Started in the beta testing like you. Was crazy laggy and I remember running a direction, the whole world shifting around and bugging out, then shifting back. Often falling through the world and having GMs rescue my corpse as it was literally below the world.
PvP servers, standard servers.
The brutality if dieing and losing literally everything. The complete lack of directions (aside from that super basic tutorial).
Good times.
I stopped in early 2004. Might re-join again just to look around. Though it looks like I might have to check out project 1999 for the nostalgia and daybreak for the current happenings and content.