EverQuest boasts a lot of records. It’s the longest continuously running live service game, the longest continuously running MMORPG, holds the most expansion releases for an MMORPG, and finally, it is the first MMO rendered in a 3D engine. At 25 years for EverQuest and 20 years for EverQuest 2, it’s clear that the legacy of the game is undeniable. However, using a word like legacy makes it seem as if the franchise is a thing of the past, and at Fippy Fest 2024, it’s clear that the community and developers are thriving.
To be clear, I don’t play EverQuest or its sequel. I had dabbled in the original when I was first learning what MMOs were, but I didn’t stick with them. That said, after this weekend and talking with players and developers, it was immediately clear why this game and the community that has risen around it are here a quarter of a century later. In fact, for all of my time spent at conventions and various fan meet-ups, I don’t think I’ve seen an event where the boundary between developer and player has been completely forgotten. Both have been celebrated, and the mutual respect between the two groups feels like seeing something that’s been lost.
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The reality of game development is that there are people who work on the games we love. They create worlds for us to call home and give us the countless hours of play and relationships we build in-game that can come into our real lives. More often than not, however, players don’t know the developer who made their favorite game. At Fippy Fest, though, players met the developers who made their favorite quests, balanced their main class, or simply kept the servers up—one of the most important things for any MMO.
But it isn’t just one way. The Darkpaw developers also get to see the community that they impact, care for, and ultimately have been the foundation of keeping EverQuest and EverQuest 2 alive and active over these two decades. When I spoke with Jenn Chan (Head of Darkpaw Games and Executive Producer for EverQuest and EverQuest 2), Adam Bell (Lead Designer of Everquest), and Kyle Vallee (Creative Director of EverQuest 2), I had planned to ask development questions, how they decide on new expansions for a game that has lasted so long. The inspirations behind their favorite areas. Then, I went on a tour of the office. I saw the art on the walls and the shadowbox timeline of the studio’s history. More importantly, I saw the look on the faces of the players who were on the tour with me.
They snapped pictures of everything, asked questions about art, made jokes about “/pizza,” and studio head Jenn Chan did too. She guided us through the office and we saw a shelf of abandoned screens and printers presented with the same enthusiasm as original Keith Parkinson oil paintings. The joy and passion that came out in every word was reciprocated at every turn. It was beautiful, to say the least.
Video games seem simple, but using them connect others is art at its highest form. As I’ve gotten older, single player games (which are still great, of course) have lost a lot of their appeal for me. Instead, I lean towards co-op and MMOs for my free time. Listening to Jenn Chan speak about the community, her community, with tears in her eyes, made me realize why.
“It really is an honor for me,” Chan said, a wide smile on her face. “It’s a long legacy of story developers and crazy 3 am builds. It’s all with the end goal of creating a space, creating a place where people can bond, join together, and defeat enemies that they really can’t do alone. I’m just so honored that I get to be a part of that, that I could continue this legacy, that I can help make this amazing place where people can go to if they’re having a tough time in real life. [A place where] if they’re working through something, they can talk to their friends that they’ve made through the game. It’s just, it’s such an honor. And, you know, I always get a little teary-eyed because it is such a legacy. It’s such a community that these players have built that we have helped them build. I feel so humbled to be able to get to continue on the [EverQuest] legacy.”
This is what art does. It allows us to process the tough times, get through them, and ultimately build something new. That impact spreads out both ways. Players feel safe when playing, and developers see how much their work means to people.
Creative Director Kyle Vallee added, “It’s pretty amazing having the work that you can get to be creative, right? Having a job where you get to be creative as one thing, where it’s creative work that affects people,” he paused, “You’re creating worlds, and they’re going into these worlds and getting lost in them. For me, [games were] always a way to escape life. That’s the whole reason I started playing EverQuest. I got so into it and went down the rabbit hole. For a couple of hours every night, you weren’t you—you were Kinos, the Dark Elf shadow knight. You talked to people, and you didn’t just talk about the game, but you were in groups.”
“Being a part of actually creating that is kind of hard to describe,” Vallee continued, “It’s kind of hard to impart how it feels. When Jenn says it’s an honor, I think that’s probably the right word. The fact that we’ve been able to be a part of this legacy for so long is an honor. And we love our fans. [They are] why we do it. We couldn’t do it without them. It’s this relationship where we can’t do it without them. And we love creating for them… It’s an honor to be a part of this legacy and the thing we’ve built together over these [decades].”
Listening to the developers talk, I also gained a new understanding of the importance of in-person events. It wasn’t just an event for players to come to and collect amazingly unique swag. It was a way for everyone to come together for Kyle Vallee; it felt like “coming home.”
Vallee continued, “It’s crazy how comfortable you are around these people. Because you have such a commonality, you know what I mean? Instantly, it’s not like you don’t ever have anything you can’t talk about, right? [The community] is like family.” And that familiar aspect was apparent throughout the weekend. While the developers wore blue “Staff” shirts, there was no clear line between them and the players. We all ate together, laughed together, and celebrated each other in every space we entered.
Chan elaborated on Vallee’s answer, “It’s definitely a family reunion for me because some of these people I haven’t seen since the last fan event. I haven’t been able to catch up… It’s also very exciting to finally be able to see people again and to be able to have one-on-one conversations because the internet is the internet. Being able to see people actually, like, hug them and shake hands—just being able to say like, ‘Hey!’—it’s just great. It’s a great chance to just see people again and really think back on the past 28 years of development and to reminisce. There are highs and lows. It’s a low because I wish we could do this more often. But then also the highs of just being able to see people and hear their stories again.”
It’s been ten years since the last FanFaire, and Fippy Fest has been three years in the making, according to Chan. But with signing events and dinners, it’s as much for the developers as it is for the fans. Whether it’s the reality that the studio itself runs on a hybrid model with some developers being fully remote, others working in an office, and others still splitting their time, it was also the first time that some of the newer Darkpaw devs were able to be in-person with their teams.
Chan explained how Fippy Fest came to be, “We had originally tried to plan a fan event in the Summer of 20200—Obviously, that couldn’t happen. Then it was, what about August? Obviously, that couldn’t happen. So then we kind of put it on the back burner, and in 2021, we said, our 25th and 20th Anniversaries are coming up. What can we do to make sure that people feel valued and can get that one-on-one time?”
She then broke down how they planned the events, which included a poster signing with nearly every member of the development team signing special edition maps. “A lot of us are big collectors on the team. We wanted to make sure that throughout [Fippy Fest] all the swag giveaways meant that people would be leaving with something special, something personalized.”
Chan continued, “We also [wanted] a way to have something super rare because those posters only 150 of each will ever be printed. And they each were embossed with our official merchandise logo. We will never make those again; we’ll want to have something to say as more of a memento to say I was there… That was kind of the impetus for the signing party. And this entire event, both today and tomorrow. It’s all about how we can make it so that we put Community First, how we can put together something that feels like we are serving the community, and that this is almost a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.”
Vallee added to Chan’s answer, elaborating on how Fippy Fest’s celebration and the signing event in particular was an evolution on the FanFaires of the past. “We’ve done big signing parties like that at past FanFaires—where [you] just bring whatever you want, and [the developers] just sit there and sign for two hours. It’s part of our way of showing our appreciation to the fans, showing them that we couldn’t be doing this without [them].”
Lead Designer Adam Bell added what it feels like at those signing events for the devs. “On a more personal note,” he said, “It lets us feel more like rockstars.” And while that comment may seem small, in an industry where the fact that humans are behind our favorite video games is being more and more obscured by companies, that’s important. Developers being seen and acknowledged is beautiful on its own. At Fippy Fest, fans got to talk with the people who balanced their characters, made their favorite quests, and saw the office where an important part of their lives is made. And all of that is done by people. During the Fippy Fest Day 2 panels, developers on EverQuest and EverQuest 2 were candid about the development process, letting players see how it all gets made.
The franchise’s longevity, however, isn’t just because the developers are doing good work. According to Chan, Vallee, and Bell, it’s because of its players first and foremost. The first 3D MMO and the longest-running MMO, EverQuest, is an institution in the genre. And according to Vallee, it’s all thanks to the players. “I think [EverQuest] is still around today because of the focus on reliance on other people; we are very heavily reliant on the group game, and it’s very difficult to get to max level, extremely difficult. The game is designed around the idea that it’s better with other people. So, it’s that community aspect that has created a strong community. And that community just loves the game so much that they’re not going to leave.”
When it comes to developing video games, especially for as long as Chan, Vallee, and Bell have, you learn things about yourself in the process. For Chan, her learning came from understanding the power of video games. Chan said, “I would say a big surprise that I learned is the ability of games to touch people, change people’s lives, help them fight terminal illnesses, and build that community. It’s what makes EverQuest great.”
It’s here where the conversation shifts back to the EverQuest community and where the rest of the interview remains. Vallee added, “[Jenn] talks about community, and we always talk about it here. Games come out, and they try to innovate, and they try to do new things because they want to be the new hotness. But the thing that EverQuest did, that was the true innovation, was its community building and giving people the places to do that. I feel that gets lost now, especially in modern games; there’s just no that sort of community building [at the core]. In the early days, when you played EverQuest, you couldn’t play it without other people. It turned into this thing where it’s also, you know, I think for us, it’s all about the community.”
Bell added to Vallee’s comment, “That’s also how the community and making friends and working with people makes things that would seem to be a grind a lot of fun [instead]. You know, the whole corpse run thing is an awesome concept from back then that pretty much all games have gotten rid of because the actual process of doing the corpse run isn’t that great. But having to get your friends together to go and save your corpse from a big problem was amazing and fun to just work with your friends, even if the corpse run itself is a lot.”
Listening to Vallee and Bell talk about the importance of the multiplayer part of an MMO isn’t just refreshing; it taps into the core of what makes me love playing games in the genre. When the game I call home was primarily focused on the single-player in its last expansion, I stopped playing for quite some time. Dejected that it was losing the community aspect that made it so fun when it came to content released via patches, I lost the spark.
Only when I found a new guild that pushed me out of my comfort zone did I fall in love with the game again. But for EverQuest, that doesn’t seem a problem at all. Instead, going all in on community helps keep the game moving forward and releasing expansions yearly at a quarter-century of play. And, it’s what made me text my husband during Fippy Fest, after this interview, that I hope to be in our guild, in a community like what has lovingly been cultivated around EverQuest in 25 years’ time.
We closed out the interview with a more personal question, one that tasked Chan, Vallee, and Bell to think about a moment or feeling EverQuest that stuck out to them. More specifically, how it felt working on a property that has created so many cherished memories for so many players.
Bell focused on one choice he made as a developer and how he wanted to impact the community. He started, “One time that made me feel like I was doing something bigger was when there was this whole race we created that only had one gender. I just went to great pains to try to make sure it was good for the LGBTQ+ community and that it told their story in a safe way. We wanted to make sure that it could possibly make someone feel more comfortable about being different.”
Vallee explained how he connects to players when they notice the smallest touches of development. “The goal was to tell stories that engage people,” Vallee said, “We [have been] talking about how you can come and get immersed and forget about your problems. When I have people come up and say, ‘I did this quest that you put in the game and [got so much] enjoyment I got out of it,’ or ‘I noticed that you put in this easter egg.’ To me, that’s the ultimate full-circle fulfillment of what we do. It’s when people actually talk to you about something that you put your actual heart and soul into… When people find that, that means they’re really paying attention to what you’re creating for them. It’s huge, and it’s very rewarding. Incredibly rewarding.”
Chan closed the interview with an answer that hit me in my core. “When I first met my spouse, their parents had just passed away. They had been a caregiver to their parents, and even though they didn’t play EverQuest, they played a different MMO,” Charn started, “And whenever I was having a hard day, they would remind me, ‘Hey, what you’re doing is helping people get through their days, what you’re putting out there is allowing people like me who are caregivers to connect, and to go into a [different world] and have a sense of control. It helps them have a sense of agency in their lives when they are trying to get anywhere else.’ So anytime I hear a story about [escapism], I just want to say thank you. I’m glad that we were here for you. It just makes me feel so humbled.” With tears in her eyes, Jen adds, “My North Star is that I’m doing this for the people who need us.”
I didn’t know what to expect when I started my interview with the developers. Beyond that, I didn’t know what to expect when I attended Fippy Fest. But when the interview wrapped and we ended the day at Battlemage Brewary surrounded by players and developers I was reminded about why I love video games to begin with. They have the power to connect us to each other. In a time when certain bad actors in gaming are harassing marginalized developers and journalists, and in the midst of studio closures, it was healing to be surrounded by celebration.
A celebration of two games and all the infinite memories that they have created, Fippy Fest is what gaming should be about. It’s about passion, community, and allowing people to find a home away from home with other people. It’s not about playing alone but learning that you can do so much more when you move forward together. In that way, Fippy Fest may be the most transformative event I’ve ever been to.
EverQuest and EverQuest 2 have released new expansions and are available to play for free.
