"Istaria?" I uttered to myself as I made a quick google search while stood in front of the giant Second Life vendor. The retail chain in the virtual world sold avatars -characters- that would make you look like a giant feral dragon of a verity of sizes... something certainly impressive for that world; and suspended just above the vendor hung a sign "Proud Supporter of Istaria! The Only MMO where you can play as a dragon!" it claimed. "I've never heard of that one."

I'm still a young guy, been around since SWG first released and have floated through a chain of disappointing MMOs since as I held out hope that I might find another virtual world and sandbox that would tick all my boxes, after nearly 10 years of aimlessly wandering through MMOs I was happy with my choices but I was never truly satisfied.... But I digress. This 'Istaria' was something I'd never heard of, and I didn't hold out much hope.

I downloaded the program, activated a trial account and made a dragon on the RP world known as Order. My initial impression was mixed. Graphically the game looked pretty average, character models were a bit lacking but the world was decent enough and I found the new player tutorial guided me well enough, even if there was a lot of back and forth. A short while later I found myself in the besieged town of New Trismus and chatting to a few other older dragons who were more than eager to guide me and help me. I have, however forgotten your names. You were both ancient dragons, both purple and I think both member of the same guild which I think was the Scions of Order. One of you gave me some items for my horde and it's you two I would like to personally extend my thanks to.

You've convinced me that this aging MMO is worth my time, that it's not a skin deep MMO and it's hitting all the things I wanted out of an MMO since I was burnt by SOE all those years ago. I hope one day I can adventure along side you, fight by your side and repay the debt I feel I now owe you for getting me started here in such a positive way.

I would also like to extend my praise to Racktor, I think, for informative videos on youtube. That kind of promotion is rare.

For now though, I do have a question: On the island of New Trismus, is there anything specific I should be doing? When is a good time for me to move on? Should I treat this with a more open mind and try and cast off my ideas about MMOs in a modern setting (Quests with their content 10 feet away and quick drop rates?) The reason I ask is that all I seem to be doing is running back and forth killing those pesky beetles down on the beach.

Once again, thank you Istaria players of Order. Because of your introduction to the game, conversations and assistance, you got one more player into your server.