First off I love AO,

AO made me stop playing EQ, I like the way the game works better on a variety of levels.

However,

I could have graphics turned up to max on my card, > Geforce 3 ti 500, and the game still ran very smooth. Never had 'bad lag' or such in zones until it was approaching 200 people or very high 100's.

To get acceptable play from AO I have to drop down to 16 bit, "blend" mip-map setting. I have played AO in 32 bit and maxed setting, but I ran into enough hitches for it to be annoying. Its a shame the game won't unload some of the crap overtime.

The way things are currently I think pushing mass pvp was a big mistake, the way the game's engine works now is not satisfactory for large numbers of folks swarming a feild to fight.

I love the game, and will continue to play, but I have seen what EQ can do on my machine, I know AO can do better if the time and effort are taken to make it so. I am not speaking of the graphic's appearance, they are fine when cranked up, but the actual underlying engine that drives everything.

I am not really even ready for NW and mass pvp, still a noob, but I got NW just to support FC and hoping overtime they will find a way to smooth out performance issues related to things like continually loading and HOLDING every dang thing I see.

All in all, grats on a darn good game.