DeathMutant

@jimr9999us The question I have is: "15 characters or 15 accounts?" I belong to small guild of alt-aholics so meeting a 15 character requirement is easy, meeting a 15 account requirement would be impossible.

@natefu How much do you think spent on that game? Wasn't it billed *hourly* -- plus the Compuserve costs?!

Everquest was the first game I paid a subscription for but, at the time, it was only $9.89 / month (because the original developer was 989 Studios). Prior to that, most of my online gaming experience was through free BBS "door" games, like Trade Wars, Legend of the Red Dragon and VGA Planets, pre-internet and over a dial-up modem; 56K FTW!

I am waiting to see how well The Foundry (from STO; for building user-created content) will work for this game. User-created content is what made the Neverwinter series so good so, to me, that is a critical success factor otherwise it is just another Swords and Sorcery MMO with the unique features of being set in and around Neverwinter (now ruined city within D&D's Forgotten Realms) and using D&D 4e ruleset.

@Zuljundwumn That's a D&D 4e-style Blue Dragon since the game (originally claimed to) uses the D&D 4e ruleset.

I always loved the race-specific starting areas and mounts of Vanguard; I miss my scorpion-riding dark elf shadowknight. I wish more games would emphasize the uniqueness of each race instead of them just being different skins with stat bonuses/penalties and one minor racial ability.

The "Isle of Dawn" was fun and a good introduction to the game but, by the time you left, you also missed most of the background story quests unique to your race's starting area so had little connection to it.

As a former EQ2 player, I have come to expect previous expansions to be included with new expansions. I also expect people make inane complaints like "Why am I paying $40 (or whatever the new, bundled expansion costs) when I already have all of the previous expansions? I should only have to pay $10!!!"

You can have a lot of fun with this game even if you are a F2P freeloader like me. As the articles states, the "premium" (stuff you pay real $$$ for) items are rarely used in casual "skirmish" play. The only real downside for being a freeloader in skirmish play is that you earn XP and credits slower so it takes longer to advance and you have to be careful managing your credits with the higher-end tanks which are expensive to upgrade and maintain. It can reach a point where you might actually need to "farm" credits with a lower-end tank to support your higher-end one -- which is the opposite of most MMOGs.

@Shirvington "Lightspring" was definitely a challenge (for my Gunslinger) that required using a different companion than I normally use (Corso instead of Bowdaar) and rethinking my strategy after a post-mortem evaluation of my defeats; I failed more than once!

@AlienFanatic Hence the reason they are just called MMOGs now, instead of MMORPGs, and people call their characters "toons."

In the never-ending battle between the Munchkins and the Role-players, it appears that the Munchkins are winning. :-(