Woot!  We're here!  Fan Faire!  Day One!  I won't regail you with all our travel adventures.  We got here, and Fan Faire is on.  As I write this it's 1 am and I'm pooped but still too excited to sleep.

Here's irony for you:  After all my lists, the one thing i forgot was my camera cable.  And it's a proprietary cable.  Many players offered card readers and cables to me, but to no avail.  So we're stuck, until I get home, with mediocre phone pictures.

Registration didn't open until four this afternoon, but there was an EQII Summit today.  About 15 players from EverQuest II were invited to sit down and hobnob about the game.  I can't tell you about everything we heard, but you won't wait long as we got a preview of ultra-cool goodies that everyone will know after the Community Address Friday night. 

Tease: I know what the expansion is!  Nya nya nya!

Fan Faire 2009 is just around the corner, and members of the ZAM team are preparing to head to Las Vegas from June 25-28 to cover the event. All of your favorite Sony Online Entertainment games will be featured at the convention, and our group plans to fill the ZAM.com home page with as much news as possible. This year, we'd like you to be a part of our reporting team by submitting your questions on three SOE games!

DC Universe Online and The Agency are two upcoming MMOs that are as different as night and day. One is full of superheroes, while the other focuses on espionage. And then there's EverQuest, the granddaddy of the genre that has been going strong for 10 years. We know members of the ZAM community must have questions on any or all of these games, and we'd love to hear them so we can do our best to get them answered at Fan Faire! Submit your questions by clicking on the name of the MMO above and posting them in the forum thread.

Also, if you're going to be at Fan Faire, there's going to be a ZAM panel held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 27. Stop by to listen to our team, including Jeffrey "Allakhazam" Moyer, discuss 10 years of Allakhazam. You can check out the full Fan Faire schedule here.

If you can't make it to Fan Faire, be sure to tune in for the live webcast of the 3rd Annual Community Address to see what’s new at SOE! They will be broadcasting live from Fan Faire this Friday night, June 26th, at 7:00pm PDT.

John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, is set to kick off SOE Fan Faire 2009 with a community address to more than 1,500 video game fans at Bally’s in Las Vegas. The live event, scheduled for Friday, June 26th at 7 p.m. PDT, will be streamed online allowing both Fan Faire attendees and gamers worldwide to get the very latest updates from SOE. Last year's address was simucast live in SOE games enabled for Vivox voice chat.

This year’s massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming lineup features the hit titles EverQuest®, EverQuest®II, EverQuest® Online Adventures, Free Realms™, PlanetSide®, Star Wars Galaxies™ and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes®. This year's Fan Faire will also feature the upcoming titles, DC Universe Online™, The Agency™ and more.

Seven days from now I'll be leaving the golf course and heading back to Ballys for the first round of Panels at the SOE Fan Faire 2009.

I'm no noob when it comes to Vegas. I've been invading the Sin City since 1992 for a spectrum of reasons. Business, golf or because I had a hidden desire to flush tons of money I didn't have down the pooper. But, this year its all about Fan Faire! Well, ok.. and a little blackjack. Perhaps some Keno. Maybe a bit of poker.

Oh who am I kidding? Gambling is a weakness of mine. So, holding a conference in Vegas is a good way to turn me ADHD overnight.

So, how am I preparing for Fan Faire? And what are my plans while I'm there? Read on, to find out!

If you want to pre-register for Fan Faire, you're running out of time!  Pre-registration will be closing TOMORROW (Tuesday, June 16th) at 11:59 PM PDT. Register online at the official Fan Faire website.

The full schedule went up today, so take a look at all the SOE goodness happening.  They can really pack a weekend!  What's this I spy?  A ZAM panel on Saturday?

Hope to see you there!

9 days out from Fan Faire and I'm in List Making Mode. I inherited a bit of travel anxiety and it manifests by over-doing travel preparations, so there are several lists. The Kid List, the Car List, the Must Leave at Grandma's List, the Gotta Buy Before We Go List and the Miscellany That I Don't Dare Forget List. Oh, and the To Do Before We Go List. (I need a Lists List!) Normally I can pack for a weekend in a carry-on, but Fan Faire and working for ZAM seems to eat baggage allowance fast.

The Miscellany list is the one I fret most about (except the Kids list, but I hear that's normal for moms).  Any thing missing off this list and I spend precious time and money on a side trip, and I'm short on both.  It includes stuff like my laptop charger, iPod adapter, digital recorder, camera, approximately 17 USB cables (as it seems *nothing* I have uses a standard USB cable), a hub for the 17 USB cables, and the phone charger, which isn't USB at all.

If you're a gamer, chances are you've seen The Jace Hall Show. The video game producer and president of HD Films talks about all sorts of games in his Web series, including MMOs. Now he's focusing on the granddaddy of the genre: EverQuest.

Sony Online Entertainment and The Jace Hall Show announced today they teamed up to make a documentary based on EQ titled "EverCracked! The Phenomenon of EverQuest." According to a press release, the film "chronicles the trials and tribulations leading to the development, launch and success of the hit massively multiplayer online game" and will debut at Fan Faire in Las Vegas on June 26.

Check out the trailer for "EverCracked!" after the jump and let us know what you think!

A post by Aimee "Ashlanne" Rekoske of SOE Global Community Relations on the Station.com forums reveals plans to have SOE Postcast #66 at Fan Faire!  It has not yet been determined whether it will be a live 'cast via U Stream or just recorded there. 

"We are hoping to record during our "Late night Gaming" Session Thursday night from 10 PM to 1 AM...  So the OSG and Pox Nora folks will be around.  We can get questions answered from them.

Everyone on the Community team will be around."

If you'd like to submit questions in advance, you can do so in the Podcast #66 Prep thread on the Station.com forums.

Meanwhile, Podcast #64 is up and available, enjoy!

Have you pre-registered for Fan Faire yet?  Don't miss out! Online registration closes at 11:59 P.D.T. on Tuesday, June 16, 2009.  You can do walk-in registration beginning Thursday, June 25, but space is limited and with 1200+ people already registered they're expecting a large turn-out. Secure your spot and register online today!

Sony Online Entertainment has selected its Players of the Year, who will get to attend Fan Faire in Las Vegas from June 25-28. One EverQuest player and one EverQuest II player were chosen for their dedication to their games.

In EverQuest, Palarran from The Tribunal server earned the Player of the Year honor. You can read the poem that was entered for Palarran after the jump.

In EverQuest II, Bownzer from the Crushbone server was selected thanks to the comic strip that was created in his honor, as well as a lengthy commentary. You can read the first comic here, as well as the follow-up comic that acknowledges Bownzer's Player of the Year status. He's a raid leader that will go the extra mile to log in, even when his wireless isn't working.