That is the primary common channel of the test server. It is active, with friendly folk happy to answer questions. Trolls get slapped down pretty fast, so you don’t see the barrens chat the way you do in 1-9 (which I invariably end up leaving).

Actually — there are apparently a lot of cross-server channels used. There is antonia_bayle.bloggers for instance; I know I read of one for casters, but I don’t recall which server hosts it. That’s something I particularly like in fact – you can join channels on other servers (in fact you can join EQ channels from EQ2 and vice-versa), and likewise you can /friend people on other servers and SOE games, and send tells.

I really like the music. I love the look with graphics turned up high. I find the crafting totally addictive, it’s wonderful to feel I’m actually making something instead of merely collecting ingredients then clicking Combine. I enjoy the slower pace of combat.

I love the turn exp off system which when combined with AAs lets you advance your character without outlevelling your friends. You and Arbitrary should consider doing that if one of you wants to play more than the other. From an achiever point of view it is very worth doing because if you get an extra 5 AAs at level 20 those will boost your power all the way to 90 and beyond but you won’t overwhelm your level 20 but less played friend/family member.

Which server are you guys on?

I downloaded the trial recently, but I couldn’t make up my mind on which class to play. The options are just overwhelming, and you know you want to make a good choice up front so you don’t waste a ton of time.

I was enjoying exploring and not having everything laid out for me. It was refreshing after the WoW model of holding your hand through quests especially with the help of quest mods.

In the end though I got bored with soloing very quickly. The game suffers from not having enough action in the lower levels. When the Mayong server for EQ came up, I jumped ship to it. If I get burned out on EQ or the server starts to suffer population issues down the road I may give EQ2 another fair shot someday.

I’m not in front of the client right now, but there’s a way to filter stuff from EQ2 Maps.

A little bird is telling me via IM that you can right-click on the map and use “Filter POI” from the pop-up.

You can also search for an NPC/mob and get a waypoint set that will guide you to your destination, first via rough directions (“North and above you”)in the chat window, and as you get closer via a “wisp” that you can follow (though their wisp technology is kind of clunky, wish they’re retrofit the Free Realms guide into EQ2).

Apologies if you already knew all this.