I played PSO for the first time on the original xbox, I was 16. It had a voice chat everywhere in game. So the first time I logged in to the main ship I was greeted with a wall of nu metal and hip hop blasting through my headset. The audio would get degraded and often lag out, so you'd hear this mechanical buzzing, glitch sound. Adult Swim was at it's prime back then, so a lot of kids were named after whatever Anime was airing. I saw a lot of Vash and Inuyasha. You'd see a lot of emote text related to family guy and other stuff as well. At times, the lobby sounded like a daycare. Most of the users that did voice in lobby were younger, so lots of squeeky voices. Also lots of robot and lowpitch voices because you could alter your voice on xbox.
The hacking and duping was pretty bad. Although no one could corrupt your game or anything crazy like that. Within my first 3 or 4 games some dude with an Afro came in and dropped a J-Sword and a mag for me. This was pretty common, I eventually made a legit character (more on that later). But I was so new at the time my first character was pretty corrupted with dupes etc.
I remember leaving my room unlocked a lot. I swear every time I did i'd get at least one younger player coming in asking for either max level techs or God/something. Like actually asking because remember, voice chat. So you'd be completely immersed, running some level and just randomly hear this tiny voice "Can I please have a _____".
I was so addicted to the game at that time. It was my first real online rpg. Once I realized you could get random rare loot, I just couldn't stop... it was over. I wasted my whole summer playing, some of the next summer too. My girlfriend at the time played as well, so we'd have 2 televisions hooked up in my room and just play for hours. For me, there was just this feeling in the air that summer. Being "in love" for the first time. Having that extreme first time online RPG addiction, basically that urgency to keep playing. Also socializing on PSO at the time felt like "more", it felt real. I think because back then social networks hadn't really taken off yet. All we had was email, forums and AIM (in the US). So I think it made the connections you made in game feel stronger, especially with the voice chat. The only way I can really describe it is, back then it didn't feel muted. We are desensitized now I think. Anime at that time was really starting to take off in the US as well. Adult Swim was airing a bunch, Samurai Champloo, FLCL etc. And I think that new exposure to what was going on in the east, at least for me, Left a cool feeling or awareness, an inspiration of sorts around me.
So I played on the xbox servers for 2 years? Maybe a little more. But into the second year, there was this huge divide. The legit players (me being one) basically got fed up with the hackers and took the rules into our own hands (to the best of our ability.) We broke off into a separate ship, Davburite I think? Basically, and I didn't really approve of this but, anyone who was caught hacking on that ship would be verbally attacked/flamed out of the lobby via voice and text. It got really toxic towards the end. But, it was nice playing with 25 or so players you could trade with safely etc. We often left our rares un tech'd. Not sure if that really helped us but we did it.
Anyways, it was extremely addicting because the whole concept of random loot and leveling with other people was new to me. I met some really good friends that I still keep in touch with today. I remember even occasionally talking to a friends mom via the voice chat on PSO! She was really rad. I also miss the fuzzy CRT look of PSO. Playing it on the TV was fun.
