I bought AoC hoping for a new UO, i.e. ffa pvp and player towns. With all failures in deployment, server and client stability and more importantly poor design and ergonomics, I was hard pressed to play for more than an hour or two at a time. I remember trying out WoW and loving all the improvements made compared to UO. When trying out AoC it was more like a trip into historic interfaces, back before people knew words such as 'usability' or 'ergonomics' existed. Yes, the graphics are nice. But then, what really makes a game is not pretty playing pieces, it is the game itself being sound and fun. I care more about classes, abilities, quests and game mechanics working than fancy graphics.

In retrospect I am very happy that I did not buy any fluffy collectors edition or wasted any money beyond the cover price of the normal game edition on this train wreck. =]