Haha, Zexis... you read my mind! I was in mid-post in fact when the lightning storm that was over our house shut off my power.

And dekk, I am not sure that having a bad version would stop the conversations. Not all NPCs (on Tess) have conversations. Murrar Shar is your first try. He offers a quest. If you cannot talk to him, then yes, your version is screwed and you have to wait til we fix that (few mos probably - we're not going to "chase live" as a priority for now).
The player base is 0, so you won't see other people yet. Occasionally, but rarely.
Items, don't even waste your time. There are 15k items in the DB, but they do not show up in game since those are slated to be implemented at a later date. Server core functionality and stability is primary for the next few mos.
See Zexis? I can be a grown up sometimes. (just woke up, and the coffee is goooood)