Kotaku: eq2

SOE Dates 2008 Fan Faire

Mike Fahey — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:00:00 MDT

Sony Online Entertainment has given a date to their annual parade of pale-skinned shut-ins, blinking as they emerge into the bright sunlight, the SOE Fan Faire. This year's convention will be help August 14th through the 17th at the Las Vegas Hilton. This means we are definitely skipping a repeat of last year's Quakecon / Blizzcon / Fan Faire debacle, as QC is running two weeks earlier. Plenty of time left for Blizzard to muck things up though.

"Fan Faire is by far the best vacation destination for SOE gamers, their families and friends," said Alan Crosby, Senior Director, Global Community Relations, Sony Online Entertainment. "This is the ultimate party for gamers and a great chance to meet up with their online friends in the real world."

This year's 4-day event will feature demos of The Agency and Free Realms, a talk from SOE President John Smedley, chances to meet and chat with developers, and plenty of geeky hobnobbing and drunk singalongs. I wanna go!

GAMERS, GROUP UP: SIN CITY HOSTS SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT'S
FAN FAIRE, AUGUST 14-17, 2008

-Ultimate Vacation Destination for Online Video Game Players Features Colorful Costumes, Passionate Players and More in Las Vegas-

April 17, 2008 San Diego, Calif. - Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online games industry, today announced the date for its annual Fan Faire, a real-life social event where thousands of gamers from around the world gather with members of their online community to play video games and make new friends.

This year's four-day extravaganza, which includes gameplay tournaments, a costume contest, a silent auction for game memorabilia, real-life quests and exclusive 'sneak peeks' at upcoming products from SOE, will be held August 14-17, at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Fan Faire is by far the best vacation destination for SOE gamers, their families and friends," said Alan Crosby, Senior Director, Global Community Relations, Sony Online Entertainment. "This is the ultimate party for gamers and a great chance to meet up with their online friends in the real world."

In addition to enjoying the whimsical game-driven environment, attendees at SOE's Fan Faire 2008 will be privy to the second ever live community address from SOE President John Smedley, as well as How-To forums, game development panels, a party for the players and much more. Fan Faire attendees will also have the opportunity to meet the development teams for some of the world's most successful online PC games, with specific activities and games being planned for each game. In addition, demos of the upcoming SOE titles, The Agency™, Free Realms™, as well as others, will be showcased. Fan Faire promises to deliver a weekend packed with activities and adventure for everyone ranging from casual gaming fans to entire guilds of vacationing gamers who can bring their families along on this quest for fun and excitement.

Exclusive EQII Item In Massive Online Gamer

Mike Fahey — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:20:37 MST

The latest issue of Beckett Massive Online Gamer magazine should be out wherever fine bookstores see fit to carry it, and inside you could very well find a key code that unlocks a special in-game item in EQ2 - an animated portrait of Venril Sathir. I'm sure it will make an excellent conversation piece during your many in-game social events. Um, yes. I know it's a silly little portrait, but fans of the game go nuts over this sort of thing. I played the game for a year and never once had anyone else in my house, but trust me, it was full of magical wonders the likes of which you had never seen, which made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. The promotion itself is interesting. Free in-game stuff is an awesome marketing tool. Can you imagine if Blizzard put random free junk codes in boxes of Rice Krispies? The world's children would be forced to eat store brand rice cereal out of a resealable plastic bag. Hit the jump for details on the special issue, which many or many not require subscribing to the magazine itself.

Beckett Massive Online Gamer Packed with Exclusive Content Now on Shelves
Dallas, TX - November 28, 2007 - Fresh off the press, the latest issue of Beckett Massive Online Gamer magazine (Issue December/January - Vol. 2 No. 6 Issue 10) is on retail shelves with hard-hitting exclusive interviews, an exclusive item from Everquest II, and insider feature stories readers won't find anywhere else.

Among the many exciting features packing this issue:

* Exclusive Everquest II: Rise of Kunark Exclusive in-game item available for all Massive Online Gamer subscribers. The retrieval key code and instructions are available on pg 21 of this issue. The in-game item is a first ever and only animated portrait available of Venril Sathir.
* Exclusive Interview with the Everquest II: Rise of Kunark Development Team.
* Exclusive Interview with Richard Garriott, the creator of Tabula Rasa.
* Everquest II Shard of Fear Zone Guide and Quests.
* Interview with Kevin Balentine, PR Director for Stargate Worlds and some Exclusive Art and Images.
* Interview with Hermann Peterscheck, Producer of Jumpgate Evolution.
* World of Warcraft complete details for Conquering Karazhan.

Additional Coverage: Pirates of the Burni ng Sea, Rappelz, The Agency, Guild Wars: Eye of North, Mythos, and much more. Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite MMO's for the MMO Reader's Choice Awards. For more information about Beckett Massive Online Gamer Magazine, please visit the official website for the magazine, http://www.beckettmog.com.

Rise of Kunark Screens

Mike Fahey — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:20:39 MDT

While I impressed over the demo of Everquest 2's upcoming Rise of Kunark expansion I was given at E3 this year, SOE's media kit put the ass in assets, with only a few meager images that didn't even count as screenshots. Finally they've released some beautiful images of the lost continent, with distinctively Sarnak architecture that has me looking back fondly to the days when I would sit endless hours outside the Sarnak fort in the Lake of Ill Omen, listening to people hate each other in the OOC channel. Ah, memories.

$1.8 Million Passed Through Station Exchange

Mike Fahey — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:20:14 MST

Sony Online Entertainment launched the Station Exchange back in 2005 as an officially sanctioned player auction site meant to ~~profit from~~ combat the ever-growing gold and character black-market in EQ2. No one was sure how popular the site would be, seeing as only certain Everquest II servers would be Exchange-enabled. Well nearly two years later SOE has published a white paper detailing the first year of transactions, which reports a whopping $1.8 million in transactions over the period. The paper includes all sorts of statistics, from highest priced items (dark elf characters) to average platinum prices ($7.35 per piece.)

Said John Smedly, SOE president:

"The Station Exchange White Paper results demonstrate beyond a doubt that there is a significant demand for a secure, sanctioned online marketplace where players can enhance their gaming experience by spending real dollars."

Unfortunately they also demonstrate to the IRS exactly how much tax money they are missing out on from in-game item sales...figures they didn't really have access to previously. I sure hope those Station Exchange sellers are keeping records as well as SOE is. Michael Fahey

EverQuest auction site turns over $1.8m in first year [GamesIndustry.biz]

EQ2 Via Wiimote

Mike Fahey — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:40:51 MST

CyanBane, the host of the Eq2-Daily and a coworker of mine at my day job, has managed to work out playing Everquest 2 with a pair of Nintendo Wiimotes.

CyanBane obviously has far too much time on his hands, but it's a pretty neat accomplishment. The only drawback I can see is the lack of easy keyboard access. You can't cyber hot wood elf women with a wiimote...or can you? Michael Fahey

Wiieally Interesting Way to Play EQ2 [Eq2-Daily Blog]

$25 WoW Character Transfers A Pretty Good Deal Compared to EQ2

brownlee — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 10:40:45 MDT

We were a bit agog at Blizzard's plans to sell character transfers for half the retail price of the game, but Kotakuite Cory wrote us in, putting it all in perspective. This is the character migration fee structure for Everquest 2

For moving characters on the same account from one server to a different server:
1 to 2 Characters = $75 (total charge)

3 to 8 Characters = $150 (total charge)

If you want to transfer 3-8 characters from one account to another on a different server, it can cost you up to $375. Moving one character with no items alone will cost an EQ2 player 50 bucks.

Jeezum Crow. MMORPGers sure are opulent suckers, aren't they? Florian Eckhardt

Previously: $25 WoW Character Transfers A Reality