UPDATE: The community address is over, so check out our full report to see what SOE announced during the event!
We're currently at SOE Fan Faire in Las Vegas and our very own Mike B. aka Fony is filming it live with GameBreaker.TV's Gary Gannon! Watch it live here: http://www.stickam.com/sonyonline.
Stay tuned to ZAM for much more from Fan Faire!
Sony Online Entertainment has opened up their new "All Access" premium subscription, which replaces the former Station Access. SOE All Access features a lower pricing structure than its predecessor, as well as multi-month plans that begin at $19.99 per month. The subscription plan will give access to many of SOE's titles for a single recurring fee, including:
DC Universe™ Online (PC version)If a trial version or free version of a particular game is not available, or if you would like to access the full benefits of a game that may not be offered through a trial version, you must purchase the game software that you wish to play.
Visit the SOE All Access website to sign up for the plan or to check out the FAQ! You can also view the new pricing chart after the jump!
Over the past several months, we've been working on revamping our forum interface to make posting on ZAM a more streamlined and enjoyable experience. We are proud to announce that our upgraded forums are now live! We've stripped away the clutter and added a variety of new features, from updated contact information options to the ability to embed YouTube videos in your posts.
The main focus of this revamp is to make our forums easy to use. Posting buttons are more prominent, you can quickly reply to a thread directly from the thread view page, and you can now search within a thread. We've also expanded the options for our non-premium members. They can now select from a variety of pre-made avatars, use emoticons, enjoy mouse-over previews and post images and polls after reaching a specific post count.
We have forums for multiple games and topics, and we've made it easier to move from forum to forum. In the top right corner of the main forum page, you can quickly jump to any category. Whether you want to talk about games like Rift and World of Warcraft or more general topics like computer hardware or TV and movies, we've got you covered. We even have a new Star Wars: The Old Republic forum, so be one of the first users to share your thoughts on this highly anticipated MMO!
For more details on all of these changes, check out our design update notes after the jump. We hope you enjoy our forum upgrade! If you have any feedback or comments, please feel free to post them in this thread or send a private message to Kaolian, our senior forum administrator, or Darqflame, our customer relations manager.
Tune in to the Sony Online Entertainment Stickam channel today, June 23 at 4pm PDT / 7 p.m. EDT! SOE will be broadcasting a 20-minute live stream Fan Faire Webcast. The special guest of the evening will be ZAM's own Calthine, Senior Content Manager of our EverQuest II, Free Realms and Rift sites.
Head over to the SOE forums for the full webcast announcement!
UPDATE: In case you missed the webcast, here's the video!
Alicia Crawford of La Quinta, Calif. has won Sony Online Entertainment's 2011 Gamers in Real Life (G.I.R.L.) Scholarship! The game art and design student at the Inland Empire’s Art Institute of California was awarded the $10,000 scholarship to use toward her tuition and other educational expenses. She has also accepted a 10-week paid internship at SOE’s headquarters in San Diego where she will work on one of the company’s titles.
First awarded in 2008, the G.I.R.L. scholarship was created by SOE to encourage students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, with the ultimate goal of developing video games that are more interesting for women to play. For more information on the scholarship, visit the official G.I.R.L. site and follow the program on Facebook and Twitter. Congratulations Alicia!
Have you ever wanted to see what Fan Faire is like behind the scenes? SOE is hosting a contest to hire four individuals to get a chance to find out. The SOE Fan Faire Backstage Blogger contest is going on now through June 28. Winners will recieve:
Head on over to the SOE community page for full details on how to enter. Winners will be notified on or around July 1. Good luck!
E3 has come and gone, and we learned a lot during our time at the Los Angeles Convention Center. While we invite you to browse through all of our E3 coverage, we wanted to point out some of the highlights from the convention. You'll find all of our original features and a list of other noteworthy announcements after the jump!
We'd also like to take this opportunity to present En Masse Entertainment and TERA with our Best of Show Award! As we explored TERA's political system, the demo shined as the most polished one we saw at the convention. Expanding the role of politics in-game will create a whole new dynamic for players, and we believe TERA holds a lot of potential for its North American audience. We'll definitely be keeping our eye on this game as we wait for details on the testing and launch schedule.
Keep reading below for our E3 roundup!
Have you registered for Fan Faire yet? It's less than a month away, and that means it's time for my annual Fan Faire Tips! This is stuff I and other Fan Faire veterans have learned attending past Fan Faires and other conventions. All this may mean nothing if you're the type who can toss a change of undies in a bag and be good for a week, but me, I've always been an over-planner.
According to multiple news sources such as the New York Times and CNN, police said today they have arrested three men suspected of being leaders of Anonymous, the group accused of attacking Sony's PlayStation network and subsequently forcing SOE to shut down its services from May 2-14.
The first suspect, a 31-year-old Spaniard, was detained in the Spanish city of Almería sometime after May 18. According to the New York Times, "He had a computer server in his apartment in the northern Spanish port city of Gijón, where the group is believed to have attacked the Web sites of the Sony PlayStation online gaming store."
The two other suspects, both in their early 30s, were arrested in Barcelona and Alicante following attacks against the websites of the Spanish Parliament, the UGT trade union and the Catalan regional police.
According to CNN, "The police did not immediately provide further details about the suspects, nor did they specify to what extent the Spanish branch of Anonymous might have participated in the recent attacks on Sony's PlayStation."
Sony Online Entertainment's E3 live stream just ended, and we have compiled a wrap-up to give you an overview of what the company is showcasing at the convention. One of the most interesting announcements is that Station Access will soon by dropping to $19.99 per month from the current price of $29.99 per month! They also emphasized that you can still register for Fan Faire, which will be held from July 7-9 in Las Vegas.
Sadly, SOE is not talking about PlanetSide Next or EverQuest Next at E3. However, they are discussing DC Universe Online's Update 4; EverQuest II in 3D; Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures' squads and tower defense game; Free Realms' upcoming ranching feature; their new PAYDAY: The Heist shooter; and Magic: The Gathering - Tactics' first expansion. Keep reading below for all the details, and be sure to check out the rest of our E3 coverage!
