Everquest

[Kekvit Irae]

DAoC is a beautiful EQ-clone (and far superior to EQ in many ways). Yes, it has plenty of high level stuff to do (especially in the Trials of Atlantis expansion with artifact equipment that gain their own levels), but unlike EQ where you (at low level) have to kill stuff for several levels to finally find a quest suitable for your level, DAoC has quests for all levels.

The latest expansion, Catacombs, does what Lost Dungeons of Norrath failed to do: bring an enjoyable solo experience back into dungeon crawling.
As for PvP, unless you play on the Modred server, you are completely safe from PvP unless you venture into the (completely optional) frontiers or Darkness Falls dungeon, despite the fact that the whole game (except for the co-op server) is built around PvP (also known as Realm vs Realm, all three kingdoms going at each other's throats).

If you choose one of the three Realms (Hibernia - celtic irish, Albion - english, Midgard - norsemen) during character creation on a server other than the co-op server, you can never make a character from the other realms on that server. This means no spies and no easy access to a mule for killing for Realm Points.

Unless you play a healer-type class, all classes can solo (some, like the Skald, are better than others) with only minor difficulty.

Tradeskills, by themselves, will cause you to lose money as you gain skill (there are no profits from crafting), unless you sell to other players. You can, however, gain a good bit of profit by doing consignment tasks. Your crafting master will tell you to craft [blahblah] for [whomever]. Do so, and you will make a bit more money than what it costed you in the first place to make the item. Currently, Spellcrafting is the most popular (and most expensive) tradeskill, allowing players to craft gems to enhance crafted weapons and armor with magical abilities (ala Diablo II gems).

Transitioning from EQ (or another FP MMORPG) to DAoC is extremely easy. If you've played EQ, you should know the basics. But thankfully, there are a LOT of changes (especially in combat), so it wont feel like you are playing an EQ-clone.

Currently, I play Midgard on Iseult server, so if you choose Albion or Hibernia on that server, you will, unfortunately, be facing me in battle one day.

[Revelation]

Excellent reply. Cheers. You've talked me into it. Just looking at ebay to find myself a copy. Ok, got a deal. Original + 5 expansions. Thats the lot right?

[Kekvit Irae]

Well, technically there are five expansions, but logically there are only three. Shrouded Isles, Trials of Atlantis, and Catacombs (and the upcoming Darkness Rising) are all the official expansions you need to pay for. New Frontiers is more like just an update for the RvR frontiers, and Foundations is if you want a house or want to visit a friend's (or guild's) house. Both of those are free and can be downloaded from the company itself.

[Revelation]

Well, played DAoC now for perhaps 6 hrs all up. First impressions.....= Absolute crap! Annoying camera angles. Boring gameplay. Can't seem to get into it at all. EQ imo is miles ahead.
Going to keep plugging away for a few more weeks, as it is probably too early to form a accurate assumption, but I don't hold out much hope.

[Kekvit Irae]

Well, played DAoC now for perhaps 6 hrs all up. First impressions.....= Absolute crap! Annoying camera angles. Boring gameplay. Can't seem to get into it at all. EQ imo is miles ahead.
Going to keep plugging away for a few more weeks, as it is probably too early to form a accurate assumption, but I don't hold out much hope.

Camera angles can be solved by hitting F11 twice to get to first person mode

[Revelation]

Aye, and even that seems somehow inadequate. First or 3rd still both seem ...hmm..annoying

[Revelation]

Well,DAoC proved to be the worst mmorpg I have played yet. Even EQ2 shows more style, which is saying something. There is no doubt, that EQ, despite its age is still the big dog of mmorpg's.
The best part of DAoC was removing it from my hard drive.