EverQuest and EverQuest 2 Reveal Roadmaps for Year-Long Anniversary Celebrations

gamerant.com:

Historic and long-running MMORPGs EverQuest and EverQuest 2 are respectively turning 25 and20 in 2024, and the developers have announced a full lineup of year-long events and new expansions to celebrate. The legendary franchise shows no signs of stopping, especially with EverQuest just having released its 30th expansion Laurion's Song in December.

Known as one of the most popular and influential MMORPGs ever released, EverQuest was released all the way back in 1999, while its sequel EverQuest 2 was released five years later in 2004. Despite technically being a series, both games are designed to run independently of one another as EverQuest 2 features an alternate-universe Norrath, the game's setting.

2024 marks the Year of Darkpaw in EverQuest and EverQuest 2, named after Fippy Darkpaw, an infamous gnoll character that spawns in one of the game's starting areas. The big highlights coming from the Developer Roadmap for this year include an unnamed expansion for both games coming in November (EverQuest 2) and December 2024 (EverQuest), notable special events such as the Anniversary Tower and Heroic Adventures happening every month, and event-exclusive mounts, just to name a few. Meanwhile, over in EverQuest 2, the Year of Darkpaw brings about the Masquerades of Divinity story event, along with various events.

Basically, there will be a lot of things to do in both games in this milestone year. While a good part of it looks like seasonal events, it should also be enough to tide players over until the new expansions arrive in the fourth quarter. The developers are currently tight-lipped about what's coming, but given their design philosophy of giving EverQuest players what they want, the new chapters will likely be worth the wait.

One of the secrets to EverQuest's longevity is the ability to cultivate its loyal player base and keep up with the times. One such example is the addition of the Personas system in Laurion's Song, which lets players try different classes on one