Monthly fee? Follow

There is a monthly fee, ranging for like $11/month to $15/month depending on if you pay for one month a time or buy a year's worth.

It is unlimited access besides that, and has little downtime.

There is a free trial you can play to see if the game appeals to you, but unfortunately, for someone new, that is probably not enough time to decide, because it takes a while to learn.

Now, the boxed set you saw in stores probably gives you a free month. They always used to (so the game sort of pays for itself), and I think they still do.
You should probably only buy the Epic Edition, which would have all the expansions. Do not pay for anything less than the Darkness Rising Edition, since you can download for free the editions up until Catacombs (maybe this is Platinum edition, I can't quite remember).

It is usually through visa/mastercard. They do not have game cards as far as I know, but for people without credit cards, I believe you can contact customer service and pre-pay. Since, I have a credit card, never had to do that, so not positive on that.


The edition you are looking to buy would be free to download. Everything up to Catacombs is free. The final two editions, Darkness Rising and Labyrinth of the Minotaur, you would still have to buy if you wanted to play in those areas.

Just curious, how much is the box you saw going for? I have seen the 5th anniversary Edition (which includes everything, Epic edition which I quoted earlier is only up until Darkness Rising) for as little as $15, and because you get a month free, it really is essentially free. Here is a link I did for a search on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Age-Camelot-5th-Anniversary/dp/B000IVJXMM/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1210778869&sr=8-1

The game is really great if you like playing against other people. The PvE is probably not as good as other games, but the real game begins once you hit level 50, so it takes at least probably 3-6 months to learn enough in the game to be competitive and get all you can out of the game.

If you want to download the trial, you can go here:
http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/download/
The only thing you would be gaining by paying for the boxed set you saw would be it would install quicker than going through the downloads (and possibly you would get 1 month free instead of 2 weeks).

well, being in Europe, things are a bit different. You can play the US servers, and many Europeans do b/c the Euro servers are not very populated (at least the English EU servers). I don't know much about them, but they are run by GoA, and not Mythic.

If you want to do play the US servers, which is all I know, then I would just go ahead with the free trial, and you can purchase the expansions online at your account billing informatioin if you decide you want (I believe it is $30 in game to buy the two extra expansions you don't get with Catacombs). If you want to play on the European servers, such as German speaking server, then I am not sure what is your best option. There may not be a 5th anniversary edition available over there.

As for getting to 50, well, for an experienced player with resources, you can get powerleveled in a matter of hours to 50. You can have friends do this, or you can pay people in game who do this as a living using platinum (the in game money). But to do it on your own, starting at nothing, I would guess it would take you a few weeks (2-3) to do b/c you are going to be trying things out and will not have great equipment. It used to be months, but it is much easier now. There is a new tutorial for new players (on US servers, I doubt it reached Euro servers b/c they are normally 2-3 patches behind US) that helps a lot. I have only ever played this game, so I am not great at comparing. Most agree this is the absolute best PvP game out there. Guild Wars has 8-mans I believe, and although this is three way realm war, where you can have large keep sieges involving hundreds of people, 8-man roaming groups are common. It is not instanced though, and you have to find other groups as your roam a large war map where there could be solos, duos, or even zergs (40+ roaming battlegroups).

Edited, May 14th 2008 12:52pm by thuri

Well thank you. I found it here too, but now that u say I must play on the USA I'm not sure... since I dont have such a great internet connection im not sure how good it will be able to manage. But I do believe I will give it a try!