A means to a beginning...

[Shadestrike]

Hello all! I'm Shadestrike and I am looking for a guide.

I played EQ for 4.5 years, DAOC for 5 months, WoW for 1.2 years and a variety of others including DDO, RO, and SWG.

The point is this. I am very tired of the other games, and I have never tried Horizons. I want someone who will sit down with me over AIM or something and tell me alot about how the game really acts and works.

If you don't have time, then no big! If you do.. contact me via my Email!
Thanks guys!

[Khargu Wildeye]

Shadestrike, I would recommend just downloading the 14 day free trial and joining New Player and Dragon channels. It's even better than AIM because you get to dawdle about on the beaches and valleys roasting beetles while asking your questions about the game.

So far I have gotten an answer to everything I have asked, and the telling means more when your actually in game to apply those answers.

Since the trial is free, your only out the time it takes to set it up.

[C`gan]

Yes, please feel free to enjoy the in-game resources the community has to offer.

The game works in several ways: 1. do quests (if you wish) 2. hunt (if you wish) 3. craft (if you wish) 4. build (if you wish) 5. HAVE FUN (not optional!)

[Kulamata]

I'm a bit late on this, but if you haven't decided yet, one more item. Your timing is excellent, as the tutorial and new player portions of the game have recently had a massive overhaul, and are much improved.

That, coupled with the excellent ingame player assistance, will get you off to a smooth start.

[Daeanor]

I might add that you shouldn't let the apparent lack of polish in the interface and some game mechanics throw you off too early. Give the actual gameplay some time before making a judgement on it. Coming from the huge commercial successes like EQ and WoW, you are bound to be struck by how unfinished some aspects of the game mechanics seem to be - some cludgy interface conventions, lack of customizations, awkward movement, some pretty awful rendering, and real, real long zoning times. Horizons just hasn't had the level of success and subsequent budget to polish all those things to the point you are no doubt used to. I know it was a shock for me. But the underlying game is really quite good, and that stuff tends to fade more into the background as you get used to it.