Real Name: Wayne

Character Name: Finavar Argentwolf

Character Race: Half Elf

Character Class: Ranger

Deity: Tunare

Server: Erollisi Marr

Guild: Triune

Guild Rank: Officer - Raid Leader

Guild Website: www.triuneguild.org

Length of Time in Guild: 2+ years

Real World Location: USA

Career / Employment Industry / Current Level of School: I am a Software Architect. I have been in the online education field for over 15 years. I have a M.S. in Computer Systems Management (a cross between and MBA and a MS in Computer Science).

Hobbies: EQ (duh), Woodworking

Family? Yes

Allakhazam Name: Finavar

Besides EverQuest, what other MMORPGs have you played?
I played WoW when it first came out and it was OK. But it's hard to go from killing gods to poking rats with a sharp stick. I met some old guildies, but there wasn't the same feel. Also, WoW raiding sucks compared to EQ.

How did you find out about EverQuest, and when did you begin playing?
My girlfriend (now wife) was playing EQ when I met her. I decided that as fun as it was to watch her play, it would probably be more fun to play myself and I picked up the CDs and started. Finavar was born 2/19/2002 and has been my main character ever since. Although I have a few others...

Do you know anyone in real life who plays EverQuest?
Several.

How did you come up with your main character's name?
Tolkien, how else do you name elves?

What factors affected your choice of race / class for your main character?
For me, there wasn't a lot of dithering. I had done pen and paper RPG before, some other text based games. Rangers or hybrid warrior/casters have always been my choice. I picked Half-elf because I can't imagine why anyone would roleplay a human, after all, I play one of those all day... I picked a Tunare ranger so I could have the same starting city as my then GF

About how often do you play EverQuest, and how long is a typical playing session for you?
I play most days. On raiding nights, I am on by 6:30 to setup the raid and that is usually over 5-6 hours later. On "off" days, I play 0-15 hours depending.

How do you spend your time in game?
Leading raids, questing.

What other class/race combinations have you levelled past 35?
Dwarvan Warrior to 46
High Elven Enchanter to 75
Dark Elven Shadowknight to 65
Gnome Necromancer to 71

Approximately how much of the EverQuest world have you experienced?
Most of it. I started in the Luclin days and have raided everything from there to Demiplane and PoR.

What is your favourite expansion?
Velious probably, although the newer ones are fine. Velious is such a huge environment, lots to do and a million quests, plenty of progression for raiders.

What is your least favourite expansion?
LoY. It added some important things (like the raid feature), but overall it was seriously lacking.

What is your favourite zone?
Dawnshroud Peaks. We spent a lot of time in there back when leveling was hard. It's a fun zone, lots of mobs, lots of camps and not hard to get to.

What is your favourite NPC?
Banker Denton, he holds my coin :)

What is your favourite raid encounter (if different from NPC)?
Uqua. It held up my guild for a couple of very ugly months. You make ONE mistake and you wipe. No questions asked. I liked that. It required percision and attention to detail. If you had it you won, if you didn't you wiped.

If the war between Firiona Vie and Lanys T`Vyl erupted again, which side would you take?
Firiona Vie.

Describe your most memorable moment or proudest accomplishment in game.
Killing Rallos Zek the Warlord. I was in a roleplay alliance, a group of 8 or 10 small roleplaying guilds on Morell-Thule called the Gathering of Banners. Not everyone in the component guilds raided, but we could pull together a respectable force. At the time there contention for the spawn and we had to carefully track his spawn to even get a shot. The time we got to him and beat him was a great moment, a lot of teamwork and preparation. Obviously, there have been many harder events since then, but that one is a favorite.

What is the largest amount of platinum you have ever had at one time, and how did you go about accumulating it?
1.7million. I don't burn anything. Some people don't bother with trash drops, but it it's tradeskill flagged, I take it. Either for my own use or to sell. All my plat has come from my bazaar vendor. If I am not online playing, I have a vendor up. Doesn't take a lot of maintenence. I just price things reasonably and let it ride. I have probably earned 5m plat that way over about 3-4 years.

What are some things you would change or implement in order to improve EverQuest?
- Integrated voice chat.
- More tools to manage raids including a way of knowing which zone each member is in (in the raid tool).
- Fix the guild tool to not show people in a zone that are dead and just hovering.
- Redo the guild bank to make it more usable.
- Give the GMs more power. It's aburd that they can't move a No Drop item from player to player at the request of both players assuming the request is reasonable (i.e., not the same account, both are the same level or power, etc.).
- Make a way to examine ALL the quests you have done, including all the flags, subflags, etc.

What types of spells, skills, disciplines, and/or alternate abilities would you like to see added to your class?
FD :) Seriously, the ranger's "special" opponent is summoned creatures. We get a set of spells for that including a weapon proc. But there are damn few mobs that qualify. On the other hand, there are new undead mobs all the time. Either make mobs (especially a lot of TSS mobs) that clearly *look* summoned be flagged summoned, or give us undead spells instead.

If you were responsible for organizing and running a GM event, what would it be and how would it play out?
A massive scanenger hunt.

If you had to start over from scratch, what race/class combination would you choose?
I might have to switch to wood-elf for the tradeskill benefits. Other than that, I would stay with the ranger.

How do you describe EverQuest to your coworkers or computer-illiterate friends?
I try to avoid discussing it with anyone not familiar with online games :) Otherwise, I am just vague about playing computer games with some friends. If they don't realize it's 54+ friends spread all across the North American, well...

What is next for you in the world of EverQuest?
Finishing up Demiplane and moving on to Deathknell.

** Pick the winner in a battle between...

Felwithe vs Neriak - Felwithe!!!
Solusek Ro, Lord of Flame vs Karana, the Rainkeeper - Karana, the Rainkeeper
Muramites of Discord vs the Drachnids of Darkhollow - Drachnids of Darkhollow
Tradeskilling vs Questing - Tradeskilling
Instance Zones vs Static Zones - Instances for the peace and quiet, no trains, no MQ loot stealing bastards, etc.
Monster Missions vs Project M (PvP as Monsters) - Monster Missions
Soloing vs Pick-Up Groups - Soloing
Guild Raiding vs Grouping With Friends - Guild Raiding
GM (real people) Events vs Scripted (computerized) Events - GM events are always harder than scripted, if the GMs were given sufficient powers.
Arena Royal Rumble vs 1-on-1 Duel - I would like to see a single or double elimination tourney format used. Royal Rumble is about having friends.
Faydwer vs Odus - Faydwer
Kunark vs Velious - Velious
Planes of Power vs Gates of Discord - Gates of Discord
Depths of Darkhollow vs Omens of War - Depths of Darkhollow
Bard vs Enchanter - Bards have so many tools. They are probably the most versitile class in the game. Enchanters, while more of a personal favorite, have been nerfed quite hard over the years. If they could charm mobs with a realistic level of power, they could beat anyone.
Monk vs Rogue - What's a rogue?
Paladin vs Warrior - Paladin
Allakhazam vs Illia - Allakhazam, of course :)