Real life first name: Mark
Forum handle: -chutoi-
Main Character name: Chutoi (phonetic spelling for Chewtoy since I started back when the naming policies were enforced!)
Server: The Tribunal
Guild: Sol Invictus

Where in the real life world do you live? Dallas, Texas

How long have you played EQ? since inception

What other MMOs have you played? Ultima Online (very briefly), Worlds of Warcraft

What type of work do you do? International Tax Law (not quite as boring as it sounds. . . but close!)

How long is your typical gaming session when playing EQ? Usually about 5 hours (raids). I tend to max out on AA and experience fairly quickly so I can go back to a raiding schedule only. Work keeps me pretty busy!

What does a typical EQ day consist of for you? I and a couple of co-raidleaders typically run raids for our guild. We log on, field any questions or issues, then haul butt for our first target. Ideally, I will be pushing people to go as soon as their mana and endurance are ready to go. Downtime on a raid should always be minimalized. Raid leaders should keep a raid running quickly, smoothly, and efficiently. If it's not fun, then why would people log in? While I think it has some serious class balance issues, I'm looking forward to the downtime changes to mana and endurance regen for their impact on raid recovery. The former 24 minutes for warrior endurance is awful!

What was the race and class of your very first character? Chutoi on Mithanial Marr. He was the first incarnation of Chutoi, and was a barbarian meatshield (warrior), hence the name "Chewtoy." I believe he's still sitting in Cazic-Thule just off the Feerot, decked out in bronze armor and wielding a Langesaxe of the Wolves, which should tell you how long it's been since I played him!

What other hobbies or activities do you take part in, other then playing EverQuest? Weight-lifting, skiing, white-water rafting, writing (books--finished a couple but haven't tried to get them published yet), and reading. I read mostly fiction, but also an odd smattering of philosopy and poetry creeps into my reading list occasionally. If you haven't read the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe, Rudyard Kipling, or some of the poets known as the Romantics, you should! I also spend an inordinate amount of time attempting to maintain warmly faction with the girlfriend. Things tend to get bad if you let her get down to scowling.

What is your highest level in EQ? 71, soon to be 75!

What race and class is your main character? Iksar Shaman

What do you like the most about the class you have chosen for your main character? Honestly, I'm not to pleased with the class in its current incarnation. The shaman class has gone through some major ups and downs, and it's been mostly downs the last few years. However, it's pretty much impossible to change mains in an end-game raiding guild given the equipment and AAs required to be effective. Shaman were designed to be an endurance class, able to survive and slowly do damage. Everquest has been changing and continues to change towards a faster game design with less downtime, but the shaman model has never been re-assessed for viability in the new model. Our ability to survive damage has dropped to almost to cloth caster levels, and our burst capability on healing or damage is largely nil. At the high-end of the game, specialist classes outweigh hybrid classes substantially. You must tank with a warrior, you have to have clerics to heal, you need true dps classes to do enough damage to kill a mob before healers run out of mana, etc. Shaman are far more powerful in the lower-end of the game, but swiftly run into a glass ceiling of restrictions in the high-end in terms of viability for top groups or raids.

Does your main character worship a deity? Cazic-Thule

How did you choose your main character's name? Chewtoy wouldn't go through the naming restictions at the time, so Chutoi it was. Many years ago, I had a friend who worked at Origin (makers of the Ultima games). He dragged me in one Saturday where he and a bunch of friends had locally networked Warcraft, and I chose the log-in name of Chewtoy since I knew what was coming. (I did, indeed, get royally schooled as an initiation!). I've used Chewtoy for any games I've played ever since.

Which classes in EQ have you NOT played? Berserker

What is your favorite expansion? Planes of Power. It was insanely difficult at the time, and learning the encounters and flagging was absolutely painful since we had to repeat encounters multiple times and (sorry, SoE) had to share log-in information to get everyone flagged. All that being said, the developers had put in entirely new encounters, graphics, etc. Everything was so much harder than it had been, and even the 'easy' zones had mobs that hit in the 400s (almost raid level mobs in some old zones, and these were trash!). The game was fresh and new, and it was exciting to move through. It was unforgiving, and forced us to improve. On the downside, they also created slow mitigation in PoP, and refused to revisit the shaman class healing for like 2 years after essentially weakening our greatest weapon.

What is your favorite zone? Howling Stones (Charasis). I spent many, many hours there trying to get through 59 to 60 when true hell levels still existed.

What is your favorite npc? Cazic-Thule from Fear (aka 'Cuddles')

Which expansion do you like the least? Hands down, GoD. Gates of Discord was quite possibly the worst thing to ever hit Everquest. For those of you not familiar with this disaster, the expansion was designed for level 70 characters, but they didn't implement the level increase--so level 65 charaters were trying to deal with an expansion built around anticipated level 70 players. The flagging system was cumbersome and required insane amounts of work since only the best geared level 65 players could hope to defeat level 70 content, forcing the same core players to carry their guildmates through encounters time after time. That caused burn out and people quitting. People quit because they got frustrated at not being able to get flagged. The game went to a massively overpowered offense and few-hp type of model, whereby all the mobs were glass cannons--huge spikes of dps, but died quickly, so endurance classes (necro and shaman) were actually a detriment to groups (unable to heal thanks to slow mitigation, and unable to do fast dps). Charm dps was insane, and no group could afford to be without an enchanter in some areas. Fully 50% of my high level shaman friends left EQ during this expansion--with good reason. In addition, the mobs were repetitious, and all of the scenery was drab and boring, and I'm sure more than just me got very tired of looking at brown rocks and ruins. I shudder to think how much of their player base SoE lost to this expansion, so I'm very concerned when I see them rushing out new expansions that may or may not be ready. I'm hoping TSS turns out for the best!

Which zone do you like the least? Demi-Plane of Blood. I like the encounters, but I loathe that zonewide AE. You should NOT have to farm for months for everyone in the guild to avoid the AE. Snare sucks, to say nothing of the recovery time for mana and endurance.

Which npc do you like the least? Overlord Mata Muram. Our guild doesn't even bother with him when we run Anguish for new folks. Even now, the mechanics of the encounter (silence versus click for those who know what I'm talking about) are so unforgiving that you can do everything perfectly and still lose due to bad luck. I dislike having to depend on luck for an encounter.

What is the most platinum you have ever spent on purchasing a single item for one of your characters? No clue. I deal with almost solely raid drops. I think I spent a boatload on Holgresh Elder Beads, but that was just for scouting purposes so I could assign positioning better on raids (Holgresh Elder Beads summon unlimited eyes for scouting if you're not familiar with them. They're also very valuable to shadowknights for tapping).

Do you have an item you no longer use but keep around for nostalgic reasons? If so what is it and why do you keep it? Epic 1.0. I have the Spear of Fate, and given the difficulty of getting it done back then, I'm not getting rid of it! I spent untold hours camping stuff for it.

What do you like best about EverQuest? Hands down, the answer to this question is the people. Everquest itself is nothing without the people you meet. Were it not for my guildmates, I would have left long ago. There is always that core group of people who will do what it takes to win, beating their heads against a new encounter time after time until they manage to adapt and overcome. It's a self-perpetuating cycle. They stand behind me even as I stand behind them!

What do you get out of playing EverQuest? I get to spend time with 50 or 60 people I enjoy.