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Archive for April, 2009
Fan Faire Registration Now Open
Apr 21st
Join SOE at Ballys Las Vegas for four days of revelry and celebration at Fan Faire 2009. This year marks the 10th anniversary of EverQuest, and SOE will celebrate this incredible milestone with its loyal fans June 25-28.
For $89 (plus any applicable taxes), attendees will receive an All-Access pass to an expanded Fan Faire weekend that includes:
- Sneak peeks at new games in development
- Special guest appearances
- A chance to purchase EverQuest: The 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition
- Book signing session with master artist Donato Giancola
- Developer forums
- In-game tournaments
- Activities such as live quests tied to SOEs current games lineup
- Live, playable demos of upcoming SOE titles
- Gifts and in-game items
Attendees also will hear about exciting new announcements from SOE President John Smedley during the Annual Community Address, meet and mingle at the Kickoff Reception, feast at the Grand Banquet, show off their creativity at the Costume Contest and enjoy the good times at the EverQuest 10th Anniversary Bash!*
Those who pre-register 10 or more guild mates online will receive 50% off an All-Access pass. (Offer does not apply toward walk-in or day-pass registrants.)
If you can’t make it for the entire weekend, day passes are available for $39 (plus any applicable taxes), More >
Lineage 2: Changes to Combat with Gracia Final
Apr 20th
The developers over at NCosft have provided MMORPG.com with this new developer journal looking at the combat additions coming from the game’s newest expansion, Gracia Final.
The Aerial Cleft takes PvP to the skies of the Gracia continent. Participation in this aerial PvP is exclusively for players who are on the Gracia continent and who register in the Aerial Cleft region. Once registered, two randomly assembled teams are thrust into an exciting twenty-five minute battle. During that time players will need to master their fear, flying prowess and new aerial skills to win. Not only is brute force required to be victorious, but you’ll have to work together with your new found teammates in order to successfully shatter the crystal cores and score points for your team. At the end of the twenty-five minutes the team with the most points wins. To the victors go valuable Emery pieces which can be used in concert with Star Stone pieces that winners can harvest after the match to create attribute crystals. The meek will not survive in this arena and the strong will continue to fight for the Cleft’s riches.
Read Changes to Combat with Gracia Final
Dev-Intro: Producer for Age of Conan Live Team – Hyborian Adventures
Apr 17th
Dev-Intro: Producer for Age of Conan Live Team
The latest blog update is in and this week we introduce the Producer for Age of Conan’s Live Team.
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This week starts the beginning of our first set of developer introductions! As mentioned previously, I’m going to start snagging some developers time to time and have them either drop by or answer some questions. Today, it’s fitting we start with the right hand man on the project with a interview that helps introduce our victim as well shares some detail about what he does for the project.
Our developer blog can only be found exclusively on MMORPG.COM
SOE’s Game Guide For Parents
Apr 17th
Sony Online Entertainment has released the "Let Kids Game" booklet for free download. It’s a guide for parents featuring third-party research, survey results, and tips for parents. In addition, parents who hit up What They Play can enter the Let the Kids Game contest with a chance to win an Alienware laptop and a Free Realms prize pack.
Now available at SOE.com and WhatTheyPlay.com, the brochure aims to reach out to parents to help them understand the often-overlooked benefits of playing video games, such as SOEs upcoming free, family-friendly online game, Free Realms®. With the help of top experts, such as John Davison, co-founder of the online parenting resource What They Play, and Cheryl Olson, Sc.D., the Let the Kids Game brochure indicates that games are an unexpected way to not only bring families closer together but also have the potential to form future leaders.
Contrary to popular belief, studies have shown that video games can be good for kids. Key findings cited in the brochure include:
- Video games are related to improvements in vision, social interaction and visuospatial cognition (a skill associated with several careers, including architecture, engineering and surgery).
- Playing games together can forge stronger family ties between parent and More >
Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia Survival Guide
Apr 16th
MMORPG.com Final Fantasy XI Correspondent Brandon Shaw writes this survival guide for the old Final Fantasy XI expansion Chains of Promathia.
There comes a time in every Adventurer’s life when the Final Fantasy storyline MUST be completed. This gruelling and unfortunate experience is one of the many arduous necessities of the game that must be completed in order for your character to become anything in FFXI. So this week, the focus will be Chains of Promathia (often abbreviated CoP, or PM). This expansion was released in the United States in Fall 2004, being the second expansion in the existence of FFXI. Though no new jobs were added to the game, a new endgame area called Al’Taieu, or Sea was premiered in this expansion, which is home to quite possibly the most difficult HNM to defeat in the entire game, Absolute Virtue.
Read Chains of Promathia Survival Guide
EverQuest II: New Welcome Screen
Apr 15th
The folks at EverQuest II have announced the addition of a new welcome screen, with better organized information so you don’t miss out on the latest updates and events.
We’ve added a new feature to EQII!
Tired of missing the MOTD that tells you when a Live Event is going to end? Want to know when the next scheduled downtime is going to happen?
The Welcome Screen will now appear each time you log into game! It’ll have all the latest updates from downtime to event dates!
The Community section will let you know all the most recent information about events or other things you need to know.
The CS Section will keep you updated on important downtime messages!
Read more here.
Lineage 2: Role Overview – Tanks II
Apr 15th
MMORPG.com Lineage II Correspondent Žygimantas Mockus writes this overview of the tanking role in Lineage II, this time focusing on the Paladin.
Unlike the Dark Avenger who is a mix of a summoner and a tank, the Paladin is a hybrid of a tank and a healer. He can be considered a primary tank in parties and he has quite good healing abilities. Under rare circumstances, he can heal even better than bishop. However, after four or five heals you will notice that you are out of mana, so healing features should be used only when it’s a must. One of the unique Paladin skills is called Sacrifice. This one can sacrifice a Paladin’s health for treatment of the other party members. Of course, the Paladin’s friends will get a smaller amount of HP than he sacrificed but, in real situations, it’s a true life-saver. The other very useful skill is called Shield Stun. While this one does not do any damage on its own, the chance of stunning the opponent is the biggest, which gives a huge advantage over other opponents in both PvP and PvE. As far as self-buffs are concerned, let’s look at skill called Majesty. This one More >
Lineage 2: Introducing the Continent of Gracia
Apr 14th
The folks at NCsoft have provided us with a new developer journal which introduces us to the new continent of Gracia, which will be added to the game with the game’s next free expansion, Gracia Final.
The Lineage II: Gracia Final expansion introduces a brand new continent, Gracia, and provides captivating PvE, PvP, and small group experiences. This expansion also has a number of exciting new features, ranging from flight to inventive instances to airborne raid bosses. Anyway you look at it the Gracia Final expansion offers an invigorating and breathtaking adventure for players.
The Gracia continent is a unique part of this Lineage II expansion. Part of what makes this land so exceptional is that it allows one to explore the skies with several aerial transformations. The Aurabird Falcon, Aurabird Owl, and Final Flying Form transformations enable players, who have met the prerequisites, to soar through the skies of Gracia, and experience PvP and PvE like they have never seen before in Lineage II. Up in the sky await new aerial hunting grounds and monstrous raid bosses that incorporate the flying transformations and truly take Lineage II combat to new heights.
Read more about Lineage II’s new Continent of Gracia.
More >Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: Ask a Dev
Apr 14th
The folks at Vanguard have posted a series of developer answers to community questions.
Will you consider to revamp Karax and Varking since no one is killing them? Maybe make them both lvl 55 targets?
No plans to revamp them as of yet. We have made an adjustment to Varkings add casting that should make him a little more possible.
Are you considering implementing another Class Lead system, or a different way of improving class balancing and fixes?
Do not have the resources to manage a class lead system and we do not want to deal with the issues the last class lead system caused.
Will we ever know how much our total XP is w/out requiring a UI mod and how much XP is needed until next level? Like 43176/64823xp?
Possibly but not really high on the list.
Read more here.
Global Agenda: Fan Video Contest
Apr 14th
Hi-Rez Studios has announced that they’re holding a video contest, challenging players to create the best or funniest video using assets from their new fan video kit. The video submission deadline is May 10th.
Today, Hi-Rez Studios posted a new Fan Video Kit that includes various clips of Global Agenda game play footage, launching The Eyes of the World Are Upon You! contest. This kit supplements the previously released Fan Site Kit, which includes a bunch of great art and music assets.
Hi-Rez is encouraging fans to use these materials — as well as other publicly available game assets and original fan-created content — to create videos that promote Global Agenda and then post them to the special Global Agenda Fan Videos Group on YouTube.
Read more here.