When the game starts, the screen stays black
 

after i click play on the patcher, the game opens but the screen just stays black and nothing loads up. any suggestions?

by "patcher" do you mean the eq emu launcher?

have you tried messing with your resolution settings like suggested in the FAQ?

Sounds like the same thing that happens to me. Try hitting alt+enter on that black screen. This will switch the login-screen to a windowed mode. For some reason the login screen will not display for me at all in fullscreen.