Archive for February 23, 2012 3:06 pm

Piestro Named New EverQuest II Community Manager

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary

Eric “Piestro” Cleaver has been named as new EverQuest II Community Manager:

Hey Folks,
My name is Piestro, and I’m a Halfling.

/em waits for the “Hi Piestro.”

Some of you may have seen me in an occasional post, Facebook update, or tweet in my role as a member of the SOE Community Team. Previously I was assigned to EverQuest, but it’s my pleasure to announce that I am now taking on the role of EverQuest II Community Relations Manager!

So who am I? Well, I’m a long time fan of SOE Games, and an experienced Community Relations professional. For a little more than a year I’ve been working on EverQuest. This was easy for me, as EverQuest was always my favorite MMO and getting to work on it as a professional was a dream come true in many senses.

   

Rumors of Fan Faire 2012’s Cancellation Are Greatly Exaggerated

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Daybreak Live (SOE Live/Fan Faire)

Looks like I’m not the only one who noticed that http://soefanfaire.com/ is now redirecting to http://soe.com/.

From Amnerys on the EQ2 Forums:

Nope, we haven’t canceled anything, nor are we ready to make any announcements just yet. The site is currently down because we’ve been redesigning a lot of our sites and right now it’s just not live. Don’t fret.

Ark’s Ark Asks “Who are ProSiebenSat.1 anyway?”

Written by Feldon on . Posted in International

From Ark’s Ark:

As you know by now, SOE is selling its European players to a company called ProSiebenSat.1. OK, technically, they’re selling them the exclusive rights to run the games within Europe (including the UK), but that includes all the characters on the European servers, and the details of anyone with a character there. The value of the playerbase has certainly been accounted for in the deal, and so we have been passed like chattels to a new master.

So who are they, these folks that we suddenly find in control?

ProSiebenSat.1 is a German media conglomerate. Their main business is German language television for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Most important for us though is a little side-business called Alaplaya, which runs a number of online games such as Argo, Skylancer, and a number of other games that you’ve also only ever seen mentioned in cheap google ads.

Continue reading the article including the revelation that on December 15, 2011, ProSiebenSat.1 Group and Sony Pictures Television Sales Deutschland GmbH entered into a far-reaching output deal for the video-on-demand portal maxdome, a local competitor to Netflix.

Thursday February 23, 2012 Update Notes

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Game Updates & Maintenance, Raiding

Believe it or not, time marches on and there are still semi-weekly updates to talk about, so…

MERCENARIES

  • Mercenaries should do much less damage in PVP combat.  This should have no affect PVE combat.

ZONE PROGRESSION / POPULATION

Plane of War

  • The Enraged War Boar now stands guard near the zone entry.

Vallon’s Tower [Challenge]

  • During the final Vallon Zek fight, The Vallonite Volley Commander will limit the locations he spawns at.

You may be wondering what in the world those last 2 line items are about.

MMO Design Suggestion: If you are designing a raid progression zone, and you add trash mobs that drop awesome items, make sure that killing those trash mobs trigger a zone lockout requires more than one group. 😉

An Open Letter to John Smedley by Moria

Written by Feldon on . Posted in International

From Moria on the EQ2 Forums:

Dear Mr Smedley.

You don’t know me, personally, and I don’t know you. However, I know your work.. and I admire it. I remember Keys to Maramon on the Amiga, I remember 989 Studios and I remember Verant software. I remember your pride in the development of Everquest, and being a beta player, you often replied to our posts on the forums and discussed mechanics, objectives hopes and fears with us. I remember how much you cared about the community and the way that the company and the players together were making waves and changing the face of online gaming.

I remember coming out of Beta and starting on a new server called Rodcet Nife. I was one of the first players to level 20 on that server and in those days, to get a surname, it involved a GM who came and tested the player and their knowledge of lore prior to granting the surname. I was the first in my guild, and 4 guilds all came out to Antonica to witness the ceremony and the party.

We were a family. The developers, the GM’s the Guides and the players. Presumptious on my part I know, but I felt that way anyway. Rodcet Nife had a majority of players from Europe, and at that time I was living in Europe. ( I am british by Birth and I have fought for my country to preserve the right of people to choose their own destiny. My father was present, and ashamed, when the Berlin Wall was built by the Eastern Block.. I was present and proud on the day it came down).

P7S1/Alaplaya Sets Up Temp Forum, Responds to SOE Concerns

Written by Feldon on . Posted in International

ProSiebenSat.1/Alaplaya has established a temporary forum and thread to discuss the ProSiebenSat.1/Alaplaya-SOE deal. Here’s the announcement from Coldor, Alaplaya’s Community Manager:

Hello fellow SOE- and Alaplaya-Gamers,

with this board we just created a temporarily catch basin for all your questions regarding our new partnership between SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) and ProSiebenSat1 Games.

This will not be the final billboard-solution for the upcoming SOE-Games. With the following launch of DC Universe Online all SOE-Games will get their own dedicated websites with appropriate designs and a fresh billboard for you to use.

We are looking into a bright gaming future here at ProSiebenSat1 Games and the upcoming big SOE-Games like DC Universe Online, EverQuest II, Free Realms and PlanetSide 2 are just the tip of the iceberg.

So stay tuned for more details to come.

And now in the IRC channel, Coldor is answering some questions specifically.

  • SOE games will have nothing to do with Alaplaya at all.
  • With the launch of DC Universe, we will introduce a new in-game currency that is similar to StationCash. It will not be Alaplaya Points. Your Station cash will be converted to our currency and you will be able to use it with EQ2 and Vanguard.
  • Since EQ1 is not part of our SOE deal, I can’t give you an answer if we can “split” Station cash just for your EQ1 account. I will bring up the idea up with station cash to let users decide how much they want to get converted.
  • Currently everything is in discussion here and at SOE. It’s not totally set in stone.
  • IP-Lock is being discussed as I have already told you, so please don’t decide on just that.

P7S1/Alaplaya Explains Customer Names on Public Forum

Written by Feldon on . Posted in International

From the Alaplaya Forums:

What we did (long time ago):

When a user made a wire transfer and put a wrong or unreadable accound id on the sheet we could not put the money on the account. We had “just” the name of the user who made the wire transfer. If this name was not existing in our DB we asked the user to contact us. It was a service which was in favour and by demand of the users. As wire transfer could take quite long from some countries this list helped the users to get a status.

We tried to find the user who paid us. Something totally different and last option was to send back the money where depending on the country the bank took a cut of the money.

We stopped that payment method long time ago as it was archaic and better methods occured.

Hope that makes it clear for all of you.

P.S: You never could be back with payments at that time as we did not have subscriptions! We never ever did such thing.

A Player Calls ProSiebenSat.1 — Gets Answers?

Written by Feldon on . Posted in International

A player named Trevynoae with an account going back to 2004 posted about a phone call he had with ProSiebenSat.1 on the subject of this SOE deal. Normally we do not run with single-source news, but with the dearth of information coming from SOE, we’re going to post this:

– There will be no Alaplaya-accounts – but there will be a region lock. We will log in via our SOE account on the alaplaya-page. (*looks confused*)

– EU Players will be able to create new SOE accounts and will be able to play on the US-servers there.

– EU accounts will get flagged. If you are currently located in the EU, Pro7 will get your money – otherwise it will go to SOE. More a segregation of people than servers. It doesn’t matter what server you play on. (See update below)

In Your Own Words: EQ2 Players React to SOE-ProSieben Deal

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary, International

Even if you don’t personally use Twitter, it’s worth following people in the EQ2 community to get their instant impressions on different subjects…

Arkenor: Anyone with a character on a European server has just been sold to a company they’ve never heard of, without their permission.

MMOYeti: SOE have once again thrown up the finger to Europeans. Our US guild member who played on euro times can not now join us in eqnext… we now have a US guildie that (if we play) eqnext he will be unable to join us.

MMOYeti: @j_smedley Ah you always give me a good laugh, I never cease to be amazed at the shocking conduct of the company you oversee.MMOYeti: @j_smedley In one quick move to make no doubt more than a few quick bucks you split guilds and friends playing your game.

MMOYeti: @CheesePirateEq2 You’d think the internet of all things was something that could remove barriers not set them up.

SOE EQ2 Community Team Deletes 100’s of Posts, Bans Dozens Over ProSieben Feedback

Written by Feldon on . Posted in International

If you want to know what’s been going on at the EQ2 forums, the quickest way to sum it up is this — I have been banned for the first time ever from the EQ2 forums for “excessive negativity”.

ProSiebenSat.1/Alaplaya — A Company Unfit for SOE Customers

Six weeks ago, an exclusive distribution deal affecting all Europe-based SOE customers was announced with a German TV media company named ProSiebenSat.1. Within minutes of the announcement, players discovered that ProSiebenSat.1’s gaming division is called Alaplaya, a company known for IP Region Locking, publishing the personal details of customers in violation of EU and German privacy law, shady dealings with customers, and a lineup of poorly supported low-grade pay-to-win browser games riddled with exploits which even Alaplaya’s official moderators have admitted the company plans to do nothing about.

This Tuesday afternoon, after six weeks of silence, SOE finally came forward with a Frequently Asked Questions about the ProSiebenSat.1 deal. Our worst fears were realized.

When the deal goes into effect, U.S. players will no longer be able to access EU servers. For a variety of reasons, this is a serious problem.

Also, no new EU-based players will be able to access U.S. servers — only current players will be grandfathered in. The end result being that the hundreds of Euro-based guilds on U.S. servers will no longer be able to recruit new players from the EU.

But the real elephant in the room is: NOBODY who has done even the most cursory of investigation wants to do business with Alaplaya.


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