Did anyone here come into gaming *through* computers?

[der_kluge]

I can't believe I forgot this. My aunt had an old D&D game for DOS that was completely text based and used an ASCII map with an asterisk for movement through dungeons. I was maybe 9 years old at the time and remember being glued to that amber screen for hours at a time.

Nethack! Also known as Rogue. It's more popular than you might think:

http://www.nethack.org/common/index.html

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

My first real experiences with fantasy roleplaying were the Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy games (DW came free when my Mom got my brother and I a subscription to Nintendo Power).

When my Mom saw how much I liked the genre, she started buying me fantasy books, as well; IIRC, the first one she got me was Guardians of the West by David Eddings.

Then, on a couple Boy Scout trips, I was introduced to actual D&D (and Starfleet Battles, as well) (c.f. the "Does your first character influence your current characters?" thread), but I never really got into it (I didn't own any rule books, or know how to find a group). I read D&D novels anyway, though.

Then, after a while, I moved, and one day on the bus a guy saw me reading ... something by R.A. Salvatore. We ended up becoming friends, and I got to meet his D&D group, and just a couple years ago he was one of my groomsman.

So, yes, Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy got me into D&D, and roleplaying in general. I've stayed here ever since.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I came back because of computers, does that count?

I played back in the jr. high/high school days but hadn't played in over 10 years. Then I found Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights and those got me interested in the games again to the point where I asked a guy I knew if I could join his current game. That was 4 years ago and I'm still going strong.

Very similar story here, too.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Yeah, I was an avid RTS gamer, and then I've looked for something, that was more focused on a smaller cast of units (inspired by the Hero-units, a quite RPGish concept)... and then I've found Neverwinter Nights... and then, yeah, I arrived at D&D 3.0!

 

[Vorput]

I'm curious - we hear lots of talk about people who leave the hobby to play MMORPGs like WoW or Everquest.

I'm curious if there's anyone here who got introduced to "role-playing" via a computer game, and then discovered tabletop RPGs as a result?

My earliest experiences with RPGs were with those old 16 color champions of krynn, eye of the beholder, etc games. After playing those for years, I learned that there were ways to actually PLAY such characters- with more options avilable than 'attack' 'parlay' and 'flee'. I was hooked on tabletop gaming from then on

 

[SteelDraco]

My first D&D experience was one of the old Gold Box computer games, Secret of the Silver Blades. After that, I picked up a copy of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia, and started running games for my friends.

 

[dragonlordofpoondari]

I came back because of computers, does that count?

I played back in the jr. high/high school days but hadn't played in over 10 years. Then I found Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights and those got me interested in the games again to the point where I asked a guy I knew if I could join his current game. That was 4 years ago and I'm still going strong.

That's exactly what happened to me!

 

[Ry]

Dragon Warrior I had me wishing I could change the story, or add more options. I was drawing dungeons before I knew about Dungeons and Dragons.

When I was 9, I got Final Fantasy, and right after I convinced all my classmates and my teacher to dress up as Final Fantasy characters characters (Warrior, Elf, Wizard, Healer, and Red Mage I believe) and perform a 2 hour play that was essentially:
a bunch of adventurers
save a princess,
fight some elemental-themed monsters,
and
destroy an evil dragon king

 

[Jubilee]

I got my start roleplaying on a text MUD when I was about 16. Sometimes it could be very intense; not the kind of roleplaying I have experienced in the pen & paper games I now participate in (an anonymous text enviroment lets my imagination take charge and makes me less shy, though, so it's not really my groups' faults). But the grind of leveling, the PvP, and the tedium of trying to get some interesting roleplaying started I do not miss.. I have never been able to get into character or find any kind of interesting role playing in graphic MMORPGs, but I'll admit I haven't played many of them except Guild Wars and, briefly, Ultima Online when it first came out. I despise the relatively static nature of the enviroment and the world around you in MUDs and MMORPGs

 

[Turjan]

I blame M&M 6 and Baldur's Gate for my interest in D&D . So the answer is yes!