Marc has another great point: get off your ass and make things happen. You can't blame anyone else when YOU aren't having fun. If YOU aren't doing something YOU want to be doing, then YOU change what YOU are doing.
Also, if you are worried you are behind the gear curve, you are playing this game wrong. Only the melee classes are dependent on gear, the caster classes still function at 90+% performance naked as they do with 100kPP worth of gear. If you do happen to be a melee starting out, then you will be a bit behind the 8-ball, but good player skill will still allow you to function well enough that people ENJOY grouping with you and SEEK YOU OUT when you're online.
You don't have to be twinked or high level to enjoy this game, and if you think otherwise, then hop over to the EZ Server, PEQ, or TheHiddenForest where its a lot easier to get high levels and amazing gear. Then come back here and tell me those are as rewarding as a true(er) classic experience. What you really want is the adventure of leveling/gearing up, so enjoy that adventure.
The journey is the destination. By the time you have "caught up" and you are max level with BIS gear, you'll be bored. You'll remember when you got that awesome gear and it MATTERED, you'll remember the joking you did with that buddy/guildee that stayed up with you camping horribly_long_camp01, you'll remember that wipe that took FOREVER to recover from and that boss kill that you pulled out of your ass at 1%. These are the experiences to treasure in EQ, and everything in between. Stop trying to "skip to the good parts". This whole game is the "good part", that's why we're playing a 10 year old game when the mammoth of WoW and the newness that is Rift are just around the corner. If this description of the game doesn't sound like you want, then go find one that does, where the destination is easier to obtain and the journey is by yourself. Only when you realize the journey is the destination will you realize why you really enjoyed EQ the first time.
|