Slight necro here, but for anyone wanting to try eq1, just play for free on the test server, especially if ya not interested in endgame raids. You get all the perks of being gold, a ton of veteran aa abilities for free and exp is doubled. They haven't wiped the test servers in over 10 years. and if your new and starting out, you can make your characters, do the first quest, then type /testbuff and instantly level to 25, with level appropriate gear, all skills maxxed for level and all spells. If you used to play you can recover your old accts, log in and type /testcopy on all of your characters and they will be available to play on test.