Original EverQuest designer Brad McQuaid rejoins the team

Original EverQuest designer Brad McQuaid has rejoined the massively multiplayer online game's development team, according to McQuaid's recent post on the game's official forums.

His return to EverQuest comes after a 12-year absence and will allow him to work on features that date back to the 13-year-old MMO's launch.

"When I was given the opportunity to return to the team it was something I just had to do!" he wrote. "I started playing right away and got a paladin into his mid-30s. I found, in addition to all of the great new features and [user interface] elements, that the game, at its core, was still very much the [EverQuest] I was involved with. In fact, some of my first work as a game designer on the team will be working on areas that have been alluded to since launch. I can't say more than that, of course, but I'm sure you can imagine how exciting this is for me."

After McQuaid left the EverQuest team, he co-founded Sigil Games Online and helped develop the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes MMO. Sigil was purchased by Sony Online Entertainment, which also publishes EverQuest. It adopted a free-to-play model last year.