DAoC was my very first game.  I didn't know much about the internet, or gaming (hadn't played anything since Mario Bros. back on NES) when I met my husband in '02.  He babbled on and on about fighting, spell casting and killing people and I had no idea what he was talking about.  He let me play his little level 8 Armswoman for like 14 hours straight.. and I was hooked.

We rolled with the punches; the xp crisis, ToA, friends leaving for WoW, all of it.  We suffered Sony's brutal flushing of SWG.  These were the only two games I really got into.  I used to come here and go down the game list one at a time trying anything and everything to get a little buzz off of any game.  The only games we managed to play for more than a few weeks were Horizons (Istaria), and some other one that isn't even on the list anymore (kind of older graphics, one race kinda glided around instead of walking).  Everything else seemed too EQish or WoWish, or were uncustomaizable.  I despise 3/4 birds eye and mousing for everything.

Over the weekend we have revisited Vanguard, its something to do until a more PvP oriented game comes along.  In total honesty, RvR is the only thing that has felt like real PvP to me.  Sure, it was fun in SWG to slap the storm troopers around and stuff, but there was no fear of getting aj'd while doing it. Good vs Evil, one side vs the other side, whatever name you give it  still doesn't make it "RvR".

I'm curious where the other DAoC players are now, how many quit gaming entirely or have sought refuge in the countless other games that have flooded the gamers sanctuary.  We turn to LARPing as a substitute sometimes, its fun for the whole family and the kids can use their l33t rogue skills they learned in the battle grounds!

You could try Uthgard or Argain (daoc freeshards).

Personally, I'm waiting for ESO, AA, GW2's new WvW progression (march or later), and maybe SimCity.

Longtime ex-DaOC player here and while I have played everything under the sun since then, nothing quite compared to what DaOC offered me and you are talking to someone who loved TOA/artifacts/ML's.

After playing way too many 3-6 mo themepark's, I decided to swear off themepark games completely.

My great white hope is Archeage! Finally I get my housing, naval, and a real player driven economy, and world pvp back! No other game (aside from EQNext) stands a chance!

For me my jaw dropped when I read this yesterday. But at the same time the realization set in that it is years off at best coupled with the fact we have very few details about it. So while excited, I'm not frothing at the mouth level yet because quite frankly even if the feature list was my wet dream of a game....it would still be years off. That being said in the meantime I am playing mostly path of exile with a little planetside 2 and guild wars 2 thrown in for changes of pace.

Dred player reporting in - I've often saturated my posts with wanting of the old days and like you have never found the complete addiction I felt while playing DAoC...

The constant guild vs guild drama and politics, 8v8 competitive PvP at its finest, walking by and 1 shotting a grey for a cheap laugh, SHADOWCLAN (gawd I loved/hated those guys), AJ'ing a ToA Artifact at the last second and reaping the rewards (I lost count how many Malice Axe's I had stolen), the famous viral video "You Stole My Cloudsong" which yes originated in DAoC on the mordred server...

Ahhh... the feels, every time I look back I nostalgia so hard it hurts, 2000-2004 really was a golden age for MMOs.

However despite my utter and complete love for Darke Age... I, like a lot of people, have been dissapointed with practically every attempt that has been made in order to restore what we had. Most notably WAR which although was not as bad as people made it out to be, was still no where near the awesome factor DAoC had been. And now more recently GW2 failed to deliver on many aspects as well...

But... against my better judgement a glimmer of hope still shines... the ember of desire for what was... and what could be.

I won't hold my breath.