World of Warcraft was a game that I talked trash about during the beta. I didn't want to play it, I thought it looked cartoonish and shallow. My friend kept bugging me, though, and telling me how much fun he was having with the beta. He spent so much time talking about it that I had to play it to at least say I tried it. And then ... I hated it. Leveling up to in the starting area was boring and all the "lore" just went over my head. My friend pushed me into trying the Battlegrounds and then I REALLY FREAKING HATED THE GAME. It was a massacre. The other team killed me as soon as I spawned, over and over. I swore I would never go back. When I told my friend, he said I'd had the bad luck to run into a "twink" guild. So, I kept leveling. Then, out in the open world, a Horde Rogue jumped me--but I won! I beat him and tasted blood for the first time. That bit of excitement enveloped me to the point that I ignored video games that weren't WoW for the next few years.
Fallout 3 was a game that I didn't really want to play. At the time, I was still part of the "shooters are lame" elitists, especially those who talked about how Japanese games were so much better. More importantly, first-person games had always given me a headache. I came across the GOTY edition on Amazon one day, though, for super cheap, and I bought it on a whim. I absolutely fell in love with it. It had the kind of vibe that I like a lot plus all that freedom. When I discovered mods, it was like an incredibly sweet cherry on top.
