Boy...
In 2004 I heard of the game, since from 2003-present day I've been hooked to StarLancer. I never cared about Freelancer though.
In 2007, I don't remember how it happened but I'm sure I've heard of it once more, saw some videos, and got the game... installed it... finished campaign... played it for a little longer... got the Crossfire mod... played it for 2 days... then I didn't play it for a while, got bored.
What happens is that in July this year I've thought "heh, maybe I should give it another try". I was nearly finishing the campaign when I couldn't get past from one point in the game (especifically because of my crappy loadout), so I gave up and looked for mods for the game. I got Discovery and started playing it on August this year. And here I am.