CoH was my first MMO too. I started around i11. I wasn't leveling up and figured I must have missed some game trigger that would allow me to level up. So with 1 xp left to go, I ran every arc available to find that "trigger" (The Hollows, Steel Canyon, Faultline, etc). After grinding for 2 weeks, I told my friend who got me into CoH that the game was waaay too broken and not worth paying for. When I told him why, he laughed and explained "trial accounts max out at level 14, noob!" (This was true back then). I paid, eventually leveling that toon (and many others) to 50, and didn't stop paying until NC no longer wanted my money.