May 17, 2011 ¦ Posted by Jethal ¦ 0 Views  Comments OffEverquest 2 is back online after a hacker attack - Jethal and Elquin chat it up about life, liberty and the pursuit of Pumpkin Cake, The Drunken Dwarf explores Rift

May 16, 2011 ¦ Posted by Torryn ¦ 0 Views  Comments OffWell, the SOE servers are back online...but not without their problems, and certainly not without what feels to some players like an incredible insult. Tune in as we go after the re-launch, and the 'Welcome Back' program...no holds barred, and no BS! (WARNING: Adult language!)

May 14, 2011 ¦ Posted by Amaury ¦ 2,054 Views  0 Comments

This happened today. And this. And also this.

Expect to need to change your password on first login. Also expect logins to be rough, due to the number of returnees inundating the servers.

Also reported via folks already in: ALL City Festivals are active. As are Moonlight Enchantments. Till May 22nd, if the press release is correct.

But there you have it.

May 13, 2011 ¦ Posted by Amaury ¦ 1,187 Views  2 Comments

For those of you that (like me) may have gotten tired of waiting for SOE to update their page with any new information on the ongoing issues from the hacker attack…

SOE finally updated their page with new information on the ongoing issues from the hacker attack (didn’t see that coming, did you?). You can find the link… Right here!

While the opening dialog is nothing new (“Thank you for your patience…” “WHAT F**KIN’ PATIENCE?!?!”), the meat of the story is in the midsts of it all: The unveiling of SOE’s “Make Good” Program. It outlines what the returning players (because they’re expecting all of us to come back, right? … RIGHT???) can expect once their favorite game(s) is/are back online. For the bulk of us, it involves:

• 30 days of game time added to the end of the current billing cycle in addition to one day for each day the system is down (which amounts to 10 days by my count as of the moment of this post).
• A series of events, including Double XP, Double Guild XP, Loot Bonanza, and City Festivals (For us of the EQ2 / EQ2X persuasion).
• 500 Station Cash, in addition to the subscription time and items listed above (For Station Access subscribers only).

There are also details about the Sony team-up with Debix to offer affected customers identity theft protection (U.S, territories only at this point; non-U.S.ers, your equivalent is allegedly in the works, depending on local laws).

Our other hosts are likely to be commenting on these items themselves, but I’m curious: Are you satisfied with the (eventual) Sony response? Are they offering too much / too little / the Goldilocks “just right” amount of compensation? Has anyone gotten any e-mails from Sony, either in regards to this, or the PSN intrusion? Has this whole debacle even turned you off into coming back… At all?

I welcome your comments… Keep ‘em civil, clean, and thoughtful… Remember Torryn’s thoughts on the best ways to “bitch”!

I’d hate to sic the Ranger on you!

May 13, 2011 ¦ Posted by Amaury ¦ 0 Views  Comments OffIn a rare treat (or fright), Amaury digs himself out of the musical sand dunes and... TALKS! With all of the Sony madness swirling around, you didn't expect him to keep quiet, did you?

May 11, 2011 ¦ Posted by Amaury ¦ 1,102 Views  1 Comment

… But in all seriousness, Sands will not be heard tonight due to the continuing adventures (and misadventures) of your intrepid DJ prepping for a cross-country move. Sands will be on next week at its regularly-scheduled time.

In the meantime, SOE has posted this news via their Facebook feed… This is something to keep an eye on, and if any additional information manifests itself, you can rest assured that OGR will be on top of it:

“All SOE games and sites are still offline as of May 11th and will not return today. Thank you again for your continued patience and support as we diligently work on these issues. All houses requiring rent will have one month added free to help offset any costs incurred during this outage. More information on SOE’s “Make Good” plan to come!”

May 10, 2011 ¦ Posted by Zanadi ¦ 0 Views  Comments OffWe return from our small break to talk about the ongoing troubles at Sony and some of the things they will be doing to compensate players. We skip around some notes from the past couple weeks, but without our beloved game to help guide us, random topics are abound.

May 10, 2011 ¦ Posted by Jethal ¦ 0 Views  Comments OffSOE Servers are still down. A week has gone by, what are Jethal and Elquin up to? Has the withdrawals of EQ2 catching up with them? Shakes? Tremors? the Cold Sweats? yeah.. but that's normal. What are YOU doing during this downtime? Post your replay HERE

May 9, 2011 ¦ Posted by Torryn ¦ 0 Views  Comments OffContinuing news and commentary during the extending downtime of SOE and PSN...as well as thoughts on how to 'make good', what to do with all that down time, and a humorous look inside a security conference, using Portal 2 sound clips. Big fun!

May 7, 2011 ¦ Posted by Brenlo ¦ 0 Views  Comments OffEpisode 2 of Halfling Stew. More talk of Rift update 1.2. SOE and their current woes. . Wait what were we talking about?