Hmm.. my first memory of Istaria... I admit it wasnt the best. It was shortly after the game went live. Back then I had a computer that had a quarter if not less the power of the one I have now, and I played on dial-up... Yeah... It HURT. After nursing the download and patching for about a day an a half, and sitting in a stupor for an hour waiting for the game to load past the splash screen I finaly make my charater, a little dragon, and waith another 30 mins to get in game.

I can remember starting up on a hill looking down on the world below me, each slow, agonizingly laggy step I took I'd get a pop up window from the tutorial, finaly I made it to the bottom and the tutorial was over. From there I wondered around a tiny bit killed one thing, a beetle if I remember right, then logged off and went back to eq. All in all I think I played the game for all of 2-2.5 hrs. I didnt come back till a few years later, when I'd upgraded my comp and gotten a cable connection, the game runs much better now