Last year at the SOE 2007 Fan Faire we were treated to a glance at the concept art for guild halls. Since guild halls have been in the buzz since launch, players have been chomping at the bit despite Lyndro saying it would probably be at least a year before we'd see them.

At the "Into the Future " panel we were told:

3. Guild Halls: finally we get news on guild halls. We saw concept art of evil and good guild halls. The art is being developed by SOGA, and at the moment there are just two designs. The halls will be accessible from the coasts of Commonlands and Antonica and will be instanced. They'd like them to have an early entry level, under guild level 10, and have the guild earn rooms and features as they level. For example, a level 10 guild might only be able to earn a courtyard where they can meet. They are throwing around lots of ideas for the rewards: Themed rooms, courtyards, NPCs, banners, teleport NPCs, access to water travel, brokers, merchants, menders, bankers, maybe guild vaults that offer more than the guild bank, perhaps a room you can bind in, house access. They are planning the halls to have 40 rooms.

Here's the concept art we were shown:

And the developers solicited player input in several places on and off the official forums, but we really haven't heard much more about them until Wednesday, when this was spotted on the 2008 Fan Faire Schedule : EverQuest II: Guild Hall Preview

On July 16 Game Update 47 made it to the Test Servers, and what did I see?  Click for full screen images!

At the Antonica Dock:

At the Commonlands Dock:

We can only speculate, but it looks like guild halls might be on the slate for the next expansion, or even as "free content" between Fan Faire and the expansion launch. After all this waiting could it really be happening? Stay tuned!