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Missed out on SOE Fan Faire 2009? We'll break down the biggest announcements (including huge new expansion reveals for EverQuest, EverQuest 2, and Star Wars Galaxies) from John Smedley's annual community address for you in today's Loading... SOE Fan Faire 2009 Highlights.

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This weekend, 1,500 gamers converged on SOE Fan Faire 2009 at Bally's in Las Vegas. The highlight of the event, at least from a media perspective, is always SOE President John Smedley's annual community address. I couldn't find a writeup anywhere. Since I'm pretty sure Ten Ton Hammer's Dalmarus and Coyote are still getting over their hangovers (to be fair, they weren't at the event in a totally official capacity) and the cliff notes on the SOE site leave much to the imagination. Never fear, here's the highlights from the community address webcast.

SOE Notes from Fan Faire 2009

• Since January 2008, 275k accounts have been banned by SOE for hacking, botting, and spamming.
• Some Station Cash stats from SOE: transactions up 16% in EQ, 24% in EQ2 from November 2008. 190k items sold, 5k Norrathian Witness Protection Program potions (the gender change).
• Due to a partnership with Hewlett Packard, Smed announced a print-on-demand service for high quality art prints and art books. SOE is targetting mid-July to go online.

SOE Games @ FF09

• FreeRealms is currently at 3.9 million accounts, according to SOE. In the two months since launch, the FreeRealms team has released 200 items and new content, including story quests and guilds for the first time. Full progression for racing and demo derby drivers as well as car customizations, garages, and the new soccer minigame will be in this summer. In a coming expansion, dwarves and a "desert playground" will be added to the game, and the FreeRealms TCG will leverage the print-on-demand to get custom cards into players' hands.
• DC Universe Online's Jens Andersen revealed the game's latest trailer, which will be up on Ten Ton Hammer as soon as SOE releases it for the masses.
• The Agency's Matt Wilson did the E3 demo of the game you saw right here at Ten Ton Hammer.
• Star Wars Galaxies Producer Chris Field noted that SOE is celebrating the game's sixth anniversary with Star Wars Chronicles, a player-created content system which will allow players to include iconic Star Wars characters such as Bobo Fett and Han Solo. SWG will build off of the upcoming premier horror novel set in the Star Wars universe, "Death Troopers", with a new quest line complete with a face-to-face encounter with a "zombie wookie".

EverQuest @ FF09

• The ten-year anniversary of EverQuest has already seen a coffee table book and a video documentary ("EverCracked").
• Thom Terrazas, EQ producer, noted that the release of the 50/51 server was last Friday night, during FanFaire, but only those in attendance at FF would be able to play in the game room.
• The game's 17th expansion, Underfoot, will launch in November. Underfoot is a subterranean expansion and the home of Brell Serilis. 12-15 zones will be included, with more to follow through April 2010.

EverQuest 2 @ FF09

• In two weeks, a $25 character transfer service for EverQuest 2 will go online.
• EQ2 Producer Alan "Brenlo" Crosby announced EQ2's sixth expansion, Sentinel's Fate, which will include the land of Otus and zones steeped in EQ lore like Stonebrunt Mountains, The Hole, Toxxulia Forest, and Paineel. Brenlo revealed footage of one of the new dungeons and told players they'll be able to follow in the footsteps of Al'Kabor and Miragul and find out what's happened on Otus since the shattering. The level cap will be raised by ten levels. Details were sparse at the event but with a scheduled release date of February 2010, we'll have plenty of time to learn more.
• To fill the gap, the game will see XBLA-style achievements and auto-mentoring, which will allow players to downscale their level to complete earlier content with friends and earn experience and achievement. The EQ2 team is also working on a new player experience (though Brenlo wisely noted that they would not be calling it an NPE) and will introduce a new "good" city: Frostfang in Halas (which the barbarians among you might recall). The Shard of Love is also planned, where we might be able to find out what happened to Erollisi Marr, along with much more in the way of features and content.

What was the hottest news from this year's Fan Faire for you? Let us know in the Loading... forum, or email me.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our /OOC (Off-Topic)


Billy Mays dead

This week wraps up a rather morbid June.

Okay, this is one of those things that really isn't funny, and yet...somehow you can't seem to avoid the gallows humor. Billy Mays,
TV pitchman for products like OrangeGlo and OxiClean, was found dead in
his home yesterday. He was 50 years old. There's been a rather bizarre
run of celebrity deaths these days and, unless another celeb bites the
dust in the next couple days, Mays' death wraps up a morbid month
during which we lost big name stars like Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett,
and Michael Jackson.

And, of course, our forum community is talking about it...and implicating the ShamWow guy.

==============================
Awesome Quotes from the Epic Thread

"Didn't see that one coming, his new show was interesting too. "

- Reavi
==============================

Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell us!

5 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 115 in June! 752 in 2009!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today

Exclusive Articles:

• Champions Online Power Set Interview – Telekinesis, Force, and Telepathy
  Continuing Ten Ton Hammer's weekly review of the Champions Online power sets, we sat down with Bill Roper to discuss the more mental power sets, specifically focusing on telekinesis, force, and telepathy. On top of that, we also took a moment with Bill to see where the team is at in the development of the game.
• Aion Elyos Emotes Video
  Aion provides a large selection of character emotes to have fun with as you make your way through the world. Emotes are fun little animations that you can have your character perform to for fun and this week we have put together a video of the emotes for the Elyos race of Aion.
• Age of Conan Game Update 5 Funcom Interview
  With Game Update 5, the folks at Funcom have not only created new content for their player base with the Tarantia Commons, but they've also completely renovated what they're calling the "RPG system" in AoC, among other things. Few games have seen such extensive changes in their histories, so we sat down with AoC's Game Director and Director of Communications, Craig Morrison and Erling Ellingsen, to find out some of the details in GU 5.
• World of Warcraft: An In-Depth Look at the Shaman Q&A with Ghostwalker
  Join us as we explore the first and most important WoW class Q&A session with Ghostwalker. Many changes are being batted around in regards to the Shaman. Some are good while some are less than spectacular. Russell weighs in on the nuts and bolts of these changes
• World of Warcraft: Paladin PTR Changes Analyzed
  The changes are many, the nerfs few, and that's how we like it (mostly). There are definitely some game changer decisions coming along on the PTR, but overall the Paladins should feel good about the direction of the Paladin. In addition to the anticipated changes of Chargers arriving at lower levels, some spells are completely going away. Tune in to see which ones!

Other goodness:

• Age of Conan Tarantia Commons Walkthrough Video
  The fine folks at Funcom recently put together a walkthrough video for a new area in Age of Conan called Tarantia Commons which was added to the game as part of Update 5 earlier this week. Narrated by game director Craig Morrison, the video provides a nice overview of some of the interesting new content the area adds to the game including dynamic, faction-based rioting in the city streets, and a leper colony in the outskirts where players run the risk of contracting the disease carried by the locals.
• Aion Beluslan Zone Tour Video
  Aion is an MMOG that gives players something that they have never experienced before: the ability to fly. And while flight in Aion is more than a means of travel, players might want to take some time to explore the beauty and splendor of NCsoft's newest world. To provide a preview of some of the eye candy Aion has to offer, NCsoft has released a video tour of the Beluslan zone. Scope out the places where you'll want to fly and do battle in this dazzling video!
• City of Heroes Architect Edition Training Vids
  City of Heroes has given the players the power to create their own content with its new Mission Architect System and NCsoft is offering some additional support for players trying to learn how to find, play and build their own missions. To aid in learning these three processes, Paragon Studios has released three new tutorial videos and you can view them all here at Ten Ton Hammer.
  

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

1. Champions Online Power Set Interview – Telekinesis, Force, and Telepathy
2. Age of Conan Game Update 5 Funcom Interview
3. Aion Elyos Emotes Video
4. EVE Online: Sins of a Solar Spymaster #17: The Archive of Tears
5. geeked: Put a Kork in It
6. Ultimate Soccer Boss Prize Pack Giveaway
7. WonderKing Beta Key Giveaway
8. geeked: Seriously, Brad?
9. Jumpgate Evolution Exclusive Interview - Lore and History
10. EverQuest 2 Monument and Might GU#52 Overview

Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team