its like WoW but I don't have to actually interact with anyone.
You're not interacting with anyone on GW because nobody reads your posts.
i think i might give it another try, if only because i've actually forgotten the full extent of why i found it so tough to get into. i may have been approaching it wrong. do you have any suggestions for a good playthrough?
The big problem with the game is that the combat and mechanics are just awful. It's like Fallout Tactics in that you can switch from real-time combat to turn-based, but both are just awful. I sort of want to suggest cheating so you can zoom through all the combat portions and skip to everything else. It's really frustrating because the worst part of the game is in the very beginning, right after you finish Tarant. You have to go to this abandoned dwarf clan that is this massive dungeon that takes forever and is really hard. It's awful. If you can get through this, the rest of the game (until about the last 1/4th, which is bad again) is pretty interesting. If you're not going to cheat, you should probably be a wizard and put your points into necromantic white and black. Harm is easily the best spell in the game and you should abuse it. You should also put all of your points into charisma and persuasion. This lets you have more party members and if you've got a lot, you can just stand there and let them fight for you. This is what I always do. Also like I said before, you should play as a half-orc. You won't get the full impact of the game unless every single person in it hates you.
Also the Shrouded Hills part is pretty boring and is a lot like Arroyo in Fallout but longer. If you can make it through that and get to Tarant, you've made it to the best part in the game. Tarant is pretty much the whole point of Arcanum. It's New York City in the middle of the Industrial Revolution and it's supposed to be huge and disorienting and sort of intimidating. Other places like Dernholm and Caladon are interesting, but Tarant is What The Game Is About, so I guess if you get there and you don't like it, you might as well stop playing because it's the most important part.
So I guess that's it. Cheat if you feel like it, be a half orc, put points into charisma and magic, and be tolerant of a really bad combat system.