[Maktor [Daemon]]

i didn't say a huge time sink was necessary.

What I'm saying is that appearances matter. When a potential new player signs on the shard and sees that they are given gm magery healing archery etc etc and then given free gold 9 times out of 10 they are not going to want to play on this kind of server. And i think this is pretty evident judging by the # of players here.

there are some free UO servers now that avg 500+ players on at a time. What do they servers do right? For one they appear legitimate.
this version of IN would be much better off just making fighting skills gain super fast rather than giving the impression of illegitimacy.

I was glad to have 90 magery as a starting skill, along with the other 3 skills it made me jump right back into ultima.
Also, you may only vote once or twice a day (12/24 hrs?) So that gold is just pocket change, but to a newb its a good start since skills like alchemy and scribe can be rather expensive.

This shard does not appear illegitimate at all, being such dedicated and friendly people play here. Ive looked at some of the top shards forums, they appear to be dead. Yes the have large numbers but id rather play here with people who are helpful and much more friendly.