If you are a racing fan, you should know the name Jacques Villeneuve. He is the youngest driver to win the Indianapolis 500, youngest to win the Indy Car Championship, and was the 1997 Formula One World Champion. He is also an avid Everquest player. He was nice enough to take some time between races and answer some questions about his Everquest addiction. Q: So let’s start with the basics. What got you started playing Everquest? How long ago was it? And are you still playing today? A: I have been a long time role-player. I started with AD&D in 1982, I think. I did Ultima 3 to 6, Baldurs Gate and a few others, so online roleplaying was the next logical step. I really got into the game a year ago and still am into it today. Q: Do you remember your first thoughts and actions when you entered the world of Norrath? A: My first thoughts were not very positive. I got the game in the spring, tried it on my laptop for a couple of hours and didn’t touch it again for a few months. It was an unfair assessment of Norrath, though. As usual, I had thrown away the booklet before reading the instructions and to top it off I started with an ogre warrior. The newbie zone there isn’t the most welcoming and I just got frustrated. A few months later, I got some friends to come to Norrath (I bear the weight of having made them antisocial ... hehe) and this time, after browsing a few sites and learning more about the game, I moved to Norrath! Q: What characters do you play? Races/Classes/Levels? All of that sort of thing. Are you in a guild? And what server are you on? A: My first character was a monk on Rallos which didn’t last very long. I found too many frustrated quake players in there. Then I did a barbarian shaman, which was great for learning most aspects of the game. My main now is an iksar monk in his early 40s. I also enjoy playing a bard. I play mainly on the pvp servers, and the new Sullon Zek server seems very promising to me. I am a roleplayer at heart. Q: Why did you choose those particular classes? A: The shaman was mainly because he could tank at lower levels and still cast spells. It was a very independent class which I thought was the best way to learn what type of gaming I would later enjoy. I guess I need to be in the thick of things, which is why I became a monk. The bard is just a lot of fun when I have excess energy to burn, as the song weaving can be quite intricate. The bard is also great for the role-playing aspect. Q: What is your playing style? Are you generally a power gamer? Role-player? Explorer? And do you prefer to play solo or do you usually find a group? A: If a high level decides to buff me and help out, I will thank him happily, and I also transfer the good loot to my other characters, but that’s about it. I have found that role-playing is difficult to keep up, so my bard is for role-playing and my monk is for hacking. I hate staying in one zone or just camping. Instead, I need to find new places all the time and I love dungeons. I like grouping, but playing on European time makes it more difficult to find the right group, so I am more experienced at soloing. Q: Tell us some of the most interesting adventures you have had while playing Everquest? Did you ever do something really stupid? Something that you are really proud of? A: I don’t have an adventure in mind right now, but the good ones always involve big groups with lots of magic and a mix of darkies and lighties in the zone. It keeps you on your toes. I have done a lot of stupid things, starting with the usual auto-attacking the guild master. I think everyone has done that one at least once. There is one moment I will always remember though: I was in oasis as a lighty and I heard a voice telling me I liked living dangerously. He was an invisible dark elf. I asked him to wait until I could see him and memmed my spell. I finally cast and found myself blinded. It turned out to be a lucky mistake as it made him laugh so hard he decided to let me live! Needless to say, I was laughing as well and now I pay more attention to which spell I am casting. Q: Give us your impressions of Everquest. What do you think are its strengths and what would you change if you could. A: The world is huge and there is always something new to do, a new skill to learn, some new loot to fight for. The game also seems well balanced. There is something for everyone, every kind of player. There is also a strong feeling of evolution, of growing with your character, and the world seems quite logical/believable. I wouldn’t change much, only some of the pvp rules, but they seem to have been addressed on Sullon. The problem now is that my characters are not on that server and it is hard to start all over. Q: Which do you like most: the original zones, the Kunark zones or the Velious zones? A: As a darky I like Kunark, but I prefer the original continent as a lighty. I haven’t hunted in Velious enough yet to have an opinion. Q: As a guy who truly lives in the fast lane, does it ever bother you that traveling throughout Norrath can sometimes be so slow? A: The first few times you run through a zone, it is exciting and the time flies by. When you die as a tank and have to run through the same zones over and over again, then it becomes very frustrating. I think the worst is waiting for the boats. Once, after ages of waiting for one, of sailing and finally setting foot in Freeport, I had the joy of getting pked before I could get bound. What’s worse is that I also was waiting to get to Freeport to log off, as it was very late. I cannot tell you what I was thinking at the moment. Q: I understand that you are a long time gamer. What types of games do you like to play? What is your all time favorite computer game? A: I only play EQ now, but I grew up in the video games decade. I play mainly strategy and role-playing games. I also had a lot of fun with Doom 2, but stopped with that type of games after finishing it. I actually switched the computer off for a long time after that. Q: Has your game playing helped you out in developing your racing style and skills? If so, in what ways? A: Playing is like reading a great book, teleporting into its world and living it. It allows me to clear my mind off of the racing, of the stress and pressure and so on. I guess I am a dreamer and gaming is a great place for that. It is also useful as it makes the brain work in one way or another and gets your concentration and focus going. I have done a few 20 hour stints in Norrath, so staying focused for 2 hours of racing is not a problem. What I find more interesting is all that you can learn about social behaviors through the game, as people can be anything they want and imagine without being what society wants them to be. Everybody can become what he basically really is deep inside. Q: I understand you are working with Ubisoft to help develop a racing game. How is that coming along? Does that give you any insight into the difficulties of developing a game such as Everquest? A: It is an exciting project. There have been some great racing games, but there is always room for improvement and hopefully it will be the case with this one. We want it to be massively online and that is the most difficult area. The evolution is so quick in that area that by the time it comes out, today’s crazy ideas should be reality. Q: You do a lot of traveling all over the world. How are you able to find time to play the game? A: I carry a laptop around, which isn’t great but allows me to keep in touch. I play when I would be reading. The only problem is that bed time always ends up later than planned. Q: How difficult is it to explain to people about your love of gaming and of playing Everquest in particular? Do the other drivers find it odd, or interesting? A: They find it odd, it is true. I have tried to explain role-playing for many years and it is a difficult concept to grasp. It seems the online version of it is easier to understand. I think what is difficult for non-players is to understand how it is possible to spend so many hours in row not doing much. Explaining it really doesn’t work. Instead, traveling to Norrath or any other world is necessary for anyone to truly understand it. Q: So which is more challenging, winning in Indianapolis or getting your epic weapon? A: Epic weapon I guess, as Indianapolis is already in the bank. Seriously, the epic is just a question of time and preparation whereas any race or championship win is never sure, and it doesn’t matter how hard you have worked at it. There is always a chance that you will or won’t and if you don’t, maybe the following year you won’t even be there to fight for it. There is a lot of stress and pressure involved with racing, partly because it is a career, a life’s project. Q: Have you run into any other celebrities who play Everquest? A: I don’t believe so. I mainly play with guild members or friends. Q: Have you looked at any of the upcoming MMORPG’s like Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, etc? If so, what are your impressions and which games are you most looking forward to? A: A close friend is testing Anarchy and will let me know more about it, but I am waiting eagerly for shadowbane. Q: So is there anything else you want to throw in here that you think might be of interest to the other Everquest players and to your fans? A: Remember it is a game and come back to reality once in a while. Also, what is fun for you might not be fun for the other player, so don’t be a frustrated person destroying the game for everybody else. On a more positive note, I have met some great people in Norrath, so keep it up! Q: Merci. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.