As simple as the question is, i have a feeling everyone has some interesting stories behind how they got into this medium,
As for me, getting into Vns was a long winded journey,
It all initially started when i got into anime. Very often i would i see vns being talked here and there in anime forums, but i didnt pay too much attention to it. For starters, i was not very invested in reading and from the few screenshots i saw here and there, i felt like there was a barrier which stopped me from getting into it. This is also due to the fact, i was just getting into anime and i was more comfortable with western shows and series at that time. But before i knew it, i was hooked into anime and an issue became apparent very quickly, which left me a bit surprised. After i spent years binging anime, i started to notice a lack of quality shows, or shows i liked to be exact. Im the type of person that binges anything i like, so in 2-3 years i was done with every notable anime and watched most of the hidden gems to all the garbage romcoms that came out every fall. Thus i realized i needed a change of pace
Enter phase 2: Manga
Now with having exhausted my list of anime (from 90s-2010+) and having gotten accustomed to the medium in general, i was ready for manga. At that time i was bored and needed something to fill the void. I personally could not read manga from a computer as it felt clunky and browsers on my phone felt tedious. Then i stumbled upon Manga rock, which held my hand for 3-4 more years, where i had some of the most memorable time reading. This was a time of excitement, where i found near infinite things to read whilst not getting tired of the medium which i had not predicted. After all, i was never much for reading, but this got me invested and slowly i stopped watching anime all together and started enjoying Manga's more (who said reading manga isn't beneficial, it single handedly got me into reading!). But slowly after i kept binging on manga the inevitable reality was soon becoming apparent, i had somehow managed to exhaust even this medium. I had kept reading day and night (mostly night), in between shifts and bus rides, it was soon becoming apparent this medium was not gonna last forever. Alas all good things must come to an end, i soon realized that most the manga i haven't read are just 1-2 chapters and ongoing. I had read all the obscure manga from Love in hell, to almost all the english manhwa and it was becoming hard to find stuff that was enjoyable to read
Enter Phase 3: Visual Novels
At this stage i started reading books and novels not related to anime or manga. I had broadened my horizons and therefore i started reading anything that fancied my taste. But there was a hole left behind, a void that always reminded me: what if there was a medium that joined both manga and anime but offered more flexibility?
And lo and behold, i started getting into VN's, a medium that i considered to be very dismissive about in the past. The first one i played was G-senjou maou, which was very interesting to say the least. For starters the first thing that caught my attention mid-way through the game was: "Holy shit, for once it matters which characters i like". Even though G-senjou has a different approach to each heroine and plot progression compared to other VNs, the fact that what i had a choice was a concept that blew me away. Never before did anime or mangas offer that flexibility. Before i knew it, this became possibly the best medium i had interacted with. Infact, i thought it was a better Death Note in a sense that i found its ending to be quite satisfying and it wasnt a typical cliched ending or anything soft, which it could have easily gone for. Comparing the two isn't exactly fair i guess, but its better than mindlessly questioning morals and then throwing away an epic story with a subpar ending with convoluted decision making (cough death note cough). This lead me to reading Fate, Ever17, Karin and really got me hooked into VN's.
Now this is where i stand, fascinated and engrossed in a medium which i know will offer hundreds of hours more of enjoyment, the story behind how i got into VNs might not be too interesting i suppose, but it did get me thinking: "How did other get into it?"
I initially avoided VNs since it looked over the top and was kinda hard getting into, as i was accustomed more to western media i guess, but im very happy that i did manage to get into it, otherwise i would be missing out.