This month we got to know Jonathan Caraker also known as Prathun from the EverQuest Development Team a little better.

How long have you worked for SOE?
I was hired on April 1st, 2002. To this day, I'm not sure if the Fool's Joke was on me or SOE.

What other jobs have you held while working for SOE?
Life at Sony Online for me began in the realm of technical support, helping EverQuest players with billing and technical questions. It sounds glamorous, but the job mostly consisted of walking folks through updating their video drivers and DirectX.

What work did you do before coming to SOE?
I was nearly right out of college when I was hired. However, I did earn my way through university by working in my school's call center for several years, which helped me get my proverbial foot in the door.

Did you need to have any specific education in the gaming industry to get where you are today?
My degree is in Computer Science, and the experience with logic and programming has been indispensible for my particular niche on the team. That said, educational backgrounds vary widely among the designers, and there are important roles for those whose strengths lie in writing, creative design, statistics, and more.

What does a typical day's work consist of for you?
Because my niche on the team is event design, my days revolve around creating, testing, and tweaking events. Depending on the phase of the expansion cycle I might be brainstorming new raids, testing with a guild on beta, or tweaking events already out on Live servers. The tweaking part of the job is a never-ending task. With EverQuest's seven years of content, something is always in need of attention.

Did you play EverQuest prior to working on it?
Absolutely. I even have the receipt for the original game, dated March 18th, 1999.

What race and class is your Dev avatar?
Halfling Ranger.

How did you choose his name?
Prathun is a blend of my real name and my live character's name.

What got you into gaming and what sort of games do you like the most?
I've been into gaming as long as I can remember. It would be difficult to say which kinds of games I like the most, as I enjoy first-person shooters, puzzle games, roleplaying, turn based strategy, card games, pen and paper, and board games equally.

What do you do for fun other than games?
When not playing games, I enjoy driving all over California and the occasional moonlit stroll on the beach.