SOE Me

I've gotten a lot of e-mails asking when I'll be posting my Beta impressions, so I will be doing that on Thursday.

If you're wondering what the title of this post means, well, it looks like one of SOE's writers has been reading Aggro Me, or at least the Friday Humor. Take a gander, if you will, at my Friday Humor: Team Fashion! feature from July 29, 2005. Now take a look at SOE's Norrathian Fashion Review feature from September 2, 2005. See any similarities there? Two humorous fashion gurus discussing EQII fashion? I'm just kidding - great minds think alike, as they say, and I enjoyed their feature. Plus, I think I stole that idea from somewhere myself.

Anyway, on to actual news. When the dueling concept was first announced there were probably over a thousand posts on the forums complaining about two things: the lack of an auto-decline toggle and the fact that the loser of a duel would face a death penalty. I had the same two issues myself.

Well, they put in an auto-decline toggle so you don't have to worry about that. What's more, by using the /duelbet command as described here, you won't have to worry about xp debt either. I think this should satisfy both duelers and those who would prefer to ignore PvP. I think SOE has done a nice job here.

Curious about the SOGA models? You might want to check out the link to a movie posted by Anskiere in this thread. There are some issues with the brightness level. All I have to say is, in the words of the main character, "Oh Yeah!" and "Baby I'll be Back!"

I'd like to take a quick moment to wish a fond farewell to Tonya "Sassee" Shields who is relinquishing her post as E2 Vault Manager. She definitely put her personal stamp on EQII Vault and the forums there and will be a tough act to follow. From our limited interaction she also seemed like a genuinely nice person who cared about the EQII community. I sincerely wish her all the best.

If you're just checking the site for the first time after the long holiday weekend, be sure to check out the post I did yesterday on SOE's great efforts in relation to Hurricane Katrina.