First CRPG was Wizardry. That was around 1982 on an Apple 2.
Same ... but here's the thing: in the poll I put 2001-2005.
Why?
- I played Wizardry and Ultima on my Apple ][+ but was more a fan of Castle Wolfenstein and a few others. Wizardry reminded me of D&D, which I was a player with some friends (pretty light occasional play, I wasn't hardcore). I never followed up with any of the other early games.
- I dug *heavy* into FPS in the 90s, with some fantasy settings included (Helen, Heretic) but no real RPG.
- Wife bought me Diablo when it came out, and I played that a decent amount ... but it never went anywhere, never bought any other games.
It wasn't until I was preparing for KotOR in 2003 that I was advised to check out NWN that I fell head over heels into the genre - NWN, then the expansions, KotOR, Gothic 2, Balder's Gate 2, then on and on and on and on ... summer of 2003, because I was a Star Wars geek who wanted to play KotOR - RPG very quickly became my genre of choice. And it remains that way 13 years later.