Filed under: PlanetSide

by **Krystalle Voecks** Mar 4th 2010 at 5:30PM

For fans of Sony Online Entertainment's stable of MMO titles, the time has come once again to start making plans for Fan Faire. It looks like we'll all be heading back to Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas from August 5-8 for a weekend chock-full of all manner of crazy gaming fun with MMO friends.

This year, they're offering everything from day passes at $35 on up to a Platinum badge which -- for $135 -- will net you access to all events, plus an additional in-game item, a special swag bag boasting more than just regular Fan Faire goodies, access to a VIP lounge, and even private VIP events. Add to that the room discounts starting at $65 a night for a swanky hotel right on the main Vegas strip, and this could well be a great vacation that just happens to include the awesome fun of this year's SOE Fan Faire.

For now, there's no details on the schedule of events, but we wouldn't be surprised to see Alan "Brenlo" Crosby wedging people into t-shirts three sizes too small, as well as an appearance by of one of our favorite Dwarves. If previous years are any indication, this is a should-not-miss event for any serious SOE fan.

by **Seraphina Brennan** Jan 14th 2010 at 6:00PM

War seems to be a hot topic in MMOs today. From MAG to Global Agenda, online war is the place to be.

But a few years ago, having an online war with 300 people at once was unheard of until one game pushed the boundaries and made it so -- PlanetSide. Sony Online Entertainment started the concept of having the MMO and the FPS merge together into one being that was above and beyond a persistent online shooter. It had the armor system of Starsiege Tribes, the inventory management of an MMO, the level progression and ability modification of an RPG, and the combat and vehicle control of a FPS, all played to the tune of a persistent war.

So why should you choose this game when there are so many newer alternatives available? Follow after the break, and let me outline a few features for ya.

by **Seraphina Brennan** Nov 15th 2009 at 8:00AM

Lots of shooter/action MMOs coming out in the future, and we here at Massively are eager to play them all. From the 256 player battlefields of MAG to the chaotic, persistent territory control of Global Agenda and even over to the streets of APB, more MMOs are taking the route of the action title and avoiding the point-and-click style of the MMORPG.

So, readers of Massively, what's your shooter of choice? Are you more of the first person, character development style of player that's embodied in MAG? Would you rather customize your character and your ride while shooting up the town in APB? Or are you up for some spy-fi jetpack action in Global Agenda? Or, do you want to take the none of the above option and lay down all of your chips on PlanetSide or PlanetSide 2? (Mmmmm... PlanetSide 2....)

Shoot your mouth off in the comment box below! See what we did there?

by **Rubi Bayer** Oct 12th 2009 at 9:00AM

A few weeks ago we brought you rumors of Planetside's sequelosity (really, the word is just too good to only use once). Since then SOE has been giving hints at the game here and there, including a blog post from President John Smedley who sounds as excited about this next Planetside game as we are.

Smedley says "To me, Planetside Next means we get a chance to take the essence of everything that was fun in Planetside and make it a lot better. Massive battles on a scale no other FPS will touch. None of this 64 player stuff. REALLY MASSIVE."

An interesting note is that readers immediately picked up on his use of "Planetside Next", and it's quickly become termed the official name. We spoke to SOE and confirmed that this is an internal working title, not the official one, so we may be hearing about a new title in the future.

Smed's Blog summed it up nicely: "Damn I love Planetside. I really do." We do too, and we'll keep an eye out for more news on this in the near future.

by **Seraphina Brennan** Jul 27th 2009 at 4:00PM

In an e-mail that went out to the community earlier today, the PlanetSide team has announced that the game's final two servers will be combined into one to preserve the balance of fighting between their three armies. The merge will be conducted on August 25th, so this is ample warning of the things to come.

Now, normally people would be complaining and unhappy over hearing the words "server" and "merge" being put into the same sentence, but that's not the sentiment over at the PlanetSide community. This move has put the veteran players into a state of happiness in their anticipation of the merge. Old outfits are preparing for a resurgence as former players are returning to the game once more.

by **Seraphina Brennan** Jun 29th 2009 at 8:00PM

So the beta launcher is finally un-betaed! Sony has officially pushed the Station Launcher into the "final version," dropping in voice chat, simplified menus, faster servers for downloads, and the ability to run the launcher without administrative rights as well.

The fun stuff, however, is really contained within the voice update. This new voice, dubbed "station voice," lets you communicate with friends from within the game or outside of the game. Creating a room from outside of the game is done with your in-game character, letting people who are on the station launcher join you, or people inside of the game join your room from the inside, no launcher required.

Plus, the other new features like the upgraded servers that will give more downstream bandwidth for game updates, are certainly nothing to sneeze at.

This doesn't mean that Sony is done with upgrading and changing the launcher, as they've already pledged to continue taking user feedback and pushing that into their product to constantly make a better launcher.

For the full patch notes, check them out on the EverQuest forums, located in this thread.

by **William Dobson** Jun 22nd 2009 at 3:00PM

Not being able to attend this year's SOE Fan Faire doesn't mean that you'll miss out entirely. Aside from the biggest news that we'll undoubtedly bring to your attention right here on Massively, you will actually be able to watch SOE CEO John Smedley's community address streaming live on Friday the 26th of June, at 7:00PM PDT. Although visiting the link for the event right now seems to prompt us to register, Amnerys' post on the EverQuest forums says that this isn't necessary: "You don't need to register or have a password! Just visit the page and view!"

This will be the third year of SOE's annual community addresses. To get an idea of what to expect this Friday, you can check out the presentation from Fan Faire 2007 on Youtube. The link to keep bookmarked for the live event is this one right here.

by **William Dobson** May 27th 2009 at 12:30PM

Thom Terrazas just recently replaced Clint Worley as the producer for EverQuest, and we were lucky enough to get the chance to speak to him about the move. Among other things, we found out what's in store for the current playerbase in the future, why EverQuest newbies should try the game, and learned that although the 51/50 server type won the latest poll, we should hold out hope for other new types too -- maybe even a "Classic" server. We snuck in a few questions about Vanguard and PlanetSide as well. To get Thom's take on these things and more, click through and read the full interview.

by **William Dobson** May 27th 2009 at 12:30PM

by **William Dobson** May 27th 2009 at 12:30PM

by **William Dobson** Apr 22nd 2009 at 5:00PM

SOE is searching for their two biggest fans, and plans to reward their loyalty with a trip to the SOE Fan Faire in Las Vegas later this year. It would be pretty difficult to work out who the biggest fanboys or girls are without any input from the community, so it's up to the players to nominate suitable candidates -- and yes, you can nominate yourself. What qualities should you be looking for in potential Players of the Year? From SOE:

"Do you know someone who is the poster child for your favorite SOE title? So dedicated to the game, he or she walks around with bloodshot eyes, sleep deprived, wearing his or her favorite wrinkled SOE T-shirt? Does this player stand out as the first person to go beyond the call of duty to help fellow community gamers in and out of the game? If so, you may have the perfect candidate, and we want to know more!"

To submit a nomination, send an email to SOEContests AT soe.sony.com with a 300 word letter or role-playing story explaining the worthiness of the player in question; a link to a screenshot, video or artwork can be included. The contest is already underway and closes at midnight PST on the 10th of May, and the nominee must be a US resident and 21 years of age or older. Full competition details can be found here.

by **Krystalle Voecks** Apr 7th 2009 at 12:00PM

Looks like things over at Sony Online Entertainment are really gearing up for this year's Fan Faire in Las Vegas. Sure, you know something big has to be coming because it's the 10th anniversary of EverQuest this year, but to sweeten the deal SOE is looking for player input. Did you hate that you didn't have enough time for Q&A on your favorite SOE title last year? Would you have preferred to hear John Smedley sing something other than Guns & Roses at karaoke? Did you really enjoy the silly competitions that Brenlo held during dinner? Perhaps you'd like to suggest a whole new panel that they haven't considered doing yet? Whatever your reasons, be sure to pop by the Fan Faire forums and let them know!

by **Krystalle Voecks** Mar 18th 2009 at 11:00AM

Vegas, city of lights, nightlife, and SOE's Fan Faire! Sony has announced that they will once again be heading for Vegas to party down in high-rolling style. This year they'll be holding the event from June 25th to 28th at Bally's Hotel. The location they've picked is right in the middle of various Vegas attractions - although we're sure if you're there for the SOE party, you won't need to worry about that too much.

Having attended last year's Fan Faire, we can definitely say that it's a great weekend of fun and interesting panels, nice people - and this year's lineup appears to be just as interesting. So far the scheduled events include:

Special announcements and sneak peeks of upcoming SOE titles at the Third Annual Community Address from SOE President John Smedley
Autograph signings with members of the original EQ development team and other key contributors
Lots of in-game tournaments; and live, game-themed competitions and quests
Developer forums and roundtables
Cool giveaways and other fun items!
Player of the Year

To top it all off, prices for Vegas vacations are quite good, currently. So if you've been thinking about getting away, really dig SOE's games - or upcoming titles, and enjoy partying down with a great bunch of friendly, welcoming people, then definitely make some plans to attend this year's Fan Faire.

by **Brooke Pilley** Feb 12th 2009 at 3:00PM

Online credit card fraud is big business and even MMORPGs aren't safe from it's far reach. We recently had a chance to sit down with Executive Director of Global Customer Service, Brad Wilcox, and discuss how SOE is dealing with gold selling and power-leveling services for their games. They are taking this war so seriously that they have put all transactional business under keen gnomish scrutiny.

Can you tell us how this fraud prevention task force came to be?

Brad Wilcox: Since the inception of EQ1, we always had components of a fraud prevention team. These were game masters and individuals tasked with looking at the game economy and making sure that people weren't exploiting. Since September 2007, we started to see a big increase in fraudulent activity in regards to stolen credit cards. That is when it was decided to put a few more resources specifically related to the fraud that was happening with accounts and subs being created with these stolen credit cards. That's when we formed what we call the NUGIT team, which stands for Norrathian Underground Gnome Investigation Team. As you can tell by the name, our employees enjoy having as much fun on the back end as we do on the front end of these games

by **William Dobson** Feb 11th 2009 at 10:00AM

SOE's all-encompassing Station Launcher has received an update, responding to (like the last update) player feedback and suggestions left at the Station Launcher forum. According to SOE, the Station Launcher's daily usage levels have been steadily increasing over time, with more and more users adopting the handy platform. A lot of the changes are related to the "Friends network" -- among these is the new option to "Join [friend] in [game]", speeding you through game, server, and character selections to meet up with a pal. You can also hide your online status from the Friends network with the "Disconnect" button, and inactive characters won't show up on the Friends tab by default any more.

Other welcome changes include improvements to the Scanning process that ensures that game files are up to date, and an automatic re-login feature to counter disconnects. Check after the break for the full list of updates.

Name	Date
Love Launch	Mar 25 2010
Earthrise Launch	Q2 2010
APB Launch	Q3 2010

Filed under: PlanetSide

SOE announces dates for Fan Faire 2010

Why You Should Be Playing PlanetSide: It's online war!

The Daily Grind: Your shooter of choice?

"Planetside Next" not official game title, despite rumors

PlanetSide merges last two servers into one

Station launcher moves out of beta, adds voice chat support

SOE's 3rd annual Community Address to be broadcast live this Friday night

Massively interview: Thom Terrazas in his new role as EverQuest's producer

Massively interview: Part 2 of Thom Terrazas in his new role as EverQuest's producer

Massively interview: Part 3 of Thom Terrazas in his new role as EverQuest's producer

SOE launches 2009 Player of the Year contest

SOE wants to know what you want at Fan Faire

What happens at Fan Faire, stays at Fan Faire

SOE hires crime fighting gnomes to fend off credit card worms

SOE's Station Launcher gets an update

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