Hello Norrathians!

Next month kicks off the new and improved SOE Live in Las Vegas! Each year, we think of ways to make SOE Live bigger and better than the year before. So for starters this year, we're bringing a larger number of EverQuest developers to come and hang out with you and show you what we've been working on.

Rain of Fear™

Currently most of the team is working hard to bring you the next expansion, Rain of Fear™, in November. In past Fan Faires, our reveal of the content and zones for the expansion has generally come in the form of videos that we've created ahead of time. This year, we'd like to take that a step further and give you more of an in-depth tour of the zones and dungeons while discussing the role that you and your characters will take with this expansion - our 20th major game release for EverQuest. We're looking forward to hearing your thoughts and comments on Rain of Fear™ so bring all your friends and guild mates to check it out!

Tournament Time and Awesome Prizes!

Have you checked out the latest news about the EverQuest Tournament and prizes? We put together a time trial event called "Death, Death, Death" for SOE Live this year. We've designed it around single groups to be easy for you to enter the tournament. Your team of six friends will have a specified amount of time to encounter and defeat iconic raid mobs in an up-hill style progression. Each mob you encounter should be harder and harder as you go, starting with the Ancient Cyclops in South Ro and progressing through another 20+ mobs. The more mobs you kill in the allotted time, is how you will be measured against everyone else. You don't have to be a hardcore raider to enter "Death, Death, Death", so all you casual gamers have a chance to win just the same. Oh yeah, I didn't mention the prizing yet, did I? The team that comes out on top, in 1st place, will take home $6,000 ($1,000 each!). Makes me a little jealous! However if I remember correctly, the Dev Team we put together for last year's tournament, finished a mere 5th among all participants. To think, we probably had all the best inside information to win but we realized that developers probably should stick to developing after having our butts handed to us by better players.

Discussion Panels, Popular and New!

We have a variety of panels this year. Some of them popular and common to you every year but we've come up with a new one that we think you'll enjoy even more. The Rain of Fear™ Expansion panel is an obvious selection. We'll be getting into more details and reveals of the expansion during this panel, so be sure to attend to get all the info for our November launch! We have our annual and popular Q & A panels that cover every subject that is EverQuest - you'll have plenty of opportunity to ask us anything you want to know. Also, we're bringing back "Drawing Death – Design a Mission." You'll get in groups with an EverQuest Developer to write and create a Mission that we put into the game at a later date. Finally, bring your EverQuest knowledge to the "EverQuest Game Show" to compete against the EverQuest team for prizes! Think you're smarter than an EverQuest Developer? Prove it! J

Player Panels? Am I reading this right?

If you don't like the panels we've created for you, well first, I will be horribly disappointed but just in case you don't, you might be interested in knowing that for the first time ever, you can create and host your own Player Panel! YOU get to choose what you want to talk about! You can present as an individual or by a panel of up to four people. So start thinking about what you want to share with everyone. We're very interested in listening to your ideas and how many of them would be perfect for EverQuest.

I believe this marks the 10th SOE Live(Fan Faire) that I have attended and I'm really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and meeting some new ones that love playing the games we love to make.

Thom Terrazas AKA "Phathom"
Producer
EverQuest