Profile of Moorgard

July 27, 2008 by Morninglark

I began reading

back in 2001.

When he commented about a guildmate of mine, Ferkl of Veeshan Guard on CT server.

After that, his site was almost a daily read for me. He always had all the news and gossip about Everquest, with a touch of sardonic wit thrown in here and there.

He was often very critical, but always stated his reasons. Because he was fair, and would often defend Verant, he was often flamed. But overall, he had a great site, with great comments and gossip.

Then you read about what happened to Ferkl Kinstoler, a guild leader over on the Cazic Thule server. Seems Ferkl was looting his corpse one day and accidentally equipped another sword before one of his Ranger epic blades. When he right-clicked on the epic to loot it, the sword couldn’t go into his weapon slot, and since it wouldn’t fit into any of his bags due to the size of the item, the blade poofed.
Numerous petitions and e-mails later, Lead Game Master Kriggan responded to Ferkl that he “cannot authorize the return of your epic weapon for something that is not a bug.”
Did the player make a mistake? Technically, yes. Was it intentional on his part? No. Was the player attempting some kind of workaround or exploit? Of course not. Considering these facts, and the time this customer spent obtaining that epic in the first place, should Verant CS have given the player a break and restored the missing half of his epic? We think so. Instead, they probably lost one–or several–subscribers because of this policy.

Some of my favorites:

Moorgard was invited to DAOC beta and some of his comments were:

Okay, so I had no idea how to attack the damn thing. Why wouldn’t the ‘A’ key work? And herein, boys and girls, is the only bit of design advice I can give to up-and-coming game makers…
If you are so obviously and completely trying to duplicate an existing game, and moreover, if your target market is the very people who play said game, then MAKE THE FREAKING COMMANDS THE SAME!!!

Random quotes:

Where does one obtain a pig’s rectum, anyway? If anyone would know, it has to be a Mobhunter reader.

Precise? Less emotional? You’re talking to EverQuest players, after all. Hoping for reason and logic is like asking the roosters at a cock fight to be more polite.

OMFG EQ2!!!
by Moorgard on 2002-04-24
Can you believe this shit? Verant wants more of your money so they are announcing EverQuest 2 through those ass pirates at PC Lamer–I mean Gamer. How fugging weak! I guess those cacksuggers think we will all just bend over and take it up the pooper one more time. No thanks!

( this was just a parody-)http://mobhunter.com/moorgard/156488485.html

My absolute favorite two posts of his were called The Urinal and The Stall. If you don’t read anything else, go read those!

Fast forward to 2003. Moorgard is hired by SOE to be the community manager for EQ2. I had been in Beta since Early Friends and Family. The Beta boards, at that time, were moderated by Gallenite (Scott Hartsman). Moorgard began by managing the EQ2 open boards. He was great. He visited all the fansites. Posted regular answers to questions from players. (although some of us in Beta wondered just exactly what game he was posting about, since the answers did not seem to apply to the game we were currently playing) I will be honest. We butted heads a few times on the Beta boards, but that is natural for a tester vs. a rep.

I always tried to send him a private message about something if I thought it was something that would start a huge flame on the boards. But it was my job to point out what I thought was not working properly. He was always respectful, and except for the last few weeks before release, he was fun.

Overall, Moorgard was one of the best Community Managers I have seen. When he left that position, I was sad to see him go. He went on to work for SOE in development. He stayed for a couple of years working on EQ2.

He later left, and joined a company near Boston called, 38 Studios . They are developing a new MMORPG, based on best-selling fantasy author R. A. Salvatore (www.rasalvatore.com).

What is important to remember, is that first and foremost, Moorgard is a gamer! He isn’t just a name of someone developing a game. He is a person, and gamer too!

I am sure he is just as passionate about his characters, quests, and friends as all of us!

He currently has his own blog. It is