Well its all Hellrazors fault!
Over four years after its release I went back to playing AO.
Originally I was selected as a beta tester for phase 3 just like a few other games but I found AO to be very buggy and grossly laggy...
Seems they have changed quite a bit and the new expansions are pretty nice and even though I started on their freebee account I quickly switched to the full version. Not only me but my best friend as well (I heard that...)
Been playing for the last month and having a blast!
Only downside is you have to have a full party to bash alien head after noobie island but I'm goading Funcom trying to get that changed. Other than that one pitfall I would recommend it to anyone who likes a game that is challenging but not overly complicated or a *Twitcher* like EQ or UO.
If you like Star Wars Gallaxies then you will most likely enjoy AO with all the expansions since that is where most of the old players moved too.
There are 220 levels but they fly by, I've made my first 26 in under 3 days of very enjoyable play.
The community is pretty cool as well once you turn off newbie chat and ban a few names. Most players will go out of their way to help with questions or problems. (One guy was going to lunch so he had his pet heal me while I ran around....1500hps a heal every 5 seconds...I was a GOD! No honest...you don't know the power! *weeze*)
Shou Tang, 26th level Shade of Atlantian shard!!! (last 3 levels in 30 minutes! WOOT)
Xylinx, 21st level Engineer of Atlantian Shard!
The game can look very complicated at first but its actually very simple to learn. It is also free until 2007 for basic accounts and cost only $10 for all the expansions to date and $15 a month for a full account (First month free) which is required to enjoy the game after higher levels (Perks are awesome).
Shadow Lands are my new home for the next few months (Other than here and my own site as normal).
Lots of PVP for those OWnZ JoO monkey's and plenty to see and do with all the expansions. Give it a try for free, how can you go wrong?
Dev