Quite frankly, I was surprised by my invitation to visit Sigil. I mean, GU isn't the largest part of the gaming community, for certain. And, the simple truth, beyond that, is that I'm a bit of a jackass. **whistles** But, there it was, an invitation offered, quickly accepted, and even more quickly acted upon. You see, a good number of the folks that work at Sigil now are the same folks that supported GU when they were at Verant/SOE. They know I'm not one to really pull my punches. I'm prone to blunt honesty with a penchant for speaking my mind. But, that's what they wanted. That was the purpose of my visit. And, I was honored by the opportunity.

So, leading up to the visit, I'd been going back and forth over everything in my head. I mean, sure these are the people that made EQ; and, EQ was a huge success, right? But, then again, they made EQ which harbored terrible PvP implementation, clunky graphics, frustrating adherence to an abstract ideal (read: the vision), etc. Can they really make a game that competes with current MMOG market, let alone the 3rd generation market they'll be part of? Needless to say, I was going in a bit skeptical.

Now, I'll spare you all the details of my plane ride and such. I'm guessing that you people want to get at the meat and potatoes of the trip anyway. So…

Cindy Bowens arrived at the hotel, to pick me up, around two, presenting me with swag and the NDA. Maybe I'm missing my guess here, but I think the swag was to soften the blow of having to sign a document that I knew I couldn't refuse in the least. So, I read half-heartedly, and scrawled out my X. The compromises we make to see nifty new stuff, huh? **grins**

We hopped into Cindy's shiny red car, drove past a helicopter training school (ahhh California), and arrived, about 15 minutes later, at a small grouping of nondescript office buildings. We park and enter; this was it, the brain house of the Sigil staff. In my mind, I was clapping delightedly.

Inside Sigil Headquarters was exactly what I expected from a new development staff hard under the gun to produce the next "industry defining standard". It was full, but somehow empty at the same time. Keith Parkinson's original artwork lined the walls, some of which were poignant reminders of the team's roots: EverQuest.

A quick round of introductions was made while waiting for Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler to finish up a meeting. Initially, people were reluctant to really show off anything. Apparently, Brad wanted to show me around the game himself, or, at the very least, be present. But, after the introductions were done, and some chatter ensued, we realized that, having just gotten back to the offices the day before, Brad was likely going to be entirely too busy to lead me around. So, the designers decided it was time to show off some screenshots.

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