Everquest 2 goes spelunking in its 19th expansion in 18 years

pcgamer.com:

EverQuest 2 was first released in November 2004, and that was a little unlucky. A more polished and streamlined version of one of the pioneering Western MMOs, Everquest 2 had it all: gorgeous visuals, lavish audio production, a metric tonne of quests (it is now estimated to contain over 6000), and all the quality-of-life tools a fantasy player could ask for. The problem? It launched at almost exactly the same time as a competitor called World of Warcraft.

WoW swept all before it and, although Everquest 2 was one of the few able to survive such a high quality entrant in the fantasy MMO genre, inevitably overshadowed its contemporaries. Nevertheless, Everquest 2 attracted and retained a considerable playerbase, first under original developer Sony Online Entertainment, before later being sold to the Daybreak Game Company in 2015, which continues to maintain and expand the game. It has received an astonishing 18 expansions in this time, and this Christmas brings another.

Head of studio Jenn Chan has written a producer's letter for the game's fans, setting out a timeline for the rest of the year and revealing the new expansion's name: Renewal of Ro

«We’ve braved Myths and Monoliths,» writes Chan, «wrapped up our first ever Summer Jubilee with Oceansfull Festival, maxed our Golden F'Aestival Bracers, raked in some great bonuses, and adventured in The Fractured Cache in the hopes of bringing the aerakyn home.» I don't know what an aerakyn is either but I'm kinda hyped.

Yes, 'Panda, Panda, Panda!' is a bunch of quests where you help out friendly pandas. There's also a note on the Swag Store, much-anticipated by its playerbase, which was due in September «but due to production delays we couldn't get the stars aligned to launch