Then eventually, somewhere along the way.... Well

Wrath of the Lich King happened.

That cinematic man.... It got me!!! And I've never looked back!

Me: A month.... No one is going to pay to play a game they just bought, that's just fucking insane. Nevermind.

That was pretty much it, he raved about wow, I was never going to pay to play.

Then I found out about guildwars.... It had all the "cool, mmo bits" that wow had, but was free after the initial buy in!

And after that I was hooked... But still not subscribed to anything.

Another LAN party came up, and one of my friends rocked up with this new game... That was "like NWN but way bigger and always on, with more people"

In a big collectors edition box with a cloth map and a bunch of cool shit. The conversation followed:

Me: awesome, how much is this gonna cost me, like is there a cheap version without the shit?

Jamie: yeah, it's like £30... Then £9 a month.

Me: ermmm what now?

Finally once I was gainfully employed, I had enough disposable income to buy a gaming PC, and I started playing CS:S. I was terrible, but I loved the community I played with.

I'd play most days, for hours, chatting and playing.

Some of the guys ran small scale LAN parties at the university, so I went along to a few.

For a change of pace at one event, we started playing Neverwinter Nights. Eventually progressing to custom modules and regular online play.