Well lets pick up by standing in line for the Community address.  The line was back in front of the main room when we arrived and only grew from there.  The line could have used some staff help as it snaked into a corner and then went into the cross-roads room except to get there you had to walk through the line, very irritating.

Unlike last year the doors opened 15 minutes early and the crowd did not make that normal rush but went in calmly.  The Bally's facility is just so much better than last years and security was so much more polite (I am pretty sure security for this was not Bally's).  We found our table quickly and unknowingly sat down around a group of SOE staff.  They were very polite and even took some photos of us.

Also my wife was the one who picked up on this.  Brasse sat down at our table in a red dress.  I would have never guessed that was Brasse, awesome. 

So the show starts and Brenlo does some cheerleading, its so easy to get caught up in a moment when you love the games, that lead to a trailer for all the games so Smed could sneak up on stage.  Smedly began the address by talking about a more focused approach to customer service and went right in to the customer service part of the address.

Customer service did their song and dance with some appropriate pops for getting rid of the overseas company and going with more local (USA) service.  They discussed the amount of banned accounts which since 2008 has been over 275,000 accounts.  And the large part of those were paying accounts.  Nice to know the company is finally unafraid to do the right thing even though they lose some upfront income.  People should remember that.

Next up was FreeRealms.  They announced that they would be passing the 4 million mark next week which is just crazy.  The servers haven't even been live 2 months yet.  They announced they are starting up the story portion of the game and continuing to roll out updates as soon as they are ready as well as discussing the new mini game soccer (I'm a country boy give me a basketball and a hoop).  The game seems to be growing very rapidly and for better or worse will be a major portion of their game portfolio.  Remember gamers whats good for SOE rolls down hill and will be good for us, as long as they remember who brought them to the dance which they have seemed to have never forgotten.

Free Realm TCG was next, poor guy in the banana suit.  I know its a loot card but I hope he lost a bet to have to wear that.  They are doing some neat things with being able to put yourself in a physical card and then to have it transferred to a digital card for free.  I am not going to get into any details.

Next up, or at least I believe this was the order was Pox Nora, another TCG.  Nice looking game but just not into that sort of game myself.

Now they pop up Star Wars Galaxies.  I expected a bigger pop like last year but it was a bit quieter than I expected.  They went through some game updates and reminded everyone that the game went live 6 years ago this very day.  They didn't announce a expansion which I am beginning to think is odd (what will KOTOR do once it launches).  They also discussed the Star Wars TCG by the same poor banana suit guy.

DCUO was shown most of it was E3 footage we have already seen but no new annoucnments, especially the rumored launch date that did not transpire.

The Agency was also discussed but it too was mostly E3 footage and no new announcements.

Now, Everquest 2.  First Brenlo announced some figures on the station cash and tried to show a direct increase in accounts since its inclusion.  I don't mind station cash and have used it for some fluff items but some people in the crowd seem to still not like the idea.  He then discussed the new longer Live Update cycles and discussed some of what we covered earlier in the day.  Although they did add that the shard of love will come live in a upcoming LU and the fate or EM would be discussed.  

Now he announced the new expansion (number 6 for you new kids) Sentinel's Fate.  It will be the return to Odus.  The screens looked great and some of the new mobs looked really cool but a few looked like sprite swaps of some already in game (hint hint).  They also announced it would be launching in February 2010.  While this was unwelcome news, we like our November expansions Brenlo explained they are trying to do more with the live game like the old Adventure Packs this caused the longer cycle.

Brenlo Finally announced that they would be launching a new good starting city around the same time as the expansion.  They announced Halas and we were shown some early footage.  For those who follow us most will know that we have been in a guild called Halasian Redux for some time (we formed it) and have always had a extreme love of Halas due to our early adventures in Everquest 1.  So for us to see them releasing Halas it was like a dream come true and was very unexpected.  We are very happy geeks right now.

They wrapped up EQ2 talk with TCG talk that normally is boring but there were mention of a new loot card that will allow you to repair all your equipment to 100% once a day....  Oh that will be nice, and expensive lol. 

Overall a very nice although short and lacking good details discussion of EQ2.  Though they are promising more during the next days panels....  We shall see.

Finally one of the granddaddys of MMOs (also one of the best for its time) Everquest 1.  They are dropping their 16th expansion Underfoot (yes 16, Final Fantasy has only announced up to 14 and only released up to 12) as well as a continued commitment to expanding that universe.

The Community Address wrapped up and the bars opened up.  What a crowd, that is a tab I would love to see but not pay.

After taste testing some of the special AMP drinks, a few times, we basked in live karaoke.  Most did a good job but when Smedly got up there and killed "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns and Roses, well I was just speechless.  Not just good, but killed it.

I should mention that Brenlo did do his promised "Copa Cabana" and did it well, you just couldn't follow up Smedly.

So after a few more "taste tests" it was off to the room and sleep.  Dreams of EQ2 dancing in my head...  There was also some hot chicks in my dreams so I have to give a shot out to some of those girl gamers that were looking good, hats off!

Lastly we would like to thank Craig, SOE staff and all around nice guy, hats off to you as well.

For now that wraps up day 2, more gaming goodness on day 3 including the world premier of Evercracked, stay tuned.

Donnie "Talnor" Hall