Gnobrin informs us:

On Wednesday, March 5, 2008, all SOE Station Players websites (including Guild sites) will be coming down for maintenance at 8:00 am PST. The estimated downtime is 3 hours. We apologize for the inconvenience and will keep you updated if additional downtime is needed.

Gnobrin Postesth:

Beginning at 9am PST/5pm GMT on Tuesday, March 4, 2008 all SOE Account and Commerce flow, the Station Store and the CSG Store with be unavailable for the purpose of adding Payer Authentication (Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode Programs).

We expect this maintenance to take approximately 4 hours. During this maintenance period game servers will still be accessible. Please watch the forums for further updates regarding this maintenance.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume the affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

Ashlanne, SOE Community Relations Coordinator, dropped a line to tell us...

It’s that time again; official SOE Podcast #30 is live!!!  Hear from Sheri Davenport from our Human Resources department to learn about our intern program, listen to Babs Saito an EverQuest II Associate Producer; Tina "Kytherea" Delzer joins the roundtable this time around. Join us to celebrate the EQOA 5th anniversary, and hear about Brenlo's GDC Adventures.  Don’t forget Jason Ryan’s news as it brings us information about all of your favorite SOE Games and get your laugh on with the out takes at the end.

 So tune in!  You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways head over to the Podcast’s official site, and click on your preferred bandwidth or if you have iTunes installed select iTunes store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe!  Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email…

Sony Online Entertainment's G.I.R.L. (Gamers in Real Life) scholarship program is on CNN today.  The piece features Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Courtney Simmons, Public Relations Director, and Sherry Floyd, Game Designer for The Agency. 

Take a look!

Gnobrin tells us:

To provide our customers with increased credit card security, Sony Online Entertainment will be partnering with Visa and MasterCard. In a few weeks SOE will add Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure to our Station store purchase flow.

Q. How will this affect an SOE customer?
A. When adding new subscriptions, changing a subscription or purchasing software from the station store you, the customer, will be prompted to join Verified by Visa or MasterCard Secure. An application will pop up and prompt you to join the security program.

Q. How much does it cost to join Verified by Visa or MasterCard secure?
A. It is completely free to join Visa and MasterCard's security for online purchases.

Q. Why should I give Sony Online entertainment my personal information?
A. The information requested for these programs is not stored on any SOE servers. These programs are provided by Visa and MasterCard. Only Visa and MasterCard will retain the information you provide for your security.

Order page-VBV and Master Card sign up page- Please enter all requested information. This is a secure sight and only Visa or MasterCard will have your information.

Login Screen- after you have signed up for the security program you will need to login again to verify that the card has been secured.

You are cordially invited to the next exciting Allakhazam Developers Chat Thursday at 4:30pm PST! Members of the EverQuest II Developer and Community Teams will be there, bring your questions!

Currently scheduled to appear:

• Bruce "Froech" Ferguson
• Jennifer "Kirstie" Gerull
• Akil "Lyndro" Hooper
• Bill "Bruinen" Yeatts
• Tim "Haohmaru" Heydelaar
• Joshua "Autenil" Kriegshauser
• Noel "Ilucide" Walling
• Anthony "Vhalen" Garcia
• Jeremy "Jindrack" Gess
• Chris "Archonix" Junior
• Chris "Aeralik" Kozak
• Emily "Domino" Taylor
• Aaron "Gnobrin" Bisnett
  

Thursday, February 28, 4:30pm PST
In the #EQ2 channel on Allakhazam IRC

New to Allakhazam IRC? Instructions here!

Ashlanne posts on the SOE Community Forums:

SOE is currently looking to fill several intern positions on various teams. An internship at SOE is a prearranged learning experience designed to place students on a project that is relevant to their academic and professional goals. Interns will work as part of a team with people from many professional backgrounds while testing their skills working on a project. A mentor will be assigned to each intern, who will provide continual guidance and feedback until completion of the internship.

These are paid part-time positions (approximately 9 weeks in length) that provide invaluable real-work experience and offer students an opportunity to grow both professionally and personally as well as make tremendous networks for future career opportunities.

See all the intern positions SOE has available by going to SOE Career Opportunities.

Ashlanne, SOE Community Relations Coordinator, dropped a line to tell us...

Official SOE Podcast #29 is live!!! Julie “Ellyra” Burness stops in, we chat with Lesley and David from our QA Department, hear about what goes on over in the QA Department, find out what people love most about their game of choice and Brenlo and Ashlanne touch on politics. Jason Ryan’s news gives us all of the latest and greatest from many of the SOE titles! There is a commercial that will take care of your hamster farm needs, we clear up some rumors, and we celebrate the writer’s strike being over.

So tune in! You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways head over to the Podcast’s official site, and click on your preferred bandwidth or if you have iTunes installed select iTunes store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe! Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email…

The recent announcement that the Station Exchange services will be moved to LiveGamer has caused some buzz in the gaming community.  Today John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, posted a statement:

We just announced that EverQuest II’s existing Station Exchange service will be transitioned over to Live Gamer. If you haven’t seen that announcement, you can find it here.

I wanted to give you all more background on why we have made this decision.

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