They’re selling a new expansion pack and they’re offering a huge discount on the software.

You need a computer of about 8 meg RAM to run this—4 meg can do it, but you don’t see the costumes and things may jerk a bit.

You pay ONLY for the game, which is played online, and the data stored online. You link up with it, create your account based on the number of your game, and if you are frugal you will not pay another penny for it, unless you opt to buy something from the store. Play is free, with an account.

It’s an sf/fantasy mashup, the big villains are the Elder Dragons, and you use anything from megalasers to swords and trebuchets. There’s an emphasis on cooperation, meaning you get points for being helpful to other players, like resurrecting them, and there’s a general atmosphere of courtesy—senior players may divert over to a road to rez a downed player, and to defend them if it looks as if player is having trouble staying alive. The map is divided into difficulty levels. Seniors are ok to go into the junior areas, but juniors are advised not to get too ambitious too fast. You can play it with an ordinary mouse/trackball and your keyboard keys.

When you sign on you get to choose which server you belong to. That’s the significance of being asked to choose between Jade Quarry, Black Coast, etc. This is the ’cause’ you will fight for if you go into World Versus World play, which is map war, one server’s people against another, in large groups. Generally, however, you are in Player versus Environment, which is normal hiking about the map (which you can do solo) whacking bosses and mining and gathering stuff and getting more affluent and more powerful. There is also personal achievement, in which you pursue one of several ‘life story’ adventures, which tie into the history of the world.