Didn't see this thread so I decided to make it. Anyway I'm just curious as to why some people play this game.
For me I started playing shortly after the game came to the United States with my brother because it was new and we enjoyed watching the show Saturday mornings. My first card was Seiyaryu from the game Stairway to the Destined Duel and my first pack was Metal Raiders where my Rare was Starboy and I pulled 2 fusions with Flame Cerberus and Punished Eagle. We both enjoyed playing. I played a Dark deck that focused around making Great Maju Garzett as big as possible while my brother played a deck that revolved around the multiplication effects of Nimble Mumonga, Giant Germ andBubonic Vermin and then tested win conditions as they came out such as the Sphinx cards. Eventually my brother quit the game and a couple of years later I followed suit.
Junior year of highschool came and my mental stability was not doing so hot. Wherever I went I felt like an outcast. Whenever I talked to anybody, whatever they said I always heard as an insult. I just was not in a good place mentally. I usually made short term friendships with 1, max of 2, people in each of my classes throughout highschool. In Junior year i learned many of the people I had made those friendships with were friends with each other and they played yugioh. I then dug up my old cards and brought them to school and from then on I have played this game and enjoyed doing it. My friends have noted that I enjoy this game more than anyone they know (I am probably having more fun playing this game while I am bored playing this game then most people enjoy playing this game when they are truly enjoying the game). I usually stick up for Konami and their game moves not because i agree with them but I'm just happy they are making the game. That is why I started playing this game.

Pet Peeves about game:
Noobs that complain and insult my character when I don't want to trade my $20+ dollar card for their 2-3 common cards that I like that they have that i could just go and buy 1 Structure deck and get all those cards plus more.

This conversation also makes me cringe:
Person 1 "Just finished my deck."
Person 2 "How many cards?"
Person 1 "60, duh"
Person 2 "Nice, I'm 5 cards away from finishing my deck."
Person 2 is planning on also making a 60 card deck.

I will make it short and sweet...
I was flicking through channels and saw YuGi playing a dude with dice (forget his name and can't be bothered looking it up on google lol)
From then I started to watch all ep's and wondered if there was a game.
There was - YuGiOh and the power of chaos i think.
LOVED IT......................
But then thought there has to be an online game.
Found it - went out and got cable internet seeing I was on dialup at the time and 170mb was gonna take a while LOL.
And that's it.....................been stuck on it from then on.
Met alot of good ppl and alot of idiots while playing - but eh - ya get that online

Because I made a promise... That I would destroy everyone in my way! Nah, I just play cuz it's a fun game. A lot less balanced than MtG in my opinion, but cooler in the sense that you can pull off so many crazy combos with a few cards and explode out of nowhere which is always pretty epic. I enjoy the game so much, I try to make fanfics, which I'm hoping that people get an opportunity to read, even if the fics (well, currently only one I'm working on) kinda suck...

Also, cuz I need something to entertain me as I procrastinate from doing actual work.

It all starts sometime halfway through Elementary School for me, third or fourth grade. My friends were playing the card game, I was captivated by the art in a few cards and proceeded to give it a try. Although I was not that good, I had fun. As the years progressed, I became less interested in the game, even left it soon after most of my cards collected over four or so years were soaked and ruined.(I only have a Dark Magician Girl as survival of said incident.) At that point, I left the game.

I picked it back up in late 2010 and early 2011 after I saw a lot of kids playing the game; did some reading and what not and eventually chose to start by making a Sexy Spellcaster Build. And the rest is history.

Mine is similar to VermontEagle's.... i grew up playing during the CED/Yata-Lock era and watching the TV show and cheering on Yugi, then later on thinking Jaden was on something or high half the time, then found the same online game, and that's how we met..hell, the majority of my MSN contacts are from Yu-Gi-Oh Online: Duel Evolution, then my account got deleted during the Beta of Yu-Gi-Oh Online: Duel Accelerator after about 5-6 years of playing the game, then i discovered DuelingNetwork and played there and got the hang of Exceeds and all that, then about 2 months ago, was told about this and that it was largely idiotproof and automatic..so i decided to switch over.

And now it seems like a lot of my old UkU m8s and YGO2 players are joining CEA, so i couldn't happier.

well first time i didnt know about these cards...first i think..theres a PS1 game about it that 2 monsters would fuse..into a flame cerebrus and stuff...and dark hole would destroy all cards and no traps...so i was like Screew this Shiz -___- i cant even understand this game...next season i "accidentally" switched the TV channel to Yu-Gi-Oh!..then i was like..oh its that screwed card game =.= then lately theyve been sumoning w.o any tributes o.o
like blue-eyes dark magician and stuff XD after that i was like whoa o.o they changed the playstyle so..i kept watching till i learned how to play(except those cursed rulings like u cant reborn a BLS that got milled)and i watched till first GX....then stopped...then came back middle GX..my decks were E-Hero Old Fusions after that..my friend showed me his Yu-Gi-Oh game on his PSP..he said..."Jinn!,u gotta see this man..this game is screwed...he kept fusing 2 monsters without polymerization.." and i was like o.o! after seeing those white cards and i was like"....those crap are broken -__-" then i studied about these white cards that were actually synchros...then i got interested with Synchrons till to the Format now XD which is xyz

Well uhm , i dunno o_o
Come to think of it , why am i playing ! OMG ! yupp im quitting i guess ,
thanks evil joey =)

Like everyone else, I watched the anime. Over the years I watched GX, 5Ds and now when I'm really bored...ZEXAL. I played YGO ONLINE for a short time because of KONAMI's retarded paying options (I'm from Romania and my country wasn't on the list so everything was screwed up), when I missed the game I reinstalled Power of Chaos and nothing more...until I got my PSP and discovered YGO Tag Force 3 and the rest is history. The beauty of this game is that from over 6000 cards you can make a deck that suits your personality, your style etc.

Watched the anime too... love the way how the game is set... Erm what else... Gonna be Next king of games I think... that's about it

Watched the anime, got interested and bought starter decks. The toystores that sell these back in my country were offering free tutorials on how to play the game. They let people borrow opened starter decks and teach kids who were interested. Soon after, I built my first deck by combining starter decks. Went to a local cardshop and got destroyed by people playing 3 Summoned Skulls and Witch of the Black Forest. :/

I was young back then so I never really had any money to spend on packs. Took a break until I found YO3 and got immersed on the card game once more.

Pretty much the same as most people here. Got up every Saturday morning to watch the new Yu-Gi-Oh episode. I found out there was a card game and at first I sort of just collected the cards because there was nobody I knew who played it. Then, when I was like.. 10? I walked into the cafeteria at lunch and there were these two kids playing Yu-Gi-Oh and I was just like :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Those two later became to be two of the most amazing people I know.. and yeah, from there I've been switching back and forth between real life and Online Yu-Gi-Oh.. mostly online, though. So yeah.. to answer your actual question "Why do you play Yu-Gi-Oh". for the art, the strategy, the competitiveness, the variety of decks and combos and everything that you can do in it I just find really fun.. a part from Dark Worlds, that is..

My story is more of a underdog type of thing. I was around 5 years of age when i first learned of the game, no it was not by the anime. I went to a store and was playing around, i saw this pokemon pack and yugioh pack. Since was such a nicely tamed poor child, the store owner gave me the packs out of the goodness of his heart. >_> They ended up being fakes, you know...those fakes that can scratched off and become stickers, yeah those. After than, i became obsessed with the game, constantly buying those fake packs and simply reading the fake rule book in my room, albeit i didn't know what the hell i was reading. XD Surprisingly, my intelligence was greatly higher than your average 5 year old and i was able to even comprehend the game itself. I played with myself in my tiny room when i felt bored or my friends were gone or when i was sick and has to stay home due to it. It was quite enjoyable and gave me relief, however when we started to move, i lost the ability to buy those fake packs anymore[not knowing who or what sells it being in a new state] i simply drifted from yugioh but always keeping that awesomeness in my head. Every now and then i would see a glimpse of the episode, or see a group of kids playing, however i was one of those "cool kids" who went with the crowd and thought it was for children. XDDD Though i always wanted to play and pwn their arses.

When i got to the age of 12, i begun to watch the anime, original, GX. I still haven't watched all the seasons of GX or Original, however the moment i finally figured out what they truly were and had money to buy! My life became that of a card game. Ever since then i've been playing Yugioh, yet still too poor to enter tournaments or even travel to local tournaments, since the closest tournament that i'm near is like 40 miles away. XD BUT! I have always been a pro when i set in-front of a table and lay down those cards, my activates is awesome!

That's my story.

Has everyone here seen the anime ?
Omg i feel so alone

I pick up a yugioh game for my DS and was hooked . Never really bother to collect card and play in real life however. (Probably because it cost too much to get a decent deck).

Why did I start playing?

I can summon up in one sentence :

"It's all Celessia's fault!!"

She got me involved in YO3

lol hehe who me? "looks at Kalenor Innocently"