EverQuest has turned fifteen this week, and to celebrate the occasion Sony Online has released a new video, info graph, and a new producer letter.

Happy Birthday EverQuest!

Fifteen years ago, a game launched that set the gaming world on fire. On March 16th, 2014, EverQuest celebrates its 15th birthday. Actually, I should say that WE ALL celebrate its 15th birthday because EverQuest is as much about our players as it is about the rich stories within Norrath.

I can remember 1999. I was a game test that had just moved over to become a Game Master for the launch of this new game, EverQuest. Game Master? Me? I soon realized I was no master of a game that had so many different facets to learn. But I learned quickly. EverQuest launched and I was helping players in the tech support chat rooms all day and all night long. The toughest thing about working on EverQuest back then was how much I wanted to be playing! When my shift was done I was playing from my desk at work for hours before going home (just like everyone that worked with me). Oh boy, how that got me in trouble so many nights. I think I made a macro back then that said: “I have to leave the group guys and get home before the wife thinks I have a girlfriend.”

I remember when I got my very own EverQuest game. I opened it up, excited to read everything that came in the box. I read through the storylines of the Gods: how the Veeshan carved up Norrath, how we were in the Age of Scale… and then I came across the system requirements. I soon realized that my computer at home wouldn’t run EverQuest very well. So I started volunteering for more overtime shifts to save money.

When I finally logged into game for the first time from home, I pondered for a long time about which character I wanted to create. I wanted to be powerful. I wanted everyone to know my character as the baddest dude on the server so I created… an ogre warrior!!! He was strong and full of pride. He didn’t care about anyone else ‘cause he would smash anything that got in his way. Man, he was awesome! I zoned into Feerrott and started looking for things to kill. I was smashing this and that and walked a little further and then… I DIED. And I couldn’t find my corpse! :(

I would see other ogres running by, one after another. I would ask: “Cud you help me find meh corpse?” But no one offered to help. Everyone was too excited, too busy discovering the world or looking for their own corpse.

Nobody at home was up that late at night so I logged out while I figured out how to correct this. I went to the refrigerator and got a snack and the largest Coke I could find. I just knew I was going to be in Norrath for a while. I took a deep breath. Then I logged back into EverQuest and created a human paladin. And the rest is history.

The Rampant Coyote has a new article were he replays the orginal EverQuest, and gives his thoughts from then and now. If you're interested the links are here and here.

So a few weeks ago, I did the unthinkable. After nearly a decade, I reinstalled EverQuest. The original.

Well, “reinstalled” is perhaps the wrong term. My original discs were not used. As the game has gone “free to play,” I just installed the new client. I doubt that my old account is available anymore (any attempts to access it were met with failure), so I started over fresh. Brand new characters in an old, familiar world.

It was weird, man.

By way of backstory – I started playing EverQuest only a few days after it launched (although technically, one of the Sony producers had me goofing around in the beta days before it launched). I played it a lot. I eventually quit simply because I had just started “going indie” and realized that I couldn’t keep up with the necessity to do big raids on a nightly basis and make any productive effort towards my games. I’d played in MUDs before (years before), and I’ve played several MMOs since, but EverQuest will always be the MMO for me – as crude and painfully designed as it was.

After hearing that it’s a lot easier to solo, now, I figured I’d start up a character or two and play for a few hours and see how it panned out.

I’ll go into the mechanics of the changes in part 2. From a game design perspective, it’s been fascinating to see how the game has evolved – to going free-to-play, to intense competition from more modern MMOs, to dealing with having a really huge world and not a lot of players to fill it. Suffice to say that from a gameplay perspective, the absolutely “free” experience is in almost every way superior to the one I paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for back in 1999-2004. The astonishing thing to me is that the game is still “live.” Whereas other, newer MMOs have come and gone, shutting off the servers for good, Norrath is still around.

Sony Online Entertainment announces in this new press release that I'm late to post that EverQuest's twentieth expansion pack Call of the Forsaken is now available.

EVERQUEST: CALL OF THE FORSAKEN EXPANSION NOW AVAILABLE

EverQuest’s 20th Expansion Marks a Historic Milestone for the MMORPG Genre

SAN DIEGO – Oct. 8, 2013 – Sony Online Entertainment, LLC (SOE) today launched EverQuest®: Call of the Forsaken™, the unprecedented 20th expansion for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), including an all-new featured storyline, new zones to explore, significant enhancements to the game’s mercenary system, and special in-game items and rewards.

“The launch of EverQuest’s 20th expansion is a testament to the dedication of all of the talented people, developers and members of our awesome community, who have contributed to the game over the years,” said Thom Terrazas, senior producer, EverQuest. “As we approach the 15th anniversary of EverQuest in 2014, the influence of the franchise is unparalleled in the MMO genre. This latest expansion demonstrates our continued commitment to bring the highest quality content to one of the most dedicated player communities in the industry.”

EverQuest: Call of the Forsaken takes players across the once peaceful plains of West Karana where they must encounter the powerful dragon, Lady Lendiniara. With the region rent asunder and the Ethernere exposed, countless realities collide and instability runs rampant, transforming the local wildlife and drawing mysterious new creatures to the land. Familiar faces, including iconic characters thought to be lost in time, will reemerge and fight alongside Qeynos military allies to restore peace to the region and send Lady Lendiniara back to her own dimension.

EverQuest: Call of the Forsaken content and features include:

Mercenary Alternate Advancements (AAs) – A specialized line of AAs that will enable players to customize the skills of mercenaries and make them even more powerful.

Mercenary Gear – The ability for players to manage mercenary equipment and provide them with powerful weapons and armor.

Heroic Adventures – Mission-style content offers a unique experience each time players adventure through them, including a chance at new loot, rares, and currency you can collect and spend at special merchants!

New Zones – All new zones, including West Karana, Neriak 4th Gate, Bixie Warfront, and the Deadhills.

Additional Features and Content – New raids and tradeskill recipes, additional shared Bank Slots (2), all new spells, alternate advancements (AAs), and powerful gear.

EverQuest: Call of the Forsaken is rated T for Teen by the ESRB with the content descriptors for suggestive themes and the use of alcohol and violence. Call of the Forsaken is available for $39.99 USD. The Collector’s Edition, which includes several in-game bonus items, is available for $89.99 USD.

2P.com takes a look at the entire franchise of EverQuest from past to present.

Some MMOs fade away quietly, while some last forever.

Games are often called World of Warcraft clone. But did World of Warcraft ever copy anything from other games? If so, the games must be EverQuest and EverQuest 2.

We are not focusing on comparing World of Warcraft and EverQuest franchise today. Instead, we will be sharing the 14 years journey (1999-2013) of EverQuest with you. 

Every classic MMO is worth respecting and recalling.

You must have heard about these three classics: EverQuest, Ultima Online and Asheron's Call which almost dominated game market in the early stages of game history. Being released in 1999, EverQuest became a pioneer of 3D MMORPGs. It introduced level and skill proficiency mechanics which are still very popular in numerous MMORPGs nowadays. In addition to its unique inventory system, reputation system and macro system, the addons, the definition of RAID and more creative contents make this game a living legendary.

WarCry interviews Lead Designer Ryan Barker to discuss how the game and the MMO space have evolved over the last ten years.

WC: Ten years is a very long time! What do you think are the most significant changes that have been made to EQ since its launch a decade ago?

Ryan: Looking back the biggest shift came with the addition of the Lost Dungeons of Norrath expansion that introduced instance zones to the game. Now days it's standard for an MMO to have this system, but at the time it was very rare. It completely changed the way we do content from then on. Having a dynamic system that adapted itself to the number of players that were interested in doing the content was the biggest shift I've seen during my time here.

WC: What's your favorite expansion, and why?

Ryan: Well Planes of Power was the first expansion that I really felt a level of ownership for, so that one really stands out. It's sort of a tossup between PoP and Depths of Darkhallow. Many of the themes in Depths of Darkhallow were adapted from D&D campaigns that I'd been playing with some of my friends, so it definitely had a lot of personal appeal for me.

SOE's MMO ages into double figures summed up nicely at Gamespot.

Ten years ago today, 989 Studios and Verant Interactive flipped the switch on EverQuest, and in so doing, turned the massively multiplayer online role-playing gaming genre on its ear. The seminal MMORPG celebrates its 10th anniversary today, and in addition to San Diego proclaiming the date as Sony Online Entertainment Day, the game's publisher is honoring the occasion with a number of announcements and in-game events.

Pertaining to events in the real world, SOE said that the 10th anniversary edition of its annual Fan Faire will descend on Las Vegas from June 25-28. As in previous years, the EQ-player powwow will feature a community address from SOE president John Smedley, developer sessions, and in-game tournaments. Members of the original EQ development team will also be on hand to sign autographs. Tickets are expected to go on sale in April, with more information available on the event's Web site.

Norrath's shores will also partake in the festivities, as SOE has a number of in-game events scheduled to roll out in the next few months. According to the publisher, new content will be available for both solo and group adventurers. Players will also be able to compete in large-scale raids for a chance to place on the 10th anniversary leaderboards. SOE's 10th Anniversary Web site has more about the planned events.

Named GameSpot's Game of the Year in 1999, EverQuest has gone on to spawn 15 expansion packs, a number of spin-off titles, and a full sequel, EverQuest II. According to SOE, in its 10-year history, players have created more than 12 million characters and more than 1 million non-player characters currently popular the EQ world. The game's must recent expansion--Seeds of Destruction--launched in October.

SOE has launched a new beta participation system for Everquest, and they are now taking sign-ups for the beta pool:

The Beta sign-up process has been made easier for you… and for us! The new system places you in a pool of potential beta testers. When the open stages occur, beta testers will automatically be selected from that pool. We will, however, still be limiting the number of participants during different Beta stages the difference is that now you don't have to wait for a window of opportunity. The Beta sign-up page will remain open. Once you sign up, you do not need to sign up again.

Aleks Krotoski has a piece on The Guardian about study of online worlds.

In Thursday's gamesblog column, I wrote about the data that companies and academics are collecting on us as we frag, chat and slay. The extent to the collection is pretty awesome, and believe me, so is the analysis; I've spent the better part of the last two years trying to make sense of an immense Second Life dataset. But enough about my PhD, here's someone who's actually got some results.

Economist Edward Castronova, he who famously calculated the GDP of EverQuest back in 2002, and his team of merry men and women have completed their MacArthur Foundation-funded Arden Project in which they built a virtual world, split it into two and played around with the economic principles in each to assess the economic validity of virtual environments. From his announcement:

Summary: In a fantasy game setting, we made two equivalent worlds and set the price of potions to be higher in one than in the other. We found that people bought fewer potions when they were more expensive.

Discussion: The result suggests that people in fantasy games act in an economically normal way. Perhaps these game worlds can be used to study real economic behavior.

Read more here in 'A Test of the Law of Demand in a Virtual World: Exploring the Petri Dish Approach to Social Science'.

A little late to write this since the 16th was the happy day, but Everquest is celebrating its 9th anniversary. The Everquest developer blog has published a graphical timeline of Everquest that shows all major events during the last 9 years.

Also in honor of the anniversary Massively.com has an interview with lead designer, Travis McGeathy:

Well, you're moving through the different expansions, turning the content into a 'Fabled' version for a limited amount of time, right?

T: That's right. We started with the 5th anniversary of EQ with the original EverQuest content, and we move through each expansion that follows every year. So we did Kunark after that, then Velious, Luclin, and now Planes of Power for this year. 'Fabled' is basically our term for what we think of as planned nostalgia in EverQuest. Basically we take the content from each expansion, in this case Planes of Power – which came out five years ago – and we are sort of upgrading them to be relative in difficulty now to what they were back then.

We want to challenge players, so they'll go back and experience this old content again. We want to remember them tackling epic difficulty level while getting rewards that are good for todays content as opposed to five years ago. PoP had a lot of really memorable raid encounters, a lot of stories that players are really looking forward to. Things like Rallos Zek, which took forever to beat. So we make them Fabled and now players will be able to go back and experience that with a raid guild today – to get a challenge out of it and some good rewards as well.

The official EverQuest site has been updated with a new letter from Senior Producer Clint Worley.

One of the goals that the EQ Dev team has is to refocus on the Live content that we give to the players. Many of you work on chewing through the expansion content and then you are left either wanting more or diving into AA advancement while you wait for the next major release. We are focusing on providing Live content on a monthly basis that you will be able to enjoy throughout the year. We hope to see everyone take part in these events and we are open to trying new and exciting things, so your feedback is welcome.

AFP Google has a story about the banning of EverQuest and Counter-Strike in Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) — Brazil this week imposed a ban on popular role-playing computer games "Counter-Strike" and "EverQuest," claiming they incited violence and were "harmful to consumers' health."

The federal prohibition on the sale of the games was being applied across the country, the official consumer protection agency in the central state of Goias said on its website Thursday.

Both games allow players, typically teenage boys, to connect online to fantasy worlds where they interact with other players, form groups and carry out joint missions usually involving combat.

"Counter-Strike," a first-person-view shoot-'em-upper based on the motor powering the popular "Half-Life" game, requires participants to choose a role as either a masked terrorist or an anti-terrorist officer before going forth with an ever-sophisticated array of weapons.

An adapted version in Brazil permitted players to take on the perspective of either a police officer or a narcotrafficker in Rio de Janeiro's infamously crime-ridden slums.

"EverQuest" is a swords-and-spells game in the mold of "Lord of the Rings" in which human or elvish or other imaginary characters go on joint adventures to gain treasure and increase their avatar's abilities.

Both began in 1999 and have since developed huge worldwide followings.

Some psychologists have described them as addictive as drugs. A few players have turned professional, earning money from powerful characters they sell, or from the auction of hard-to-win virtual items.

The ban was ordered in October 2007 by a Brazilian federal court, but was not immediately implemented.

The judge, Carlos Alberto Simoes, ruled that the games encouraged "the subversion of public order, were an attack against the democratic state and the law and against public security."

A summary of the recent dev chat with the EverQuest team is now available at MMORPG.com

Even though an expansion just released, players are endlessly curious about the future of the game! Several questions concerned graphic and zone revamps, such as the ones we’ve seen on Freeport, Desert of Ro, and most recently Steamfont Mountains. “We’ve been slowly updating the graphics in old world zones and plan to continue doing so,” said Rashere. “It’s just a long process… We haven’t finalized our plans for the coming year yet, but it’s likely that we’ll be able to do a significant amount of work on the live game including things like more zone revamps and tackling outstanding balance concerns.”

MMORPG.com's Laura Genender goes on a tour of the newest EverQuest expansion, Secrets of Faydwer.

The expansion targets higher level players. “We’ve built the expansion mainly for the players in the top tier of the game, level 70+, and have designed things so that there are multiple tiers of difficulty within the expansion,” Rashere continued. “This allows us to not only provide more gameplay for top tier players, but also give much more significant improvements to the characters as they progress.” That being said, the first stop on our tour was the one lower-end zone from this expansion: Steamfont, a zone from the original EQ which was revamped with Secrets of Faydwer.

Laura Genender spends some hands-on time with the upcoming EverQuest expansion, Secrets of Faydwer.

To start the interview, Ryan gave me a tour of these areas. Our first stop was Mechanotus, the floating city – and to get there, we had to take a catapult! Clicking on the catapult launched our character into the air and into a zoneline – though by the scattering of bodies on the far wall, I could see a few unlucky players had not made the zone in time!

The fortress is made up four zones: one central fortress area, and 3 towers. These areas provide grouping and a few raid encounters for characters between 75 and 80. As for décor, it was fairly clockworky and gnomish and not too remarkable when compared to other EQ zones. Some of the models were cool, though, including a giant metal spider (raid boss) and mecha-suits for the gnomes.

The second part of RPG Vault's interview with the EverQuest Online Adventures team is now available.

Jonric: Looking at the game EverQuest Online Adventures has evolved into since launch, what do you regard as its current core strengths, the ones that will be the foundation for its future?

Sapphyra: The community is our greatest strength. I have watched the forums welcome new players to the game, help them get the hang of it, and offer them quest assistance. I've seen naked troll chorus lines in Freeport. There are guilds that run events and tournaments on their own just for fun. Every Fourth of July, I've logged in and seen a community-driven Freeport fireworks parade. I've watched raid guilds compete with each other to take down the baddest monsters, and then turn around and share their strategies. This is a really unique, quirky and cool group of people to be around.

RPG Vault speaks to Associate Producer Leah "Sapphyra" Ruben about EverQuest Online Adventures.

Jonric: To begin with a basic question, what kind of massively multiplayer game is EverQuest Online Adventures, and how are they similar and different?

Sapphyra: The two games have similar elements - first of all, they both take place in the same world of Norrath, so a lot of the same rules apply. EverQuest Online Adventures is still a fantasy RPG. You're still focusing on building your statistics (like charisma or strength), gaining experience, completing quests, and eventually raiding if you want the best gear. EQOA's gameplay should feel familiar and comfortable to someone who's spent some time in Norrath.

MMORPG.com revisits EverQuest and takes a look at the good and the bad of this classic title.

The good thing about EverQuest is the massive amount of content available to the player for a relatively low price. In the past four years, expansions have been released twice a year, with a new retail "collection" box released each year. The expansions alternate between one that is only geared toward the high level population, and one that is tailored for the vast middle-aged population.

RPG Vault has a Buried Sea wrap report in which three members of the EverQuest team talk about the game's latest expansion.

Travis McGeathy: The Buried Sea tells the story of a lost city from the past, home to the last remaining survivors of the Combine Empire on Norrath. The city, Katta Castrum, exists in a magical dome beneath the depths of the Buried Sea where the Combine have created habitats to imprison and study some of their most powerful enemies. The magic that sustains the dome is failing though, and their enemies are escaping their prisons and laying siege to the city. The expansion covers not only the city, but the sea itself, and the inhabitants of its many islands, telling the story of the area and the impact of the recent events.

MMORPG.com's Laura Genender takes a look at how progression servers function in EverQuest.

Most recently, though, the EverQuest progression server has created quite a splash - and brought a good number of old EQ players back to the community. The concept of the progression server is that players would start from scratch - in old world EverQuest, with the original three continents of Antonica, Faydwer, and Odus to explore. To progress the server through the expansions, players and guilds would have to complete the high end content of that era - ie: to unlock Kunark, the second expansion, players had to kill Lord Nagafen, Lady Vox, Phinigel Autropos, Cazic Thule and Lord Innoruuk. To move out of Kunark and into Velious, the third expansion, players had to take down 6 raid targets and complete 14 epic quests; one for each of the released classes. Each task, once completed, opens progression for the whole server.

Seven hi-res nudies from EverQuest: The Buried Sea can be found at RPG Vault.

Stratics has a tour of the latest EverQuest expansion, describing in the process The Buried Sea as "amazing":

The Buried Sea is divided into two basic areas: the Buried Sea itself, and the underwater city of Katta Castrum. To get into the new areas, players must go into the Toxxulia Forest and the now adjoining Kerra Ridge. When you go into the forest you will notice that it has changed. The locations are the same, but the graphics are new. As a part of their overhaul of the graphics system of EverQuest, this old area has a new look. With a few hundred total areas to rework, the graphics team has been focusing on the original zones first. While they have been focusing on Antonica, they had spread to the two other areas over the past year. The area of Toxxulia is the latest improvement, and is a part of the expansion patch The Ocean of Tears will follow shortly after the expansion launches.

Here's the press release:

SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT LAUNCHES THE BURIED SEA TM EXPANSION FOR EVERQUEST®

The Buried Sea Introduces EverQuest Players to the Magical Energeian Powers

SAN DIEGO, CA – February 13, 2007 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced EverQuest® The Buried Sea™, the most recent expansion for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), EverQuest, is now live. EverQuest The Buried Sea is available only via digital download, for the suggested retail price of U.S. $29.99 at www.station.com.

“The Buried Sea is the thirteenth expansion for EverQuest, which is coming up on its eighth anniversary next month, will not only provide players with new missions and content, but will continue to challenge players with two new worlds to explore,” said Christopher E. Sturr, Senior Global Brand Manager, Sony Online Entertainment.

The Buried Sea introduces players to a new type of inventory slot called a Power Source which is used for new equipment available in the expansion, known as an Energeian Power Source. Energeian Power Sources are similar to a magical battery and come in a variety of types such as: fire, cold and light. Within the expansion, a new type of armor is available called Energeiac Armor which, while relatively basic by itself and suitable for a player to wear out in Norrath, is built to be powered by an Energeian Power Source and comes into its full power when that is the case. For example, when a fire-magic power source is equipped the armor gains offensive stats, increasing stamina, strength, and endurance but weakens the wearer’s ability to resist cold-based attacks. Power sources can be changed out at any time, allowing the player to quickly customize their entire armor set to best match the conditions they are fighting in.

“In addition to the Energeian Power, players will also be actively involved in the gameplay of this expansion from creating their own guild banners to participating in ship-to-ship combat on the open seas against swash-buckling pirates,” said Clint Worley, Producer, Sony Online Entertainment.

About EverQuest The Buried Sea

Throngs of undead trample the earth both night and day as Norrath's sun withers. With each passing hour, the growing numbers of creatures of the night rising from crypts and graves seem part of a grand design to overwhelm the lands. Trouble also lurks deep beneath The Buried Sea off the coast of Odus in a city named Katta Castrum, which has remained undiscovered for millennia. It is a city built to sustain the beloved leader of the Combine Empire who was poisoned. Generations of Combine Loyalists have tried to cure and awaken him while they house threatened populations of Kedge, Shissar, and Sphinx. But in recent times, the artifact that powers and protects their city has weakened. Without it, the city will be crushed under the pressure of the sea. Only the most intrepid Norrathians have the power to save them.

EverQuest The Buried Sea Features

• Ship-to-Ship Combat – Cross the plank and fight for your life on the open seas as you raid pirate vessels!

• Two Paths of Advancement – Battle pirates on the open seas or dive deep beneath the sea to Katta Castrum, lost stronghold of the Combine Empire.

• New Missions – Take your group through more than 60 challenging new missions ranging from defending merchant vessels against marauding pirates to uncovering the secrets behind the combine city and the danger that threatens it!

• Guild Banners – Design a guild emblem and display it with pride! Upgrade your banner to grant your guild special abilities and plant it on the field of battle so your fellow guild members can teleport directly to it!

• Fellowships – Get together with a group of your closest friends and start your own fellowship! You can join in a common chat channel, gain the ability to create a campfire that can help you in your adventures, and get a token that will let you quickly travel to your other fellowship members.

• Energeian Items – Utilizing ancient Combine technology, gain access to a new inventory slot that can be fitted with an Energeian power source and armor that can tap into the energy held within! The armor gains power based on the type of energy in the power source, so you can quickly customize the effects of your armor by changing the power source!

The EverQuest base game is required for this expansion. For more information on EverQuest The Buried Sea please visit: http://www.everquest.com

RPG Vault has six exclusive screenshots featuring The Buried Sea, the upcoming expansion pack for EverQuest.  

RPG Vault serves up another five exclusive screenshots of the forthcoming EverQuest expansion, the Buried Sea. 

RPG Vault has five exclusive Buried Sea screenshots on offer.  Head on over and check out the visuals from this recently announced EverQuest expansion. 

Sony Online has announced a new expansion for EverQuest titled The Buried Sea:

Sony Online Entertainment Announces The Buried Sea(TM) Expansion for EverQuest(R)
Friday January 12, 7:00 pm ET

The Buried Sea Makes Waves as the Thirteenth Expansion for the Successful EverQuest Franchise

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced EverQuest® The Buried Sea(TM), a new expansion for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), EverQuest. EverQuest The Buried Sea will only be available via digital download beginning February 13th, for the suggested retail price of U.S. $29.99.

"As the new producer on EverQuest I am very excited to have this tremendous opportunity to work on such a storied franchise, as well as be part of a development team that has delivered successful expansions time and time again over the past eight years for our many loyal EQ players," said Clint Worley, Producer, Sony Online Entertainment. "As the thirteenth expansion for EverQuest, The Buried Sea will continue to challenge players with two new worlds to explore, ship-to-ship combat on the open seas against swash-buckling pirates, and a variety of new missions created especially for this expansion."

"The success of EverQuest is both a tribute to our devoted player base and our very committed development team," said Christopher E. Sturr, Senior Global Brand Manager, Sony Online Entertainment. "EverQuest continues to deliver innovation, new features and challenging new content, which will be evident in The Buried Sea."

The Buried Sea will also feature the ability for guilds to create a unique Guild Banner from a large selection of symbols and colors. The banner becomes the mark of the guild and when enough guild members are in the same zone, the guild leaders or officers can plant the banner in the ground. Once the banner is placed, members of that guild are able to teleport directly to that banner. In addition to the banners, players will have the ability to acquire Energeian items, utilizing ancient Combine technology; they can gain access to a new inventory slot that can be fitted with an Energeian power source and armor that can tap into the energy held within.

About EverQuest The Buried Sea

Throngs of undead trample the earth both night and day as Norrath's sun withers. With each passing hour, the growing numbers of creatures of the night rising from crypts and graves seem part of a grand design to overwhelm the lands. Trouble also lurks deep beneath the Buried Sea off the coast of Odus in a city named Katta Castrum, which has remained undiscovered for millennia. It is a city built to sustain the beloved leader of the Combine Empire who was poisoned. Generations of Combine Loyalists have tried to cure and awaken him while they house threatened populations of Kedge, Shissar, and Sphinx. But in recent times, the artifact that powers and protects their city has weakened. Without it, the city will be crushed under the pressure of the sea. Only the most intrepid Norrathians have the power to save them.

Stratics will be holding a House of Commons chat session with the makers of EverQuest this Wednesday.

Please join us on Wednesday, November 29th, for a House of Commons with the developers of EverQuest at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

• stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
• irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
• stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

We will be discussing general topics with the developers, and general chat will be in our IRC channel #everquest before, during, and after the House of Commons.

We hope to see you there!

MMORPG.com speaks with EverQuest's Travis McGeathy (Lead Designer) and Jose Araiza (Project Manager).

MMORPG.com: The Serpent's Spine was a massive expansion, and yet only available via download. What was the reasoning behind that decision? Will future expansions also be available only via download?

Jose Araiza: It was a decision made in the SOE heavens. In the beginning it did seem a little odd but in the end though it turned out to be a blessing because it gave us more time to polish art since we didn't have to do a GM the old school way. I won't ever complain about getting more time to polish before we launch. :)

More...  

RPG Vault has a Team Q&A on EverQuest: The Serpent's Spine.  Here's the first response:

Jonric: What's particularly fun, interesting, cool or otherwise notable about the new Drakkin race introduced in The Serpent's Spine? Do you have any related stories you're willing to share with our readers?

Carly "Xenaida" Towle
Game Designer, EverQuest: The Serpent's Spine
Sony Online Entertainment
The Drakkin are a really rather different than any race we have done in EverQuest before. While you could always choose which deity your character worships, since the Drakkin are 'created', or blessed, by a particular dragon parent; you have the option of choosing which dragon has influenced your character during the creation process. Each of the dragon parents is rooted in certain elements, and depending on the class you choose, you may have several parental dragons to choose from. The selection influences the color scheme of the character you are creating, as well as in game lore.

Once you arrive in the city of Crescent Reach, your Drakkin character has the opportunity to complete a series of quests to learn about their history and individual dragon parent. It's nice addition to the race in that it adds some additional depth to the origins of your character. Partnered with the color scheme of the Drakkin's tribal tattoos and hair, it allows for a bit more creativity and individuality in developing your own personal storyline.

MMORPG.com talks with Jose Araiza, Project Manager at SOE, about the launch of the latest EverQuest expansion pack, The Serpent's Spine.

MMORPG.com: This expansion also includes a new race, the Drakkin and basically, with new race and new content path to level 75, invites new players to try out EQ. Have you seen an upswing in new subscribers or much re-activation of dormant accounts?

Jose Araiza: Yes, we actually started seeing this upswing when we launched the Progression Server. That was the start, and it seems The Serpent's Spine continued the trend because of what you just mentioned. I also think the new changes to downtime had some part to play in this.

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EverQuest Producer Chris Lena gives an insider's view of The Serpent Spine, the most recent expansion pack for SOE's seemingly inexhaustable MMORPG, EverQuest.

The Project

The Serpent's Spine is the twelfth expansion for EverQuest, and it launched on September 19, 2006. It follows the story of six dragons that have left their birthplace and created a new race, the Drakkin, to help them bring balance back to the world. Members of this new dragon / human hybrid race take over an abandoned Ogre city in the Serpent Spine Mountains, and name it Crescent Reach. It is from here that these bold new adventurers venture out into the world of Norrath.

Along with this new player race, we also extended the level cap from 70 to 75. We took bookend features of a new race and the level cap increase to add in content for every level in the game. Adding this amount of content was a huge challenge, and a great opportunity to revitalize the game at all levels of play.

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With The Serpent's Spine, Sony Online's twelfth expansion of the original EverQuest, players can expect even more tweaks to the now seven year old game world. The expansion delivers a new character class, the dragon-like Drakkin, along with the starting city of Crescent Ranch. A total of 13 new zones are included with purchase, with two zones featuring giants and dragons for high level players. In an effort to let mid and low level characters experience some of the engaging raid and group combat available primarily to high level players, Serpent's Spine is dropping in a bunch of mid-level static outdoor boss encounters and dungeon areas, along with some new armor sets. The level cap is also being kicked up to 75 from 70.

MMORPG.com: How are the Progression servers doing? Are there still plans for an eventual merging?

Chris Lena: Both of the servers are still going amazingly well with their populations continuing to exceed that of a normal server. I would expect some loss as some players return to their regular play servers and especially once the progression portion is completed. In other words, I still imagine their will be a merge but we are still a long way away.

Tony "RadarX" Jones, Ten Ton Hammer- The Progression servers were a bold move by SOE. Was this something that had been in the works for awhile, or was it just a brilliant idea someone had one day?

Chris Lena, EQLive Producer - I am still not sure if it is a bold move or a conservative one. In some ways it was dangerous because we knew it would be very hard to set expectations. So many people wanted so many things from these servers and we knew it was impossible to satisfy everyone. It was a long evolving process that involved a lot of debate. Do we include the tutorial? Then if we do what do we do with the power of the items that drop. A million little questions and a million little more that popped up during our month long beta.

Jonric: What are you adding in the way of new spells? Why was this an area you chose to focus on in this expansion? What are some interesting or unusual new examples?

David Ford: Just like with Alternate Advancement abilities, it's too soon to discuss specific spells because the details will change so greatly between now and the launch of the expansion. One thing that I can talk about is a new way that spell upgrades will happen. We now have the ability to create spell groups. Spells in a group are basically tiered versions of the same spell. So, you might have four versions of Giant Flame Ball of Doom, each better than the one that came before. If you get the next version of a spell you already have, it will replace the previous version in your spell book.

This allows us to make the base version of the spell available fairly easily (vendor purchased, a simple solo quest, etc.), and make the more powerful versions available in appropriate content. A spell with three tiers might see a solo quest, a group quest and a raid to get all of the versions.

There are several other improvements to the spells system that I'd love to talk about here, but the details will have to wait until we get closer to launch.

Jonric: Within the context you've just outlined, what is the basic premise you're aiming to realize in The Serpent's Spine?

David Ford: Long before I was a developer for EverQuest, I was a player of the game. I started playing it just about a month after it launched, and played at the high end for several years after that. As a player and a developer, I'm very excited about the current direction and state of the game, and The Serpent's Spine expansion in particular.

The main premise of this expansion was to create a coherent play space that allowed a player to move from the lowest level to the highest, all within a linked set of zones. Additionally, one of the main goals was to take the numerous game enhancements that EverQuest has seen over the years, and create a space where they could all shine together. Prophecy of Ro, for example, saw the introduction of destructible objects and terrain. In The Serpent's Spine, you'll see destructible objects playing a major role in a number of zones, and in a large number of different situations from group events to large raid encounters.

The content path also provides us with the ability to introduce more directed quests, and to do so in a very cohesive manner. We have gone to a great deal of trouble to plan out how play will flow between the zones as players gain levels and power, and hopefully, the ever present answer to the question "what's next?" will be "something fun!"

Sony Online Entertainment Announces The Serpent's Spine(TM) Expansion for EverQuest(R)
Tuesday July 11, 11:00 am ET
Players Will Be Introduced to the Drakkin, the First New Player Race in More Than Three Years

SAN DIEGO, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced EverQuestA The Serpent's Spine(TM), a new expansion for the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), EverQuest. EverQuest The Serpent's Spine will only be available via digital download beginning in September for the suggested price of U.S. $29.99.

"In an ongoing commitment to introducing new features into EverQuest, The Serpent's Spine introduces the Drakkin, the first new player race since the Frogloks were added to the game seven expansions ago," said Chris Sturr, Senior Brand Manager, Sony Online Entertainment. "In addition to the new race, players of all levels will benefit from this expansion, as we are including content for levels 1 to 75."

Players will also be able to explore a new starting city, Crescent Reach, which contains merchants, quests and combat. As in the last expansion, there will be new dynamic features such as auras, traps and destructible terrain. Players will be able to reach level 75 with new spells, raids and abilities.

MMORPG.com: What is the toughest thing about programming the Progression Server you have encountered so far?

Chris Lena: The biggest challenge that we have encountered so far would be the sheer amount of work that's needed to get this server up, running, and handling all of the little things that come up along the way. There's a lot that went into this server, everything from designing and implementing the expansion-locking mechanism, to evaluating the 7+ years worth of content that exists all over Norrath. We have to be mindful of all of the new content, how it could possibly interact with the old content, create balance problems, and then make adjustments to handle all of those problems.