew there was a Wiki (sure made things easier after that!!) Before Wiki? I wandered around until, somehow, the deed-Quest-Mish was accomplished. Such a nooblet, no? Tried some other games, but except for a year in GW2, spent all my game time here.

Those who will remember, will speak fondly of the warm morning breeze.

Looks like I'll be the youngest in this post :P, at least for now. I started playing two years ago, even when I had known about the game for a bit. Took my time to decide to spend a bit on me. Right now, my only regret it's not having started playing way earlier

I started playing Guild Wars back in 2006, my brother and I had shared the account since he was nice and let me make a character.
We always played games together. But the account was hacked probably back in.. 2008 or late 2008 (around that time) and I recently got the games again. I've been back for 7 months but I'm so glad to see people still playing!!

Quote from Juniebug

I started in 2008 after a year of harassment by a very young student of mine. I created a ranger in Proph and was hooked from the start. What a beautiful village Ashford was and what a frightening shock the Searing was! I was in Maguuma before I knew there was a Wiki (sure made things easier after that!!) Before Wiki? I wandered around until, somehow, the deed-Quest-Mish was accomplished. Such a nooblet, no? Tried some other games, but except for a year in GW2, spent all my game time here.

Those who will remember, will speak fondly of the warm morning breeze.

Ahh, you should have been there before the wikis took off! I still have both my Prophecies and Factions Prima game guides!

Quote from Zhay

Looks like I'll be the youngest in this post :P, at least for now. I started playing two years ago, even when I had known about the game for a bit. Took my time to decide to spend a bit on me. Right now, my only regret it's not having started playing way earlier

Yeah I remember that time. That was during the big account hacking incident. A lot of people had their accounts hijacked by goldfarmers, including my main account (my secondary account was safe). A lot of people I knew from guru were hit as well.

I eventually discovered that the hackers got my password from a trading site affiliated with GWOnline (iirc) at the time, which was why my secondary account never got hacked. Needless to say, I had to take a break for a couple of months to recover from the shock from finding the account stripped. At least they didn't delete any of my characters. It took me about two years to "recover" everything that was stolen from the account and get back to the state it was in before the hack. Dark times those were.

I started in early alpha with my Korean brethren and I blood spiking.

June 05, firstly my gf's brother gave me a character slot on his account, then a character slot on my gf's account, then my own (it took me a while to realise i liked the game, despite obiously loving the game)

Started sometime in 2005. Not on this current account sadly, I was too young to afford my own account at the time hahaha. Been hooked ever since.

I started in May 2007 with just Factions, but the other Campaigns came short after

I got this game back in 2006. My parents bought me Nightfall and my life changed forever, lol. I later purchased Prophecies. I noticed I couldn't keep up to date with all the new builds and speed clears. I ended up buying Complete Collection + EoTN and starting a whole new account in 2010. My life changed as I knew it back then, opened up to so much more possibilities.

My first taste of Guild Wars was the E3 for Everyone back in 2004.

I'd played Blizzards RTS games so I was well aware of World of Warcraft, but what they were offering didn't suit my tastes. Plus I have an old school mentality about buying a game once and playing it, not buying it and paying to play it.

My then girlfriends younger brother had been talking about this new game called Guild Wars, so I gave it a try based on his comments about a one time purchase, streamlined play and not having bloated skill bars. Plus the visuals just seemed so far ahead of Blizzards efforts. I played through the entire event and was hooked.

I still remember getting to run through areas that weren't even populated yet, and having to go outside Ascalon City to do "trades" by dropping your items on the ground, hoping that the person wasn't going to scam you and run lol.

A really vivid memory was seeing the devs online in the city where they happily answered tons of players questions. Not only that, but getting to run through portions of the game with them was pretty cool too. It really felt like they wanted to be there and that was a huge deal to me. I bought the game on release and loaded it up as soon as I got back from vacation a short while later.

I started playing in May 2008 after one of my close friends kept suggesting it, got it as a birthday gift actually. I had a couple friends who played but soon quit within a couple years, if that. I've been hooked ever since. Even now I still find the game beautiful and very sentimental for me. I'm a little sad I missed the early stages of the game, all the expansions had already been released when I started. I missed the boat on the collecting until pretty recently. Made a lot of friends through speed clears and just general PvE, friends that have stuck together for years. Pretty awesome community Still love to take screens and revisit areas, work on GWAMMs etc.

April 2005. My account is 147 months old. Hacked once. Perma-banned once. 3 Year break. Still playing.

2005 aswell! A few years off here and there but I just keep getting pulled back.

I started in September of 2007 - September 26, 2007... A year Later on the same day, I had a daughter. A year earlier on the same day, I won a guitar.

Before joining, I use to write with Star Trek groups since 1999. A friend in one of those groups, introduced me to World of Warcraft. Within a month on there and not liking it, I learned of Gw. from one of the players. Bought, joined, and loved it. I introduced my husband to the game as well in 2008.

Then I learned of the official wiki and was on there as Ariyen and then Kaisha... Mostly trolls on there, people who claim for consistancy and there's still none in the armor <gee>. x-D I'm basically removed from there, but I am a Beauracrat/admin on the wikia one and that staff didn't like us changing it to what it is. So, that's dead and I'm still waiting on it to be deleted. The curse one is incomplete now, no doubt.... It's also abandoned - from what I feel seems to have happened. So, I wander around some in the game, when I can.... I use to run two of my own guilds and helped others... I still try to help others, but the guild managing is not me - real life is!

So, I thank learning about it in 2008 to have brought me friends, and other things.

Without it, I probably wouldn't be who I am.

When it first came out, it was my lifeline during my moving abroad to go to university.

Bit of thread necromancy but 12 years ago.

According to my /age... 147 Months ago.

Also: Hi everyone. I was just informed this website exists. I actually thought the GW2Guru forums were all that was left of GW1.

I don't understand the parole comment.

Looking forward to what you guys have planned!

Quote from Motoko

I don't understand the parole comment.

Looking forward to what you guys have planned!

I think it was a joke implying that you'd been locked up!

Which is why it doesn't make any sense...

Began playing in 2005, cant recall if it was the first or 2nd beta.

Started in September 2007, played the game for 3 years straight until I lost my account to a keylogger. Was able to recover the account but lost all characters and progression at which point I stopped playing for about a year and a half then came back in the spring of 2011 and have been playing ever since. Absolutely love every thing about Guild Wars and I'm happy to see there is a place dedicated to it after the closure of the guru.

Some how I had missed this thread.

At 6:00 pm, Central Time, Christmas night 2005, I hit the 'Install' icon. Thanks to dial-up, I started a character 26 hours later. I first entered Ascalon and wandered around, getting a feel for how to control my Warrior, Perkunas I. Then I went out the gate and waited 2 1/2 hours for that area to load. By about midnight, I was pretty well ticked with the lag, long time loading the zones, and dieing constantly, I shut it down for the night. 3 or 4 nights later, I got back on and things went a little faster, almost too fast. I acquired my secondary, did a short bout of PvP, dieing several times, killed a ranger boss, and wound up in an ugly area. Long story short, level 3, 4 skills, around 30 gold, in my starter armor & starter sword, no shield. After getting my behind spanked over and over outside of Ascalon(unaware of the henchmen), I logged off for a couple of days. Next time I logged on, I created a female ranger, Honey Dew. I stayed in pre for awhile longer than I had with my first character. Level 6, had all her skills for primary and 2nd, R/Me. , the upgraded armor, and a better bow, and closer to 200 gold. A couple months in, I deleted those two characters and and created 3 others, another warrior, an Ele, and a Monk. All were to help the guild I was in, in their GvG events. My Monk, Madam Theresa, became very popular during the monk strike in Thunderhead Keep. One of very few that would do that mission. Probably more info than you all wanted to read. I have gotten a lot of good play out of this game. I have taken short breaks here and there, but I still spend 2 to 6 hours a week playing. Some time in pre and some in post, not too much in the other chapters.

Ele - Lady Firecracker, Ranger - Dawn of the Mists, Warrior - Hawthorne Bloodmoon

Oh what a lovely thread, just read through it all

Perkunas, though GW is a very special place I am amazed you can be so specific about when you started.

I started because my eldest (who had her own pc from the age of 3) somehow became aware of it and wanted to play. We had played some games v each other on teh home LAN but never an online game before. So although she was far too young we allowed her to get the game and start playing but I had a character on her account just to keep an eye on her and make sure there were no inappropriate interactions with other people. I pretty soon became caught up in playing the game myself and had to get my own copy as I wanted to join a guild and add friends.

My daughter btw is not a gamer, she has no time or interest in games now so my bad parenting didnt seem to have a long lasting effect on her, though it did on me.

So I had my own game just after factions came out but I only had proph until several months after Nightfall when I bought teh other two.

The account create confirmation email from Arenanet is dated 16th May 2005!

I remember...
getting stuck on thunderhead keep in Prophecies (you couldn't hench it back then)
being one of the first ones to farm green outside harvest temple in Cantha
setting the tormented creatures up carefully so I can afk all day until I finally maxed the Lightbringer title (patched), so much so it killed my old laptop
the early days of raptor farming in EOTN