Let's be frank for a second: The online RPG genre existed prior to Sony/Verant's EverQuest, but the scene didn't really explode and gain the widespread popular appeal until nearly 500,000 fans logged on to the fantasy world of Norrath. Truth be told, I was never engaged by the first game in the series. It wasn't until Microsoft's Asheron's Call that I really began to warm up to the genre that I had long considered a time-consuming, low-return experience. The stories of some gamers playing themselves to death (literally) not only frightened me, but made me wonder, “What kind of game could actually make a person not eat or sleep for days on end?” And while I may never know the true answer as to what these particular people where feeling moments before they fell out of their chairs, I know what they experienced, as I have finally seen the light that is EverQuest II.