New Community Manager AnnouncedFollow

Hi there.

My name is Craig Dalrymple, though some on the internet know me as “Grimwell,” and I have the privilege of being the new Community Manager for EverQuest II. I’m very excited to be starting the new year with a new job, home, and team, accompanied by a great community; and am looking forward to all the excitement coming as the year unfolds.

To give you a little bit of background, I was born with the gamer gene (previously identified in the Human Genome Project) and have been avidly playing games of all types for my entire life. Card games, board games, you name it, I’ve probably played it. I’m a huge Dungeons & Dragons nut, and a junkie for computer games. MMO’s had me at first blush and I’ve never been able to look back.

In past lives I’ve been a blogger and the editor of a few MMO fansites. I have put in copious amounts of time playing and reviewing different MMO’s in said ventures. It’s funny to admit this, but almost none of that time was spent in EQII until late last fall. When you are the editor of a fansite, you work with a lot of volunteers who have great passions for their games and do a wonderful job of writing guides and sharing information with their fellow players about the games they love. I never had a problem finding people who wanted to do that for great games like EQII; but I did have problems finding people who wanted to tinker with some of the more obscure games. As a result, I’ve spent the better part of the last two years playing and reviewing a lot of the more obscure titles, mainly the Asian imports. Needless to say, it’s very refreshing to be able to dive into EQII with the release of EoF and enjoy a top quality MMO experience.

A big part of my enjoyment of that experience has been interaction with the other players. I came into the game as a n00b essentially, and have unabashedly asked questions in the public channels as I’ve sorted the features out. While I’d like to say that my greatest enjoyment in EQII is platform jumping and gliding with my Fae, in truth it’s the interaction with the great people I’ve found in the game.

A great game with a horrible community isn’t very fun to play, and in my playing of EQII and reading of the forums, I’ve found a strong community that welcomes new people in and makes it easy to find that ‘home’ feeling within the game. Not only that, but I’ve found a very talented community, looking into the Fan Art forum really impressed me! You guys are cranking out not only pictures, but also movies and full MP3’s at a regular pace. I’ve watched my wife edit and design family videos, and it does not look easy. Now I’m part of a community that has people with a combination of talent and passion to create such masterpieces and it really impresses me.

I’m not clueless to the entire past of the game mind you. I’m filling some big shoes here, which have been vacant for a little while. I’ll do everything I can to carry on the tradition set by my predecessors and keep you informed about what’s going on in the game, and in the community. Just remember to go easy on me while I learn the ropes and I’ll share humorous stories about how I’ve managed to get my paladin killed yet again. Last note, about that Fae gliding… Mounted fae paladins don’t fly, they fall pretty fast and hit very hard!