Were you on World 1? I have never been to the most populous server. World 4 has usually been polite (as can be expected of the internet) and lag-free.

Thereafter it went quickly downhill. I saw players could not use higher than magical types of armor without purchasing along with “other ” items. That’s fine, I thought, until I went to the first merchant in the game to find he sold TWO types of potions, one for members and one for non. I mean, comon, at least throw newbies the sense that they are experiencing the same game as full players.

So I jumped into the world (ranger) and started through the first dungeon. I find the first rats and fire away. Or so I thought. For anybody who has played an online PC game in the last 5 years, the lag is unforgiveable. Especially on my machine (no wanking, but it’s more than sufficient to play EQ2 on some of the highest settings).

There is a good 1/2 second delay between clicking and actually firing. Aside from that, the mobs and the game lags as well. If this is framerate lag, it really is inexcusable, if it’s network lag, then they need some serious help because there were only 200 people on the server I picked. I finished up the first area and was not very satisfied. Aside from that, I made the (obvious) mistake of asking for tips on improving lag/framerate in the world channel. At this point I recieved my final blow out of game where I remembered what types of people inhabit free-to-play worlds.

While the skill system feels like it could have been fun, I would chose a game like Guild Wars, Diablo II or Titans Quest any day of the week over what feels like Joe Blow’s first attempt at an online game.

Edit: No offense if this is someone’s first game (working alone), I’m quite aware of the issues surrounding network programming and video cards.