The Vault Network is once again very excited to announce the launching of our latest site, Tabula Rasa Vault. Please take a moment and drop by to see what is going on with this highly anticipated game crafted by MMO legend Richard Garriott.
SOE Breaks Out of the Box Unveiling A New Art Direction For Franchise Titles EverQuest® And EverQuest® II!
SOE's new box art for the upcoming expansions signals a new marketing direction for flagship MMO titles, emphasizing that both upcoming expansions will ship with all the previous content to date, and moving away from a literal interpretation of the lore elements in both games as cover art.
Previously, the cover art for boxed sets included a picture of a major character, such as Firiona Vie or Antonia Bayle. The new artwork is more generic and "captures the mystery and adventure of game play, without the strict literal interpretation of the in-game characters and art," according to SOE. The new box art is less stylized and has a more modern feel, while still conveying the feeling of a fantasy-based game.
Currently in development, the EQ expansion, Secrets of Faydwer™, and EQII expansion, Rise of Kunark™, are scheduled to be available at participating retail stores and via digital download on November 13th.
Combined, EQ and EQII have sold more than 4.5 Million copies in the eight year history of the franchise. Traditionally, the graphics of both games have been highly stylized and the key art box fronts have reflected the look and feel of a fantasy novel, complete with characters and action.
EQ veterans may recall that there has been an ongoing concern about marketing efforts for the two titles, and this move seems to be a nod to gaining a larger audience, both by releasing a box for retail distribution, and adding a fresh feel with the artwork. The ability to own the entire game in one box is also new, and may relieve the bottleneck of finding the original game in a boxed set and then purchasing sets of all the expansions.
Letting go of the Firiona Vie icon as the key artwork theme for the boxed set of Secrets of Faydwer is an interesting move, breaking EQ out of the "dungeons and dragons" mode, at least for browsers at retail outlets. The new more generic art on the box cover allows the game buyer to form their own impressions of the game, rather than depicting EverQuest as a specific type of adventuring game play.
By choosing a generic fantasy theme, rather than the now almost decade-old art style of previous box sets, it seems that the inclusive Secrets of Faydwer boxed set is being positioned to attract new players in the increasingly competitive marketplace for MMOs.
Check out the screenshots of Bloodmoon Keep, the werewolf infested, cursed castle:
"Bloodmoon Keep was once the elven holy site known as Faygannen, Temple of the Vines. Decades ago the vampire prince Mayong Mistmoore grew worried at the proximity of the holy site to Castle Mistmoore. He sent his forces to destroy the temple and cover it in a dark curse, trapping the spirits of the slain elves in the halls of the castle. For many years the elven ghosts suffered in silence, unable to pass into the Realm of Growth and the presence of Tunare. Now, with the arrival of Ralkor Bloodmoon, the desolate spirits of Faygannen find themselves twice cursed.
Once the Prophet of Clan Crushbone, Ralkor Bloodmoon failed in a foolish coup to overthrow Emperor Crush. Bloodmoon barely escaped with his life and a small band of loyal orcs into the wilds of the Faydark. Somewhere between the Crushbone court and Faygannen, the Bloodmoon tribe was overtaken by a dark curse and infused with terrible, feral might. The Fangbreakers, a society of werewolf hunters, has begun to investigate the source of their new vigor, but have so far had little success.
Travelers say that a new race of lycanthropes stirs within Bloodmoon Keep. Ralkor may be a beast by nature, but his cunning cannot be denied and his ambition knows no limits. Given time the shadow of the Bloodmoon could overtake all of Faydwer."
Did you ever do anything really unique in EQ? Now there's a place for all that stuff to be recorded and remembered for all time, the EverQuest Hall of Fame:
"The Hall of Fame features EverQuest adventurers who earned titles, artifacts, items named after their characters from the Legends server, won contests and forum challenges, and more.
Over the years, many events, contests, challenges and other activities that gave adventurers a chance to make their mark in the world have taken place. There has never been a place to truly highlight these unique achievements until now."
Curious about Legends of Norrath? This weekend will have extra card drops in EQ and EQ2, so now is a great time to explore what LoN is all about.
Find out more about the game in EQVault's exclusive interview with Paul Dennen, Senior Game Designer for Legends of Norrath. I learned what's coming for the future of LoN, what makes a great trading card game, and what makes LoN unique!
Calling all EverQuest® and EverQuest® II players! What's more fun than defeating opponents in your game and picking up Legends of Norrath booster packs, starter decks, and combo packs? Well, how about the opportunity to get even more of them?
Introducing the Legends of Norrath Promotion Weekend beginning at 2PM (PDT) Friday, September 28th and concluding at 11:59PM (PDT) on Sunday, September 30th. During this special weekend, EQ and EQII players will not only enjoy a significantly increased rate of card pack drops, but will have the opportunity to obtain two brand new cards, Hatred (1P1) and Switch (1P2).
For now, these two new cards will only be available during this three-day promotional weekend, so don't miss out on the chance to get them!
It's not only a great time for current Legends of Norrath players to score big, but the perfect opportunity for EQ and EQII players to come see what all the buzz is about with this great new addition to the universe of Norrath. It will be a blast – especially with such an increased opportunity to win cards!
So combat those EQ and EQII enemies this weekend and loot, loot, loot! Then use your card bounty to continue on your way to becoming the ultimate Legends of Norrath player!
Beginning at 11:30 p.m. PDT (12:30am MDT, 1:30am CDT, 2:30am EDT, -7 GMT) on Monday, September 24th, all SOE services will be unavailable so that we can perform significant upgrades to our authentication and account management systems. Currently we expect this maintenance to take approximately 14 hours. But as first indicated, it could extend to as long as 24. Customer service, chat and support will also be unavailable at this time. Phone support will still be accessible. SOE websites will continually be updated throughout the day as to the progress of the maintenance. We apologize for this interruption, however when service is resumed you will have an enhanced user experience to manage your accounts at Station.com.
You can find a transcript of the September 19th House of Commons chat with the developers here with player comments. The full text of the chat is below.
How does your gaming setup look? Check out these home photos of what people's rigs look like.
One poster's point is well taken -- it might cost a bit to purchase all the computer equipment and accounts some people have, but when compared to other entertainment choices, video gaming is still a bargain.
Discover the upcoming Curse of the Bloodmoon in the Loping Plains in this edition of SOE's lore series for the Secrets of Faydwer expansion, due out in November.
Werewolves and other more malevolent forces stalk the Loping Plains (EQII players will be quite familiar with the future Loping Plains and it's strange inhabitants!). This expansion appears to be bringing back some of the horror elements to the game:
"Curse of the Bloodmoon
The Loping Plains occupy the central area of Faydwer. Once a healthy habitat for a large variety of Tunare's creations, the Loping Plains has become cursed and twisted by the influence of dark powers. From the south, the dark forces of the Bloodmoon tribe creep out from Bloodmoon Keep threatening to consume the land, while the curse of an angry god pulses from the northern coast and the Hills of Shade.
Little is known about this new tribe of orcs, but they are believed to be a splinter group from the Crushbone clan led by Ralkor Bloodmoon also known as, "The Prophet". Several rumors that these orcs are lycanthropic have drawn Norrath's most famous werewolf hunters, the Fangbreakers, to the Plains. Larquin Fangbreaker and his band of hunters have come in hopes of whipping out this new curse before it can spread beyond the plains. An unlikely ally has also emerged from the depths of Darkhallow to combat this new curse, but their ultimate goal is as yet unknown.
Along the north coast lies the Hills of Shade, a once lush landscape cursed by the fury of an angry goddess. Damned spirits of Humans and Elves roam through the ruins of their once beautiful cities, cursed to replay the fateful actions of their final days for eternity. The powerful energy of the curse has drawn several visitors to the hills. A holy order of paladins hopes to cleans the curse and free the damned spirits from their torment. Nearby, a conclave of necromancers hopes to harness the power of the curse and use it for their own malicious plans.
Meanwhile, in a dark crypt beneath the hills, the Soulbleeder continues to amass the power of thousands of souls and an army of undead. Soon the Soulbleeder will run out of spirits to consume in the Hills of Shade and certainly head south to begin the culling of the living. "
Sends shivers down the spine! Check the link above for zone screenies.
Legends of Norrath Tournaments Testing Begins this weekend - 9/19/07
Join us this Saturday and Sunday (September 22nd - 23rd) for the first ever Legends of Norrath tournaments! We will be loading up the tournament queues this weekend and would appreciate your help. We'll be giving out rewards to those that place well and some even for just participating. Please join us at the two following times this weekend!
Saturday, September 22nd
Legends of Norrath Constructed Test Tournament
12: 00 noon PDT (server time)
Entry Fee: FREE
Create your best deck using the cards in your collection and bring it to the tournament
1st place wins a loot card of their choice
2nd – 4th place will each receive 3 booster packs
5th – 16th place will each receive 1 booster pack
One random participant out of every ten participants who complete the tournament will also receive a Legends of Norrath booster pack.
Sunday, September 23rd
Legends of Norrath Constructed Test Tournament
12:00 noon PDT (server time)
Entry Fee: FREE
Create your best deck using the cards in your collection and bring it to the tournament
1st place wins a loot card of their choice
2nd – 4th place will each receive 3 booster packs
5th – 16th place will each receive 1 booster pack
One random participant out of every ten participants who complete the tournament will also receive a Legends of Norrath booster pack.
The players have a discussion going on about using Microsoft Vista with EverQuest on the EQPlayers boards.
It can be done, but needs some workarounds. Player Nedrom posted:
"Vista runs your whole UI off your video card which leaves less video ram for EQ to play with.
The best way to speed up EQ in Visa is to right click on eqgame.exe and on one of the tabs you can turn off "desktop composition" this disables the Aero interface and stops the GUI from running on your video card.
I found this was a huge performance increaser for running EQ in Vista.
Vista isn't officially supported either so it's really try it, like it, go back to XP, like a lot of folks."
Thanks Nedrom for the tips! You can see what other people have experienced with the thread link above.
The folks over at Online Gaming Radio have published a couple of written reports and and show podcasts of their coverage of Legends of Norrath:
"If you’re one of the many who tune into EQ2’s-day, you’ve been able to experience the colorful commentary brought to you by Dellmon and Zanadi as they talk about their experiences with Legends of Norrath 3 weeks in a row.
The game has now launched within EverQuest and EverQuest 2. Zanadi has written her take on the game from the perspective of one who has not very close and snuggly with previously created games of similar gameplay style.
In addition to Zanadi’s review, we were able to poke and prod “Monte - The Geek” into writing a bit about his experience. Now, the thing to remember is that whenever Monte agrees to do something, he doesn’t just do it halfway, he doesn’t do the minimum or just a smidge more than the minimum… he goes full out and runs with the new project. So not only is his article a review, it’s somewhat also a guide to LoN."
EverQuest has been the benchmark for many cutting edge ideas in video gaming, but has only been called controversial for it's "addictive qualities."
Yahoo.com has posted a list of ten games that are a bit more controversial in nature, mostly because of their violent themes. Can you guess what some of them are? Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a giveaway, so guess again!
Avast! - Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, "Whoa! Get a load of that!" which today makes it more of a "Check it out" or "No way!" or "Get off!"
Aye! - "Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did."
Aye aye! - "I'll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over."
Arrr! - This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. "Arrr!" can mean, variously, "yes," "I agree," "I'm happy," "I'm enjoying this beer," "My team is going to win it all," "I saw that television show, it sucked!" and "That was a clever remark you or I just made." And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!
Check out the site for more advanced parlay, and smartly, me hearties! Time's a wastin'!
Boot Camp Guild on the Bertoxx server is a casual guild looking for members:
"Boot Camp is a laidback guild with a goal of just having fun playing the game, we are for the casual player or the player who's not in to always having to do big group functions.
We have no requirements. All are welcome."
Contacts: Snowkitty, Eidlog, Shadowflirt on the Bertoxxulus server.
SOE has posted this announcement on the EQII player news:
"Important Message For Subscribers Impacted By Hurricane Katrina!
In the summer of 2005 Hurricane Katrina left an incredible wake of destruction across the Gulf Coast of the United States. The damage done by the hurricane was unprecedented and impacted countless lives. In response to the hurricane, SOE suspended billing for over 13,000 players living in the affected areas to give them the time they needed to recover.
For the two years that have followed, the accounts of the affected SOE gamers have not been billed but have been preserved. Beginning on Monday, September 17th, the accounts for these 13,000 SOE gamers will resume the normal billing processes. If you lived in an area affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 please check your account information before September 17th to ensure that everything is accurate and there is no disruption in your ability to play.
Our best wishes go out to all those who were affected by the disaster and we'd like to thank our SOE players for their continued patronage. "
I had completely forgotten that SOE had suspended billing for these players (or perhaps I never knew!). Two years seems like a decent interval to let people recover, doesn't it?
"During my trip to the Austin Game Developers Conference last week, I had occasion to learn a bit about a project that has drawn the support of quite a few well known figures from that area, the Videogame Archive of the University of Texas at Austin's Center for American History, which "facilitates, sponsors, and supports teaching, research, and public education". In this instance, its worthy goal is to collect materials that will help those who wish to know about the history of the industry before they are lost forever.
Two notable individuals involved are Warren Spector and Richard Garriott, who are said to have pledged most of their personal collections. They were among four co-chairs of a fundraiser hosted by the latter the evening prior to the conference. It brought in $75,000, which would seem to represent a solid initial step toward establishing ongoing funding for the endeavor. The first goal is apparently twice that, with the next target being a $3 million endowment."
Although many games are preserved and played today through emulators, having an archive of materials, actual games, and consoles is an important preservation project.
Along the same lines as Austin's project, I have heard of an initiative to preserve some of the original code base of games such as EverQuest, so it could be seen in its original form.
I would hope that the archive could sponsor exhibits once it gets off the ground so the public can see the evolution of computer gaming.
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