ok it seems to be working now, uninstall and reinstall , but yesterday i did it but didnt work , the only difference i did today was once i uninstalled i deleted the whole folder aswell so nothing was left behind. then downloaded the installer again and reinstalled
If you have Windows XP, uninstall the game. Install it again to your desktop, NOT the Program Files folder. Works fine now.
A PC Troubleshooting thread has now been created thanks to this solution. http://forums.poxnora.desertowlgames.com/index.php?threads/pc-troubleshooting.1487/ +100 fictional forum points to everyone involved.
I uninstalled/reinstalled the game but I did it again in the program files directory, and I can play now. No idea why this should have made any difference, but it did.
If any of you have this problem again it appears to have been a corrupted java file. In the future also try opening the launcher, click on options, and hit repair.