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This maintenance has been rescheduled to start at 11:00 PM PDT Thursday and run until 1:00 am PDT on Friday.

Due to an unexpected outage in our network center, all SOE websites, forums, and login servers are currently unavailable. This outage does not currently affect the game servers and players who are currently in game should not be affected.

The SOE network and operations teams are working toward a resolution at this moment, and as soon as we can provide an ETA for a restoration of these services, this post will be updated. We apologize for this unexpected outage, and thank you for your understanding.

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UPDATE:

The network team appears to have solved the problem, and things should be getting back to normal in short order. Thank you again for your understanding and patience, if any further maintenance is required we will update you in this post.

In-game, technical, and account support for all SOE titles will be unavailable on December 25, 2008 as the Customer Service department will be closed for the holiday. Customer Service will resume normal hours on December 26, 2008. Thank you for your understanding and Happy Holidays!

This thread is not working as intended. Let's put it to a rest and not bring it up unless we can do so without bickering. Thank you.

OK, so here's the deal.

When something you post is moderated and you are confused, have questions, or just plain don't like it and disagree, you don't make a thread questioning the moderation. That's against the rules, and a fairly well known convention for message boards across the internet. That draws more moderation, and thread locks (like this one!).

What do you do then? You PM one of the moderators, or one of the Community folks if you are not comfortable with the moderators (Amnerys is your dedicated Community Rep and available for escalation about moderation). It's ok to state your mind, just please be polite as abusive PM's will also draw moderation. Voice your question, concern, or complaint in civil language and show your position.

At that point the ball is in our court and we will actually tell you why moderation was needed (*gasp*). It may take a little time to sort it out if you don't contact the person who moderated you (but sometimes that's not clear), so a little patience is asked for in the exchange. Once we have the situation appraised, we will get back to you in PM as well and bring you up to speed as to what happened and why it was necessary.

From that point, you will know the deal and how to avoid moderation in the future.

In the case of the Notepad request, while I have not done all my homework yet, it looks to be a case of "Necroposting is bad, if something is that old please make a new thread to start a fresh conversation."

If you really feel like you have to necropost, don't. Instead make a new thread and link to the old one as a reference, citing a line or two of text where relevant. That's better than bumping something that has been long dormant. Hopefully you can see where that makes sense.

Lastly, as indicated above, I'm locking this thread. It should have been a PM, but it's worth the effort to just show everyone why it's being locked, and how to escalate when you think we might be moderating for the wrong reasons. If you have any further questions about the Notepad thread and why moderation of necroposting is required, please send me a PM. Amnerys will be back in the office tomorrow if you are more comfortable asking her. SMILEY

As the Festival of the Grim Harvest ends in Telon, a new event is beginning. There will be feasting and celebrating, along with some rather large birds, a bit of spicey-ness, and some slimy, cranberry-colored somethings. We've got new quests, new rewards and new raid mobs, to boot!

Here's a sneak peek at one of the rewards you might earn if you lend a hand to the festivities!

Source: VGPlayers.com

This thread has pretty much degraded into name calling and other nasty behavior. Let's try to avoid that so I don't have to lock it and be all mean while Amnerys is out please. SMILEY

If you haven't participated in the Festival of the Grim Harvest yet, or if you haven't received all the rewards you wanted, be sure to do so by the end of Tuesday, November 18th.

On Wednesday, November 19th, the Grim Harvest will fade away, and a new event will go live! Be sure to check back on Monday for a sneak preview of the upcoming Harvest Day events.

Click here for more information on the Festival of the Grim Harvest!

Note: Amnerys is out of the office today so I'm covering. She will be back next week have no fears! SMILEY

It is important for people to be able to present their views on the game and it's devleopment to the team of folks working on the game. That noted, the forum rules for any of our boards don't allow folks to single out individuals and lay into them for any reason. There is a difference between actionable criticism that shows exactly why a person does not like something related to the game and attacks on the developers over those same feelings.

It's also not welcome, via the forum rules, to make posts to debate moderation -- which is why this one is locked. If you find moderation that you disagree with, please feel free to send a PM to Amnerys or myself and let us know, privately and constructively why you would have done things differently. It's a far better way to raise an objection, in a reasonable manner, and not break the forum rules.

The link seemed to be formatted poorly. Please try this one out.

I'm locking this thread as its not much of a conversation topic, but is useful for folks who won't find the post in it's normal thread!

Had it not been a transition week when we have an outgoing and incoming Community Rep, this thread would not have lasted so long. As it stands, making posts to call out the devs on any issue, let alone specific developers is not welcome.

There is a clean difference between critical posts that are constructive and posts that are raw heat pointed at the team. This one started on the wrong side of that difference; and it's time to close it.

I'll be around, helping Amnerys settle in, to make sure we can keep things on track. I appreciate everyone's help in that.

Nephele@Xeth wrote:

...you just made me realize how tall Ellyra actually is .

Ellyra and Felicia Day at Fan Faire 08:

I think Felicia is like... 4 foot three inches?

Merd wrote:

Secrets? Why are you keeping secrets from us? *grabs Grimwell* What else are you keeping from us? What?! WHAT?! " /> hehe

*gasps* um... I like pie???

LOL, you guys got to find out before the EQII community did!

Shhh! Sekretz!! SMILEY

It's a neat lore idea, and a very funny joke... but the technical limitations would prevent the EQ's and VG from mixing.

Dude, that was SWEET!

Seriously. That's fantastic work!!!

Sticky request approved! SMILEY

This morning we experienced a brief network outage that affected all SOE games and websites. Crack SOE Network and Operations Ninja’s flashed to the scene and worked their kung-*bleep* furiously to get things back in action for you. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused, but things look to be under control and stable pending any other giant monster attacks on the server room. Thanks for your understanding.

No hamsters were harmed in the restoration of network capacity…

(I know I don't post here on normal days, but I don't want you guys to not get the word. Please forgive my attempts at humor, the EQII folks are used to it... )

UPDATE:
It also appears that a great number of people have lost their forum ranks and can not post. I have contacted the forums team so they can look into this. (/me heads off to find out who invoked Murphy's Law today.)

Or... he was quick to get the truth out because it kills the rumor entirely. I'm sure that's not as fun for the tin foil hat brigade to allow, but that's the case.

If news outlets were legally liable for the things they write that are incorrect, the legal fees would put them out of business just in terms of political coverage. Freedom of the press includes the freedom of the press to be wrong. SMILEY

Allow me to confirm that this particular rumor is not true. Somehow our recent news about looking to expand our operations into India has morphed into this rumor.

I repeat: We are not moving to India, or being purchased by any company. This is a rumor designed to wake community managers out of a eggnog induced haze.

Happy holidays. SMILEY

If you are going to be in Las Vegas on January 8th and find yourself carving a Warp Core Breach and great conversation, come on down to QUARK’S BAR AND RESTAURANT at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas and hang out with the SOE Community Relations Team! The gang will be in town for CES, so head on over and meet the community folks from your favorite SOE games and perhaps share a dry iced filled drink!

What: Community Get Together

Where: Quark’s Bar and Restaurant in the Hilton Hotel, 3000 Paradise Rd. Las Vegas, Nevada 89109

When: 7:00 p.m. PST, January 8th

In this case, the team flipping the switches is a core team that all of our game teams rely upon. It had nothing to do with Vanguard itself. =)

There will be a period of scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, December 19th. During the maintenance period the following services will be unavailable: Legends of Norrath, Station Store, CSG purchases, Subscription and Account Management tools, and Character Transfer Services. This maintenance period will begin at approximately 9:00 AM PST and last until approximately 3:00 PM PST.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has been nominated in MMORPG.com’s 2007 reader’s choice awards! Vanguard has been selected as a nominee in the ‘Best New Game’ and ‘Most Improved Game’ categories. Each of the nominees were selected by MMORPG.com’s Editorial Staff, and the voting is now open to the players. You can learn more, and register and vote for Vanguard at MMORPG.com!

Everything is going as planned. Right now the accounts are in the process of being activated by an automated process that does them in batches. It may take a bit more than a day for everyone's accounts to be activated, but they are not losing time because the timer starts from the moment the returning player activates. So everyone wins, it's just a matter of letting the system get them all in!

Sorry that we didn't reply on this earlier. Ellyra is out for the holiday and I wanted to overly validate the details before I posted them and added any confusion. Hopefully I didn't!

Update:
Scratch that information. The team flipping the switches hit a snag they didn't expect and we are changing our plans to adapt and best serve the returning players. The accounts will be reactivated tomorrow, and we are going to keep them open until the 17th of January (200 SMILEY

as a means of making sure everyone gets a chance to get in. Sorry for the confusion and fast change of plans, but we want to make sure everyone gets to come back to Vanguard, and ensure that the snag does not cut anyone's time short!

Speaker wrote:

Grimwell wrote:
Let me try to be more brief and clear all at the same time:

Brenlo made some jokes. Some people didn't find them funny. The jokes weren't meant to offend those people, but they did.

That noted, life goes on and it's really time to say "Lesson learned, don't do that again." and then move on. There are bigger fish to fry.
Actually you are missing the point.
The lame jokes aside are small part of the problem with the PodCast. The real problem still comes back to this.... Is SOE going to make changes to the death penalty and the leveling curve in Vanguard after Smed said they were not planning any major changes with Vanguard, I recall the comment, you guys learned your lession with SWG by not listening to your customers. We have a verison from Thom the new Producer " we are looking at things" suggested changes are not set in concrete , we have from Silius " We make minor changes to fix things"and then we have what seems to be an offical corporate position about us Old Timers having to adapt to a lessor death penalty and faster leveling speed the "new" gamers of today want.
Please a simple offical straight answer will do. A simple yes or no from someone will work, so I will know if I am wasting my time with a game that is changing into something, I have been clearly told I am out of touch with.

I think we are each missing the others point, though you have addressed that well with me now so I no longer have that problem.

My point is that it's time to stop shaking our fists about the podcast. It's done and noted in the book of lessons.

Your point is that you want a straight answer about the future of the game. I'm not able to give that answer as I'm not on the dev team and am posting from home (it's my birthday, good enough excuse for a five day weekend I think) so I can't walk over to their building and ask them what's up. So, while you may not want to hear this, I don't have the information necessary to give you that answer, so you will need to hold steady until the dev team can express in clear terms what they have planned.

Let me try to be more brief and clear all at the same time:

Brenlo made some jokes. Some people didn't find them funny. The jokes weren't meant to offend those people, but they did.

That noted, life goes on and it's really time to say "Lesson learned, don't do that again." and then move on. There are bigger fish to fry.

Jools wrote:

I disagree. Negative posting by the community does indeed positively influence the game. The devs have stated over and over that they want our opinions on things and they are basing the direction of the game in part by the will of the community. The proof is in Thom's 1st letter and then his follow-up letter in which he admitted to being inluenced by the watershed of negative posts. In truth, it is YOUR postings, the mindless "I love everything about VG", that do not really offer any positive influence. In fact, I would assert that they breed an air of "well, everything is ok, no need to change anything" to the developers, if anything. "Negative Nancies" are fare more influential than you "Positive Patties".

Critical to this point is the fact that you can give negative feedback without being a 'negative Nancy' in the process. Constructive criticism is a great thing when it's constructive so please do provide that! Positive feedback is just as influential when properly applied. You are correct in that posts stating "I love everything about VG" don't influence much because they are not specific. Someone who says "I love how the X class plays and feel that their tuning is well balanced and should be an example of how to balance any class." is going to have influence because they are specific.

That specificity works for both the positive and negative. When you can't be specific, and can't be polite, the chance to influence diminishes greatly.

(I'm not trying to call anyone out specifically, just to validate that it shouldn't all be sunshine and roses and that there is a good way to deliver negative feedback.)

Optim wrote:

instantaneously? it was like 3 weeks ago.

They don't have to listen to it ever if they don't want to my friend. They do have to work on the game.

The speaker was Brenlo, aka Alan Crosby, Director of Community Relations. The Podcast is a product of the Community Relations team and is not a PR Team function. It's something we do to have a little fun, talk about SOE, and try to show that SOE is staffed by normal people who like games, etc. -- because it is, and we are.

I *have* listened to the segment in question, many times. I can understand that some of you would feel offended by this from your context. That said, Brenlo meant no harm. Yes, I happen to work for him and know him well, so I know the 'Grumpy Gamer' voice wasn't meant to say anything specific about Vanguard or Vanguard Players because of my context.

The Podcast is not scripted (they have a flow, but don't have lines written) and it was something Brenlo did off the cuff in an attempt at humor. Some folks got it, others didn't and let themselves get upset. Again, I'm not saying that they weren't justified from their point of context, it's just that it the comments were misunderstood and taken the wrong way, which can happen at times.

Why didn't the VG dev team know about this instantaneously? Because their job is to work on the game, not to listen to podcasts. They can listen, if they so choose (just as any SOE employee can), but that's their choice on their own time. Just as posting on the message boards are to be honest. Their function is to work as team on the game.

All I'd suggest at this point is that we let the water pass under the bridge. If you were offended by the skit in the podcast, you have my apologies on behalf of the community team. No harm was intended, things just got misconstrued after the fact and what's done is done.

Actually, the SOE answer works, it just does not work instantly and you don't get feedback if we ban the player. When you /petition the GM team looks into the issue and acts based on those findings. It's policy that we don't share the results of those investigations (we don't share what happens to an account with anyone but the owner).

That can make some people feel jaded about the system, but it works if you use it. Unless the person you /petition about isn't doing what you think they are SMILEY

Simnir pretty much has it figured. In order to post in the normal forums you have to have an active subscription to the game. If you just validated your account key from a purchase, you should be good to go. This is something I'll look into when I get back to the offices after the holiday. Sorry, no instant answer, but I'll see what I can figure out.

greentea wrote:

Simnir@Seradon wrote:
greentea wrote:
Desnar@Shidreth wrote:
I'ts been 2 1/2 weeks since a phathom post and the illuminating "response number 1." Maybe we could get a response number 2? Its always great when your supposed leader vanishes for weeks without a word. That sounds familiar somewhere...something about some company called Sigil... Oh well maybe I'm just confused.
Here are a few more answers on page 1 of this thread. These answers are not from Thom, they are from Silius.

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/p...&topic_id=22812

not that i dont like you and all, since i said so in your "goodbye" thread, but.....
thought you quit,
I did.

You can't post if you don't have a sub.

Please do not create threads to call out members of the development team. That's not allowed. You are free to discuss the state of the game and the future of the game, but there is no need to call out someone in the process and it won't be welcome.

For the record, the only reason this thread made it this far is because we are on the holiday weekend and I was not looking as often as I do during normal times.

Let's try to avoid debating the quality of a person's post and focus more on discussion about the game and it's play. That's more of what this forum is for. SMILEY

This topic has moved:

/vg/posts/list.m?topic_id=22720

Moving to appropriate forum.

As Shogg has noted, please remember that here in the U.S. we are on a long holiday. The Vanguard team is not in the office, and any visits and posts to the forums that VG developers make is on their own time right now, and at their own discretion. They are under no compulsion to check in on the forums during the weekend, so please don't let any lack of posts in response over the weekend frustrate you. Most of the team is with family and friends, which is a good thing.

I know I don't post here much, but Ellyra is with her family too, so I'm keeping a very passive eye on many of the boards from home.

Even if you don't live in the U.S. I hope you have a good week, and enjoy the next few days. The VG team will get back to the office next week!

Lengend. Zoiks!

mmmmmmm brownies

Howdy folks, Ellyra isn't quite in for the day yet and we are sharing the news about LON as a stand alone game with all SOE customers. I hope you don't mind my intrusion into the Vanguard space!

It's a fun game and I'm playing as "Grimwell" when I get the chance, so if you see me online and want to punk someone out in a match, I'm still getting the hang of it.