With just over a month left until the big event we thought it would be fun to give you a behind the scenes look at Fan Faire!  What goes into planning such a big event you may ask?  When do we start?  Just how many pallets of stuff are shipped to the event, and how many rolls of shrink wrap does it take to keep everything together?  Look no further folks—we have all of the answers right here!

In our quest for insider information we looked to the experts, the Events Team!  Three wonderful ladies make up this team: Jen Belfield (Manager, Marketing Services), Lauren Zeiger (Marketing Events Manager) and Dawn Wilson (Marketing Coordinator Services).

Question: How many pallets do we ship to Fan Faire?

Dawn: In general we ship around 25 from the SOE SD campus, however we send several from alternate locations. In total it is close to 50, depending on the size of the equipment that we need to get to Vegas.

Question: How many rolls of shrink wrap does it take to ship all of our items to Fan Faire?

Dawn: Last year we used 4 cases  - that is 16 rolls of 1,000 ft shrink   We did ship a castle though!

The Events Team attends more than 100 meetings throughout the year that involve planning for Fan Faire.  These meetings include a weekly team meeting along with a monthly general Events meeting. As we approach Fan Faire that moves to a weekly meeting as well.

Let’s not forget Live Quests and Tournament planning!!  We caught up with Christie “Kiara” Renzetti and here is what she had to say.  ”I usually deal with live quests and tournaments, so my planning is limited. Planning a live quest has a lot of challenge to it. You need to plan it just right. It has to be fun and quick, but still have depth and tell a story. You also have to make sure that you don’t have bottlenecks that hold people up and slow things down (a mistake I made last year). All in all, it’s great to see people enjoy themselves!”

One thing you may not know is we do practice runs for the Live Quests and Tournaments.  For Tournaments like the EverQuest Best of the Best, the Community Team logs into the pre-made characters and runs through the tournament.  Then we will make changes to the characters based on ssues we may find.  The same goes for the Live Quests. This year we’ve planned the quests so far in advance that we can hold a trial run with the actual quest actors.  We will have a chance to practice the puzzles, put together crafts, and make sure the quests run smoothly and within the designated time-frame.

There are also behind-the-scenes aspects of the Phat Lewt Store (or the Station Store). Months in advance, the team is looking for new things to sell in this store.  This year we even had a thread up on the Station Forums asking for customer feedback.  As we get closer to Fan Faire we must do inventory; doesn’t that sound exciting?  Before everything is packed up on one of those 25 pallets, every item for the Store is tallied and accounted for.  This makes set-up that much easier.  Setting up the store at Fan Faire takes a few hours. Merchandise needs to be displayed around all of the tables, in a way that is inviting, and things must be securely stored away in their proper places.  We also have to set up the computers and cash register.  The last couple of years we’ve had members of the Accounting Department take care of the store.  This obviously makes things much more efficient.  After Fan Faire is over on Sunday morning, we have to take inventory again and then pack up.  This ensures that all of our ducks are in row and that things tally up as they should on the computers.

Setting up registration and the info desk are just as fun!  For registration there are computers to set up, so we can check in fans. We then have to sort through the badges and put them in order. At the Info Desk we set up an assembly line to fill up schwag bags!  We also sort t-shirt sizes and arrange them so they can be passed out conveniently.

Don’t forget the gaming room!  Wow, that’s a venture!  Before we even get to the show, our IT department makes sure that there is an image to put on the 100-plus computers we will be setting up.  In addition to computers in the game room, there are computers in almost every panel room.  Each computer must have the proper programs and games installed on it.  This process can be very time consuming.  The IT department starts early in the day the Wednesday before Fan Faire starts and are usually hard at work right up until the doors of registration open.

We’ve asked a few folks some Fan Faire questions and here is what they had to say…

Question: What aspect of planning Fan Faire do you find to be the most challenging?

Dawn: For me, the most challenging is making sure that all of the little details are taken care of.  Sometimes due to the nature of the event season, we are planning two to three events at the same time. Keeping everything straight is difficult at times.  With Fan Faire it is harder because it is 100% our event so we have a hand in every detail. This makes for long nights and even longer weekends—all worth it in the end though.

Draakull: Getting all the moving pieces to go in the right directions. Who is doing what and when. Running the panels and live events. Making sure you don’t overlap events so you can attend them all. 

Question: What is the one “behind the scenes” thing that you want attendees to know?

Amnerys: Please don’t be offended if you see one or more of us rush by you at Fan Faire, sternly focused and oblivious to those around us. We’re not trying to be rude, I promise! But we’re all so intricately involved in the execution of the event, that at any given time we might have been asked to run an errand, look for an employee or guest, pass a message, etc. Catch us when we’re standing around at a booth or event, or after a panel, and we’ll be very happy to meet you and assist in any way.

Draakull: That this takes planning and effort from offices all over the country. Many long hours with little sleep for days and days all in effort to make sure the fans enjoy their time at the event.

Gordo: We do it all for you.

Dawn: I would want the players to know that we really DO care about the things that matter to them.  We always listen to the advice and suggestions and try and incorporate them into our planning for next year. 

Greeblen: It literally takes an army of dedicated staff to pull this event off.  Everyone works so hard to make sure that our attendees and their guests have a great experience and they do it because they love it.

Question: What do you love most about planning Fan Faire?

Dawn: Because this is 100% an SOE venture I most enjoy the pride we get when we see how happy everyone is with our hard work.  We are a small department and at times it is hard to think how we will get everything done for the summer events.  When we are there and it looks amazing and everyone is having a great time, it is the best feeling.

Draakull: Making the event as much fun as possible and seeing the excitement build.

That’s your behind the scenes look at Fan Faire!  We hope you’ve enjoyed it!

By the way, want to know who is coming to Fan Faire?  Check out last week’s feature “Who’s coming to Fan Faire?”  Speaking of things that go on behind the scenes… We accidentally left a few names off that long list:

Paul “Virrago” Williams – Community
Nathan “Kaitheel” McCall – EQII
Tom “Ttobey” Tobey – EQII

Four days left…

ONLY FOUR DAYS!!!!!!!!!

Will you be here?

You’d better!!!

Why should you be at Block Party?

Activities for the kids – Free Pictures at the Green Screen – FOOD – DRINKS

And, are you ready for this one?

A BOUNCE HOUSE!!!!

News flash: These games will have demo stations:

Magic the Gathering: Tactics
Clone Wars Adventures
PoxNora
EverQuest
EverQuest II
Star Wars Galaxies
Free Realms

So you still think you can’t make it? Hope not!

Now taking RSVPs!

Are you planning to attend Block Party? Send us your RSVP on Facebook or via email SOE-communityevents@soe.sony.com! Click the image to go straight to our event page.

Say Cheese!

We’ll be uploading our pictures to the Block Party Flickr group, and invite you to join us by submitting your pictures there, too.

Pimp Your PC

800×600 | 1024×768 | 1080×1024 | 1680×1050

That’s it for now. Don’t forget that Block Party is Saturday, July 24th, 2010, from 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm at the SOE Headquarters (8928 Terman Ct, San Diego, CA, 92121.) Stay tuned for more reminders and updates before the day arrives. We’ll see you there!

Shuttle buses are scheduled to travel round-trip to SOE from Comic-Con every 30 minutes from 4:00pm-6:00pm. Look for the SOE signs in front of the Marriott Hotel, located north of the Convention Center (toward convention area A). You can follow us on Twitter @SonyOnline for regular updates on bus arrivals and departures. Buses will be returning to the Convention Center every 30 minutes until 8:00pm.

]]> http://www.top1news.com/9183/four-days-to-block-party-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.top1news.com/9182/soes-fifth-annual-block-party/ http://www.top1news.com/9182/soes-fifth-annual-block-party/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:29:14 +0000 admin http://www.top1news.com/9182/soes-fifth-annual-block-party/

One day…

One block…

One party…

A day you will remember…

SOE Block Party is back! The SOE Studio in Sunny San Diego, CA brings a day you will never forget. Join fellow gamers and developers from SOE for music, food, tours, game previews, giveaways, raffles and much, much more.

SOE will offer activities for the young ones, so bring everyone in the family! Attendance is free!

Now taking RSVPs!

Are you planning to attend Block Party? Send us your RSVP on Facebook or via email communityevents@soe.sony.com! Click the image to go straight to our event page.

Say Cheese!

We’ll be uploading our pictures to the Block Party Flickr group, and invite you to join us by submitting your pictures there, too.

Pimp Out Your PC With Our Block Party Wallpaper!

800×600 | 1024×768 | 1080×1024 | 1680×1050

That’s it for now. Don’t forget that Block Party is Saturday, July 24th, 2010, from 4:00 pm – 8:00 pm at the SOE Studio (8928 Terman Ct, San Diego, CA, 92121.) Stay tuned for more reminders and updates before the day arrives. We’ll see you there!

Shuttle buses are scheduled to travel round-trip to SOE from Comic-Con every 30 minutes from 4:00pm-6:00pm. Look for the SOE signs in front of the Marriot Hotel, located north of the Convention Center (toward convention area A). You can follow us on Twitter @SonyOnline for regular updates on bus arrivals and departures.  Buses will be returning to the Convention Center every 30 minutes until 8:00pm.

Vanguard Saga of Heroes – Trailer

There are just two weeks left to register for Fan Faire and the number of Gold and Silver passes available is limited!  Platinum passes are sold out.

We have so much in store for you, so don’t miss out!  Mix and mingle ‘til the wee hours with your online pals at our nightly celebrations!  Check out the latest content from your favorite games and chat with the developers in our daily discussion panels!

Oh, and did we mention the giveaways?  Don’t miss out on all of the items we’ve put together for you!

And that’s not all! Fan Faire Gold and Silver pass holders can:

• Have the opportunity to compete for great prizes in various tournaments, live events and contests (also included in day pass registration)
• Attend lots of social activities, including a Kickoff Reception, a Grand Banquet, a Costume Contest and a Pool Party!*
• Hear exciting announcements and play live demos of SOE’s upcoming titles (also included in day pass registration)
• Receive extra cool gifts and in-game items
• Browse cool products and purchase Fan Faire items in our Station Store and Vendor Bazaar! (also included in day pass registration)

Can’t join us for the whole weekend?  Buy a day pass for only $39 (plus any applicable taxes).  You’ll still get a chance to participate in the daytime activities, such as forums, roundtables, live quests, tournaments and more.

We’ll be announcing even more special activities and guests in the coming weeks so stay tuned! 

*Attendees must be 21 years or older with valid identification to attend certain evening events.

Fan Faire 2010 will be held in the famed Bally’s Las Vegas, from August 5th – 8th. Pre-registration is still open, visit the official Fan Faire website for more information and to register! There are no more platinum passes available, however, you can still get the platinum bundle, which gives you the items attached to the platinum pass!
	For nearly 30 years, Bally’s has been the pulsating soul of a neon city that refuses to sleep. With its unwavering service, comprehensive dining and signature style, this jewel of the Strip has attracted high-rollers from around the world. Join us at Fan Faire 2010 and see for yourself why Bally’s embodies the spirit of Las Vegas.

For those attending, here’s a map of the hotel and space where the events will be taking place. Feel free to use these to map out your strategies for maximizing your panel attendance, or print them out so you reduce the risk of getting lost during the three day celebration. Attendees will also get this information in their conference packets. This year we added the Skyview meeting space located on the 26th floor of the North Tower!

We’re also working on an iPhone application including conference schedule, maps, dining information, travel information and more. Check back later for more details on this app as well as the Fan Faire panel and event schedule.

If you have a different handheld device that can read PDF files, you might be interested in saving this meeting rooms & shops map from Bally’s. As Bally’s is connected to the Paris Las Vegas hotel, we thought you might also want a Paris property map. It offers several shops and restaurants that are easy to access from Bally’s.

Bally’s Map

Skyview Map

Game designers, artists, coders and testers have a language all their own. Sometimes they don’t even realize that what they’re saying at events and on the forums goes right over our heads!

We thought we’d help clear things up a bit by offering a look into their secret language. Here are a few terms you might hear from the mouths of devs.

Ambient Audio: Ambient Audio makes up all the sounds that help create an immersive environment.  For example, dogs barking, birds chirping, or dripping water.

Alpha: A development milestone at which the feature set is frozen and the product is fully functional and documented.            

Bug: Meaning "defect in a machine" (1889) may have been coined c.1878 by Thomas Edison (perhaps with the notion of an insect getting into the works).

Code Freeze/lock: A development milestone where the product is ready for final testing before Engineering Release. 

Collision: Object physics that prevent one object from passing through another.  It is placed on walls, objects in the world, and even NPC’s to make sure that the PC does not run though any geometry.

Cluster: A group of individual server processors that make up a single play server.

Easter Egg: A component of a computer program that is hidden from plain sight and usually is not executed. Typically, an Easter Egg can be revealed by entering an otherwise unused sequence of commands.

Fall out of the World (FOTW): A term for the issue where a player falls through geometry due to missing collision in the world.

Hot Fix: Making a repair during normal operation.

Patch: A downloaded software update.

Sanity Check: A pass review of code when something is changed on a Test server to ensure its basic quality.

Smoke Test: A quick verification test of all major systems of a program to ensure that basic functionality exists and no major errors are present to prevent testing.

Additionally, scheduled in August, SOE is planning to merge the Halgar server into the consolidated server mentioned above. Please read the forums for the specific date and downtime, as it is yet to be determined.  Please note that the processes outlined in this email will occur for both the July and the August server merge; if you have further questions regarding the implications of the two scheduled consolidations, please read VGPlayers.com.

We estimate a downtime of 24 hours to complete each of the two the merges respectively.

Help determine Vanguard’s future! We’ll be hosting a poll on the Vanguard forums, beginning Tuesday June 8th, to determine the new name of the consolidated world server. Click on the button below to give your input and vote for your favorite!

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/p…_id=53367 

Characters:

For the first consolidation, we will move any character that is over level 10 or any character under level 10 that has logged in between July 7, 2009 and July 7, 2010. When the Halgar server is merged, we will move any character that is over level 10 or any character under level 10 that has logged in 1 year previous to the date of the Halgar merge. 

Character Naming

Character name priority is based on a combination of when the character was first created and last played.  Each character that has a duplicate name after either of the server merges and does not have requisite priority to keep that name will be flagged, and upon the next attempted login of that character, the account holder will have to choose a new name before that character can login.  If you have a mule character (a low level character used for inventory storage), we respectfully ask that you please delete it and create a new one in case there are other players who used that name on active characters on a pre-merge server so that they will have a chance to keep the character name they play with.

Guild Names

Each Guild has a separate ID and will not be affected by a move. Two guilds with the same name can exist on the server. Should a guild wish to change their name they can petition Customer Service.

Housing

In conjunction with each server merge, housing plot purchase price and current upkeep balance will be returned via mail to the most recently created character on the account owning the house.  The building materials required to construct the house as well as the fixtures and items in the house will be returned to the owner via a housing escrow merchant.

Boats

After each server merge, boats will be flagged and upon the next attempted login of the character that owns the boat, the account holder will have to choose a new name for the boat.

VG Players issues

The data displayed in VGPlayers will continue to show the pre-server merge data for a short period of time after the merges occur.  Within a few days following the conclusion of each of the merges, the data will update and begin displaying the new stats for all characters.  Please be aware that this delay in updating will likely take from 2 to 4 days.

Mail

Mail will stay in the system and transfer over to the new server, so you do not need to do anything!

Corpses

All corpses will be purged and any items left on such corpses as of the date of each server merge can be retrieved at the altar.  Experience on such corpse(s) will be returned to you.

Friends List

Your friends list and ignore list will be preserved.

Market Items

Items on the market will be pushed to escrow and any items in escrow will be available after the merge.

For all the detailed information regarding the server mergers, please visit VGPlayers.com 

Congratulations to the finalists and winners of the 2010 Mr. and Ms. Challenges! To celebrate, we put all the finalists in a video collage! You can also view all the submissions in the Mr. and Ms. photo albums on Facebook.

Watch the Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00d_ufZUu4o

View the Photo Galleries of Submissions

EverQuest – Mr. and Mr. Norrath Challenge – Photo Gallery

EverQuest II – Mr. and Mr. Norrath Challenge – Photo Gallery

EverQuest II – International – Mr. and Mr. Norrath Challenge – Photo Gallery

EverQuest Online Adventures – Mr. and Ms. Norrath Challenge – Photo Gallery

Star Wars Galaxies – Mr. and Ms. Galaxy Challenge – Photo Gallery

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes – Mr. and Ms. Telon Challenge – Photo Gallery

Additionally, scheduled in August, SOE is planning to merge the Halgar server into the consolidated server mentioned above. Please read the forums for the specific date and downtime, as it is yet to be determined.  Please note that the processes outlined in this email will occur for both the July and the August server merge; if you have further questions regarding the implications of the two scheduled consolidations, please read VGPlayers.com.

We estimate a downtime of 24 hours to complete each of the two the merges respectively.

Help determine Vanguard’s future! We’ll be hosting a poll on the Vanguard forums, beginning Tuesday June 8th, to determine the new name of the consolidated world server. Click on the button below to give your input and vote for your favorite!

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/p…_id=53367 

Characters:

For the first consolidation, we will move any character that is over level 10 or any character under level 10 that has logged in between July 7, 2009 and July 7, 2010. When the Halgar server is merged, we will move any character that is over level 10 or any character under level 10 that has logged in 1 year previous to the date of the Halgar merge. 

Character Naming

Character name priority is based on a combination of when the character was first created and last played.  Each character that has a duplicate name after either of the server merges and does not have requisite priority to keep that name will be flagged, and upon the next attempted login of that character, the account holder will have to choose a new name before that character can login.  If you have a mule character (a low level character used for inventory storage), we respectfully ask that you please delete it and create a new one in case there are other players who used that name on active characters on a pre-merge server so that they will have a chance to keep the character name they play with.

Guild Names

Each Guild has a separate ID and will not be affected by a move. Two guilds with the same name can exist on the server. Should a guild wish to change their name they can petition Customer Service.

Housing

In conjunction with each server merge, housing plot purchase price and current upkeep balance will be returned via mail to the most recently created character on the account owning the house.  The building materials required to construct the house as well as the fixtures and items in the house will be returned to the owner via a housing escrow merchant.

Boats

After each server merge, boats will be flagged and upon the next attempted login of the character that owns the boat, the account holder will have to choose a new name for the boat.

VG Players issues

The data displayed in VGPlayers will continue to show the pre-server merge data for a short period of time after the merges occur.  Within a few days following the conclusion of each of the merges, the data will update and begin displaying the new stats for all characters.  Please be aware that this delay in updating will likely take from 2 to 4 days.

Mail

Mail will stay in the system and transfer over to the new server, so you do not need to do anything!

Corpses

All corpses will be purged and any items left on such corpses as of the date of each server merge can be retrieved at the altar.  Experience on such corpse(s) will be returned to you.

Friends List

Your friends list and ignore list will be preserved.

Market Items

Items on the market will be pushed to escrow and any items in escrow will be available after the merge.

For all the detailed information regarding the server mergers, please visit VGPlayers.com 

]]> http://www.top1news.com/8391/the-view-from-telon-may-24-2010-2/feed/ 0 http://www.top1news.com/8390/soe-awards-third-annual-10000-g-i-r-l-scholarship-2/ http://www.top1news.com/8390/soe-awards-third-annual-10000-g-i-r-l-scholarship-2/#comments Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:21:17 +0000 admin http://www.top1news.com/8390/soe-awards-third-annual-10000-g-i-r-l-scholarship-2/

Sony Online Entertainment announced today that Sylvia Liu of Milpitas, California, has been awarded the 2010 G.I.R.L.-Gamers in Real Life Scholarship. This marks the third year of the scholarship program, encouraging students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, ultimately resulting in the development of video games that are more enticing for women to play. 

Liu, an entertainment design student, was awarded a $10,000 scholarship to be applied toward her tuition and other educational expenses at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and an optional paid internship of up to 10 weeks at SOE’s headquarters in San Diego, working on one of the company’s hit titles.

“I feel so happy and honored to be chosen as the winner this year,” said Liu.  “I worked hard on my submission and am very proud of what I accomplished for this competition.  This opportunity will help me a long way in my career so I can’t wait to get started!”

Liu was one of over 200 applicants vying for the scholarship.  Finalists were asked to submit original concept art depicting a new game environment and new characters for either Free Realms™ or EverQuest®II, in addition to an essay discussing their views on women in the video game industry.

Sylvia’s "Creature" Submission

Sylvia’s "Environment" Submission

“SOE has now paved the way for three female students, giving them the foundation to pursue a career in the video game industry,” said Laura Naviaux, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, SOE. “We are extremely thrilled to have Sylvia represent the G.I.R.L program this year and we plan to continue our efforts in raising awareness of females in this business by unveiling additional initiatives we’re working on later this year.”

Julia Brasil, the first recipient of the G.I.R.L. Scholarship, has been a part of the SOE-Seattle team since her internship began in 2008.  Due to her skills and talent as an intern, she remained in Seattle, transferred from The Art Institute-San Francisco to The Art Institute-Seattle and will graduate at the end of the year.

For more information about G.I.R.L., please visit girl.soe.com. To follow G.I.R.L. on Twitter, go to https://twitter.com/SOE_GIRL  or to join G.I.R.L. on Facebook, go to http://tinyurl.com/SOE-GIRL.

Vanguard Saga of Heroes – Cobalt Deep

Vanguard Saga of Heroes

Congratulations to the winners of the Mr & Ms Telon forum challenge!

Prizes will be awarded the week of June 1st.

To see our other entries please visit the Vanguard Facebook page!

You might be familiar with our SOE Post Tracker, a feature on all of our game sites that allows you to see the latest posts from SOE Game Developers and Community Relations team members. Some of our forums also include Community Relations, Customer Service, Developer, Web Developer, and Support Team trackers.

SOE Post Tracker and other available trackers
on the EQ Forums circled in red.

What you probably didn’t know is that you can also view all of the posts made by SOE employees within a single forum, too.

Want to know what SOE team members have said in the EQ Tradeskill forum? In the EQII Norrathian Homeshow forum? Or maybe in the Star Wars Galaxies Gameplay Discussion forum? You can!

Just a quick glance at a forum’s ID number and plugging it in to a specific URL will get you that information. It’s a tad more advanced than the average user would normally undertake, but not too difficult to understand.

Here’s a quick how-to guide:

Simply take the URL below, subsititute your game forum’s identifier and the forum number…and that’s it!

http://forums.station.sony.com/forum_identifier/search/search.m?clean=1&sortBy=time&sortDir=DESC&group=SOEPostTracker&forumId=forum_ID#

If that made sense, you’re ready to go. If not, keep reading for a little more clarification.

You can find the forum identifier in every URL for the forum. It’s the name that comes in the space noted here with question marks: http://forums.station.sony.com/????/forums.

Here’s a list of the forums we currently host and their identifiers:

• EverQuest – eq
• EverQuest II – eq2
• Star Wars Galaxies – swg
• Vanguard - vg
• PlanetSide - ps
• EverQuest Online Adventures – eqoa
• Free Realms – freerealms
• Strategy Games (LON, SWGTCG, PoxNora, etc.) – strategygames
• Station – station

The forum number is also easy to spot once you know where to look. Hover your mouse over the name of the forum, and at the bottom of your browser you should see a link appear. The digit at the end of that link is your forum number.

In the image above, the forum identifier for the SOE Fan Faire forum is circled in red: station. The red arrow points to the forum ID number: 118.

For example, if you want to see the latest dev posts in the EQII Norrathian Homeshow forum, you would use the following URL:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/search/search.m?clean=1&sortBy=time&sortDir=DESC&group=SOEPostTracker&forumId=2487

And your resulting page would look like this:

If you want to see the latest dev posts in the EQ Tradeskill Discussion forum, use this URL:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/search/search.m?clean=1&sortBy=time&sortDir=DESC&group=SOEPostTracker&forumId=107

Or perhaps you’re interested in seeing what Star Wars Galaxies Devs have said in their Gameplay Discussion forum:

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/search/search.m?clean=1&sortBy=time&sortDir=DESC&group=SOEPostTracker&forumId=4102

You can take these examples and plug in any game identifier and forum ID that interests you. It’s that easy!

Occasionally it does take a little while for the link to populate, so if you pull up one of these links and you’re not seeing all of the posts, come back a little while later (sometimes up to a day or two) and you should see more information available going forward.

We hope this helps make tracking your favorite forums and the posts from our team just a little easier. Come test the magic URL out over on the [game name] forums!