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by **Brenda Holloway** Mar 23rd 2008 at 12:00PM

Pinski over at EQ2Flames brings us some news about EverQuest 2's new zone, the Shard of Hate, due to arrive in Live Update 44. The Shard of Hate follows last year's re-opening of the Shard of Fear. That zone brought single groups through one of EverQuest's most memorable raid zones. The Shard of Hate introduces the same sort of nostalgic goodness in juicy raid form -- though without the four hour corpse runs, we hope.

Pinski reports at least six named encounters, one of which is a group of five named sisters. He also notes that the citizens of the Shard of Hate have some rather interesting damage shields. Read more of his perilous trip through Innoruuk's home in this first look at what is sure to be a fun time for EverQuest 2's raider community.

by **Brenda Holloway** Mar 23rd 2008 at 8:00AM

Last week, EQ2Flames admin "LFG" told us about the SOE Community Influencer program and how he came to be released from it. It was a story of broken promises, SOE developer involvement in player guilds, a disenfranchised player community and heated emotions...

Feeling he had nothing to lose, "LFG" mined the developer's private messages, and found some more juicy tidbits. The developer, Aeralik, had taken a bug report that told of an exploit that trivialized the killing of one of end-game raid dungeon Veeshan's Peak gateway dragons, and passed that to his player guild leader. He added that he would "look away" while his guild exploited the encounter so that they could finish their epic weapon quests.

How much influence should game developers have in the guilds in which they play? When does a developer cross the line in feeding a guild strategies? If an encounter is too tough to complete, is it acceptable to exploit if a dev gives permission? Discuss!

by **Matt Warner** Mar 18th 2008 at 11:30AM

He is an EverQuest 2 player that rose to power leading one of the largest fansite communities. He earned the esteemed "Community Influencer" rank that opened the gates to game designers and allowed him to forge ties with prominent SOE staff. With his connections it wasn't long before the site he administrates, EQ2 Flames, served as a clandestine outlet for EQ2 developers to post on. Behind the scenes "LFG" played a role working with inside sources to leak information that resulted in the EQ2 Test Server scandal. The forum also resulted in leak of the news (almost a month before it actually happened) that former Senior Producer, Scott Hartsman, was to part ways with Sony Online Entertainment.

His actions wouldn't come without serious ramifications. Last week SOE terminated his "Influencer" membership, citing a lack of participation and misconduct as the reasoning behind their decision. In the destructive wake that followed an ugly entanglement by both SOE developers and EQ2 players has surfaced. Allegations of cheating, developer corruption, and other scuttlebutt permeate forum posts. This is a drama that pits community against community, developers against players, and more than likely developers against developers. It is a story that has shaken up a very large community and that has once placed SOE in a questionable spotlight. I contacted "LFG", the EQ2 Flames administrator, to help bring some clarity to it all.

In the interview below several allegations involving SOE employees are levied. These along with other accusations on EQ2 Flames also raise other questions regarding SOE's internal policies. At the time of this posting SOE's community team had not yet responded with an official comment. When SOE does respond we will post it in full.

Continue reading Losing influence with SOE: EQ2 Flames admin "LFG" tells all

by **Matt Warner** Dec 16th 2007 at 7:00PM

Several days ago Massively reported that EQ2 Flames administrator broke the story on a scandal that regards numerous members from Unhallowed Triad, a guild on EQ2's Test server that was transferred to Unrest, a Live server through an inside connection at SOE. Character transfers from the Test server to a Live one is not allowed and against current SOE transfer policy; albeit, the EULA has a clause that SOE may change this policy at any time. However, the case is made that a Player / Dev affiliation has led to corruption, leaving many infuriated players with lots of unanswered questions as seen in these two threadnaughts. To recap for those not following this closely or wanting to sift through 100+ pages on the forums:

SOE employee(s) abused their power breaking various codes of ethics (confirmed & guilty)
Numerous Test players accuse Unhallowed Triad with a history of exploitation and getting away with it in due part to their SOE connection (rumors)
Someone at SOE made the call to transfer Test characters to a Live server breaking policy (confirmed & guilty)
Not only were characters transferred to Unrest, but items as well. Unhallowed Triad's Guild level was also inflated to 60. (confirmed & guilty)
Many Unhallowed Triad guild members admitted to transferring off test in Assassin's chat (confirmed)
Several Unhallowed Triad guild members were transferred unknowingly (more than likely)
Legitimately leveled characters belonging to several Unhallowed Triad members were transferred over from other servers or already leveled on the Unrest server (confirmed)
Unhallowed Triad guild tag no longer exists but there other guild tag Unholy Trinity exists and their Guild level stands at 30 (confirmed)
All players on the Test server have not been given the same opportunity to transfer to a Live server

The evidence found via EQ2 Players alone is overwhelming. So much so that it's impossible to sweep all the allegations under-the-rug. Initially, SOE was quick to react as both Alan "Brenlo" Crosby, Director of Global Community Relations and Bruce "Froech" Ferguson, EQ2's new Senior Producer admitted to SOE's involvement. Well, rather that someone at SOE made the call to override the policy, but in a good natured manner to reward certain players for their hard work on the Test server. Not a smart choice of words or tone given EQ2 players warranted concerns. In any case, Ferguson claims the transferred characters will be removed. Since their initial statements and response there has been no further word from a SOE representative on this matter.

Continue reading SOE caught red-handed: EQ2 Player / Dev relationship breached ethical boundaries

by **William Dobson** Dec 13th 2007 at 8:05PM

A thread on popular forums EQ2Flames is asserting that a guild from the EverQuest II Test Server, Unhallowed Triad, has been moved over to the live server Unrest. This is something that SOE had said would never happen, due to the doubled experience gain on Test making it unfair on live players. The poster also claims that there was a GM account in the guild that assisted them in killing things that they could not take down on their own, in order to obtain some of the best gear in the game.

Continue reading Rumor: Entire guild Unhallowed Triad moved from EQ2 Test Server to live

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Shard of Hate sneak preview

The Daily Grind: Devs behaving badly

Losing influence with SOE: EQ2 Flames admin "LFG" tells all

SOE caught red-handed: EQ2 Player / Dev relationship breached ethical boundaries

Rumor: Entire guild Unhallowed Triad moved from EQ2 Test Server to live

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