"EverQuest 2" was first released in November 2004, which was a bit of a bummer. A pioneering MMO in the West, "EverQuest 2" was a more polished and streamlined version, with gorgeous visuals, gorgeous audio, a huge number of quests (now estimated to be over 6000), and the fantasy player's demand for quality-of-life tools, etc., it had it all. The Problem" The game was released at about the same time as a competing game, World of Warcraft.

WoW swept all before it, and although EverQuest 2 was one of the few to survive as such a high-quality entrant in the fantasy MMO genre, it was inevitably overshadowed by its contemporaries. Nevertheless, EverQuest 2 continued to attract and retain a significant number of players. First under the original developer, Sony Online Entertainment, and then sold to Daybreak Game Company in 2015, the game continues to be maintained and expanded. During this time, the game has undergone an astounding 18 expansions, with a new expansion coming this Christmas.

Studio head Jenn Chan wrote a producer letter to fans of the game, outlining the schedule for the rest of the year and revealing the name of the new expansion: Renewal of Ro

"Challenging Myth and Monolith, Oceansfull Festival, finished my first summer jubilee at the Festival, maxed out the Golden F'Aestival Bracers, earned some great bonuses, and ventured through The Fractured Cache to bring Aerakyn home," Chan wrote.

I don't know what Aerakyn is either, but I'm kind of excited. Here are some highlights from this year's roadmap.

Yes, "Panda, Panda, Panda!" is a series of quests to help friendly pandas. And as for the Swag Store that the player base has been waiting for, it was scheduled for September, but "due to production delays, we have not been able to align the stars to get this up and running. It is still a work in progress, so stay tuned for an update on when it will open.

The new expansion, Renewal of Ro, will launch in December with new zones and quests and an overhaul of the Heroic Chance system. And the producer's letter ends with this passage (emphasis added): "Get your best gear and prepare to establish yourself as one of the greatest spelunkers in Hiztli."

"Renewal of Ro" takes place in a desert biome, and thanks to the official EverQuest 2 forums, we can learn that Tachish Hiz was once the capital of the Elder Empire and that what is now desert was once a lush forest. Whether this means that players will be excavating the ruins (as the spelunking suggests) or whether EverQuest 2 will do another time-space multiverse thing (something it has done in the past) remains to be seen.

EverQuest 2 has also partnered with Extra Life for years to raise money for various children's hospitals, with this year's donation going to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego. EverQuest 2 has been doing this for years and has raised a lot of money through joint in-game activities and by giving in-game titles to players who donate.

"Children's hospitals play a very important role in our community. They are literally the difference between life and death for children." On a personal note, my family would look very different today if it weren't for the life-saving services at Lady Children's Hospital," Chan wrote. The official day of the Extra Life Games is November 5, 2022, and this year we plan to make it grander than ever before."

"EverQuest 2" is free to play in the base game, with expansion content available for a fee. The series has a long history, and you can read stories of a secret war between cheetahs and designers in a San Diego game store, or how a 20-year-old dragon was awakened and a large group of players broke the MMO code of fear.