MMO's All Around!

I've gotten into playing Anarchy Online again along with Hellsgate: Global. I've downloaded and installed Age of Conan, but I haven't gotten around to creating a character. All this is in preparation for my MMO Worlds panel for Geek.Kon. I plan on discussing, well. a lot of stuff. We'll introduce the panelists and the games they have played, a short history of MMO's, and probably some quick discussions on games that have been popular like World of Warcraft (once I find a person who still plays it regularly), City of Heroes, Perfect World, Lord of the Rings Online, etc.

Speaking of LOTRO, I've been rereading Lord of the Rings and logged on for the first time in about a month to check out the Shire and follow the path that Frodo is taking. I never realized how large the Shire was! I ran all the way up Evendim, which is level 30 minimum. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't enter Brandy Hall, but that is made up for by being able to wander around inside Great Smials. That's what I like in the game. With CoH, I'm stuck wondering what is inside the skyscrapers that tower over Paragon City, unable to randomly explore most of them except Police Stations, City Hall, Vanguard Headquarters, etc. In LOTRO there are far more landmark buildings that you can actually enter, many of which contain several quest NPC's. Pretty any major building from a the Prancing Pony, to the Foresaken Inn, and even a Cat-Lady house in Bree have multiple rooms to explore with dinning setups and random NPC's sitting around chatting. I need to play the game more.