Introduce EverQuest

Developer(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Sony Online Entertainment
Platform(s)	Windows, Mac OS X
Release date(s)	16 March 1999
Genre(s)	Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer Online
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen)
Media	CD-ROM,DVD-ROM, Digital Download
Input methods	Keyboard, Mouse

EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. It was developed by Sony's 989 Studios and its early-1999 spin-off Verant Interactive. It was published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). Since its acquisition of Verant in late 1999, SOE develops, runs and distributes EverQuest.
EverQuest has earned numerous awards, including 1999 GameSpot Game of the Year and a 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award.
EverQuest's development is ongoing, and the 16th expansion, "The Underfoot," was announced at the 2009 Las Vegas Fan Faire.EverQuest II was released in late 2004. Set in an alternate universe similar to that of the original EverQuest, this "sequel" takes place 500 years after the awakening of The Sleeper. The game has also inspired a number of other spinoffs.

Business model
The game's business model includes:

• Sale of an account key which allows a new account to be created, or a trial account to be made permanent.
• Sale of keys which allow accounts to be upgraded to access the content in expansions. Some keys allow access to only an individual expansion, others to all expansions up to a certain point in time. The newest expansion, Seeds of Destruction, includes access to all current content including the original game.
• Subscription (by the month, quarter, single year, or 2-years) that allow a specific account to be active.

A game client allows any player with an active membership to connect to the game content and other players on the game servers of SOE.
As of December 2007, SOE offers free 14-day trial accounts which do not require a credit card.

Gameplay
In EverQuest, players create a character (also known as an avatar, or colloquially as char or toon) by selecting one of 16 "races" in the game, which range from elves, dwarves and ogres of fantasy, to cat-people (Vah Shir), lizard-people (Iksar), and dragon-people (Drakkin). At creation, players also select each characters adventuring occupation (such as a wizard, ranger, or cleric - called a class--see below for particulars), a patron deity, and starting city. Customization to the character facial appearance is also available at creation (hair, hair color, face style, facial hair, facial hair color, eye color, etc)

A Sand Giant engaging a group in the Oasis of Marr, a desert zone
Players use their character to explore the fantasy world of Norrath, fight monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points, and master trade skills. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige, spells, and abilities through actions such as defeating capable opponents, looting the remains of defeated enemies and completing quests (tasks and adventures given by non-player characters (NPCs).
EverQuest also allows players to interact with other people through role-play, joining player guilds, and dueling other players (in restricted situations--EQ only allows Player versus Player (PVP) combat on the PvP-specific server).
The geography of the game universe consists of nearly four hundred zones.
Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers. In the past, game server populations were visible during log-in, and showed peaks of more than 3000 players per server.
EverQuest is loaded with features that promote, even demand, collaboration among players. Fighting alongside someone makes combat much more interesting. Chatting with that person passes the time during 'downtime'. When working together you are much less likely to perish. Healers must back up the fighters, fighters must back up the magic users, and the magic users can keep the healers safe from harm.

Sale of in-game objects/real world economics
EverQuest has been the subject of various criticisms. One example involves the sale of in-game objects for real currency (often through eBay). The developers of EQ have always forbidden the practice and in January 2001 asked eBay to stop listing such auctions. For a time, such auctions were immediately removed, which changed market conditions and allowed a number of specialized auction sites to utilize this new virtual economy.

Because items can be traded within the game and also because of illegal online trading on websites, virtual currency to real currency exchange rates have been calculated. The BBC reported that in 2002 work done by Edward Castronova showed that Everquest was the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria and its GDP per capita was higher than that of the People's Republic of China and India. In 2004, a follow-up analysis of the entire online gaming industry indicated that the combined GDP of the online "worlds" populated by the two million players was approximately the same as that of Namibia.
The East Commonlands tunnel was a commonly used area for trading, circa 1999

Companies created characters, leveled them to make them powerful, and then resold the characters or specialized in exchanging money between games. A player could exchange a house in The Sims Online for EverQuest platinum pieces, depending solely on market laws of supply and demand.

Sony officially discourages the payment of real-world money for online goods, except on certain "Station Exchange" servers in EQ2, launched in July 2005. The program facilitates buying in-game items for real money from fellow players for a nominal fee. At this point this system only applies to select EverQuest II servers; none of the pre-Station Exchange EverQuest II or EverQuest servers are affected.

Due to the difficulty in learning the role a specific class plays within a group, and of learning the best way to fulfill this role, individuals who purchase high level characters without prior playing experience are stereotypically sub-par to those who have developed characters normally through gaining experience on-line. Referring to a character in EverQuest as an eBay character or to an individual as an "eBayer" are derogatory comments used to suggest both that an individual did not develop his own character and that he does not know how to play it well.

The 14-day, no-credit-card-required trial accounts have produced a new set of problems in this area. Since the sellers of in-game items and platinum can create new accounts at will, without cost, the quantity of in-game spam from some sellers has become a widely discussed source of annoyance.