Runes of Magic US / AU

1. A few years

2. Yes you access everything free to play but you will need to farm your ass off to buy diamond items (currency you get from $) from players that are not free to play. You CAN play rom 100% free to play but expect it to be a full time job.

3. NO

4. YES - players that pay have an advantage of skipping the farming of stats/gear off other players. The game itself does not sell gear however so you cannot pay ROM for that.

5. Yes - I have been playing 2 years. I enjoy it and the new content is buggy when first released, some of it gets fixed/sorted out and the other stuff we learn to deal with. But overall test the game out and see what you think.

Just to add to above, to make your play easier, you will have to join guild. You should look for a guild that will run you trough mid level contest and help you with good stats that drop in high level instances. This will make your life on server much easier.

More $ or farming, better character gets. Higher guild level, you will have more access to high level gear that drops from higher level instances.

Good luck and welcome to RoM.

Quoted from "teargod"

5) For Veteran players of Runes of Magic - Does the game still feel like it has plenty of life left in it for you?

Inferiority recently hit 5 years of playing yet he is still around. Presumably he is still having fun or he wouldn't be here.

Hi and welcome to RoM.

1. In Beta state 2008 with full Live launch in 2009
   
2. As suggested, it's not easy but yes it is possible
   
3. No
   
4. Yes and No, since Time and/or Money will both advance you, just one is more convenient
   
5. I've been around since early Chapter II (late 2009) so am approaching 4 years in RoM and even though I've had the occasional break I still find myself coming back for more

You might also find the following helpful:

Quoted from "ArkanaROM"

Be sure to check out:

• Getting Started
  
• Game Guides
  
• Runes of Magic Wiki

To add, as a new player it's easy to get carried away and want everything there and then, a large part of the game can be experienced without needing to spend ingame or virtual currency and will help you learn the game / your class which will prove valuable later on down the road. There are items that are as valuable endgame as they are when starting out, Mounts and Pets spring to mind as well as Wings. Quest reward gear will suffice for the most part and as previously posted joining a guild can help a lot, especially if you can find one with players in a similar level range to quest with.

You'll find a lot more specific info in the links I posted, a little reading now can save you a lot of head scratching later .

Happy hunting...

guilds = networking...i couple months ago i gave out the last of my 1 dia wings(their abl) to 3 new players that joined a guild i was in...sure it wasn't free for them, but 69 dias is better than 150 rubies or 199 dias or however expensive wings are...

also, to help stay f2p, monitor holidays/events(unfortunately, they do seem to be getting worse...)...many have IS items as rewards. no it will not get you to endgame, but it will help at least alleviate some of the burden...

Cike I think the facebook page still has free wing codes

Quoted from "Yrcanos"

Inferiority recently hit 5 years of playing yet he is still around. Presumably he is still having fun or he wouldn't be here.

Yup, loads of fun. Unfortunately, recent problems prevent me having that fun on my US characters but the ones over on Siochain are currently unaffected...
(probably jinxed myself now)