The Official SOE Live 2012 Feedback Thread

[Calthine]

I wanted to get this going while it was still fresh!

1. Player Panels were a win. Do that again.
2. Two keynotes is nicer than sitting for 3-5 hours for one.
3. The banquet meats were cold. Not "no longer warm" but "held in the refrigerator".   But I think they're getting better at working with lots of dietary restrictions. 
4. I was amused that while the DJ at the pool party was spinning gangsta rap packed with D-bombs and one song that contained a graphic description of a oral intercourse encounter, the Planetside 2 guys had to "tone down their language for Vegas".  I didn't really enjoy hearing songs whose lyrics wouldn't get past the fourm filters.  Call me old, but I don't like my music shouting f-bombs at me every third word.
5. Costume contest organization gets better every year!
6. I think it'd be neat to take some of the fun contests from the banquest and sprinkle them in the keynotes.  Break it up a little.  Here's EQII, and here's some Station Cash. Here's Planetside 2, and here's some big guys in pink t-shirts.

Thanks for a great time!

**Note: We decided to make this the official thread since you folks are more awake an on the ball than we are!**

-Danicia

[Kazakzer]

Well,  I have a cool thing they could do as a walk on stage contest, BUT You'll have to wait for that when the NEXT SOELIVE is : )

[Amio]

I hope we receive some sort of survey on how we viewed SOE Live this year. Theres a couple good things I'd like to note, but also a couple bad I want fixed for next time.

I also don't want to post on these forums about it.

[Boscohark]

All in all i had a good time.  Panels were great (I was there for the DCUO ones) and the access the the Dev teams was fantastic.  i like how the Devs for each game  made an effort to sit with their players at the Banquet and Brunch.

I had mixed feelings about Bally's:  on one hand the Hotel side service (that which had to do with my room) was very good.  But I was not impressed with the food at the banquet and brunch and as a Non-Smoker walking through the Bally's casino was not pleasant. (Other casinos like Paris, Bellagio and Ceasars were well ventilated so it was not a problem.

If they decide not to have nexts years in Vegas I would not be dissapointed.

All that being said there were far more pluses then minuses and I plan on going next year as well.

Some specifics:

1) I agree that the Player Panels are keepers.

2)  Spreading the keynot over two days is also good thopugh I would advertise better which night each game is on.

3)  Registration, Swag Bag and Teeshirt line managment could have been better.  Might want to invest in some rope lines for next year or have the voluteers better trained to set up the lines to avoid confusion and aggravation.

4) While Planetside is the next big release I would have loved to see more "oomph" behind the EQ2 and the DCUO tournaments as well.  For all tournaments i would love to see ther finals on the big screen so we could easily follow them.

5)  Equipment in the Panel rooms could have been more consistant though the Panel peeps themselves sis a good job rolling with the punches.

 6) There is NO Rule 6!

7)  I loved having the vendors there and would love to see that expanded.

Would love to see more DCUO merhcandise so we could "fly the flag" for the game.  Perhaps you can start early with DC to work out licensing issues?

Keep up the good work!

[Danicia]

Amio wrote:

I hope we receive some sort of survey on how we viewed SOE Live this year. Theres a couple good things I'd like to note, but also a couple bad I want fixed for next time.

I also don't want to post on these forums about it.

If you don't want to post here, you can drop me an email socialmedia@soe.sony.com and I'll add it to the list of things here internally.

[tiaauriga]

I too liked the two keynotes as opposed to a single massive one.  

Was surprised there was no "signature drink" this year.  

Costume contest went great this year!  Even with the poll reset.  

Bally's could have done much better with the food.  As already mentioned, it was cold, and when I got through the line, both the fries and the hamburgers had been decimated with no sign of anyone coming to restock.

As it stands though, my husband and I will be happy to take a weekend trip to the Vegas strip again next year.  Especially with Kracken and others talking about a "Life After SWG" panel. 

[Tenamdar]

• GOOD: The options for t-shirts we great and the customization allowed for more uniqueness.
• BAD: No DCUO shirt.
• GOOD: Made up for the above by giving away a batman statue. Awesome!
• GOOD: Having tournaments
• GREAT: Pool Party. Never a bad time to be had there!
• GREAT: I'm fairly certain that everybody who wanted to talk to a dev on any game, was able to. If there's one thing this event shines with, it's accessibility. The DEV shirts help!
• BAD: I lost at Roulette and War. (War! Huh! What is it good for?) *ok ok you can't do anything about this
• SUGGESTION: These ^ could be made so much more exciting and prominent than they were. Get some more big screens, lights, an announcer, do interviews with players, big brackets, more live streaming for people at home.. the Clone Wars Adventures section had more pizazz than these huge tournies.
• SUGGESTION: EQ2 Gathering in-game scavenger hunt competition. Hunt for shinies! Pick a tier and race the first to collect X number of rare harest. (any kind, no tradeskill/harvesting AAs allowed).
• SUGGESTION: EQ2 House Decoration Ultimate Competition. Submitted in advance of SOE Live event, must be present at the event to qualify, and top-5 houses judged by a panel. For pizazz, show-off the undoubtedly amazing results on a big screen (and streaming online), w/ commentary. 
• SUGGESTION: Hire more vounteer event runners to manage things like who's in what room + when. Have a moderator who can keep things lively. Also, the devs should totally enter the room to theme music like the rockstars they are!
• BAD: Didn't get to use my raffle tickets AT ALL. Time to design a new system for this.
• BAD: SOUND. Streaming sound for keynote #1 was horrid. Bring sound engineers, pre-wire this stuff and TEST before the main event!
• BAD: Panels were difficult to hear and just as difficult to see the projector screen from more than a few rows from the front. Bring better sound equipment. If can't get better projectors, then plan your presentations accordingly and adjust light accordingly (easier to see the darker it is).

I may have more later, but it's a start.

[Crystilla]

Here's one thread someone else started with feedback - http://forums.station.sony.com/stat..._id=11500050874

For me, things I really liked:

• Shorter keynotes
• Karaoke (the selection he had was fantastic, even if he didn't have my two favorite artists)
• Vendor selection (having the character drawing lady back again was great, the metal jewelry was fantastic - both of those got lots of my $$$).  Larry's artwork as always looked fantastic.  Even the items sold in the SoE store were far and above what I ever expected.
• Lines - check in line for bags/tshirt went pretty quick (only the keynote/dinner lines were long).
  • Suggestion - since you already open more than 1 set of doors, why not utilize the # of doors for the # of lines.  Two sets of doors = 2 lines. 
• Dev Brunch - this was enjoyable and the players that I overheard really seemed to enjoy it
• Tshirt customization was a fantastic idea
• The bar code scanning and badge printing - current technology worked out well

Items I liked

• The nacho bar food was very good on Friday night.
• The desserts on Saturday night were good.
• Player panels - most I went to were well done, others (as can be expected) were less so.
  • For myself, I had to miss the Wikia one and would love to have a follow up and see how I can help contribute to that endeavor.
• Costume contest - and the extra # of prizes awarded this year.  I thought that was fantastic.
• EQ Live quest - in past years having 15-20 quests to complete was tedious.  I liked the shorter, more creative parts of this one, though wish there weren't two 'non EQ' skill based ones (shooting the gun without instructions on when it fires and the beanbag toss).
  • I know I was told the crafting one will get a bit of a overhaul to keep it within the time limit initially identified if it's used again next year. 
  • Other ideas I heard as suggestions is acting out a typical day in your group/raid (roleplay by the players).
  • Everyone else in my group were 1st timers to Fan Faire/SoE Live and they enjoyed it overall.

Items I disliked:

• The length of the 2nd night Planetside 2 skit.  Matt and Tirell? were speaking very fast and very hard to hear.  That might be normal for that game but I saw a lot of people in the back actually get up and walk out pretty early on once that started.  And many 1st timers to SoE Live (from folks I talked to) were very turned off.  Mostly, it was understood some game hype needed to be done, but the length of it went way beyond non P2 expectations.
• Smoke through the casino - I know this can't be helped if it's at Bally's.  As someone allergic to smoke myself, I usually hold my breath through this.
• Saturday night food - corn on the cob, while good, is not a friendly food to eat.  The chicken was slightly tasty to me.

[BroomyHilda]

The Spinning Wheel was a flop as it was only open for short periods of time and apparently the prizes ran out.  Everyone was given 3 raffle tickets and no one I talked to was able to get 3 spins of the wheel.

The SOE employees and the guides were great and the customer service was great as well. 

Perhaps the Keynote on Day 1 should have been on the EQ Franchise and Day 2 on Planetside 2?  Don't let the Planetside 2 team have sugar and introduce them to the concept of a time limit..most of their presentation was just loud noise that became a timesink and I found it unprofessional.

Bally's was almost great...except for the lack of service by the servers at the final banquet it was a great locaton.

SOE is getting much better at planning Fanfaire/ SOE LIVE.

Thank you for a great weekend SOE!

[Tharkis]

The good:

Friends! games! prizes!

Excellent accesability by the devs to the players

the multi-keynotes split up the time and gave more of the evening back to the atendees to party and do stuff

the bad:

There were major panels from various games held at exactly the same time, and then minor panels in othe time slots.  I know that I am not the only person who plays more than one game, but it woudl be nice to be able to attend, for example, both the EQ expansion panel AND the DCUO panel.  It seemed that too many of the 'big anoucement' panels were at the same time slot. and then the more minor panels were all at the same time slots, instead of big ones being matched with lesser ones.

Most people had no idea what to do with the 'raffle tickets' attached to their badge

[Kyreth]

Pros:

• As always, I loved speaking with the (EQ) developers, artists, and community staff, they are awesome and fun people and meeting them is one of my favorite things about attending SOE Live/FF.

• The nachos on Thursday were tasty!

• The new EQ Trivia Game panel was hilarious - I'd love to see it happen again next year.

• The EQ Live Quest was great - I loved that they brought in old school stories for inspiration - like Fansy the Bard and the Burned Woods. Charades was so much fun. I can't believe I managed to act out Kedge Keep and have someone guess it. The beanbag toss made me sad. My lack of coordination is why I play video games!!!

• Money is an awesome prize for the EQ tournament (and OMG the payouts were crazy good this year!!), but it'd be cool if it also gave an in-game title!

• Brasse was a great mistress of ceremonies and kept things very entertaining.. and the hampsters too!!

• I liked the new method of voting for the costume contest fan favorite (once the glitches were worked out) as it definitely seemed more fair than clapping!

Cons:

• The line to spin the wheel was insane. I ended up only using one of my raffle tickets because there were so many other things to do with my time rather than wait in a line that snaked around the entire room. Perhaps next year the wheel can be left open the whole time that the room is open, instead of putting it on a schedule, or if it's intended for people not to use all of their tickets, then just give everyone 1 ticket instead so we don't feel like we lost out if we didn't get the chance to use them all up!

• The banquet food! It was cold! I liked the pasta the other year a lot more.

• I didn't enjoy the Planetside 2 segments. The game is just so far removed in style from all of the other SOE games, and so not at all anything I'm remotedly interested in, that it felt like I'd been transported somewhere I didn't belong whenever it popped up. Plus, the presenters at the banquet were talking over each other and made my head hurt. I hope the game does well for SOE, but I wouldn't have minded them toning down the emphasis on it a bit.

• I appreciate the stage contests, but it felt like they were a little unfair (not complaining because I didn't win - I didn't even compete, so it's just an observation). Kids are too cute and will always win everything, so sending them compete on a stage against adults is cheating. It'd be cool to have one giveaway for kids only to compete in, and then have the rest of them be adult-only.

That's all I can think of for now.. overall, I had an awesome time, and I'll be back!

[igknats]

Alittle history, this was my first Soelive (fanfaire). so my expectation was.... didn't know what to expect.overall if this was held anywhere beside Las Vegas i won't be back.

Checking into soelive: bought my wife an All access pass for the convention - well A guest all-access pass really screwed with their computers (bar-code). To modify my wife's Registration, well i got " we don't have the ability to do it here" we are sorry.After talking to two or three people, going from line to line..out from behind a closed door comes Colette (community relations Manager). TADA fixed..got my wife everything a full access pass was in Entitled to. THANKS COLETTE. oh yes forgot, there was one more person who went out of her way to take my wife to the T-shirt line and made sure she got a shirt..i wish i remembered your name..Thank you. (note: if you knew you were having problem with badges would it have been easier to just print new badges?) still left a sour taste in my mouth if this was just day 1 what else can i expect?

The Ballroom layout: something about the layout caused alot of traffic flow problems ,especially doing check in. people milling around with any direct guidance. lines were forming in random areas without real flow to them. for a first timer it was alot of , whats this line for? where do we go and do this? more signage needed or better use of the space out in front of the ballroom, a better buffer area. continue with Ballroom layout.. putting the DJ right next the computers it was hard to hear the game sounds let alone voice if you got it working. THE Prize Wheel...honestly i have to say, i feel that was one of those things the Location was very bad..the line snaked through the whole convention floor on friday and saturday..i came home with 6 raffle tickets still attached to our Passes. thats my fault for not waiting in line trying to win a hat or polo shirt. which i bought prior to realizing what these raffle ticket attached to my pass was for.

Right now it sounds like, all i have to say is Bad thing towards Soelive. i had alot of good experience at Soelive2012 for example: The ability to go up to a DEV and talk to them, was like OMG!! ok, to put them up on a pedastool was alittle much they are Human..but for 7 Years some of them influenced my life and made the game enjoyable..it was my honor to put a face to name and say Thank you for Making a hellava good game for me to play..BTW..i am bad on names,but there is One Dev ( incharge or the economy and the broker system in EQ2) i sat at your table in dev's brunch..when do i expect the 1000 plat (oh yes) minus the 999.99 GP delivery,taxes and fee you promised me? Just kidding

Another good experience i have was with the Guide player panel. learned alot from them..alittle disappointed No cookies or Shineys..but i forget , i thought you got the full set of shineys from the guides if you showed up to their panel? Just Kidding i know you didn't, showed up anyway.

Pool party: i know the devs were told to wear their shirts so they can be apporached and talked to. this was one time that they shouldn't had to, let them hide out and enjoy themselves. i know for some it didn't matter if they had their shirts on or off. no other details are allowed...all i know i did raise my Alcohol Tolerance after that night

Staff issues: walking around the convention floor noticing alot of SOE staff in their own little groups..i know some of you work in cubicle and talking to the public is hard for some of you..the players shouldn't have to start up the conversation.you should strike up the conversation..look at thier badge and see what game they play ask them if they tried a different game. if time permitting drag them over to that game and try to sell it to them. or just say "what can help you with?

Time to finish up this thread. notes for next year..Have Poster hanging with a schedule of the convention, instead of using phone aps or trying to keep track of where did i put my program? Have a poster up also with each Dev's Name/ The Game they work on/ and their responsiblity. be nice to have a snap shot of them beside their name.Have each game team be responsible for their own booth ( like a contest). to showcase their game and make it easier for peole who want to try it. THE BIGGEST one i would like to see, if a game's beta goes live around the time the convention is happening, have it go live at the convention, give the convention goers a little perk for going to the convention.

To close ,Thank you EQ2 staff ,all of you, for making a game enjoyable for me to play. to all you SOE employess that worked hard for the SOELIVE to happen, THANK YOU. To two people i Have watched on Webcast through out the 7 years i have been playing Everquest 2..Thank you Smokejumper and Brasse..you made SOElive for me..oh crap i forgot the Chipmunks!!

PS: Kelithen Bar wasn't as all what i expected ...It was Better!!

(probably be more comments)

[Neurotoxin]

I had a great time at SOE Live! This is my first time attending a SOE fan festival, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I have a ton of feedback for this event. Thanks to everyone at SOE who made SOE Live possible, to everyone at the event who we got to meet, and to everyone who was monitoring the status of everything from back at the offices.

First off, for the praises:

Special thanks to Ryan Antonelli and Shawn Murphy for helping me out with the Player Panel on Bugtesting for Players. Special thanks to Brasse and the community team for setting up the Player Panels, and for inviting me to present this year! And thanks for everyone who attended the panel, as it is a sometimes dry subject to address. 

A shoutout to all the PlanetSide players for being the loudest crowd at SOE Live! We made the audience of the second keynote sound quite tame.

Player Panels were a great idea. I didn't get an opportunity to see any (other than the one I personally presented) but I understand that they were very successful. I'm glad that there are player-hosted panels, and I'd love to see more of them in the future. 

Swag bags were pretty lovely. I enjoyed all the goodies inside, and the bags themselves are quite sturdy. The free shirts were nice too! The vendors and artists were great to have as well. 

All of the contests and giveaways were quite rewarding. I walked away with about 5000 SC and a nice polo shirt, on top of the swag shirt that came with the pass, and keys for upcoming games and content. 

Photo booth was great. I got a nice picture with T Ray and the VS Light Assault soldier, and I even got it signed later on! (Thanks again T Ray!)

The tournaments were great. I had a lot of fun participating in the PlanetSide 2 Tournament, and even though I didn't qualify in the 1st round, it was still a great time. Other tournaments were also pretty entertaining to watch. The PlanetSide 2 Boot Camp was also fun, and while I didn't win that either, it was another great contest. Congrats to all the challenge contest and tournament winners!

The SOE staff presentations, and Q&A sessions, were just fantastic. I'm really glad to get things answered, provide feedback that will be considered for the future, and learn more about what is to come in the future. 

I really enjoyed the length and depth of the keynotes, especially the live Command Center broadcast! It gave me plenty of time to enjoy the food, too.

Some of the food was pretty good. The nacho bar was a smart idea. Just get us some bigger plates next time, or even large bowls, so we can actually do some work with all the toppings. I prefer two layers of chips, and so the fact that it was set up in this way made me smile. The desserts were pretty delicious too.

Stations set up for everyone to play games was really nice. Getting to see PlanetSide 2 with high quality graphics settings shows off just how amazing and beautiful the game really is. I even grabbed a little video capture when magmowing some silly NC heavy.  

I'm glad that the majority of SOE Live was held away from the major smoking areas.

Having costumed heroes representing the different games is always nice. I always enjoy seeing the three Light Assault soldiers from PlanetSide 2 walking around.

And now, for the criticisms:

This one is rather minor. Work something out with Bally's to get some craft beer up in there, even if just in the SOE Live areas. I'm sure Danicia can agree with me on this, Bally's Casino is mostly devoid of quality craft brews (you REALLY have to hunt for them) and they should definitely be available at the pool party.

No ChinaJoy dogtags were available, either to win or otherwise. I really want one of those metal VS dogtags!

More A/V would have been nice. Recording all the panels and events, so that they can be viewed online (either by attendees or the general public) would be a great way to have archives of all the panels and presentations for future reference. 

The prize wheel raffle should have been better announced, so that people would know to come over and line up for them. Maybe more times a day, and even more stations, or even a raffle schedule of some kind. People shouldn't have to plan their days around getting a spin at the wheel. 

Better food please! I understand that they are trying to feed a large crowd, but a lot of the stuff was really dry, plain, and sometimes kinda cold even. Worse than fast food in a lot of ways, and that is not a good thing. The nacho bar was genius, except we lacked bowls or wide enough plates to do anything substantial with it. I recommend getting more interesting with the dishes, using things that are easier to keep warm with a sterno flame or hot plate, and that are potentially way more satisfying. A different kind of vegetable curry every night (sat at a table with disappointed vegetarians), beanless chili and / or meatless chili, lentil stew, and a salad bar every night. And maybe one good meat instead of a few substandard ones. Even the dev brunch was a bit substandard, it didn't even have toast. I think a better buffet (like the Venetian or Bellagio) would make for a better dev brunch in terms of food, though that might be tough to accomodate.

Please don't get political with future SOE Live keynotes. Promotion of military is political, and to me patently offensive and unacceptable in the context of a fan festival for fictitious games. Promoting the Military Gamers organization is one thing, but rewarding players for their length of active duty is getting into genuinely political territory. If politics can't be avoided, then supporting LGBTQ players would be a much better subject to address, as the battle against LGBTQ oppression is something SOE actively supports. Nobody can be offended about LGBTQ rights except fascists and bigots and bullies, and with cyber-bullying on the rise, any stand against fascists / bigots / bullies is a plus for society as a whole. Another subject that would be just as politically relevant for SOE to address is support for people with disabilities, and opposition to ableism. Bullying based on ableism is NOT tolerated by SOE, and so it would be just as important of an issue for SOE to take on at a SOE Live keynote. 

Some of the contests for giveaways didn't make sense:

-The glasses walk-up race rubbed me wrong because I saw the first 2 rows of tables were reserved for press, meaning non-press attendees (the players) started at a disadvantage.

-The limbo contest ended up being a contest for children to win items for their parents, and was based on size rather than skill.

-The show floor dance contest was a popularity contest, not a measure of skill or enjoyment.

-Gangnam Style is basically the macarena or the mashed potato, flavor of the month dance, and instead mimicking dances from the various different SOE games would have been a more relevant contest.

-The Golden Tickets for EQ and EQII expansion content seemed like a recipe for disaster, making denser tables battle to flip chairs and grab it, while letting attendees at emptier tables grab up multiple tickets.

-Do fan voting by some other system - not cheering, not texting. Cheering is subjective, and texting requires additional technology that others may not have access to. Apps for rapid vote-spamming can also cause issues here. 

Suggestions for all of these:

- Any sort of "Race" has contestants start from the same point, not where they are sitting. 

- Only paid passholders may win prizes - NOT their children who attended for free. 

- For contests that require skill, have judges that can appraise skill - otherwise the most popular contestant wins.

- Keep contests relevant to game-related content, rather than things which are big in pop culture around the time of SOE Live.

- Something that is more active, and isn't weighted by table occupant density, would be better than taping tickets underneath chairs. Anything from popping balloons to get the ticket (or fake "try again" message) inside, to simply handing everyone a ticket and letting them enter it on the SOE Live website to see if it is a winner or not. 

- Voting Balls make for a better system than cheering or text message fan voting. Show off the costume finalists early, let everyone toss their voting balls into the bin for the letter of the contestant they are voting for. When it is time to process the votes, all the bins are poured into larger corresponding bins on stage, so that fans can see how many voting balls every contestant has earned. With like-sized balls and bins, anything but a close tie should be very visible on the stage If not Voting Balls, than do some other method where everyone gets one vote, without requiring extra technology or being louder than the other voting groups. 

[Cyliena]

Tenamdar wrote:

• SUGGESTION: EQ2 House Decoration Ultimate Competition. Submitted in advance of SOE Live event, must be present at the event to qualify, and top-5 houses judged by a panel. For pizazz, show-off the undoubtedly amazing results on a big screen (and streaming online), w/ commentary. 

I like that one, would actually be even more fun as a "decorate on the spot", given a few hours, a 2-room home, money and a vendor to buy things from.

[Tenamdar]

Cyliena wrote:

Tenamdar wrote:

• SUGGESTION: EQ2 House Decoration Ultimate Competition. Submitted in advance of SOE Live event, must be present at the event to qualify, and top-5 houses judged by a panel. For pizazz, show-off the undoubtedly amazing results on a big screen (and streaming online), w/ commentary. 

I like that one, would actually be even more fun as a "decorate on the spot", given a few hours, a 2-room home, money and a vendor to buy things from.

I thought of that at first, but brain wasn't working to figure out HOW it could work. Good thinking!

[rom101]

Tenamdar wrote:

• GOOD: The options for t-shirts we great and the customization allowed for more uniqueness.
• BAD: No DCUO shirt.

I may have more later, but it's a start.

I hate to say this, but there was a DCUO t-shirt.  I didn't discover it until the last day when I saw a couple of folks wearing it.  The T-shirt table didn't have it displayed, but if you asked for a DCUO t-shirt, they had one ready (had the joker on the back).  Sorry you didn't know sooner.

As for my favorites:

• Player Panels
• Dev Panels
• Live Quests (The DCUO Live-Quest was surprisingly creative and fun...way to go Mepps)
• The Costume Contest (and not just saying it because I won an award...but it sure helps)
• The Artists that were there (nice to see Comic Book art available...got a sweet Batman drawing done by Mike Miller).
• The fact the Keynotes were divided over 3 nights instead of one really long night
• The salute to the Military players

As for my not-so-favorites:

• The Planetside show on the last night went a bit long
• The fact the DCUO t-shirt was not displayed so many folks missed out
• Needs more DC related merch to buy (maybe stock up and resell from Warner Brothers)
• That the same cute kid (and he was adorable) won several contest gifts both during the convention and at the last night banquent just for being "cute"...maybe set a "1 prize per person" next year...spread the wealth more around if possible
• Lack of MTG:Tactics representation

Other then that, I had a great time and can't wait to go again next year.

[Aitsanna]

igknats wrote:

Another good experience i have was with the Guide player panel. learned alot from them..alittle disappointed No cookies or Shineys..but i forget , i thought you got the full set of shineys from the guides if you showed up to their panel? Just Kidding i know you didn't, showed up anyway.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Igknats!  We had a nice chat afterwards, too, and if I had any RL-shinies I totally would have given you some for all the input

[Ky]

First, Thanks Sony for continuing to hold this event year after year. Questions of venues and locations aside, the chance to spend time with my 'other' family a pearl beyond price. The access to Devs and (official) Community members is invaluable. I love that I get a chance to hear what they have to say and offer an opinion.

I didn't get to the Keynotes, but the suggestions I'm hearing make a lot of sense.

The return of the huge sprawling pillows and the white cubes and benches was great.

Thanks for the Player Panels. We love our worlds and it's nice to also hear from fellow enthusiasts.

Addition of the Kids Zone was fantastic! I know that in years to come if this feature remains it will make it a lot easier for me to keep my little one interested.

And my endless thanks for the fellow attendees that encouraged us to enter our Endlessly Energetic Elizabitty in the costume contest. It was your repeatedly expressed enthusiasm that made us want to share it with everyone. And she'll be waiting for that group invite Brasse Just give her a few years to level

There's so much more, but right now I have a bad case of jet lag. Thanks again, and hope to see all of you and more next year!

[Ades]

I didn't attend in person this year, but attempted to follow the EQ2 information on the twitch.tv live casts. This is feedback specifically related to that.

So here's the schedule that was posted: 

Can’t make it to SOE Live?  Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered with an extensive schedule of live casts!  Starting with the opening of the show through our annual costume contest, we will we keep you connected with all of the happenings at SOE Live!  Here is a schedule of when you can tune in and where. Broadcasts will occur on the SOE Twitch TV channel, the PlanetSide 2 Twitch TVchannel, and on CurseTV!Thursday, October 18, 2012

• 6:45 PM – 8:15 PM: SOE Live 2012 Kick Off Reception and Keynote Address! (SOE)
• 10:00 PM – 12:00 PM:  PlanetSide 2 Auraxis Challenge (Curse)
• 11:00 PM – 11:30 PM:  Podcast #138: the Official SOE Podcast live at SOE Live! (SOE)

Friday, October 19, 2012

• 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Players Studio Panel - Bringing your Dreams to Life (SOE)
• 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM:  PlanetSide 2 Auraxis Challenge - We will check in with Total Biscuit & Luperza to see how the tournament is going! (PlanetSide 2)
• 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: EverQuest II Aether Races – Finals! Watch Smokejumper battle it out with the Finalists. (SOE)
• 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM: SOE Keynote Part 2 - Featuring DC Universe Online, EverQuest, and EverQuest II! (SOE)

 Saturday, October 20, 2012

• 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: EQ Rain of Fear Panel: EQ's 19th expansion launches in November. Come to this panel to get a sneak peek at what's falling from the skies! (SOE)
• 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: EverQuest II Chains of Eternity - The Expansion and Beyond Panel (SOE)
• 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM: PS2 Auraxis Challenge - The finals of this tournament will be covered by Curse with cameos by Total Biscuit! (Curse)
• 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM: DCUO Legends PVP Tournament - The SOE Channel will cover the finals of this tournament with Jens Andersen and Total Biscuit. (SOE)
• 2:00PM - 3:00PM: EQ/EQII - Business of EQ Franchise Panel.  An honest and open discussion with the Director of the EQ franchise and the Producers of both EQ and EQII. (SOE)
• 3:00PM - 6:00PM: PS2 Auraxis Challenge - Live coverage of PS2 Auraxis Challenge tournament with Total Biscuit & Maggie Krohn, followed by Friday Night Ops (PlanetSide 2)
• 8:15PM - 10:15PM: Costume Contest - Join us for the Grand Banquet and Annual costume contest. (SOE)

I tuned in to watch the ones highlighted in red.  Comments:

1. Kick off: the sound quality was horrible.  The speaker's microphone was not hooked up to the camera recording the livecast, so Smed was really hard to hear as he was being recorded from the back of the room over the ambient noise.  Part way through the folks working the camera tried to fix this, but because the camera was just recording ambient noise without a direct microphone feed, the twitch cast picked up all their discussions and at times their debate about what to plug in where drowned out Smed.  In addition their work with the camera caused the image to shake around and move off Smed.  The sound eventually got sorted out and after that it was mostly better though there were some odd volume variations still.

2. Player Studio panel: Joe Shoopack was almost inaudible; either his microphone wasn't working or he wasn't close enough.  But more problematic, player questions were TOTALLY inaudible. It seemed as if they didn't have any microphones for the players to step up to.  This made the twitch cast very difficult to understand, as at least half the panel was Q&A and all we could hear was the answers without any idea what the questions were.  This has always been an irritation in Q&A panels but now they're being recorded on Twitch it's absolutely essential to ensure players have microphones for questions, or that the panelists repeat the question EVERY TIME.

3. EverQuest II aether races.  Tuned in at the listed time and absolutely nothing was on air.  No explanation, nothing.  Stayed tuned for 20+ minutes but eventually gave up.

4. Tuned in late for this one due to so only caught the end live. No problems watching it live, but when I went to watch the rest on the recording on TwitchTV, the entire first 20 minutes are blank; just a logo and music playing. This should be cropped off.

5. Chains of Eternity panel - this was well run, players had a microphone for questions, no audio problems.  Only feedback is that it would have been nice to be able to switch to the slides full-screen, they were only shown from the side so twitch viewers couldn't really see the details of the art that was being shown off.

6. Business of EQ Franchise - tuned in to watch this and discovered a DCUO tournament in progress.  No explanation and no way to get to the franchise panel. Extremely frustrating, as I'd specifically made room in my day at this time to watch.  @Sonyonline on Twitter said you were filming things that you weren't able to stream and will get them uploaded to YouTube but I don't see any links to recordings on twitch, nor do I see this panel available on the Sony Online youtube channel. So where is it??

7. Closing ceremonies - started a little late but no technical issues.

Overall: it was great to even HAVE the option to see these panels on twitch.tv, but the fact the posted schedule did not match up with what was actually shown was very frustrating, and there are still technical issues that need a lot of improvement.

[RadarHelper]

This is just a quick note to say Thanks; over all had a good time.

I will dig out my notes and post some more later.

SOE LIVE forever.

[Noobieg]

Really enjoyed the weekend there, my first FF / SOE Live event.

Being able to talk to the devs was great, and wearing their Dev shirt was a big help.

The contests and prizes were fun!  I did not like the HUGE line for the wheel though, and being told we couldn't just turn in the raffle tickets without standing in the rediculously long line that was only open for an hour and a half at a time.

Pool party was a lot of fun!

Nacho bar was really good, the deserts were good at the banquet, the "hot" food at the banquet though was pretty bad.. Everything was lukewarm at best, some almost cold.

The people I was able to talk to / interact with from SOE were fantastic.

Having the computers there and being able to try out other games was cool, I started a free toon on another game just for kicks

Overall I thought it was very well run, and had a lot of fun. Hope to be back next year if I can

I didn't hear good things about the player panel, but wasn't there myself, so can't give my own opinion about it.

[TRG-Eight8Eight]

Man why all the hate for Planetside 2?

It really didn't seem like it was that long, I think the best option to help everyone

 

1. First Keynote: Intro and information about the weekend
2. Second Keynote: EQ Franchise / All the RPG stuff
3. Thrid Keynote: Action and FPS 
4. Fourth Keynote / Banquet : Conclusion 

This way everyone can go to the intro and get brief information on the events on the weekend then you have 2 core Keynotes and then a final keynote / banquet to sum up the weekend.

The arrangement of the keynotes might be kinda tough because we only have 3 nights

I will be coming back with more pros and cons later but I wanted to get this out because myself and our outfit were seeing some of the comments about Planetside 2 and were becoming discouraged. Planetside 1 was launched in 2003 so SOE has been doing these games for a very long time.

[Eith]

The SOE Live fan faire is over for another year; I had fun but a lot of things could have been better. Most issues have already been mentioned so I won't belabor same. Now is the time for SOE staff to contact each of the attendees by email asking everyone for feedback. A few folks are willing to go public in the forums but most won't do that so they need to be asked for their comments. NOW IS ALSO THE TIME TO ANNOUNCE THE DATES AND VENUE FOR THE NEXT SOE LIVE FAN FAIRE!

[Amio]

Danicia wrote:

Amio wrote:

I hope we receive some sort of survey on how we viewed SOE Live this year. Theres a couple good things I'd like to note, but also a couple bad I want fixed for next time.

I also don't want to post on these forums about it.

If you don't want to post here, you can drop me an email socialmedia@soe.sony.com and I'll add it to the list of things here internally.

I emailed you. Thanks.

[Niteshaid]

We need a way to upgrade our standard RoF expansion we get for attending fan faire to the collectors edition. its something we ask for each year we only get the standard addition...lol...would have thought you guys would figure out how to do it by now.

[Texana]

I liked most everything, but I really liked the addition of the Scavenger Hunt. That was cool. Early seating of Costume contestants was a nice touch too.

The things I disliked were:

The long and totally obnoxious Planetside 2 speakers. Even the Planetside 2 fans at my table were embarassed by them.

The extremely long lines for the wheel. This has GOT to change.

The elimination of the usual Station Cash consolation prizes for Costume Contest participants. We have always gotten $10 SC cards in the past and the other contestants I spoke with were totally shocked about this.

[leavwiz]

was great to be back after several years absence. 

incredible opportunities for time with dev teams!

fun stuff everywhere

great player panels , definitely need to continue this next year.

nacho night, great!  final banquet, weak

wheel/raffle tickets, epic fail for those that didn't get to use their tickets

Costumes = Biggest Win!

Tshirts = Big Win

Green Screen Photos = Big Win

Location, spendy, not a great value for participants , may want to look at other properties (I tried the Riviera this year and a convention was going on there at the same time,  their meeting rooms were comparable but would have needed both of their ballrooms to seat the SOE Live crowd, but rooms were half the Bally's price and the buffet was better and parking was not a nightmare.  But, its way up the strip and not in the middle of things) The smoke was also a factor for me.

Staff = Outstanding in every way.  Kudos to Linda for wearing that outfit for much of the event!

Will definitely be back next year.

[RinQual_Gorgshriek]

I LOVED WATCHING TWITCH

And Danicia was my only "friend" on Twitch

She was on most of the day  

Prize Wheel SC D

[Kazakzer]

I had no really bad issues to post, But wanted to say that this year was The coolest for me. I really did not notice the bad language at all. and I do not mind different music as in I would not mind like  some rap  and such, But wanted to say that I did like all of the SOElive and it Kicked , Well the Censor Police just censored the last part 

[aneggborn]

Have it in the summer again please.