I am going to introduce you to Massively Multiplayer Online Games, also known as MMO's for short. This is going to be a quick and dirty survival guide. This will be geared towards people that may have never played and are interested in playing. It may even have some good suggestions for the hardcore been playing since day one MMOers.
To start off with you should always remember it is a game, have a sense of humor. You will see names that are complete rip-offs of every popular media name in movies you can think of. I am pretty sure in my years of gaming I have seen every variation of legolas possible. You sense of humor will let you look on the bright side of all the bad typing and misspelled words. It will allow you to brush off the fact that some max level guy is following you around calling you a newbie¹.
Save everything, I can not stress this enough when starting out. It is quite possible someone will be looking for that rat ear you just scored off a giant Rat and it is quite possible they will pay you more than the 1 copper the vendor will give you for it.
This should probably come sooner but I think saving everything was more important. Don't become a beggar. There is nothing else people hate more, Beggars are the bottom feeding scum of the gaming world. This also includes making a big breasted female character to get free stuff. Someday running around as Trixy will come back to bite you when you get your very own stalker.
Upgrade equipment as soon as possible, Sure they give you some starting gear but I can almost promise you that the wooden club they gave you won't quite stand up to what you can buy or even make if you can handle doing the trade skill thing.
This one is important Do not Kill Steal, This means don't start attacking something someone else is already attacking it is very rude and is frowned upon unless someone asks for help. Kill Stealing also has the added effect that there is a good chance that if you are reported for it you can get warned, suspended or even Terminated if this is a general modus operandi for you. Sometimes this can also have the added benefit of getting you harassed in a totally game legal manner if you happen to be on a PVP server. Nothing like making someone mad that shows up later to kill you and then proceeds to corpse camp you so you can't get your equipment back.
Make friends, This is an interactive game after all and there will always be some content that you won't get to access without a party or guild that is dedicated to getting to the higher end content.
Most important of all HAVE FUN! You are paying for the game and for most of the big name MMO's now you will be paying at least 14.95 a month.
¹ Newbie - n. Slang.
One that is new to something, especially a novice at using computer technology or the Internet.
