From EverQuest2.com:

PAX Prime

When: August 30 through September 2, 2013
Where: Washington State Convention Center in Seattle Washington
Who: Linda “Brasse” Carlson, Trammel “TRay” Isaac, Rod “Dartok” Haza, Terry Michaels, Jeff “JButlerSOE” Butler, and Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson

Panels include “As Beta as You Wanna Be”, “The Future of Online Games”, careers in the game industry, “Live at PAX Prime”, and “Veterans in Gaming”.

Dragon Con

When: August 30, 2013 through September 2, 2013
Where: Hyatt Regency, Marriot Marquis, Hilton, Sheraton, and Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta Georgia
Who: Tony “RadarX” Jones, Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske, Colette “Dexella” Murphy, and Ted “Mepps” Stone

DragonCon is a huge amalgamation of Sci-fi interests, including Star Trek, Doctor Who, Stargate, and much much more, spread over no less than FIVE host hotels.

Panels are presented by the Community team and include A Brief History of Online Gaming, EQ to EQNext, Heroes and Villains Ball, Kid-Friendly MMOs, Economics of Free-to-Play Gaming, and Dragon’s Prophet

Join members of the EverQuest II Art & Animation team including Tim “Haohmaru” Heydelaar, Tom Tobey, Dave “Covic” Brown, and Aaron “Gnobrin” Bisnett as they talk about what it takes to create new zones, characters, and weapons for EverQuest II, as well as previews of upcoming zones and artwork!

This video includes:

• a detailed reveal of the reimagined Bixie characters
• a behind-the-scenes look as the team at first worked towards a different visual approach for Siren’s Grotto before building what was eventually delivered
• flythroughs of upcoming Highkeep, Temple of Veeshan, and Nexus zones in EverQuest II’s 10th expansion: Tears of Veeshan
• a zany Fun with Art segment with Tom Tobey showcaseing some of the key animations we’ve gotten in EQ2 this year
• a sneak peek at content for 2014 (dinosaurs!)
• the exciting new Terrain Editor!

NOTE: Silence in the first 1-2 minutes of the video, followed by frantic tripod setup noise for another minute is perfectly normal.

I’m not late on this announcement at all!

From the EQ2 Forums:

Get double Station Cash® when you redeem SOE Game Cards from any participating U.S. Best Buy store for Station Cash from Friday, August 16 to Sunday, August 18, 2013. You can purchase your SOE Game Cards from participating Best Buy stores any time, but to get double Station Cash you must redeem them before the offer ends at 11:59PM PDT on August 18, 2013.

Reminder: You only get double Station Cash when you redeem SOE Game Cards from a participating U.S. Best Buy store between 12:00AM PDT on August 16 until 11:59PM PDT on August 18, 2013.

From the EQ2 Forums:

In this Marketplace update, we have a couple terrific new Nightborne weapons designed by Player Studio artist Albert Soto Jr.

In addition to the new Player Studio items added to the Marketplace today, we are reintroducing the Equipment Unlocker Pack to the Marketplace for 150 Station Cash. Each Equipment Unlocker Pack can unlock five pieces of equipment that normally cannot be equipped due to account level restrictions. The goal of reintroducing this item to the Marketplace is to make things easier for our players that want to unlock specific pieces of equipment for their characters, or players that want to gift Equipment Unlockers to their friends!

Players can also get individual Unlock Equipment Items from the Marketplace for 40 SC each.

  

Join lead artists from Sony Online Entertainment including Tim “Haohmaru” Heydelaar (EQ2), David “Covic” Brown (EQ2), Kevin Lydy (EQ), and Tramell “T.Ray” Isaac (PS2) as they talk about the Player Studio program with Director of Artistic Development Joe “Rystall” Shoopack and Player Studio head Rick “Storn” Reynolds.

They walk through the item submission and approval process, including iterations and common choke points as first drafts become fantastic items that are successful and profitable for players and SOE alike.

NOTE: This video does not include the brief Powerpoint presentation shown at the beginning of the panel, which highlighted the winner of the Dark Elf Player Studio competition.

If you didn’t see the EverQuest II keynote live on Twitch or on the replays, you can watch it on Youtube. I’ve set the video to start at 27:30 which is right after Holly “Windstalker” Longdale gives ladies man Mark Tuttle a well-earned hard time and launches into the keynote. 😉

During the Expansion panel at SOE Live, the issue of returning players was raised, specifically the cost-prohibitive need to buy two expansions just to get back into the game. This is something we’ve been asking about since the day the EverQuest II:Age of Discovery expansion was announced. We always wondered — could we just buy the features we want like Reforging, Mercs, and Beastlords a la carte? It looks like all the roadblocks have been cleared and this will now be happening!

Holly responded that, in the near future, Age of Discovery will be broken up into separate features to buy. Also, Destiny of Velious will soon be included in the Free-to-Play entitlements. Included in all this news was that the 280 AA bauble — currently only available for buying Chains of Eternity — will also be made available as a separate item.

From Holly “Windstalker” Longdale‘s twitter:

I did say Destiny of Velious will be rolled into F2P and AoD will be split into features to buy! 280AA bauble too! #eq2 #SOELive

— Holly Longdale (@WindstalkerEQ2) August 3, 2013

Back: Carlos “Gninja” , Holly “Windstalker” , Akil “Lyndro”
Front: Kyle “Kander” , Nandy “Zoltaroth” , Mike “Xelgad“

Welcome to the EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.

Disclaimer: All things discussed about the expansions are subject to change!

More slides after the jump…

Welcome to the EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.

This is a LIVE BLOG hosted by Blyve:
http://blyve.com/event/5138f951143e787b3a000000

Welcome to the EverQuest II: Tears of Veeshan Expansion panel from SOE Live 2013.

This is a LIVE BLOG hosted by Blyve:
http://blyve.com/event/dc37f951bddea0042f000000

Welcome to the EverQuest II: Systems panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.

Disclaimer: All things discussed about the expansion are subject to change!

Itemization will be discussed in our next systems panel: EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves.

More slides after the jump…

Welcome to the EverQuest II: Systems panel from SOE Live 2013. Panelists are Michael “Xelgad” Ganz, Brian “Omougi” Ferguson, and Kyle “Kander” Vallée.

This is a LIVE BLOG hosted by Blyve:
http://blyve.com/event/f936f951ce62705701000000

Welcome to the SOE Live 2013 Welcome Reception. Tonight includes a keynote about EverQuest and EverQuest II, no doubt with a teaser of their upcoming expansions.

The Keynote is scheduled for two hours starting at 7pm PDT Thursday (10pm EDT, 3am BST, 4am CET).

This was a liveblog hosted by Blyve.
http://blyve.com/event/e138f9510a57e7483c000000

I’ve got big hopes for EQ2 itemization and what we’ll see in the “Everquest II: Itemization Evolves” panel at SOE Live this year.  For me, there are several things that go into itemization.  It’s more extensive than just the items themselves.  Here are a few notes on itemization that I hope will be included in that evolution:

• Go back to the days when gear was less cookie cutter. The days when you looked at more than just the Stamina stat to see if you were already wearing better.
• Bring back heroic zone progression meaning make the top level heroic instance hard. As in “need to gear up in the easier instances before you have any chance at clearing it” hard. Remember zones like Palace of Ferzhul, Estate of Unrest,  Tower of Tactics, Elements of War?  This was something we used to work towards so it gave us a goal. Lately, we can clear the harder zones the first or second time we go in. If we can clear the hardest zone, what are we working towards?
• Put the items in places that make sense. If zone X is required to get access to zone Y, and the quest sending me into zone X rewards me with boots, don’t put worse boots in the loot tables for zone Y. Nobody will ever wear them and it makes it seem like nobody was paying attention when placing the loot.
• Put ultra-rare items into the heroic zones again that are desirable even by raiders. This gives us something to do. I remember people asking to run zones like Cella, Maidens, Najena’s Hollow Tower, even Obelisk of Blight way back when because they wanted an ultra-rare item that dropped in there. Quite often the next GU or expansion would come out before everybody got what they wanted out of all the zones. Again, this gave us something to work towards.

These don’t sound like difficult things to do and they used to do things pretty much like this until the last couple of years. Hopefully they go back to this way of doing things and will give us heroic group runners something to work towards again other than Obols, Spirits, or whatever other new currency they come up with.

From Massively:

Sony Online Entertainment‘s SOE Live event is promising to be bigger than ever this year, as the company is reporting that advance passes are sold out and that walk-up tickets are expected to do the same, and quickly.

SOE Live 2013, which takes place August 1st through 4th at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, is surrounded by hype thanks largely to the long-awaited debut of EverQuest Next. SOE will also host five tournaments, a silent auction, a pool party, and talent and costume contests.

We have two Massively staffers on deck in Vegas: MJ Guthrie and Karen Bryan will be covering news as it happens.

Continue reading at Massively…

EQ2Wire will be (where else?) in Las Vegas this weekend for our sixth SOE Live covering EverQuest II, as well as the upcoming EverQuest Next on our sister site EQNWire.com. I’ll also be presenting a panel about our EQ2 armory site EQ2U as well as plans for the future.

You can read the official SOE Live 2013 Schedule here (hopefully with no more changes!), but here’s the list of panels I will be attending, with notations of which panels I will be Liveblogging and which I will be recording in 720p HD video. All times are Pacific Daylight Time!

• Thursday, August 1
  • EQ2Wire/Dragon’s Armory Meet Up! – 4-5pm — If you are in Vegas, join us in the Planet Hollywood Mezzanine. We’ll find a comfortable place to sit, either in the Lounge or Theater and chat.
  • Welcome Reception and Keynote Address – 7-9pm – Covering EverQuest and EverQuest II. This will also be livestreamed on Twitch.tv.

• Friday, August 2
  • EverQuest Next Debut – Noon-1:30pm – First look at EverQuest Next! This will also be livestreamed on Twitch.tv.
  • EQ2U & Dragon’s Armory Player Panel – 2-3pm – The future of EQ2U, plus Dragon’s Armory will unveil a major revamp! 
  • EverQuest II: Systems – 3-4pm – Classes, Tradeskills, PvP, and more.
  • EverQuest II: Expansion #10 – 4-5pm – EverQuest II’s 10th expansion.
  • EverQuest II: Itemization Evolves – 5-6pm – Hear about some great things coming to EQ2 Itemization.

UPDATE: Upon reflection of viewership numbers, lack of any kind of cellular data service in the conference rooms, and the high cost of Wifi in said rooms ($25 for 3 hours), and thus being unable to post photos in realtime, I’m NOT going to be Liveblogging on Saturday. A ton of EQNext info has been released on game sites and social media. So we’ll be recording a ton of panels in 720p HD video and releasing in the following days! Thank you!

• Saturday, August 3
  • EverQuest II: Art & Animation – 10-11am – Monsters, Dungeons, Animation, Armor and more!
  • EverQuest Next: Showing Off Your Creativity – 11am-Noon – 
  • EverQuest Next: The Classes of EQN – 1-2pm – 
  • EverQuest Next: The Lore of EQN – 2-3pm –
  • EverQuest Next: Creating a World – 3-4pm –
  • EverQuest Next: Q&A – 4-5pm –

Looking For Video

The biggest holes in my schedule are Friday’s “The World of EverQuest Next” (5-6pm) panel as it conflicts with an EQ2 panel, and Sunday’s “EverQuest Next: Inside the Writer’s Room” (Noon-1pm) and “EverQuest II Q&A” (1-2pm) which takes place after I’ve left Vegas. We are hopeful that at least one person will produce a High Definition tripod video of each of these three panels and then share them on Youtube.

From EverQuest2.com:

This summer, SOE ran the first SOE Player Studio item creation contest called Dawn of the Dark Elf. All items had to be dark elf themed and for EverQuest or EverQuest II.

Players had one month to prepare and submit their entries. There were no limits on the number of entries, and all regular Player Studio rules and guidelines were followed.

We received 34 entries in 5 categories from 17 different artists, but there could be only one winner: Neko Zero, who created this Organ of Enchanting Darkness for EverQuest II!

As described by Neko Zero, “this ancient organ is used to create haunting tunes during some of the most secret of ceremonies.”

Thanks to all who submitted entries for Dawn of the Dark Elf!

Are you interested in seeing your creations in EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms, or PlanetSide 2? Learn more about submitting items to Player Studio here.

I have just finished updating our EQ2Wire SOE Live Schedule webapp based on the massive changes to the SOE Live schedule made last Friday, as well as the additional changes made today to Considering the depth of the changes to the official SOE Live Schedule.

Grab the EQ2Wire SOE Live Schedule webapp for your iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Palm, etc. Remember, this app lets you pick your panels and add them to the “My Schedule” feature.

NOTE: This webapp uses a Manifest file to cache the schedule even for a device in airplane mode. If you’re testing this on a PC or Mac, you may need to reload your browser several times, and even close and reopen the browser to get the new version to load. I suggest an Incognito window in Google Chrome, or otherwise completely clear your cache before attempting to load the page.

The latest version number at the time of this writing should be 1.08 and a date of July 29, 2013.

Looks like I wasn’t the only one experiencing a bit of trepidation about 6 hours without a bathroom break. The SOE Live 2013 Schedule has undergone some pretty major changes, not only in times, but in which rooms are being used. The Friday panels have shifted, and all the panels set for Melrose have moved to the Sunset or other rooms.

More importantly, the EverQuest and EverQuest II keynote information has moved from 11-Noon on Friday to Thursday night as part of the Welcome Reception.

EQNext now gets its own dedicated 90 minute reveal starting at Noon on Friday.

The SOE Live 2013 Schedule has been updated on the SOE Live website.

NOTE: Changes are STILL being made, and neither Greg’s SOE Live Schedule app nor the EQ2U app has been updated for the new schedule yet. After the changes shake out, stay tuned for an update for when our schedules are updated!

From the SOE Live website:

SOE Live 2013 is coming up on us fast, and we want to get you revved up for the cool info, prizes, and fun you’ll see on stage at Planet Hollywood or (if your spending priorities include eating and paying rent) online via our livestream! Here’s a quick rundown of the SOE celebs that’ll bring you all the action!

Mark Tuttle – Host
Executive Producer, Strategy Games

Mark spent 17 years doing morning radio programs (proving again that ANYONE can get into the gaming industry). Mark will bring a quirky, fun air to the Reception and Grand Banquet. If that doesn’t work, he’ll just buy your love with prizes.

From Kaitheel’s twitter:

Fans of all things gnomish, and ‘splodey rejoice! #Tinkerfest is now live! New quests, rewards, buyables, and craftables! #EQ2

— Nathan McCall (@kaitheel) July 26, 2013

View the Detailed Writeup and Guide @ EQ2 Traders

View EQ2 Zam’s updated Tinkerfest Guide

Sigrdrifa is also feverishly updating EQ2 Wikia’s Tinkerfest guide for 2013.

Greg’s SOE Live Schedule for iPhone/iPad

Greg “Rothgar” Spence, now Lead Programmer for EverQuest Next, has updated his popular SOE Live Schedule app for SOE Live 2013!

Greg developed this iOS app three years ago and, in his extremely limited spare time, has maintained it every year for SOE Live, adding Retina and iPhone 5 support over time. This app has a “My Schedule” feature which lets you choose which panels should appear on your schedule, as well as providing Dining and Transportation information.

From the Apple Store’s product page:

SOELive is your official guide to Sony Online Entertainment’s SOE Live convention. Access the full list of panels and events and even build your own custom schedule. View maps of the convention floor, keep up-to-date with a live news feed, view a list of nearby dining options and access important travel i0nformation.

From Roshen on the SOE Live Forums:

It does NOT look like we’ll be able to add rooms to the SOE Live room block. If anything does free up to us before the event, it doesn’t look like it will be at the same prices listed in the SOE Live FAQ.

It looks like some people have good suggestions for other nearby or cheap hotels in Vegas. Before walking the Las Vegas Strip, just be aware that a Vegas ‘block’ isn’t as short as you think it is.

So if you waited til the last possible moment to book SOE Live and pay at the door, you’ll want to shop around other hotel options.

Players noticed earlier today that the SOELive code is no longer working on the special Planet Hollywood registration page. Players may need to investigate other hotels or can choose to wait with crossed fingers to see if PH opens up another room block at the SOE rate.

More as we have it…