This thread has been so interesting thus far because we did not begin playing until late August 2007. Clearly we became hooked fast! I love hearing all of your Beta and early game stories - sounds like a blast!
I had been waiting for a while to try out VMK, but as my illness worsened, sitting at our computer became impossible for me. Once we had laptops, VMK was one of the first things we signed up for. I got on first to check things out and get to know the game a little before the kids signed on. I knew nothing about the game - or online games in general so I was going into this as a total newbie! I remember creating my little avatar - so much fun - and then entering the "Esplanade". Then I was totally overwhelmed!
Chat was appearing all over the screen and there were all of these menu buttons. I wish I had a video of what I must have looked like.
I have never felt so old in my entire life! I kept saying, "I will never understand this stuff" and "Maybe I am just too old to get the hang of this". Within a couple of days, I began to get the hang of things a bit and realized we could actually buy things and that is what our rooms were for!
I actually met a group of ladies talking about their "hub.by" and completely flipped out - there were other adults! I was not some crazy 30 something playing VMK! Several of the girls gave me some helpful hints and some items to get me started. One friend even gave me something called "bat magic". I had no idea what that was at the time, but I placed it on my lanyard. Long story short, a few hours later I learned what a scam was and the bat magic was gone. Soon after, I found Mal's guide to the game and learned about NPC's, games, and all of the things we would come to love about this community.
I was ready to give up that first night and I never would have dreamed of all the real friendships that would come from this virtual world. We still miss it - every day.