Jonric: To make sure the readers have a basic understanding of EverQuest II, what kind of game is it, especially in terms of its high-level concept?

Scott Hartsman: At the high level, the game is about having heroic, exciting and fun adventures in a high fantasy world ripe for exploration and full of danger, in the future of a Norrath that millions of people have fond memories of from their time in EverQuest. One that builds on an existing, enormous base of lore and history, in its own unique ways.

We want the both gameplay and the world to have depth. Those who really delve in and explore those depths are the ones who reap the greatest rewards.

A lot of those distinctive qualities have remained constant from launch until now. The biggest changes have primarily been in the means we've chosen to express those qualities.

What we've done is primarily to change the expression away from one that channeled gameplay into rigidly defined rules of acceptable (rewarded) and not acceptable (restricted and not rewarded), and more toward what's more apt to be expected in a consistent online world where the player is free to choose their own courses of action.