Keep up with what's going on within the Vanguard community! A lot goes on outside the Official Forums, and every week we do our best to highlight the great features, blogs, podcasts, and discussions that are going on within the gaming community! Don't miss out on:

 

• Two new episodes of Voyages of Vanguard
• Plenty of Fan Faire recaps and photos
• A slew of in-game player-hosted events
• Crafting services provided by fellow players

And much more!

Phone Technical Support will be closed on Monday, September 1st and will resume normal hours on Tuesday September 2nd.  Email and Chat Support will be available on Monday September 1st from 10 AM PST until 7 PM PST.  We will be offering limited in-game support during normal business hours.

Members of the SOE Community Team are going to be at Dragon*Con this weekend!

Dragon*Con, "the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US," will be held in Atlanta, GA from August 29th - Sept 1st.

Read on for full details!

The weekly server restarts will be taking place this evening and tomorrow morning. The restarts shouldn't keep the servers down for more than a few minutes, but to be on the safe side we estimate that the servers will be up and ready for play within two hours.

Halgar will be restarted this evening at 8:00 pm PDT (05:00 CET).

The remaining servers (Sartok, Seradon, Xeth) will be restarted tomorrow morning (8/27) at 5:00 am PDT.

This tale was taken from the dusty pages within the Anthology of Telonian Lore. Inside you'll discover the conclusion to the story which pitted man against an undead invasion which began at Southwatch. Find out what the King of Targonor plans to do to keep his people safe.

Faeran of VGWalkthroughs is at it again with his wonderful movie-making skills! Giving Tiraslee a run for his money, Faeran has created a short video that takes viewers through a colorful tour of Vanguard's trial version, Isle of Dawn.

You can check out the full video over at VGWalkthroughs! Faeran has happily given permission for players to share the video, so spread the word!

This is official SOE Podcast #44 where we broadcast at Fan Faire! We talk about what went on at Fan Faire while we were there Thursday night and then we recorded a recap when we returned from the event.

So tune in!  You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways head over to the Podcast's official site, and click on your preferred bandwidth or if you have iTunes installed select iTunes store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe!  Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email…

Recently the Vanguard team was able to snag two very talented artists, Brain and Carson, who interned throughout the summer months. During their time here at SOE they worked alongside the Vanguard artists, learning how to manifest visual life into an MMO, beginning with concept then creating it in the world of Telon.

Read on and check out some of their sketches!

Xaices, former Dread Knight class lead and admin over at VanguardDreadKnight, recently had a chance to chat with Vanguard class developer, Michael Mann, otherwise known as 'Avair'.

You can read the full interview here!

During the most recent SOE Fan Faire held in Las Vegas, Vanguard players were treated to a two-part ten minute video detailing what the development team has accomplished over the last year. The latter portion of the video showcased what is currently being worked on, including the newly "re-vamped" dungeon, Pantheon of the Ancients.

Vanguard's long awaited new character models are currently on Test! We've brought back a bunch of customization that will enable players to create unique and memorable characters in Telon.

Ten Ton Hammer has put together a complete gallery of all the new more-heroic models, and you can view them here!

Weren't one of the lucky ones who got to meet up with fellow Vanguard players in Vegas this year? Well, you definitely missed out on a ton of fun, but thanks to Dalmarus and the folks at Ten Ton Hammer, you can still be privy to all the information gathered at our panel discussions!

Diligent note taking pays off as Dalmarus recounts the crucial talking points from the four Vanguard panels held during the 2008 Fan Faire. You can read his highlights here!

For an overview of all events throughout the weekend, visit the Ten Ton Hammer main news page! (Day 1 and Day 2)

Fan Faire 2008 came to a close this Sunday, but most of us here in the office are still riding high on that feeling that comes once a year when players and developers get to meet face to face for a weekend of fun!

Read on to check out Ellyra's Fan Faire recap!

All Vanguard servers will be brought down tomorrow morning (8/21) at 5:00 am PDT (14h:00 CET) for a hotfix. The downtime shouldn't take more than four hours, with the servers expected to be up and ready for play by 9:00 am PDT.

Tomorrow morning (8/20) at 5:00 am PDT all servers will be brought down for their weekly restarts. The downtime should be very brief, with the servers expected to be back up and ready for play by 7:00 am PDT.

MMORPG.com has a few posts up detailing the event, VGManor has a great gallery of candid shots from the fun-filled weekend, Online Gaming Radio was there all three days broadcasting live and has a video up of the 'State of the Game' presentation, and the folks at Allakhazam should have a write-up detailing the many Vanguard panels soon! Keep an eye on the VGPlayers page for a few recaps of this year's events!

Thank you to everyone who came out and showed their support for Vanguard. The appreciation we have for our dedicated players can never be fully expressed in words. You as a group are what make our jobs so fun and rewarding!

Those who had a chance to attend this year's Fan Faire in Vegas were given an exclusive first-look at the new character models that are coming with Game Update 6! The Test server will be patching this afternoon, and once complete, players will be able to check out the new and improved character models themselves!

Herald P. Triton's investigation comes to a close… did he find Hubert? Find out if Herald managed to save Fan Faire!

You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways: head over to the Podcast's official site, and click on your preferred bandwidth; or if you have iTunes installed select iTunes store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe!  Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email.

Keep up with what's going on within the Vanguard community! A lot goes on outside the Official Forums, and every week we do our best to highlight the great features, blogs, podcasts, and discussions that are going on within the gaming community! Don't miss out on:

 

• All the Fan Faire excitement!
• TTH's Tuesday Tips
• In-game grouping events
• InfoMap Advanced v1.9

And much more!

With more than 26,000 attendees last year for Gen Con in Indianapolis Indiana, this year's event is expected to be even bigger and better! This will be an event to remember so be sure to get out there and enjoy!

While you are in the area, Sony Online Entertainment would like to extend an invitation to our Gen Con Meet & Greet. Join us August 14th, 2008 for a night to remember.

Read on for full details!

This week's screenshots come courtesy of Moonlake and friends who documented their travels through Telon with many beautiful screenshots, including an aerial view of Ahgram in the early morning light, the darkened swamps within Ichtakhta, and the expansive Temple of Tehatamani.

If you have an amazing screenshot that you'd like to share, please send it our way! We're always happy to feature original game-inspired artwork, amazing screenshots, or a uniquely decorated house/guild hall. Send your submissions (along with your character name and a description) to SOEFanArt!

All servers will be brought down tomorrow morning at 5:00 am PDT for their weekly restarts and a small patch that should bring back the missing Fengrot as well as fix some issues with the /claim command. The downtime is expected to take less than four hours, with the servers likely to be up before 9:00 am PDT.

We had the chance to chat with the leader of Safe Haven, one of the greater guilds on the Seradon server. Many of you know him both in-game, and on the forums, as Joodah.

Read on to find out more about your fellow player!

Official SOE Minicast #3 is live! Get the latest on Herald P. Triton's investigation.  Is he any closer to finding Hubert? Will Fan Faire be Saved?

So tune in!  You can get your Podcast goodness two different ways: head over to the Podcast's official site, and click on your preferred bandwidth, or if you have iTunes installed select iTunes store, type SOE into the search box and click Subscribe!  Your feedback is always welcome either on the Station forums or via email…

SOE's Fan Faire is a unique social event in which players of SOE 's most popular titles congregate to meet their online, game-playing peers. Fan Faire guests will have the chance to demo new titles throughout Fan Faire weekend, August 15 th 17 th , including the highly anticipated Free Realms™ . This year's event boasts a plethora of game-themed live events including tournaments, contests, live quests, a variety of panel discussions and tons of great gaming-related contests.

WHEN
Friday, August 15 th at 6:00pm PST. 

WHERE
Just head here to view the webcast!

WHO
SOE is hosting its annual Fan Faire event in Las Vegas for fans of its massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming lineup including the hit titles EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, EverQuest® Online Adventures, PlanetSide®, Star Wars Galaxies™ and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes®. This year's Fan Faire will also feature upcoming titles such as Free Realms™, The Agency™ and more.

For more information on the SOE Fan Faire visit the Official Fan Faire website!

This year's Fan Faire will be held in the famed Hilton in Las Vegas from August 14th-17th. Today, August 8th, is the last day to pre-register, so don't delay! Pre-registration can be completed the official Fan Faire website:
http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/index.vm

Hilton Hotels Corporation owns 2,645 hotels in more than 80 countries. The Las Vegas Hilton is the largest Hilton in the entire world and contains 3,174 rooms within the building. It was recently renovated this year and has 100,000 square feet of gaming space. With wonderful amenities in the Hilton, and a great schedule for Fan Faire planned out, we look forward to seeing you August 14th!

As all of you gamers are aware, the summer months bring with them a lot of events and conventions where we can have a good time and show off our stuff! This summer wasn't an exception, and our newest addition to the Vanguard development team, Ichie, made his way to E3 to show off our favorite game! While there, he followed guilds on live raids while many passersby marveled at Vanguard.

Read on see what else we've been up to!

The Xeth server will be restarted tomorrow (08-08) morning at 2:00 AM PDT to correct some social server issues. The server should be back up and ready for play within a few minutes.

All attending Fan Faire 2008 are welcome to share their photos with the community through the newly created Flickr group. The group is listed as " SOE Fan Faire 2008". The group was specifically created for this upcoming Fan Faire so all attending are able to enjoy each other's pictures.

Do you already have an account with Flickr? Make sure you tag all of your photos, blogs, and other submissions related to Fan Faire with "fanfaire2008". We hope this will serve as a way to share your Fan Faire memories with everyone!

In celebration of the upcoming 10 th anniversary of the EverQuest franchise, SOE is producing a coffee-table style book filled with the history, artwork, development, community and imagination that fueled this massively multiplayer game over the past decade.

This new hardcover collector's book celebrates that legacy by taking a look at the past, present and future of the EverQuest brand. The book will be filled with essays and photographs of the events, products, personalities and art that graced the world of Norrath over the years. Rich in vivid detail, each page will help tell the story of the evolution and its place in our culture.

Those of you headed to Fan Faire 2008 will have the opportunity to pre-order the book at a special price!