Ahh, AOL BBS. I suppose at the time it was "massive" although I guess in hindsight...
First graphical MMORPG was Everquest right when it first came out (Well, maybe a month or two after release), although I never really got into the grind. I was more into the social/exploration aspect of it. I played up until Kunark, quit, and came back a few years later when Luclin came out - got a LOT farther in the game, but quit once I realized the vicious cycle never ended.
During my break of EQ I tried out DAoC. I played out the first month, loved the setting, but just couldn't get into the Realm aspect of everything and left.
Of course during high school, I got into the SWR MUD'ing community...a great deal. I enjoyed myself a lot more doing this, especially because of the social aspect, than I did with EQ. It helped when all of your friends played as well. Unfortunately, I matured about the same time the MUDs I was playing fell out, and lost interest. I was a builder/imm on a few, but it was pretty hollow when there was no one left playing.
First year of college I hit up Horizons as it was released - had the little golem guy on the shoulder and everything. I enjoyed the concept that they were committed towards releasing new content as the world population helped each other out, but it was horribly bugged. I last maybe a month or two, and quit again. Plus, I didn't really find the concept of spending a lot of time mining the same damn rocks all that thrilling.
The last thing I played fairly regularly - that is, for at least two months - was EQ2 when Faydwer came out. I was hooked on the free month/download trial, and loved that they catered to the casual, solo player. In addition, it was great to revisit some of the old stomping grounds from the first EQ. Once again, I saw through the grind and decided to leave...well, that and other things. Honestly if I were to go back to a MMORPG, it'd be this one.
Throughout the ten years (holy crap, it really was a long time now that I think about it) I played graphical MUDs/MMORPGs I also playtested/beta invited to Star Wars Galaxies (man, that SHOULD have been a great beta...oh how wrong I was), The Sims Online (just...wow), and WoW. WoW was interesting...I can't really just the final release, because I played it only during the pre-release stress tests, but the game I played was fun. I never got hooked because I saw the grind for what it was, and at that point (not yet on my EQ2 fix) and just stayed away. I could definitely see where it was more appealing than some of the other, older MMORPGs.
Oh, and I suppose if we're considering it, I was a HUGE D2 player back in HS along with the same group of friends that played CS and those SWR MUDs. Actually come to think of it, we played a lot of computer games my first two years of HS, before I discovered the evils of girls and beer. It's been progressively downhill since.