I’ll start with mine.
My ancient history in online gaming starts with StarCraft. The best time I ever had playing something, good old days.
Played grim dawn around 2019 (1.000 hours) and them bumped up into mobile versions of LOL style games ( played Arena of Valor for a couple of years). After my addiction to AoV I decided I needed something less poisonous to spend my time, and started trying a phew Arpgs just searching google.
Tried some souless mobile Arpgs, all them lasted less than a month, sometimes days. And some other good titles (Eternium and Warframe, but eventually the thrill faded). More recently I got hyped up by Lost Ark, Diablo Immortal and Undecember.
First I tried Lost Ark, and while I don’t see it as a very bad game it was mostly a underwhelming experience, for about a month or 2. Jumped into Diablo Immortal, and that experience really as a very big deception with Blizzard. Jumped out as soon as I perceived that it had no salvation. I was still waiting for Undecember, my last bet, and I dropped it even before installing the game, as soon as I read steam reviews. A pay to win game.
By a great twist of fate the same reviews saying to stay away from Undecember recommend players to try Last Epoch, that it was much better. Why not ? And here I am, since November 2022, the only game I play, 655 hours, I think 250-300 before multiplayer and I already have most time with the online patch. Still in love with the game.
Ironically, I actually didn’t grow up with ARPG’s. My family probably would’ve considered Diablo to be an unholy / evil game, and I never pressed the issue. By the time Diablo and Diablo 2 were a thing, I didn’t really have an income or the ability to play them on the family computer, so my fascination with this genre wouldn’t come until much later when I started high school. (Unless you count Gauntlet Legends on N64, which I did have a brief obsession with back when that came out.)
At that time, my parents actually bought me a really rad Gateway computer, that came with a subwoofer and everything. (Which I still have, somewhere.) This would’ve been in the early 2000’s. This thing was seriously cool. I sometimes feel bad that they bought me this thing, knowing we were struggling financially for most of that time. They made it out and things got better, so I guess it worked out. Either way, this thing was my portal to games like Guild Wars and Lineage. I did finally get to play Diablo 2 some in high school, but also other games like Titan Quest and Dungeon Siege. My biggest career was probably on Guild Wars 1, where I played the base game like a maniac, but eventually fell out of touch with it during college.
As far as computer games and RPG’s go though, Morrowind was my first love. I played a few RPG’s I loved about as much on console, mind you. I still listen to the Ogre Battle 64 soundtrack on a regular basis just because it inspires me in a way no other game OST does. But Morrowind was the first PC (or really X-Box) game I dumped over 100 hours of my life into. I roamed that game, load time and all, with a ridiculous amount of passion. Little SMK adored that game, because it was the first one that legitimately felt like another world to me. There was nothing else like it back then.
What led to me finding LE was that I have kept track of ARPG’s like Titan Quest since that time. My friend / fellow fan pointed out that Grim Dawn was coming out while we were still in college and we backed it pre-release. I think this was before Kickstarter was even a thing. All they had was a website, if I’m not mistaken. (Or maybe they added a Kickstarter later.) Playing that game is what caused me to pay attention to ARPG’s on Steam and that led to me eventually discovering Last Epoch. I forget when I purchased it, but I think I’ve been here for most of the beta.
So yeah, I’m kind of a latecomer for my generation of gamer. But I’m definitely happy to have found my way here. It’s been a really fun time, and I hope it doesn’t end any time soon.
Been playin games since when I used to have to go work with my mom in the 90s, I played my first mmo in 1998, Nexus kingdom of the winds on my moms work pc lol, I had to use mail orders to pay my subfee.
Then I became a nexon kid, played a shitload of Maplestory for a while. Then moved on to guildwars 1. Then I played Dungeon fighter for maybe about a decade, taking a break when it flopped in the west, then returning to it when the people who make it started to publish it.
My arpg kick didnt really come until torchlight, then it was some PoE back when it first launched in the 1.0 patch series.
I was never into diablo, since I was mostly into online games even as far back as 98. And so boxed games were just not something I sought out.
These days I just hop around from random MMOs, casual games, and the arpgs as time/desire permits. Mostly just play with some friends.
Because of my current lot in life I do generally have lots of time for games so I clock unholy hours, I have 6k on poe on steam and probably another 6k on the poe launcher when I stopped playing on steam. I have 1.5k hours on maplestory which is probably just the past 5 years or so since reboot came out, and then I have 2k on LE lol.
And I guess ill add my favorite genre’s are probably MMO’s, Arpgs, clickers and roguelike/lites. or anything that really lets the player play at their own pace/style.
I envy the people whose first ARPG was Torchlight 2. (I realize you said Torchlight, but Torchlight 2 is the one I played.) That game is so much fun. It also kinda hates you because of the way equipment levels work. I tried going back and playing it some more recently. Kinda wish I had gotten to play it when it was relevant / popular, but I was too busy with life back then to pay attention to it.
Yeah I played both, both are good games with TL1 being more like oldschool arpgy, and really basic. TL2 is weird and its own beast. Modding saves it tho.
I have the saddest story, my first arpg was D3, and I got beyond addicted. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. After maybe 1000 hours, I got bored, so I started googling. Thats when I found PoE, and well, that addiction is still strong. I also found Torchlight and its sequel, Grim Dawn, and Titan Quest along the way. Torchlight 2 with mods is probably my favorite followed by PoE and modded Grim Dawn.
I still unironically love D3. The controversy with the changes to the systems and all don’t cheapen it for me. The visuals and animations in that game are still some of my favorite. Sometimes think of it fondly, because I no longer play my Blizzard library. Maybe I should one weekend, just for the memories.
Of all those, I still probably love Titan Quest the most though. The fact that game got new content recently is kind of a testament to how far ahead of its time it really was.
Funny thing, D4 made me appreciate D3 much more. D3 is by no means a bad game, grinding grifts is just dull. I have some issues with gearing as well, but at the end of the day, its fun. I actually enjoy the campaign.
Titan Quest is great, have you played any of its mods? They are not the easiest to find, let me know and I will put the ones I do have in a rar for you. I had a TQ kick the end of last year, it really is a good game for its day. It is quite obvious after giving it some time why Crate decided to use its engine for Grim Dawn.
I have not, feel free to link me those. Haha. I need a good excuse to play that game some more.
The last time I played it, I accidentally made the best pet build in the game and then I messed it up horrifically trying to adjust my abilities before I played the DLC. I was thinking about doing it again because it didn’t take very long, but life has distracted me a bunch of times since then.
Give me a couple hours and I will upload the most current builds of what there is for TQ. I have 3 mods, one is a class mod, one is a rebalancing mod, and I forget what the other is. I dont remember if they require Eternal Embers, but I would try regardless. I will dm you the link, just stick the folder they are in into the TQ install folder.
I always wanted to try a pet build, what was the class combo?
Oh man, I can’t even remember at this point. I think it was Spirit + Nature. I think the reason it interested me was because I noticed you could sacrifice health for mana and then heal yourself, so that class combination literally never has to stop for anything. Turned out to work really well just on a lark. There are even more powerful combos it allows for later on, apparently.
Also, awesome! Looking forward to it, haha.
I will give that combo a try, but in Grim Dawn, just because I like how tq feels in modded Grim Dawn, thanks! I am not really a pet person, but I feel lazy lately.
Also sent you the mods, let me know if you have any issues!
Been a TTRPG since 1979. Played Castle Wolfenstein like a madman, then…life happened. When D1 came out I picked it up and played through it a number of times. More Life happened. Buddy sent me a gift copy of D3 not long after Reaper of Souls dropped. Played it for about four years rather fanatically. Moved to Grim Dawn (still my favorite aRPG of all time). Was one of the original knuckleheads who did the Perseverance Quest. (took me four dead characters to do it. :D) Someone on the GD forum posted about LE but it was right after the Kickstarter (still bummed) and so got in on Alpha.
I’ve played TQ and Torchlight but they never clicked. Tried D2 but it gave me terrible motion sickness. Played a LOT of Wolcen (and I still have a soft spot for the actual game because no combat ever in an aRPG has been as good as that but all of the other issues eventually made me come back to LE.) I have also tried three different times to play PoE and I just do not enjoy that game.
Xmax was the best mod for TQ. It put a 0 (or two) on the end of the density…
Debating if I am too old and lazy to respond to this topic. 
Yes, I have been playing games since i found a C64 under the Xmas tree and havent looked back since my mom put all the parts for a 386 in a corner of the the dining room and said “If you can figure out how to put it together its yours”.
Some phrases from my early gameplaying lifetime to put it into perspective, feel free to google the cryptic ones if you must.
- Xyzzy
- C64, 386, 486, co-processors, IBM PC Dos
- Castle Wolfenstien, Ultima, Kings Quest, Elite, Wasteland, Golden Axe, Sim City…
- Wing Commander, Civilization, Hail to The King, baby!, BFG!, Myst, Dune, RRTycoon etc
- Starcraft, Warcraft, Age of Empires, Quake, Hexen
- LAN parties, beer & pizza.
I have forgotten more games than I have remembered I played.
Always loved adventure, strategy & sim games far more than any other types - so much that I havent played FPS games in probably a decade now. MMOs used to be my addiction with everything from Guild Wars to WoW to Perfect World - far too much time & money spent on those - never to be repeated. Role playing games really took over for me with Baldurs Gate, Planescape Torment & The Elder Scroll series and eventually Witcher - they will always be my favourites of all time. I also love sim/strategies - railroad tycoon is a guilty pleasure, and most recently Factorio (probably the best I have ever played if not top 3). Arpgs are a spin off for me that have ended up being mindless escapism without the complexity of story based rpgs. I have played virtually every arpg that has been released barring becoming more selective in recent years with games that have obviously crashed and burned. I dont typically buy games before or when they launch - I usually leave beta testing to others and I refuse point blank to buy games on release date - I have been involved in IT & dev for far too long to fall into that marketing trap. Against my better judgement I jumped in on LE EA - probably because I was bored as hell with D3/PoE and there wasnt anything to play at the time. LE is a relatively recent addition to the very very long list and I have no reason for chosing it beyond that it appeared on my radar in a genre I like. So far, I have been pleasantly surprised and as I have said a few times over the years… I have gotten way more than my monies worth in entertainment from it already. Eventually I will move on again… but thats just life.
You’ve been playing videogames since before they were videogames! 
No but that’s awesome. I am just old enough to remember when Myst became a big deal. That was kind of a magical time in computing, just before Starcraft and Diablo came to be. There was still kind of a goofy joy to game making you don’t see reflected as much these days outside of indie games.
My video game stories are kinda sad and depressing, because literally every video game that I played for a extended amount of time got shut down 
(hopefully this is not a bad sign for LE :D)
My first video game, that I played “seriously” was Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (MMO). Did all the things like Large scale PvP(Realm vs. Realm aka RvR) and Raiding. Was in a top tier guild and server best of my class (for both PvE and PVP).
I did accumulate roughly 2800 hours of this on XFire (who does remember XFire?!). Performance was very bad for some patches, so I couldn’t run XFire while playing WAR, so it’s probably more like ~3000-3200hours
I played this from 2008 to 2013, when the game was shut down.
After that my by far most played game till this day: Marvel Heroes
Marvel Heroes will always occupy a special place for me. It is not only my most played game, but also the game I still have very vivid memories of.
Literally the best time I have spend sitting in front of the computer.
I could easily fill pages upon pages with stories of this game, but all I will say here, it not only was the best ARPG I ever played, it also had the single best monetization of any F2P game I ever played. It was so far, that I literally spent thousands of € in it, not because I felt I have to, but because I really wanted to support the project.
Game had some of the coolest Cosmetics, some as MTX, others as only I game achievable items via achievement system.
I played roughly 7000-8000hours (my steam account has like 2500 hours, but MH was not available via steam for the first 1 1/2-2 years of it’s short 4 year lifetime)
I played the game from day one of it’s release 2013 to 2017, when it was shutdown.
After that I fully dived into Paragon, which I did play on and off when it was released into open beta in 2016. I become a Top 1% player, only playing the most non meta stuff I could find. Until Paragon also got shutdown in 2018
After that I was very depressed and didn’t really play any one specific game very intensely. I always did play PoE on and off for the entirety of it’s lifetime, but never considered it my “main game”.
Well and here we are. April 2019 Last Epoch Early Access.
I stumbled upon it on accident a few days before EA release.
I researched like 2 minutes and saw you could transform into a Reaper and use a cone Scythe Attack. No more questions asked LETSGO.
And here I am Harvest Fanboy was born and still getting mocked for it to this day 
I have been playing Korean mmo mostly for almost 20 years and I am finally done with them as Lost Ark was my last title due to burning out from the crazy daily chores and KR mmo game design.
So to fill the void, I chose ARPGs like Torchlight2 (my first ARPG when it was released in 2012) , Grimdawn and PoE since they also used the isometric camera angle for the gameplay which is similar to MU Online 
. And I gotta say picking Last Epoch was a very wise choice for me, It has a lot of similar features from the 3 ARPG above combine together with interesting skill build and crafting.
551 hours in LE since April and a lot more to come 
I have always played ARPG’s, but not “all” of them. I have some specific things I look for.
Mostly I play poe these days, but I play LE between leagues.
Why did I pick LE specifically. I saw video of certain type of gameplay. I won’t go into specifics since it wont make sense to anyone else, but its exactly that “specific” thing I look for. I cannot get interested, if it doesnt show up, but as soon as it did, I quickly made note of LE. Then I waited for a while to ponder whether it was a good choice before buying. Then I decided to give it ago. It was a very good choice.
Atm I have 700hours of LE according to steam.
Don’t tease us, tell us
I think a lot of people ahve “specific things” they appreciate in games a lot. So much that this is a instant buy or no-go.
As with my story, a Death-Themed Class/Playstyle that is not necessarily connect with necromancy/minions and I am in, whatever type of game it is.