Speaking of epic encounters, the next patch debuts our work on creating more trade and explore centered activities that I talked about in last month's letter. The Mars Construction Project is getting an upgrade and is something you should definitely check out after the next patch. The revamp of this encounter is part of our commitment for providing players at all levels of all different types with alternative methods of participating in Uber Encounters. We continue to work on building and improving these non-combat oriented activities in addition to large scale combat encounters.

The evolving storyline continues to move forward. Last month we started making the story missions more lucrative because we want to encourage all players to participate in this content. We continue to look for better ways of adding to these missions including items and other rewards for taking on a part of the story.

In the upcoming months, the plan is to continue to deliver more content and things for you to do in the galaxy - Story updates through missions, content, and events; more content in the form of epic encounters like the Controller, the ascended Voltoi, Mars Construction Project, and Primus planet's live V'rix invasion; and to continue to address long standing community issues including performance issues and skill fixes.

The date is set for our "unofficial" fan gathering in London hosted by EBPortal on September 6, 2003. Cerdith, Talisker and I are really looking forward to meeting our European players in person and will be sure to bring some free stuff with us. If you happen to be in London that day, stop by the O'Reilly's bar in Kentish Town and visit. You can find more information at http://www.ebportal.com/.

See you in London.

-ShadowDave