After seven years of playing EverQuest with a Druid for my main, I left the game last year. It hadn’t aged well and there were shinier worlds in which to play a Druid. Plus, itemization was an issue for casual players in EQ and I was tired of being perpetually behind.

Exploring the shattered continents of Norrath 500 years later, the world of Azeroth and lands of Middle-earth have filled my nights since, but I missed the game that was such a large part of my gaming life. I also missed my small family guild which had scattered to the four winds of MMOdom.

Two weeks ago, as part of my new writing duties at Massively, I was given a tour of EverQuest’s latest expansion, Secrets of Faydwer, by one of the developers, Rashere and wrote a piece about my experiences. During the tour, I made a crack about how the game was geared toward raiders. Rashere explained to me that their focus for the last few expansions has actually been on max level "casuals." People with limited amounts of time, but wanted to see most of the content. People like me.

The design of SoF is exactly that. A high level character in average gear and in a full group can see all the content of the new expansion lands. Not part of it. All of it. And each step of the way, you receive the gear and spells you need to succeed in the next step.

So now I search for the remaining member or two of my old guild still on The Nameless server and I add EverQuest into the sidebar of this blog under "Playing." It’s time to see if any of the old magic remains.