The demo for Freelancer came in my dad's new Gateway computer. The demo was limited to just the first few missions and then it turned into a sandbox of either the New York system or Liberty (4 systems back in that time). I played just the demo for about a year until we got the real game.
I would have lan parties with my dad and step brother, just hours of missions, popping transports in trade lanes and selling the loot to Buffalo, doing point to point freighter transport runs. They eventually stopped playing so I took my adventures online to the Vanguard Federation of Freelancers (originally Hunter's Association, HA5). A guy named Achilles made a mod as if the Nomads took over house space, only the Omicrions had safe haven. It never really took off but it was a lot of fun to have a dozen of us role into New York and pick up refugees from Manhattan.
I joined the military in 2008 and took a long hiatus from Freelancer. I tried out Discovery back in 2014 but PCS and deployments got in the way. Left the military in 2016, focused on college for a couple years and started playing seriously in 2018-2019.
I don't play nearly as often as I used to, mostly because of the toxic player base. However, this game is legendary to we, it's cult followers. The only issues I have with this game is there is no Freelancer 2 and Freelancer 1 was never finished. So many space sim enthusiasts don't even know it exists. Microsoft had the golden egg and didn't cook it, but put it in a closet and forgot about it.
It ain't about what you are capable of, it's about what you're willing to do.
