Regarding what to do or where to hang out, Each race has a starting "island" where you learn the rudiments of the game.
After you leave there, your destination will be the capital city of the race you have chosen. I will use Fyros (Desert Lands) and Kami (religion) as an example. There are two religions Kami and Karavan.
In that city you will find a teleport system, the Kami one looks like a long rotating sculpture, with a couple of little balck dudes with orange hair/feathers (tm
).
You can only use these teleports after achieving "Fame" of 30. You can aquire this fame by doing missions, that will be given yo you by the little balck dudes with orange hair/feathers (tm
).
After doing these missions, you will be allowed to choose to become a kami follower, to do this involves a series of short quests and upon successful completion, you can use the TP system, but you have to buy your tickets, which are pretty expensive.
To get from one city/town/country to another, you must physically have been to that destination country and purchased a TP Ticket there.
A cheap-ish way to travel is by death, if you have a "Spawn Point" at the destination, you can choose to respawn there.
People here are extremly helpful, if you have a query and see someone near you that you figure might have the answer you require, right-click on them and choose "Talk" to open a conversation with them.
Regarding "hanging out" in a popular place, TBH you will pretty much be confined to your starting city for a good while.
But I recommend joining a guild, put a post on the forum stating your race/skills/hours of play (USA or Euro)/expectations and you will get lots of appropriate offers.
If you choose Fyros, send a /tell to Valda (me) anytime after 9 pm GMT and I will help you get started.
Enjoy the game and the people you meet here, its not like most other MMORPG's