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Before World of Warcraft, before Second Life, before all the other contenders for the MMORPG throne, there was - and still is - EverQuest.

Before Blizzard Entertainment took over the top spot in the MMORPG universe with World of Warcraft and before Second Life became a media darling and found itself hosting embassies from Scandinavian nations, there was the game which started the MMORPG revolution: EverQuest. EverQuest is still around—reportedly boasting hundreds of thousands of active players—and will shortly be turning eight years old.

To celebrate, Sony Online Entertainment is planning to release EverQuest The Anniversary Edition on April 23, 2007. The Anniversary Edition will contain all the content from every expansion pack ever released for EverQuest (including the most recent, The Buried Sea) for a low-ball price of jut $19.99. And, having been around for so long, EverQuest does carry a heck of a lot of content, including more than 375 game zones and 50,000 items. Players can mix and match between 16 races and 16 classes to start their characters, and take off on hundreds of themed missions to explore the world and shape the EverQuest universe. By my count the Annersary edition will contain the expansions Ruins of Kunark, Scars of Velious, Shadows of Luclin, Planes of Power, Legacy of Ykresha, Depths of Darkhollow, Lost Dungeons of Norrath, Serpent's Spine, Planes of Power, Prophecy of Ro, Gates of Discord, Omens of War, and the previously-mentioned The Buried Sea. There could be more—there have been a lot of EverQuest editions and expansions over the years. We expect the Anniversary Edition will be Windows-only.

Beginning tomorrow, Sony plans to start rolling out new in-game content as part of the anniversary celebration, including dozens of new Luclin Fabled NPCs, a new scavenger hunt for players at all levels, and the return of Fabled fiends from years ago.