EverQuest: Depths of Darkhollow Q&A

RPGLand has published a Q&A with EverQuest lead designer Travis McGeathy, revealing a few interesting tidbits about the upcoming Depths of Darkhollow expansion. An excerpt:
Q: We see from your website that the new feature is the ability to turn into monsters for special quests. What in the world sparked such an interesting idea?

A: Players have always loved illusions, which allow them to temporarily look like a creature from the game so you could really say it started there. A few years back, EverQuest went a step further and briefly implemented the ability to play as a monster in newbie yards, but it was removed shortly thereafter. While the original implementation had some problems, the core idea of being able to play as a monster has been around for a while.

With Dragons of Norrath, we introduced the concept of missions which are essentially quests built for a full group that take players into an instanced version of a zone. We've always found that players connect more to the lore of the game when they are playing through it than when they are reading about it in dialogues or a book, so we used these missions to engage players in the lore behind the area.

The ability to play as a monster in the mission is an extension of our desire for players to be able to play through the lore of the game. By letting players experience the world as one of EverQuest's monsters, they can live through Norrath's history through the eyes of the participants at the time and get a better understand of the events that shape the world they play in.