EQ ended up in the local newspaper because its launch congested the major internet backbones going into San Diego and caused a short outage for almost the entire city, if I remember correctly. I picked it up just as Velious was released because my brother had gotten into it and I was looking for a new RPG. To be honest, the thing that originally turned me off on buying it until then was the name--it sounded so corny and childish that I didn't consider it a "serious" RPG until I started playing it. Then I was instantly hooked.
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Luclin so completely jumped the shark that it really kinda ruined the experience for me. I stayed on until the expansion after it, though, almost entirely because I got a partial CH healing spell on my druid with Luclin (seriously).