Hi everyone.  So I am in my 40s now, but I remember playing this game a handful of times in the '90s with some high school friends.  I remember having a lot fun playing and enjoying the vast, imaginative possibilities D&D has to offer.  I enjoy online MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Star Wars, The Old Republic.  I happened to be at my local Target store a few weeks ago Christmas shopping and saw the D&D Essentials Pack and picked it up.  I would like to join an online game if time permits.

¡Feliz Año! I haven seen most of y'all since last year. If you want to find games on here go to the Looking for Players & Groups forum. /r/LFG is also a great place to seek games! :)

Welcome to the wonderful world of online D&D. First thing I recommend is familiarizing yourself with the basic rules (character creation, how abilities and proficiencies work, combat, and spellcasting if you want to play a spellcaster). Fifth edition rules are a good bit different from what you'll remember from the 90s, IMHO for the better (much more streamlined). 

Then you find a game. I personally recommend searching for D&D themed Discord servers with LFG channels (I've had some luck with one called Crit or Quit). Like anything else with the internet, some trial and error will likely be involved in finding a game that both fits your availability and also a group you'll enjoy playing with. I recommend figuring out a day and general timeframe that you'll have consistently available to play for three to five hours and looking for a game that fits. Many games will be labeled in the LFG posting if they're beginner friendly (quite a few are). I play in three regular online games and all of those use Discord for voice and Roll20 as a virtual tabletop (VTT); many people will have opinions on which VTT is superior but Roll20 is easily the most popular and has worked great for me. VTTs tend to be browser based so you don't need to download anything and any necessary content is purchased or provided by the DM who is then able to share with the group, all you need to do is register for a free user account. The VTT provides your visual reference for moving tokens around in place of miniatures on a map, seeing terrain and other objects, monsters, etc and the general experience is as good as the prep work put in by the DM. 

For creating a character I would recommend picking a race and class you think you'll like and coming up with a basic backstory (mainly "how did this character learn their basic skillset and why do they want to become an adventurer") then talking with the DM before the game about how to work that into whatever setting they have planned and filling in any details as needed. I prefer to start basic and flesh out the character by actually playing it rather than composing a short novel about my ultimate badass who happens to only have ten HP somehow and then shoehorning that into a narrative unrelated to the one in their extensive backstory. You should absolutely avoid any ideas in character creation that make your character a loner or aggressively antisocial, or "doesn't play well with others" and make them at least somehow willing to join a group of other individuals working together toward a common goal because that's the point of the game and "lone wolf" characters are antagonistic to that by nature. From that point just go with it, react to what the DM puts in front of you and how the other PCs interact with you and try to have fun. I also recommend, and this is personal opinion, avoiding any behaviors remotely resembling PvP because D&D is a team game and you aren't going to have as much fun if you're fighting with your teammates instead of the monsters or other bad guys. Banter and even occasional arguments are fine but attacking, stealing from, or otherwise sabotaging each other is only going to irritate everybody and prevent the game from being fun. And the entire point of D&D is to have fun. 

Thank you very much!  Those are all great points.