by Jeff Woleslagle on Aug 09, 2010
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The Ten Ton Hammer team has returned home from a weekend of fun, footage, features, flying mounts, and frivolity at this year's SOE Fan Faire in Las Vegas. While the coverage continues to roll out, find your key to the festivities in today's Loading... SOE Fan Faire 2010.
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I've been lucky enough to attend literally dozens of fan events over the six years I've been writing about games. Some were small, informal gatherings at main street restaurants, others were full-scale affairs thrown by developers and publishers, and still others were piggybacked onto larger fan expos like PAX, GamesCom, and Gen Con.
One event I hadn't ever attended before was SOE Fan Faire, and it wasn't for a lack of interest. August is typically saturated with events and expos, and we couldn't swing a trip to Vegas (or Atlanta in previous years), budgets, availability, and energy being what they are. That is, until this year, and I wasn't disappointed. SOE takes better care of its fanfest attendees, from the open bar at the Pool Party to the excellent food and entertainment at the yearly banquet and (not to mention watching Sr. Community Manager Linda "Brasse" Carlson upstage Jace Hall in full dwarven regalia) to the availability of Q&A panels and openness of devs during the largely informal event.
Both EverQuest 2 and EverQuest are getting new expansions, and that's big news even though most fans saw it coming. SOE's stayed faithful to its annual expansion model for EQ and EQ2 since their inception, and it seems to be paying off too. In a category strewn Omaha Beach style with dead and dying games, a trusted source close to the top tells me these games are still very much profitable, especially EQ2. And Since David Georgeson took the reins, the EQ2 team has been making a big center push, culminating in last week's free-to-play announcement and this weekend's news: the February expansion, "Destiny of Velious", will include flying mounts for all overland zones, along with a host of other endgame features.
EQ2 isn't alone in getting a quality expansion. In two short months, "House of Thule" is expected to hit the EverQuest servers, bringing with it player housing and a long-awaited level-cap raise. That just might make some of the toughest raids in the game's previous expansion, Underfoot, playable, so some of the guild leaders we spoke with view it as a two-for-one deal.
My biggest surprise, however, was Magic: The Gathering Tactics. I have to admit I've never bought a pack of Magic cards and know next to nothing about the game, nor am I much of a fan of the more dTGC-ish offerings from SOE Denver. SOE Denver is broadening their repertoire with the fully rendered Magic: The Gathering Tactics. But I've long been a hexmap gamer and I've long been hankering for another turn-based strategy game on the PC.
We'll have a full writeup later this week, but the MTG:T team has done away with some of my major pet peeves with TCG and minis-style games - random draw of cards from your master deck for one - and put player avatars on the map as level-able planesdwellers. I'm not quite sold on the look of the game yet, but hopefully some of the UI clunkiness will be hammered out by the game's planned fall release date. Otherwise, I'm sold.
But mostly I'm sold on the SOE playerbase. This is an active and vocal community of literally all ages, and at many a Q&A panel they'd tell the question-asker (and occasionally the askee) exactly what they thought of what was being said. But these are the hangers-on; despite the many changes their games have seen over the past five or ten years, they've stuck with it. I met a number of folks that were 10+ year players of SOE games. We even met a few The Matrix Online players who came back to the event despite TMO being cancelled last June.
FanFaire has a player-focused atmosphere that few other events can touch, and I personally wonder if events like this are as important for the success of these MMORPGs as vice-versa. If you've never been to a fan event for your chosen game, it's a great way to recharge your batteries and feel like a part of a real-life community of gamers. Or if the vacation fund is looking a little tapped out, stop by the Loading forum and share your thoughts with a gamer community right here at Ten Ton Hammer!
From our Articles, News, and Events Dicussion forum:
Playdom Shutting Down Chronicles of Spellborn
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52677">
title="blocked::http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52706">
Full of mystique and painterly dreamscape imagery, Chronicles of Spellborn acquired a cult-like following in the months before its ill-starred launch. Some fault a lack of content, others a lack of marketing and publisher saavy, but whatever the reason, developer-side support evaporated quickly leaving a markedly the community was largely left to fend for itself. Several tenuous months followed Playdom's acquisition, and the writing was on the wall. Last week, a Playdom PR person let it slip that, sadly, the game is headed for the MMO ashheap.
Does realtime combat = fail? Would Chronicles of Spellborn taken off with the right publisher? head
on over and
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=52677">get
talking.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"That's just sad... Spellborn was a game I really wanted to do well. It was unique, it wasnt a WoW clone. The art and characters were really nicely done; artistic and somewhat simple."
-
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/member.php?u=34448">kitsunegirl
==============================
9 new and exclusive
Ten
Ton Hammer
features
today! 37 Ten Ton Hammer
features
in August! 853
in 2010!
EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious Unveiled at SOE Fan Faire 2010
http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/news/scars-of-velious-reveal
Producer David Georgeson was on-hand at SOE Fan Faire this weekend to reveal EQ2's ninth expansion, Scars of Velious. The endgame-focused project is a nod to the storied Scars of Velious expansion for the original EverQuest - the expansion that effectively created the concept of raiding - and is being developed completely separate from the game's free-to-play redux - EQ2 Extended. For more details on Destiny of Velious, including news of flying mounts across all of New Norrath, check out this article!
EverQuest: House of Thule Expansion Details Revealed at Fan Faire 2010
http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/fanfaire2010/eq/house-of-thule-details
EverQuest's seventeenth expansion brings more inventory space, player housing, a level cap increase and all-new zones to the world of Norrath. Ten Ton Hammer was on site at Fan Faire in Las Vegas to grab all the details for you!
Video: The Agency First Look: La Signora Grande Casino with Designer Commentary
http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/fanfaire2010/agency/la-signora-video
At SOE Fan Faire 2010, Ten Ton Hammer was pleased to get a first look at two PvP maps for The Agency with commentary by Lead Designer Rory McGuire. Intense combat within two locations in Venice, along with commentary about various evil spy groups, stealth subs, customizable guns, and more! All this spy action makes me want to slip into a tux and order a martini thats shaken, not stirred!
Video: From the SOE Fan Faire 2010 Pool Party
http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/fanfaire2010/pool-party-video
This year, Ten Ton Hammer took a camera to the SOE Fan Faire 2010 Pool Party. Watch the collision of free booze and gamers in Las Vegas as Ben and Ethec conduct interviews poolside. They said that it was a journalistic endeavor, but it might have more to do with free liquor and gamer women in bikinis. What do you think? That being said, the main topic was the upcoming changes to EverQuest and EverQuest 2.
HOT! StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Review
http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/reviews/wings-of-liberty
Considering the game has sold 2 million copies already, one has to wonder why we waited until now to review the game. The answer is that we've beaten every square inch of it, put thousands of hours into multiplayer warfare during beta and post-launch, and have tooled around in every custom map worth playing. Whether you're on the fence or have beaten the game already, there's something for everyone in our StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Review!
DDO Update 5: Phiarlan Carnival Review
http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo/reviews/phiarlan-carnival
Turbine has recently released Update 5 for Dungeons and Dragons Online. Included in that update is the newest Adventure Pack, Phiarlan Carnival. Jeffprime buys some tickets for the big show and reviews the latest offering from Turbine.
WoW Cataclysm Beta: Guide to Blackrock Caverns
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/cataclysm/previews/blackrock-caverns
Blackrock Mountain is a location that holds a little piece of all
original World of Warcraft players hearts. Whether it is a place of
loathing or love, its there. Blackrock Mountain was one of the
busiest places in World of Warcraft before expansions due to it
housing three instances and two raids. Now, years later, we get a
chance to return to the mountain to explore yet another instance that
will be unlocked there when Cataclysm is released, this one is called
Blackrock Caverns.
WoW Cataclysm Beta: Thunder Bluff Preview
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/previews/thunder-bluff
Many changes have come with Cataclysm and the reemergence of Deathwing, however Thunder Bluff, the proud city of the Tauren, appears to have made it through the swirling tides of darkness relatively untouched. However, despite first appearances, some subtle changes have come to Thunder Bluff. Discover them as Ten Ton Hammer takes you on an image filled journey through this proud Horde city.
EQ2 Sorcerer Sample AA Specs
http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2/guides/specs-sorcerer
Being a great EverQuest II mage is one part skill, one part gear, and one part smart spec. We can't help you on the gear and skill, but we can help with your spec! We've asked around and did all the hard research for you to create alternate advancement builds that will raise your Warlock or Wizard damage potential. Get advice for each tree and how to spend all 250 or your AA points for your Sorcerer in our AA guide.
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team