I have never played
WoW, so I can not say about duplicates, although
AO came out before
WoW, so
WoW may be a duplicate of
AO.
Making money in any game is a pain in the ass. Some things are rarer then others, but that doesn't make them more expensive. You will find a lot of your basic credits come from selling your junk to the shop or from quests and missions. You can make more as you get higher in levels, as any game. The key is know what sells and what doesn't.
AO doesn't have bind on equip, like several of the newer games out. They have a thing called NODROP. Once you pick it up, its yours. Some items can be crafted out of NODROP. Nevertheless, you have to watch what you pick up.
The economy is 7+ years old, yet some of the oldest and first items in the game sell for the most money. FC introduces new ways to make money so there isn't an item hoarding going on.
I would say for your first 200 levels, it is not redundant and boring. There are several ways to level. A lot of times, you don't notice the leveling as you are doing other things like quests, missions or raiding. From 200 to 210, you are stuck between the end game stuff and the easy stuff, yet you manage with missions. From 210 to 220, for the most part, you are at end game and are just getting your extra points to make you complete.
There are 4 different level systems, with froobs or free players have access to only one.
1-200 is the one that froobs can access.
201-220 is your Shadow levels (or SK1 to SK20)
The above two are in succession, you can not get SK levels until you have made it to 200
Alien levels, or AI is 1-30, which you gain only from killing aliens. Generally, you earn about the same amount (avg 800) per alien kill, but as with most games, you need more the higher you go.
The last is Research, which can be sorted into two categories. Personal and Global. Personal is for your self only, and has 70 levels (7 categories, each with a progression from level 1 to 10 - with only being able to add to one category at a time). Global is for your "side". This has low levels, but since it is everyone adding to the pool, it takes a long time. Research is a little different from the other types, as you split how much you put into research (both Global and Personal) and how much you put into leveling, or you can go 100% to one of the three. Currently all sides have completed Global research, and generally the ones to add to it anyway are the twinks that stay at a particular level or the 220 toons.
You could *feasibly* make it to 220 in roughly a month, but you will not have learned your toon and it takes a while to do so.
Paying people get Perks, better equipment, AI, SL and LE and more content, which we can go into another time, after you may have tasted the game for a bit and got sucked in
In the end, you can buy credits online and buy most of the stuff you need or want, if that is the route you want to take.
