TERA Trial...wtf?

OK, so I'm one of the many disenchanted with WoW.  Heck, I guess I've always been disenchanted with it.  More on that later.  On to the topic.

TERA sounded at least a little different.  Everything I read about it raved about the combat, but acknowledged the story might be a little lacking.  OK, I can handle that, and I want to try something different.   The action based combat gave me pause -- my combat strategy sounds steriod-infused.  I stand still and hit things.  There were enough comments that I knew going in that my go-to strategy wouldn't work so well, but heck, I've been doing pretty well in Skyrim lately, so lets give it a try.

I registered for the trial, download the app, and connected without any problems.  The controls are...well...different.  You have to use the F key to interact with NPC's.  OK, I can adapt.  I didn't accidentally attack anyone I was trying to talk to, so let's book that success.

After a few interactions, the game warned me combat was coming up.  I had created an archer, maybe because a hunter was my first WoW character, or maybe because the required player skill was the lowest of any of the classes.  I started reviewing my skill buttons as the game suggested.  That's when it hit me -- I was level 20.  Well, I think I was level 20.  Some of my attacks were suffixed with "2", "3", or "4", so apparently I'd leveled a few times.  I pushed on, but real life intruded before combat started, so I exited the game.

When I logged back in several hours later, I checked the character selection screen.  Yep, level 1.  OK.  I signed on and I was back at the begining of the starting area with nothing completed.  Hmmm.  I definitely had completed quests and had left the initial starting area, I went through a loading screen.  Oh well, I basically only had talked to people, so lets do that again.  It only took a short time, but...yeah, I was level 20.  I had around 4500 hp, and 5500 "blue" points (I don't remember if the resource was focus or whatever).

I moved on, went through all the stuff I completed, and got into combat.  I killed everything I was supposed to, but it just didn't move me.  No massive fun injection, and I know it may be a radical concept, but I play for fun.  I wasn't sure what all my abilities were, what ones should be on my toolbar, etc. -- I wasn't really expecting to jump in at level 20, I wanted to learn my character.  Maybe that's why player skill wasn't an issue?  Outlevling starting area content by that much sure reduces the skill you need.

Anyway, I might go back and see if any of my progress was saved this time, or if another character class would start differently, or if I missed a "start me at level 20" checkbox.  But honestly it feels like a chore.  And if this was what was going to induce me to start a monthly subscription...well, epic fail.

Why the name?

Ok, so why notes from my past? Am I going to be boring you with lots of old childhood stories? No, not really...though a few might creep in now and then. But when you stop to think about it, no matter when you're reading this, I wrote it in my past. So, unless you subscribe to some different theories of time (more about those later), it's always going to be notes from my past. Cool, huh?

Plus, you know, all the good names were taken.