Along with Ultima Online, EverQuest was at the forefront of the MMO craze when it launched five years ago. And with over 420,000 people still playing to this day, EverQuest is by far the most popular MMORPG on this side of the Pacific. It seems like nearly every major videogame publisher has announced an MMO in recent years, but only a handful have actually been released. What's the secret to EverQuests' runaway success? In my opinion, it's a mix of accessibility, familiarity (it's pretty much all based on Tolkien myth, after all) and good ol' addictive gameplay. Sony Online Entertainment has taken these factors into account for the sequel, and is raising the bar for MMO graphics to the limit as well, an aspect where the genre usually lags behind single-player games.