Moving On...
1- The Cautionary Tale of Luse Oftenlost My girlfriend gave me this game (Everquest:Evolution, which contains the basic game and all of it's expansions save the most recent one) for my birthday, and let me tell you, I was excited. A few of our friends were already playing the game and were looking forward to us joining them online. Getting started (installing the game and all that technical jazz) was interrupted by a few snags; (these can be more attributed to my own ineptitude than anything else) but once I'd input the codes for the free month of service and payed for another in advance, I was ready to begin. I started out with (what I thought) something fairly easy. I created a Wood Elf named Luse (I gave him his surname once I reached level twenty-as that is when you get that neat little option) and began my career as a ranger in the city of Kelethin. All went well (for the most part, since the city is acutally in the trees one misstep can send you plummeting to your doom) in the beginning. I found my "newbie" quests without incident and hurried into the woods to start killing things and taking their stuff. So called "newbie" quests are the first, and easiest, things for you to do. It often involves gathering items found on monsters and making equipment for your character to wear. The first real thing I learned about this game(after a number of humbling falls that taught me to use my in game map) was that.....
You know what? You people don't want to know about the months I've spent playing (and enjoying) this game. You don't need to know all the times my virtual self got defenstrated or otherwise violently dismembered. You want to know only the important bits right? Let us forget that first paragraph and move right onto the meat of the matter....
The only important thing about EQ (that hasn't been mentioned previously in other more eloquent reviews) is that it is alot like tabletop games. Alarmingly so really.
The enjoyment you get out of a Massively Multiplayer RPG is equal to how much effort (and time) you put into it. Just like "normal" Role Playing Games.
If you want, you can ignore the rest of the "real" people playing with you and smack monsters around. You can take the time to learn the intricacies of the "world" you are playing in and how to interact with others (and all those odd little code words/abbreviations they use). You can beg strangers for handouts, run rigged games of dice and even cause the deaths of dozens of people's characters and NPCs just for fun (I don't endorse all of these activites, mind you). You can do quests. You can mash buttons frantically, get drunk and have your digital representation make lewd gestures at passers by.
The fun of something like this (just like the fun of a "regular" RPG) is in what you choose to do with it. Think of it as a pay for play LARP Con that never ends.
That is why I rate this game 3/3. Because it's greatness (or falability) is up to the user to discover.
