Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted
This game , in a way is very special. Not many people will realize it unless they can bypass the old grafics and its horrid past. The graphics are terrible. Landscapes are incredibly sub-par compared to every other mmo on the market, though I always thought character models (particularly dragons) looked quite good. The game engine is a bit outdated so the monsters can walk through walls and everything else precluding any real functioning indoor areas. Crafting is insanely addictive, you can create everything from a small well to a towering castle, if you want to invest the time and effort. The game has a very good tutorial system that consists of blue popup windows that do a good job of explaining what is currently going on, whether that's crafting, fighting, or some other game function.
For me, the community is very much top notch. It may be small, but I've enjoyed my time getting to know people and especially by joining a guild. Not gonna lie, one of the bigger draws for me personally is the lair system. I feel that MMOs have been going a bit backwards in regards to letting players interact with the world, and don't feel that they need anything from their MMOs but gear and levels. As someone who started in UO, having a house or just some kind of personal virtual space has been a huge part of the experience for me, and its kind of sad that given all its resources, even WoW doesn't bother to do any form of housing or personalization. Istaria supports single char roleplay and casual players more than most other games, even when it comes to plotbuilding or lairshaping. This game is very broad and deep in its possibilities, like EVE is too.
