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You might have a look at Clan Lord. It's a fantasy themed MMORPG by Delta Tao Software (same folks who brought you Eric's Ultimate Solitaire, and Spaceward Ho!), but it's different from most. It has more of an emphasis on role-playing, relatively few snerts (by and large the community is extremely friendly), and some rather unique additions (e.g., a bard's guild for which players must actually compose music and audition to join, and then can play instruments in-game to entertain other players). FWIW, it has a relatively high percentage of female players. My wife makes fun of lots of the games I play, but she likes Clan Lord, and we often play it together. Of course, there's lots of quests, skills to train, etc. Some players like to spend a lot of time chatting, and it's quite a good forum for that I think. It's actually beed described as "Wack-a-mole with chat", though it's quite a bit more interesting than I think that makes it sound.

Some links:
www.clanlord.com (has screenshots, link to free demo, etc.)
humorous advertising flyer
faq list
The ThoomCare Media Network (news in Puddleby).

There's two gotchas: The graphics are somewhat primitive, by today's popular gaming standards (but then, it's cheaper too). Also, it only runs natively on the mac - PC players usually use the Basilisk Mac emulator (see the faq).

HTH,
"Wheatstone"

You might have a look at Clan Lord. It's a fantasy themed MMORPG by Delta Tao Software (same folks who brought you Eric's Ultimate Solitaire, and Spaceward Ho!), but it's different from most. It has more of an emphasis on role-playing, relatively few snerts (by and large the community is extremely friendly), and some rather unique additions (e.g., a bard's guild for which players must actually compose music and audition to join, and then can play instruments in-game to entertain other players). FWIW, it has a relatively high percentage of female players. My wife makes fun of lots of the games I play, but she likes Clan Lord, and we often play it together. Of course, there's lots of quests, skills to train, etc. Some players like to spend a lot of time chatting, and it's quite a good forum for that I think. It's actually beed described as "Wack-a-mole with chat", though it's quite a bit more interesting than I think that makes it sound.

Some links:
www.clanlord.com (has screenshots, link to free demo, etc.)
humorous advertising flyer
faq list
The ThoomCare Media Network (news in Puddleby).

There's two gotchas: The graphics are somewhat primitive, by today's popular gaming standards (but then, it's cheaper too). Also, it only runs natively on the mac - PC players usually use the Basilisk Mac emulator (see the faq).

HTH,
"Wheatstone"

Your $10-15 per month covers not only the fees for the servers and bandwidth, but for monthly additions in the form of new items, new areas to explore, new monsters, etc.

Clan Lord does this one better: The $35 initial purchase price includes 3 months of play ($30 value), so the CD only costs $5. New items, areas, monsters, etc. are rolled out in biweekly updates. There are only two significant downsides: It runs only on a Mac or Mac emulator, and it is 2-d, not 3-d.

There is one MMORPG that has been going for years now, Mac only. The graphics are probably not as 'evolved' as Lineage, but at least you can go where you like, you not stuck on that gridlike floor!

ClanLord homepage

It's clear Delta Tao loves easter eggs. They even mention some in their manuals; I guess they got tired of users reporting them as bugs.

For instance:

Spaceward Ho! uses a cute Santa icon... um, you can guess why. Ho! also features planets named after DT employees. And there are special ship graphics that you get only when your stats line up just right.

Eric's Ultimate Solitaire changes card backs to mark special occasions. I don't remember what they were, but something special was shown on Mother's Day.

I don't know if it counts as an easter egg, but in their new game, Clan Lord, interesting things tend to happen on holidays. It also has some mini-quests that reward people who complete them with some cute, otherwise-useless prize. Some items in the game give funny messages if you use them in the right way.

This does beg the question: Is it an easter egg if it's in a game, where the primary purpose of the software is to entertain the user? On the one hand, it gives a little warm fuzzy to the people who discover it. On the other hand, the game is supposed to do that!

So, I would guess that you can count on easter eggs or like amusements in the future from Delta Tao. It seems to be part of their culture.

Is it obvious that DT is my favorite game maker? :-)

The most common complaint I read here about EQ and UO appears to be the lack of roleplaying. There is hope! Clan Lord is a sort of homegrown little MMORPG that is very strong on community, social interaction, and roleplaying. The game itself is on the simple side, but above all else, Clan Lord is fun. If you can handle a 30 MB download, you can even try the free demo. Sorry, Mac users only at this time. Ob Disclaimer: Clan Lord has consumed a lot of my time and money. I need to be vindicated.

For those who don't know, Clan Lord is (AFAIK) the only MMORPG for Macintosh and possibly the most fun Mac game ever written. For more information, browse and comp.sys.mac.games.adventure.