Well, my first VN was School Days, a few years ago. I had recently watched the anime, and was ended up doing doing some digging because I was curious. Wasn't that hard to get a copy, compared to some other ones. My opinion of it was, it's a well-written story, but it has a gltitchy engine, and a horrid format, which made it a bear to sit through at times.

Now, while it was my first, there was one I was already hunting for at the time, by the name of Mahou Shoujo Ai. I suppose this is the one that really dragged me into it. I spent I think 6 years digging, trying to find a copy, before finally managing to lay my hands on one, and honestly, it is an amazing series, one I will attest as one of the best.

I picked up others along the way, such as Bloody Rondo, Shingami no Testament, Sunrider, 11eyes, Kara no Shoujo, as well as some smaller ones like Yandere(really fun one mind you)

Bloody Rondo and Shinigami no Testamanet took some digging as well, Bloody Rondo about 3 or 4 months I think. Shinigami no Testament was easier because it was newer.

But yeah, I suppose it was Mahou Shoujo Ai that really set me down the road that is VN's, as in that time searching for it, I would do things like browse VNDB, find intersting ones to look at and download or buy(Shinigami no Testament and Bloody Rondo being two of these), find interesting tidbits of news here and there.

I use Visual Novel Reader to supplement what I lack. I can understand spoken at a decent level, readings still pretty poor though, but using Visual Novel Reader for a machine traslator to supplement what I am hearing, I make my way through them. Worth looking into.

Does Hyperdimension Neptunia count as part VN?(i think it does even though its mostly a JRPG) if yes thats the first i have played... this started my japanes game streak in general tbh...

A little under a year ago, I became curious about the medium and grabbed a few on Steam, some free and some cheap. I still haven't gone through any of them besides the Sunrider games, so it's premature to say that I'm "into" VNs, as much as I love this series. Heck, unless you count the [Re]turn DLC as its own thing, I've yet to go through a single "pure" visual novel with no gameplay.

Katawa Shoujo was my first visual novel. Good times, and exceptionally impressive considering the creators. I haven't played too many over VNs, but I have played a decent amount of games from "Choice of Games", which are text based adventures. Its also amusing to see more and more games include VN style cut scenes/dialog scenes in their games. It works well.

Hanako is best girl.

My start in VN was Clannad 2008 during the air of CLANNAD ~After Story~. After playing some little VN's I somehow lost track. My first VN after this time was Kagawa Shoujo and damn - this was a great VN. Dragged me all the way back into VN's.

Normally I'm just a anime viewer but since Kagawa Shoujo I'm more spending time on VN's. I played a lot of shit I can't even remember now. The lasts ones were If my heart had wings, gaokao.love.100days (this was exhausting though) or fruit of grisaia and of course Sunrider. Sunrider really was so interesting for me as it is a great combination of gameplay and novel. I like the strategy part of the battles but also the nariative style. First time a space themed game was catching my interest that hard though.

The Sunrider games are the first and only vn's I've played so far, which is even more surprising given that they are anime vn's. Before playing them I had never even watched anime, and I was actually a weebophobe (I live in rural SD, USA, not exactly otaku-town). My path to playing S:MOA went something like this: Clicking through discovery que during Steam summer sale(for cards, am I weird for doing that?), sees a hex-based space strategy game(I am a huge fan of both Battle for Wesnoth and Sins of a Solar Empire, so this was like a dream come true), sees free to play, immediately clicks download.

Now I am here, confused as to why exactly I love this series so much.

I've always preferred games with a rich story rather than amazing graphics, and I love having choices. Sunrider Academy was my very first visual novel, I honestly thought there would be more choices involved but i'm still not disappointing. I pretty much fell in love with the Sunrider Academy from early on, the characters are great, I love the back story of Cera and the Ryuvian empire. Sunrider games are still the only visual novels i've played, i'm still new to the visual novel games. I've finished all the Sunrider games except for the Sunrider Liberation Day [RE]TURN story, although I have just finished Ava's story arc for [RE]TURN. Once i do finish all the arcs, i do intend to carry on playing visual novels, i'm just not too sure which to play, i took a chance with academy and it worked. I like romance in my games, makes the story more interesting, in my opinion. I have been recommended Clannad but haven't had the time to check it out yet. 
It's safe to say, you'll be seeing me around here more often now, I honestly can't wait for the next chapter in the series. I am also looking forward to Starnova, although coming from the Sunrider games, I'm not sure what exactly to expect.

Sunrider was actually my first one, i saw the strat layer and then the art work and the idea of an actual story / character driven strategy game had me hooked right away. It kind of opened up to me what the genre could be, before playing it i wasn't really sure what to expect and the first thing which came to mind was 'porn' it's silly i know but up until actually playing Sunrider i hadn't really looked into it too much, so i was pleasantly surprised to find they could be a very enjoyable experience with stories and characters you actually cared about.

Second would have been Ace Academy, then Long Live the Queen, Just Deserts and most recently Crystalline. I've been thinking of downloading the Starnova demo but i have so few opportunities to actually get onto a computer and just play [need to buy a laptop or something for my room, half the time when i do get a chance to go on the computer my brother or one of his kids will jump on it haha but that's off topic]

Most recently i've been wanting to get on to play Sunrider Academy, i'm not usually into the whole 'dating sim' style game but if it's a chance to explore the world of Sunrider some-more it should be worth it, the main cast being cute helps as well haha.

I got the 'sakura' series on humble bundle as well, not reading up properly on them thinking 'hey that's alot of Vn's this should be fun' but who would have guessed they're quite a bit smuttier then the others i'd tried, i've yet to actually play one of them.

In all honesty for me, the two main series Sunrider games are the only "VNs" that I've really gotten "into".

And to be honest?

I don't really consider the aforesaid Sunrider games to be Visual Novels. There be a lot more going on in them. Namely, the Tactical Turn-Based Strategy RPG aspects. In fact, I more-or-less consider them Space Operas that use a VN style for telling the story.

I have played through one actual VN VN. I was a little bored, had a little extra money lying around and it was alright, but it just wasn't something I thought I could jump on every time I see an attractive anime girl in a VN. For me, there HAS to be something more than just attractive anime women romance options, dialogue choices and multiple endings based on which of the aforesaid anime girls the protagonist falls with. I need more. Which is why I enjoyed the two main series Sunrider entries so much: I enjoyed the combat, the tactics. Lining up a shitload of PACT warships and vaporizing them with the Vanguard Cannon is fun. A lot more fun than simply making the correct dialogue choices to get a steamy romance scene. Got that in Mass Effect as well: it was nice, but I need more. Sunrider provides that mixture in a way "traditional" VNs can't. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a nice steamy romance scene now and again, but like I said: there needs to be more.

That all being said, when I can scrape together a few $s, I do plan on getting Sunrider Academy and running through that, if for no other reason than the word "Sunrider" makes it stand out a bit more from other such dating sims. Though I'll probably chicken out and do it on Waifu mode because dating/management sims like this confuse the hell out of me.

Yeah there's alot of them, i didn't even really check what they were before buying, but you know what they say a fool and his money are soon parted and i was a bit silly for not actually looking up the games first. but wasn't quite expecting it to be pure fan service, i mean there's nothing wrong with that but i like to actually have a good story and characters i care about before any lewd scenes. Imo there's just no point in going with a sex scene or whatever if you haven't actually gotten attached to the characters, imagine say mass effect if as soon as you met one of the characters you banged? 

Though saying that i don't even play Sunrider with the 18+ patch so i might come off as a bit of a prune with my opinions haha

Sunrider MoA is the first VN I played, just happened to stumble across it on steam. I wasn't sure it would be something I liked but I was bored and it was free. I was soon hooked on the story and was buying Academy and LD when I finished MoA. Everlasting Summer is the only other VN I have played through. So I wouldn't say I've gotten hooked on VNs in general, just the Sunrider series.