The Daily Grind: New player in an old game

Thanks for the great subject. I'm a total noob to MMOs and I think S.U.N. is my game of choice at the moment. I was in DDO before that. I find DDO to be a lot more accommodating to noobs especially since there actually ARE other noobs besides me! However someone was nice enough to help me level up my character for a few hours the other night in S.U.N. Now I'm kind of too high level because I don't think I leveled up the right things.

I still don't understand a lot of things about the game but most people just seem to laugh at how little I know rather than just explaining. There is a tutorial but there's a lot it doesn't cover. This is apparently an MMO for people that already know a lot about MMOs. So now I have to go back to the point where I can handle the quests solo and retry some stuff until these pompous jerks will quit giving me a hard time. As if they were always such a high level. My problems are compounded since I'm trying to play a healer.

One thing I don't get is how everyone in the MMOs I've played just ignores the visuals and storyline and are total stat junkies. All they are into is going for the max possible XP and loot in every situation. The reason I'm playing S.U.N. is because it's a BEAUTIFUL game with decent game play, a good story, and a populated community. The missions are about continuing the story and exploring new areas for me. It seems that I can't just enjoy the story, graphics, and awesome soundtrack though and I have to open up my excel spreadsheet and get out my MMO dictionary just to hack it in a party, which I need to finish some missions. It takes the fun out of the game to get so nitpicky about every little thing.

I recently took advantage of steam's EQ2 deal. I am loving the game so far, but from hearing the game was all but dead I decided to start on the Nagafen PVP server because I assumed if there were any people in the game they would be on a PVP server. Regretting this choice for the horribly immature community, second only to the RP server Antonia Bayle(which I've heard is worse than the play area at McDonald's filled with ADHD kids and cocaine). I tried a PVE server and found that it was remarkably populated, even in lowbie areas, and a lot of people were friendly and willing to help out, some games though like WoW, I'm glad I had a friend to start it with because I was clueless(first mmo) and around 90% of the players were jerks to the newbs.

Normally I've played mmo's from a beta into release so I hadn't really experienced starting in an established world. Recently, however, a friend sent an invite to WoW (which I didn't like in beta), and I've been trying it out again. When friends are on, it's fine. Other than that it's been like playing a single player game. One person in a zone did answer a question directed specifically to them, but otherwise I've seen no real community interaction at all.

In contrast, Vanguard (a game I have been playing since beta), may indeed feel empty (particularly in racial starting areas if you start there instead of the trial island), but at least on Seradon and Xeth, new players can easily interact with the mature and friendly VG community if they wish to. The island itself teaches you the skills you will need to adventure, craft and do diplomacy, and it offers you the opportunity to meet others either starting the game or making alts. Once into the main game, the community is helpful on global chat and in the crafting and diplomacy chat channels. Grouping can be difficult especially outside of North American prime time, but players will often make suggestions on where and how to find groups or find soloing content if a new player asks in global chat. Vanguard also has a good mentoring system which many high level players are using to try out content they didn't have time to do before and as a way to meet new possible guild recruits.

I joined The Older Gamers (plug! www.theoldergamers.com), which is sort of an omni-guild; the forums have sub-forums for every game I've tried to play, whether an MMO or an FPS or what have you. I've been a bit of an MMO tourist recently, and every time I've picked up a new game - Champions Online, Guild Wars, EQ2 - I just go to that sub-forum, plop down my character name, and pretty much by the time I've alt-tabbed back into the game I have an invite and an offer for groups/help/whatever.