Zeonick, I was compelled to sign in to share my experience.
EQ is a tough game for even "seasoned" gamers by today's standards, much less for a non-gaming girlfriend. The gameplay is not intuitive and feels more like a text-based game accompanied by clumsy graphics. If you have played before, you know what to expect, but she does not.
Judging that you are level 23 and joined in July, you seem active. I was in a similar situation, gave her options and she chose human monk. We wasted 3 weeks getting to 32 as barbarian shaman & human monk before she said she had enough. She stated she would continue playing, but rather spend her time on something else. I could not agree with her more. We both abandoned our characters for 3 months. At first, it was exciting because she would get new abilities and we were saving up plat to purchase her first a Trance Stick, then a Quivering Staff. She enjoyed FD pulling. After 30, flying kick, and the dmg cap coming off...she did not have much to look forward to other than riposte & equipment upgrades (we couldn't afford the shiny stuff, so no real upgrades). Perhaps your experience will be different, but here are two observations.
Disclaimer: I'm a min/maxer and that kills fun for other types of players unless they too are min/maxers, so that was a contributing factor to us ruining it for each other.
1) Time-intensive. Things really start slowing down when the excitement/nostalgia fade and you have better alternative activities rather than a video game that sucks time into a blackhole because of its inherently slow nature. (6 second pulses, xp loss on death, class/race xp penalties) Nothing worse than setting aside 8 hours of free time that she could be watching her favorite show, going to the yoga studio, or surfing..but instead committed to grinding through some levels....only to gain 1 level because of travel time, multiple deaths/CRs, etc.
2) Repetitive gameplay. Having played before, I knew what to expect. But she quickly grew tired of chasing after runners in tight corridors. (If I rooted, she would take extra unnecessary dmg slowing our efficiency)
All I can say is, I wish you the best of luck and hope you two have fun!
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