Hahaha,
You guys are great. First, It cost about $50 bucks but compusa has it on sale for $35. It is a pure multi-player game (no individual play) and you play on there servers at a max cost of $10 a month, less if you buy in bigger chunks. The first month is free (woohoo!). Further, you need to have a 3D card. One benefit is that 28k modem is more than sufficent with no lag. Guess my 500k ADSL is over kill.
Ok, it is very much like D&D but without the geeky dm explaining what things look like. Oh, no dice either, the puter does all the calculations and flows very well. And none of this typing get sword, attack crap, Its mouse driven and the 3D interface is incredible, with 6 customizable hot keys.
And maybe its been awhile since I have socialized but the graphics of the women there are awesome, you will know what I mean, and there are alot more women players too. I think Cappy is going to get into some trouble very soon.
There are 2 main variations, Normal and PK. PK is when you have a player killer flag that you can kill or be killed by other players w/ a PK status. I have opted to go normal though I may make a new character on a PK server (you can have up to 8 characters per server). There is 10-14 servers to chose from. For a game that has been offically out under 3 weeks it already has close to 10,000 people playing at a given time.
In all honesty, I have never like fantasy based games. I'm a history buff, and love strategy. Traditionally I would only play turn based strategy games only (got to love my 428% rating on Civ II). However, a friend of mine called me from across the country every night for 2 weeks to get me to play AOE. I did, and my true gaming days began.
In turn, I have a sister who is somewhat fantasy inclined and I have called her from across the country everyday and she finally got it up and going yesterday (hehe finally, I have had it for only days).
However, I must warn you, do not play this game if you need sleep, be responsible, need to study, or have any serious relationships. I thought AOE was bad, I have started playing since Saturday and have logged over 2+ days in actual game time (think its close to 53 hours!). My eyes are so blood shot, and I can't wait to get home from work to play more. I'm going to get to 8th level tonight!
All I know is that this is a new game, if you wait, you will be left behind! Actually 8 levels at the end of tonight. For more info check out the post below, it has 4 of them listed. If any of you get the game and play on the Bristle*something* server, give me a /tell kuven (it doesnt have zm, so you do tells to talk to people) and say hi. And if you are playing in Quenos City, let me know when you are on and what name, we can hook up. I would be happy to give you a tour of the must go places. After all I'm a ranger, I guide for a living.