Legends of Norrath: Travelers released

Sony Online Entertainment has launched Travelers, the eighth add-on to the Legends of Norrath online collectible trading card game based in the EverQuest universe. Travelers introduces all new challenges for players, complete with new characters and storylines that send players to the Planes themselves. Travelers Features new cards, an all-new 200 card starter that can be used to create four different starter decks, new loot cards including exclusive new encounters in EverQuest and EverQuest II that open all-new chambers and rewards of loot and XP and -In EQII - players can combine several key cloaks to create the game’s first wearable - a visible backpack, while In EQ three new collection items will grant players the Frozen Skull of the Cursed which equates to a unique mercenary.

Find out more about it by visiting www.legendsofnorrath.station.sony.com.

John Smedley to keynote GDC Austin

 John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, will deliver a keynote address Game Developers Conference Austin (GDC Austin. Smedley’s keynote, “From Dragons and Daggers to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts…It’s a Whole New MMO World,” describes in detail how SOE’s freely available tween and teen title Free Realms has worked to expand the base of players coming together in online worlds. Smedley’s keynote will inform attendees about the challenges and lessons learned when creating a full-blown MMO for younger audiences including the challenges and opportunity of creating connected games.

GDC Austin features three days of main conference content focused on connected games, online games, virtual worlds, and social networking game play - along with four two-day summits including the Game Writers, Game Audio, iPhone Games and Independent Games Summits. The event takes place at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas September 15-18, 2009. Early registration discounts for the event will end on August 13. Find out more at www.GDCAustin.com

Second Skin coming to select theaters, DVD

Liberation Entertainment and Pure West bring the first feature length documentary about virtual worlds and the gamers who live in them, Second Skin, to DVD August 25  and select theaters around the U.S. Second Skin takes an in-depth look at how virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest and Second Life have affected a group of gamers - for better or worse. The subjects of the film include a couple whose lives have changed since meeting online, a player whose life spins out of control due to his addiction and disabled players who find a voice and mobility in the virtual world.

The film also looks at the controversial world of Chinese gold farming and presents astonishing facts about online gaming related to what many consider sweatshops dedicated to this exploitation of people and virtual currencies.

A DVD release is planned for shortly after a limited theatrical run in select cities. Second Skin will be screening in NYC, LA, Austin and Boston in mid-August, then coming to DVDs on August 25th. You can check out a clip right here.

Sony Online Promotion Raises $20k for Charity

If you read the news here regularly, you might remember that back in January, we reported on Sony Online’s fundraising efforts for the Child’s Play charity. By buying certain specific Child’s Play in-game items in EverQuest and EverQuest II with Station Cash, Sony would donate $10 to the Child’s Play charity per item. Well, the month long promotion has officially come to a close and the totals have been tallied. So how much did gamers raise coming together for the sake of a good cause? In a statement released this week, Sony Online Entertainment announced that its Child’s Play 2009 Winter Charity Drive ended up raising more than $20,000 to the Child’s Play charity.

“The ability of our players to make a donation of this magnitude in these tough economic times is beyond anything we could have hoped for,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. “As we continue to diversify with programs like Station Cash we will be able to offer unique items that benefit not only our players, but other partnerships and organizations such as Child’s Play in this case.”

Founded in 2003, Child’s Play is a game industry charity that is dedicated to providing children with toys and age-appropriate games at more than 40 hospitals worldwide.

Sony Online Raises Money for Child’s Play

Sony Online Entertainment announced details this morning plans for a fundraising initiative utilizing the EverQuest and EverQuest II MMOs, allowing players to support the Child’s Play charity in its Child’s Play 2009 Winter Charity Drive, all while getting cool new in-game items in the process.

Staring this Tuesday, January 20th and running through the next month, SOE will donate $10 each time an EverQuest or EverQuest II player buys a specific Child’s Play item on the Marketplace with Station Cash, SOE’s recently introduced in-game currency. EverQuest players will be able to buy the Child’s Play Guktan Shield Ornamentation, and EverQuest II players can purchase the Child’s Play Bouncing Baby Bear Cub.

“SOE and our players have been staunch supporters of this charity since 2003, and with the integration of Station Cash into our online games, teaming up with Child’s Play for this online campaign was an easy decision,” said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment.

Founded in 2003, Child’s Play is a game industry charity that is dedicated to providing children with toys and age-appropriate games at more than 40 hospitals worldwide. If you’re interested in finding out more about Child’s Play, or in making direct donations to the charity, more information is available at www.childsplaycharity.org.

EQ: Seeds of Destruction Available Now

EverQuest Seeds of Destruction, the 15th expansion for EverQuest, and is available via digital download at
for the suggested retail price of $39.99.

In this latest expansion, the timelines of the world of Norrath have been destroyed completely.
The only objects left are the drifting asteroid shards called The Void.
Portals in The Void allow players to travel into the past and potentially
alter the world of Norrath as we know it today. This allows players to revisit places like the Plane of Time,
Bloody Kithicor or the Field of Bone to help stop the forces of Discord.

Features include the ability to hire
non-player characters (NPCs) to aid players in their adventures, a
level cap increase to 85, dynamic high-level raid content, new spells 20 new zones, access to all previously release content, and
updated alternate advancement abilities.

Find out more at everquest.com.

The EverQuest Universe Expands This Fall

As thousands of EverQuest fans invaded Las Vegas for the annual Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire, the company revealed how it plans to keep the momentum going on its popular MMOs: EverQuest and EverQuest. At the annual event SOE announced the EverQuest Seeds of Destruction and EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey expansions. The company also revealed that all Fan Faire attendees will get these expansion free of charge when they are released.

Read the rest of this entry »