Anyone playing this game ?   ....and if so..how is it different from other mmos...if it is indeed? I was thinking on trying it because i never heard of it before today and they have a free..limited option for play. So i was deciding whether to mess around with this (or maybe DAOC)  between RIFT and Xsyon  sessions.

some ppl love it.  i've tried it twice and outdated is probably the best thing i can say

If this is the one where you can be a dragon, (really hope i have the right game, been a while and i haven't looked) then it's mostly on the crafting end.  The graphics are dated and i never got really far, but the one thing i can tell you is as a dragon you start out small and as you get higher in levels you get really big, and apparently can fly. Beyond that i know very little on the game other then it has a pretty indepth crafting system.

If I remember right it also has a housing system. I think you have to build it. I could be wrong.

Istaria is "the dragon game" as someone mentioned abovve.  It has also been called "a crafting game" and "a housing game" and "a sandbox game", and a whole host of other descriptions that try to classify it.

Only those who play a game for it's graphics tend t call it "out-dated", as the game does use the same graphics style that it did when it was first released.

To be quite blunt about it, your best off trying the game and seeing for yourself what you think of it.  Because it does have the option for you to play for a long time for free (so long as you create just a human character), you can take as much time as you would like to check out and explore the game.  If you decide you like it, or want to try a dragon character (which plays very differently from a biped character), you can add a subscription for a month and try a dragon too on the same account.

Really playing for yourself is the only way to really know what any game is like and if it fits what you are looking for.

I liked it, even with the f2p mode its worth to try. You can play only human character with it... You might feel abit alone in Istaria but dont know for sure. Atleast when i played there was people in the starter area chatting and helping eachother. There was couple max lvl dragons too helping newbies out. :) Only thing which bothered me was the outdated controls and ui, some animations like strafing and jumping. And the game was supprisingly heavy on performance. Even tho its not that good looking.

Wow...thanks for the replies. Think I'll download it and try the free toon. I know it looked dated...but sounded ok. I never heard of it until just before my post. or maybe I should try DAOC ..as long as I'm going retro...?

Tried this and still visit Istaria once a week to get it smooth my mmo soul. It;s not your average modern mmo , no. Old looking graphs, yes. But it gives a great feeling of immersion ,Everything about Istaria is well connected and have a living feeling .Community is polite and very much noob friendly. For me is a realaxed world,filled with crafting accompanied by the most beautiful music ever in a mmorpg.

I recently returned to Istaria after not playing for at least 5 years. I had kind of forgotten about the game honestly.

I'm having a blast with it. I'm playing the F2P option for now... the only limitation is a single human character and no land ownership. Other than that, you are free to play the game with no other restrictions. When I get to the point where I am ready to buy a plot I will definitely subscribe. I almost always play human characters anyway, but there are a ton of race options in Istaria... up to the level of EQ2 and maybe more. I doubt I'll ever play a dragon, but there are a lot of people ingame who do.

It would be great to see more people trying out Istaria. I think they'd be pleasantly surprised if they are into old-school gaming at all. It's very sandboxy and open. The crafting system rocks and the community is nice. And like someone mentioned above, it does a good job with immersion and the UI is great for such an old game. The unoptimized client matters less now that computers have gotten so much more powerful since 2003. I play on Crossover Games through my Macbook Pro and it runs great as long as I don't enable ground clutter (which doesn't look that great anyway).

So that's my plug for Istaria. Try it out!

Once upon a time it was "The great white hope" kinda game, and for the fist year or so it was really fun. Then the company had a lot of finacial issues and some other things that kind of killed it off.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Noooooooooooooo.

Originally posted by Sain34

Once upon a time it was "The great white hope" kinda game, and for the fist year or so it was really fun. Then the company had a lot of finacial issues and some other things that kind of killed it off.

Interestingly, it was a David Allen fiasco, just like Alganon was...

There were some tough times for Horizons/Istaria, but the current developers are good. It's a small team of volunteers and part-time employees for the most part, but they all seem very dedicated to the game. That's what matters to me.

I'd encourage everyone to forget what the "knew" about Istaria and check it out for themselves. Join the New Player chat and introduce yourselves. There are players on around the clock from all over the world since the European and North American servers merged. Chaos is the more populated server...

I don't think it was that a big of a failure? When I played it at launch and for a few months there were plenty of people around, and Alganon from what I can tell maybe 10-20 people online at any given time shortly after launch? The current developers of Istaria are fantastic, you just feel it right away this is something they really care and are dedicated too. And throw in that magic old mmorpg feel and you can't go wrong imo.

Originally posted by Everket

I don't think it was that a big of a failure? When I played it at launch and for a few months there were plenty of people around, and Alganon from what I can tell maybe 10-20 people online at any given time shortly after launch? The current developers of Istaria are fantastic, you just feel it right away this is something they really care and are dedicated too. And throw in that magic old mmorpg feel and you can't go wrong imo.

AGREED. tHIS GAME SIMPLY NEEDS SOME ADVERTISEMENT->MORE FUNDS-> MORE CONTENT-> PERHAPS A FUTURE GRAPH OVERHAUL?

ops caps, sorry