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Not Ready for Retirement
EverQuest Titanium, a boxed set including every expansion released for the game, goes on sale for $19.99 January 11th. Also, players with cancelled accounts can grab 21 days of free play if they reactivate before January 13th. All of this co-incides with SOE's release of EQplayers.com, a site chock full of real-time player profiles and other community-friendly features.

In addition to EverQuest Titanium, SOE is launching EQ Players, a website designed to extend the player's interaction with the game outside of the game world. This new service gives players more ways to access, track and expand their in-game characters by obtaining character statistics, profiles, item information, in-game activities and more all in one place. The website, www.eqplayers.com, will launch on December 15, 2005, and will have profiles for more than 4.9 million characters and more than 335 million total inventory items. EQ Players will be available for EverQuest players to try, at no additional cost, until December 29, 2005, after which time some EQ Players features will carry a monthly fee. In addition, as a special offer, SOE will reactivate previously closed EverQuest accounts for 21 days of free gameplay but the former EverQuest players must take advantage of this offer before January 13, 2006.

View SOE's "EQPlayers / Free Play" press release here!
Other links of interest:

• Past EQ News

• The Latest EQ Developers Corner

WoW: The Burning Crusade At CVG
Are they on fire or something?
CVG
got a chance to drill the mind of Shane Dabiri about the upcoming expansion
for World of Warcraft.
Who is Shane Dabiri? Find out:

What are you currently working on at the moment in the expansion?
Shane Dabiri: As lead producer on the World of Warcraft team, I'm currently
undertaking the exciting task of dividing and focusing our resources on the
development of both the expansion set and on the continuing content development
for the current game. This should help us streamline our efforts for 2006.
What percentage of the content is geared toward players of all levels, and
what percentage to only level 60 (and above with the level cap increase) characters?
Shane Dabiri: As is traditional with MMO expansions, a large portion of the
content will be geared toward characters in the range between the current
maximum and new maximum levels, starting at around level 55. However, we do
also plan to add content to better tie in the new races to the world, so players
who choose to start as one of the new races will experience a great deal of
new content up to about level 20.

• Get
  The Answers You Need and Read The Full Story
• Not
  Enough? Read Here.
• Unless You Have Lived Under A Rock For The Past Year, Read
  Up On What WoW Is

Almost six years and still going strong! Let's hear a Boo-Yah! for the game that got me started in this crazy MMO world. Friday, SOE posted Kytherea’s Keepsakes on the Developers Corner at the EverQuest Live Official Site. She shows off some really great concept art in comparison to what these Gods look like in game. It almost makes me want to go back and play again... almost..

To follow the journey traveled by a piece of artwork from the imagination, to paper, then implemented in a game such as EverQuest is truly an interesting adventure. I enjoy traipsing through old folders of concept art from time to time, both to see what the artists have imagined over the years and also to see how the concepts of long ago have developed into the living, breathing world of EverQuest. In one of my frequent expeditions I tripped over the concept art for some of the EverQuest deities (from all the way back in 1998!). When I looked at each piece of artwork I was amazed at how closely these depictions of the deities represented their physical forms in the world of EverQuest and I wanted to share these with you.

More EverQuest Live News and Information

PC.Ign.com has A tour of the Human Intro Maps by the Netdevil himself. Also included are 20 brand spankin new screenshots for your viewing pleasure.

After Rigby had gone through numerous procedures to receive his Hestia ID badge -- a nice drive through the Bay 313 Caverns, followed by a visit to Emergence Terrace -- he did more procedural work. Finally, he received an assignment to the Trial Zone, where he went through some mock combat before finally getting his official badge and transferred to the Back Range.

Mommy.. can I have the shiny blue one with the side gatlin guns and the heat seaking missle block on top?

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