EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on 16 March 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful.

Another well-publicized incident from October 2000, usually referred to as the " Mystere incident ", involved Verant banning a player for creating controversial fan fiction, causing outrage among Everquest players and sparking a major industry-wide debate about players ' rights and the line between roleplaying and intellectual property infringement.

There was a minor controversy in late 1999 and early 2000 regarding whether the commercial MMORPG EverQuest, developed by Verant Interactive, had derived its code from DikuMUD.

After the Diku group requested clarification, Verant issued a sworn statement on March 17, 2000 that EverQuest was not based on DikuMUD source code, and was built from the ground up.

EverQuest launched with modest expectations from Sony on March 16, 1999 under its Verant Interactive brand and quickly became successful.

Thereafter, most EverQuest expansions were either available in local stores, or downloaded directly from Verant, many weeks before the official opening date.

Since its acquisition of Verant in late 1999, SOE develops, runs, and distributes EverQuest.

The part of 989 developing EverQuest ( and other online and PC games ) broke off to become an independent studio named Verant Interactive in early 1999.

It was developed by Sony's 989 Studios and its early-1999 spin-off Verant Interactive, and published by Sony Online Entertainment ( SOE ).

Executives initially had very low expectations for EverQuest but in 2000, following the surprising continued success and unparalleled profits of EverQuest, Sony reorganized Verant Interactive into Sony Online Entertainment ( SOE ) with Smedley retaining control of the company.

SOE acquired Verant in June 2000 and eventually promoted Brad McQuaid to be its Chief Creative Officer.

McQuaid told the video game website IGN, " I find myself much happier at the results of assembling an all-star team of MMOG developers and focusing on making one ground-breaking, unprecedented project, as opposed to being spread thin like I was as VP / CCO at Verant / SOE .".

Because of ShowEQ and because of some of the hacks that were going on, Verant Interactive started encrypting the player packets.

The company's computer game / online development branch spun off, initially calling itself RedEye Interactive and then soon after Verant Interactive.

DikuMUD had a key influence on the early evolution of the MMORPG genre, with EverQuest ( created by avid DikuMUD player Brad McQuaid ) displaying such Diku-like gameplay that Verant developers were made to issue a sworn statement that no actual DikuMUD code was incorporated.

In March 2000, Verant released EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark, the first in a long list of expansions for EverQuest.

In April 2000, Verant hired former Ultima Online developers Raph Koster and Rich Vogel forming its office in Austin, Texas to develop Star Wars Galaxies for LucasArts.

After Sony Online Entertainment acquired Verant Interactive, Brad McQuaid was promoted to Vice President of Premium Games and Chief Creative Officer.

Through a mix of in-game events and fiction published on the web by Verant Interactive, the storyline of the discovery of Kunark was established.

Koster was also the lead designer of Ultima Online: The Second Age, Ultima Online Live, and an unannounced and cancelled title until 2000, when he joined Verant Interactive in Austin as the creative director of Star Wars Galaxies.

* Sony Corporation acquires Verant Interactive, Inc.

Verant discovered that they could detect the windows version of ShowEQ ( AKA " WinSEQ ") by scanning the end user computers task manager list.

Verant tried to prevent its use by rotating the client's encryption several times a week.

Eventually however, Ashran and Megaton worked out an " unofficial " deal with Verant by putting an end to the " WinSEQ " program.

Ashran and Megaton moved on to other projects and left the project in the hands of its followers to continue its development, " fixing " it when Verant patched EverQuest.

The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999.

* In 1999, after rowing for 81 days and 4, 767 kilometres ( 2, 962 mi ), Tori Murden became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by rowboat alone when she reached Guadeloupe from the Canary Islands.

For example Darrell Schweitzer writing to the New York Review of Science Fiction in 1999 quoted a passage from the original van Vogt novelette “ The Mixed Men ”, which he was then reading, and remarked:

A total of 10, 013 tourists visited in the 1998 – 1999 summer, up from the 9, 604 who visited the previous year.

Antarctic airports are subject to severe restrictions and limitations resulting from extreme seasonal and geographic conditions ; they do not meet ICAO standards, and advance approval from the respective governmental or nongovernmental operating organization is required for landing ( 1999 est.

The ASF was formed from the Apache Group and incorporated in Delaware, U. S., in June 1999.

* 1999 – A LAPA Boeing 737-200 crashes during takeoff from Jorge Newbury Airport in Buenos Aires, killing 65, including two on the ground.

* 1999 – East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a referendum.

Arbor Day was celebrated from 1983 until 1999 in South Africa, when the national government extended it to National Arbor Week, which lasts from 1 – 7 September.

Action from a 1999 Australian football match in Australian rules football in Nauru | Nauru at the Linkbelt Oval

In 1999, a limited run of cartridges were produced by Atari historian Curt Vendel using ROM code from Gary Rubio ( the former Atari liaison to GCC on the Atari 7800 project ).

It was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999.

In June 1991, the German Parliament, the Bundestag, voted to move the seat of the ( West ) German capital back from Bonn to Berlin, which was completed in 1999.

The total network of tracks amounts to around, and is maintained and overseen by a voluntary body, the Schwarzwaldverein ( Black Forest Society ), which has around 90, 000 members ( figures from Bremke, 1999, p. 9 ).

Since independence, Botswana has had the highest average economic growth rate in the world, averaging about 9 % per year from 1966 to 1999.

Since 1996 estimates, there has been a significant reduction in the total length of unpaved highway in Botswana-between 1996 and 1999 total length of unpaved highway fell from 14, 139 km to 4, 597 km.

The sessions of the German Bundestag were held there from 1949 until its move to Berlin in 1999.

Since 1999, the German parliament has again assembled in Berlin in its original Reichstag building, which dates from the 1890s and underwent a significant renovation under the lead of British architect Sir Norman Foster.

During the tenure of the government from 1995 to 1999, Thackeray was nicknamed ' remote control ' since he played a major role in government policies and decisions from behind the scenes.

On July 28, 1999 Bal Thackeray was banned from voting and contesting in any election for six years from December 11, 1999 till December 10, 2005 on the recommendations of the Election Commission.