Some how I had missed this thread.
At 6:00 pm, Central Time, Christmas night 2005, I hit the 'Install' icon. Thanks to dial-up, I started a character 26 hours later. I first entered Ascalon and wandered around, getting a feel for how to control my Warrior, Perkunas I. Then I went out the gate and waited 2 1/2 hours for that area to load. By about midnight, I was pretty well ticked with the lag, long time loading the zones, and dieing constantly, I shut it down for the night. 3 or 4 nights later, I got back on and things went a little faster, almost too fast. I acquired my secondary, did a short bout of PvP, dieing several times, killed a ranger boss, and wound up in an ugly area. Long story short, level 3, 4 skills, around 30 gold, in my starter armor & starter sword, no shield. After getting my behind spanked over and over outside of Ascalon(unaware of the henchmen), I logged off for a couple of days. Next time I logged on, I created a female ranger, Honey Dew. I stayed in pre for awhile longer than I had with my first character. Level 6, had all her skills for primary and 2nd, R/Me. , the upgraded armor, and a better bow, and closer to 200 gold. A couple months in, I deleted those two characters and and created 3 others, another warrior, an Ele, and a Monk. All were to help the guild I was in, in their GvG events. My Monk, Madam Theresa, became very popular during the monk strike in Thunderhead Keep. One of very few that would do that mission. Probably more info than you all wanted to read. I have gotten a lot of good play out of this game. I have taken short breaks here and there, but I still spend 2 to 6 hours a week playing. Some time in pre and some in post, not too much in the other chapters.
Ele - Lady Firecracker, Ranger - Dawn of the Mists, Warrior - Hawthorne Bloodmoon