Everquest Online Adventures is published by SOE

Everquest Online Adventures for the Playstation 2
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>> first log entry 2/4/2003
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Doppio took all the high res screenshots with his video card. I took the low res shots using a 27" JVC flat screen and Fuji digital camera.

Friday after work I headed down to the Sony Metreon for the Everquest Online Adventures pre-launch party. Traffic was pretty clogged up at as I neared market, there is a horrible intersection that people routinely block. Most S.F. commuters simply wait and watch as greedy douchebags block the intersection trying to get to the bay bridge. I learned to drive in Boston so I have no qualms about leaning on the horn without mercy and shouting obscenities out the window. While these actions are pointless in Boston, I have found them extremely effective in California (although it is suggested in the CA state driver's handbook that one should never use the horn unless it is to avoid an accident). People get shaken up by the power of the Honda Civic CX horn and eventually their guilt or timidity kicks in and the path clears. As an Everquest fan heading to my first ever EQ event, I was a noisy force to be reckoned with.

As I approached the Metreon it had the usual skell hanging outside pimping for money. The nice weather in S.F. generates what is probably the largest per capita homeless population in the U.S. I am pro homeless rights, however after years of working on Social Work I learned that the worst thing you can do is give someone who may have a drug problem cash, so I no longer give the skell money unless it is someone obviously crippled or aging. My work with homeless kids taught me that even unkempt men with speach problems can get jobs. I was shocked when I took a client out job hunting one time and he landed 3 offers to start working the next day, this guy was not a clean person (despite our attempts to coach him on this) was not a very pleasant chap to hang around (mood swings) and tended to dominate conversation with loud diatribes about his hard life. If a guy like that can land 3 jobs, there is no reason why most homeless men I see couldn't get off the smack and start pulling in a check. Although those with physical disabilities would obviously have a harder time so I usually drop some cash in their containers

As you can see in the images before the event the metreon was realatively slow. They had kiosks set up and most were occupied playing EQOA on GM accounts. Patrons were test driving lvl 35 characters, usually 2 to choose from on each account, although many chose to start new characters. I snapped some shots of the kiosks and the logitech netplay keyboards which are a lot smaller in person than I thought they would be.

There were 2 "show girls" giving out 'Everschwag' hats, t-shirts, foam swords, keychains. The girls had the slimmest waistlines I have seen in a long time, and they were showing navel ^_^. I snagged a hat and a t-shirt, eventually Vanessa convinced me to take a keychain, I couldn't resist her begging.

I was chatting with a chap from the caster's realm boards for a while. The "event" really wasn't full of things to do other than walk around look at kiosks and chat amoung the fans. They staggered the raffles to fill up 5 hours of time and while it became tedious , it paid off in the end (I will get to why later) I finally managed to hop on to a Kiosk and took a lvl 35 paladin for a ride. The last person on the kiosk must have died because the toon was at Qeynos. The zone was empty and I tend to get easily lost in Qeynos for some reason, after about 10 minutes of running aimlessly looking for something around my level to hunt a EQOA VIP assisted me by sending a /tell to a GM who summoned me to his group.

The VIP turned out to be Bordael the EQOA community relations manager. We chatted a bit while I played. A rather pleasant fellow who is enthusiastic about EQOA, he described some of the backstory of the gnomes I was killing in a group with a GM and a Bard who was sitting next to me. The battles were extremely easy as the GM was uber healing the group and it was more of a dungeon tour. Bordael and I exchanged introductions and we had a brief conversation regarding his GM experience, the EQ community and I mentioned being in all 3 betas. I decided against peppering him with game mechanics and content questions as most of the important questions were answered in one of various online inerviews he and the staff have done. Bordael invited me to come talk with him any time during the event as the first raffle was about to take place I left the lvl 35 paladin to another patron to test drive.

During the first raffle I noticed many people with stacks of tickets, compared to my lowly single ticket I suddenly felt my chances shrinking as veteran EQers and "free stuff" getters farmed tickets from the "show girls" with efficiency. A few lukcy guys won copies of the game, game cards, the sweet netplay keyboards, and of course the not so interesting regular USB keyboards. While still a good keyboard , the non "netplay" keyboards seemed to be the booby prize of the show. It was announced that every 10 minutes there would be more prizes.

I talked for a moment with the EQOA marketing guy doing the raffle/organizing the event. He was another pleasant fellow who was quick to mention he loved his job , going around setting up EQ parties. There was a DJ playing instrumental hip hop and the show girls and giveaways. However noticably absent from this "party" was alcohol and food ^_^ maybe he needs an assitant to help him? A few more raffles and a few more winners, I still had my lonely ticket and not much else. Time for a bottle of water to liven up the night.

Eventually my buddy Poijik showed up. I showed him the ticket girls and he managed to snake 2 , as I picked up an extra 2 tickets at the same time. The girl compensated us with extra tickets because she was out the first time Pojoik went asking. More standing around, more waiting for raffles, checking voicemail etc... One lucky bastage won a 5.1 surround sound logitech system, netplay keyboard, EQOA game, and a full years subscription. *set for life* ;)

Finally heard from my girlfriend, she was on the way. Hesitant to enter the "geek zone" my friend Pojoik talked her into stepping inside by mentioning his girlfriend was also in hanging (lie, his girlfriend was at class) We used my gf to get more raffle tickets as the next giveaway was in a bit. When she discovered she was deceived the gf headed for greener pastures, namely the food court.

2 guys made their way over to the DJ and started doing some rap over the music, it was fairly decent and his style was a bit like Q-tip from Tribe Called Quest. Another skinny guy with a 60oz malt liquor in a plastic bag came in and made his way to the rappers. He had an unbearable pungent body odor, but when the mic came his way he demonstrated a more pronounced style than the Q-tip type guy with better clarity in his lyrics and a more forceful delivery. The rappers were definitely the highlight of the "party" but their time came to an end as more giveaways commenced.

More numbers called, again numbers were in sequence "776010, 776011" etc... The good news was when a number was called and the ticket holder didnt claim the prize, more chances for me ^_^. More raffles more losses, at one point I was actually booing and shouting "it's fixed! shake up that bag more!" in jest. It was done with a wink and a smile.

More raffles past and I noticed Pojoik wasn't holding his tickets, he had them memorized at this point. BING! His number was called, he won the netplay keyboard, the only item he was really interested in. On his way back I gave him the high five with the fist to celebrate, made all the waiting worth it. BING! His other number is called, but you can't win 2X so he passed me the ticket and viola I had a pre-release copy of EQOA in my hands. Mission accomplished! Off we were to find my girlfriend and get the F out of dodge, i handed my remaining tickets to the guy from the CR boards and said my goodbyes.

To my surprise later that night I logged onto EQOA and the servers were still up from the event. I started characters on every server but chose Castle Lightwolf as my main with a human shadowknight. More to follow-

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