Let me jump this one off with a small, heartfelt thank you. For what, you ask? For not verbally flaying me immediately following Onlife's maiden voyage. Sure, there were a couple of nasty e-mails, but I only came close to crying once. To put it in perspective, I had prebooked six weeks of therapy starting the week after my column was set to post. Thanks again, guys.

So let's get right to it. There's been much ado in the world of MMO's these past couple of weeks, including one bit of news that totally came out of left field. But we'll get to that in due time. We're gonna set this off properly, with a big fat EQ2 update, courtesy of our man Fargo. He got to visit SOE in sunny San Diego to get a fresh look at the game. But before we even get to that, I'm gonna put a feedback link here. It's your duty and obligation to write to me if you think I'm wrong/misinformed/lying about something. If you don't call me on it, after all, who will? Also, if there's something you want me to cover, or if you have a hot tip pertinent to this stuff, drop me a line. I love hearing from you guys. Here's the link. Use it.

Also, let me know what you thought of our D&D Online coverage. We're really proud to be able to break this one, and it looks like it'll shape up into something pretty cool.

EverQuest 2

Anyway, without further delay, here's Fargo's report:

So I got to spend a few hours with it on Friday. It's really coming together: developers estimate it's around 70% done, meaning that most of the game's systems and interfaces are in place. At this point, they're just fleshing out tons and tons of content. The world is even more lively, now. NPCs that used to wander mutely around now have cool things to say, and lots more quests are in place. Crafting is now in the game, so you can go to a forge and work raw materials into finished products -- it's not quite finalized, but it's in the game so that the developers can seriously playtest it.

I'm made of flesh. Touch me.

There is now a (very small) non-internal beta running. I'd say maybe a couple hundred people. They haven't announced when they're going to open it up further. Tons of low-level content is in; the high-level stuff is still being tweaked, and they're waiting until the classes are balanced and more final before they can really finish up those areas.

They also recently re-did some of the graphics for the people in the game. People often complained how the characters looked kinda "plasticky" in screenshots -- no more. Skin textures on the humans and elves are much more realistic now. Constant little tweaks like that are just making the game look superb.

The plasticity remedy sounds like a good thing. For a while there, it looked like those models were coated in neon paint. I, for one, am pretty eager to get on that beta. The open-endedness of the early-game kind of reminds me of Lineage 2, but with more options, and I can definitely get into that. Ah, this reminds me. Check out this news story right here. Crazy thing, isn't it? For those too lazy to click, SOE is teaming up with select online retailers to offer pre-buyers a "starter kit," which will include, among other things, a stripped-down version of the game's character creation tool. You'll also get a pair of Journeyman's Boots for your trouble, the original EQ's version of which our own Bryn camped 17 hours for. How's that for a freebie? Am I the only one that thinks this is kind of sketchy?

Keep your dial locked, in any event, 'cause we have some big-time coverage on EQ2 coming next week. What, you think Fargo was out there for fun?