One of my favorite perks of living in San Diego (other than the fact that it’s easier to harass SOE employees), is that it’s so incredibly easy to make it to events much like the one held yesterday for The Shadow Odysseys launch. As announced on Monday, over at Station Players, the Sony Online Entertainment community team gathered at San Diego’s finest Internet Café, The Office Games, to show the fifth expansion to EverQuest II. Of course I made my way over to check it out; though I admit, the promise of pizza certainly helped motivate me.

I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. ‘Certainly there are better venues to show off The Shadow Odyssey’ I thought to myself; however, I was wrong. To my surprise the event was extremely well organized and there was an epic dev to player ratio. The store was packed with people trying out EverQuest II. In fact, there wasn’t a single person in the store without the game on their screen. Of course the café was essentially shut down to anything besides EQII, so that may have had something to do with it. During my walk around the store I asked players what they thought. For the most part, everyone was extremely receptive and seemingly surprised about the amount of fun they were having. To stress the point, I spoke with two avid World of Warcraft players in the crowd. The fact that they weren’t somewhere else playing Wrath of the Lich King speaks rather loudly in my opinion.

I mentioned the dev to player ratio before and I wasn’t kidding. In attendance from Sony was Craig “Grimwell” Dalrymple, Barbara “Babs” Saito, Alan “Brenlo Crosby and Emily “Domino” Taylor to name a few. Everyone who walked through the door received a personal greeting and an invitation to join in the festivities from someone on the team. “Was there any loot?” you ask? But of course! There were several free copies of the game given out, everyone got a posters and of course, free eats!

Want a copy of The Shadow Odyssey but don't want to leave your house? No problem! All you have to do is be one of the first five people to answer my three questions in our forums. Think you can handled that? On your mark, get set, GOOOO!

1 . Before EverQuest II was released there was a "tome" of ancient lore that explained in detail, the events that lead to the cataclysms. What was it's name?

2 . Who is the FIRST to be referred to as "The Prime Healer"?

3 . Name the officer of the League of Freethinkers that you met in the former Peacock Club.

Be one of the first five to answer correctly in our forums and win a digital copy of The Shadow Odyssey.

With the launch of the fifth EverQuest II expansion in less than 24 hours, we're giving you a final glimpse at what you can expect to see. The Shadow Odyssey gives you the opportunity to return to Innothule as well as revisit dungeons such as Najena, Mistmoore, Ruins of Guk and Befallen. In total, there are over twenty zones to explore! Fortunately, you won't have to go alone! Allakhazam has you covered every step of the way with the most up to date information. Stay tuned, there are some big announcements and changes on the horizon!

Right! The final glimpse that I promised you. We've just uploaded five exclusive screenshots from areas you'll be able to explore within TSO. We'd also love for you to check out Calthine's write-up about her tour through The Shadow Odyssey, as well as our exclusive look at the new Ykeshan Warbear Mount.

Because we're so excited about The Shadow Odyssey, we're feeling extra frisky this evening. What does that mean for you? That means keep a close eye on Allakhazam over the next couple of hours. Why? I can't tell you why. It's a secret! How about a hint?

Whoops, I think I told them too much!

With The Shadow Odyssey releasing tomorrow I thought it would be good to give everyone an update on the status of our upcoming site revamp that we announced at Fan Faire.

Our development team has been working diligently with SOE in order to make sure we can deliver everything you guys want.  Internally from the start, our goal has been to not launch until we can deliver everything at once.  We've recently gotten a huge influx of data that we're working on integrating but it's worth noting that with features such as the live broker data, both SOE and Zam are treading new water - it's challenging to everyone involved to get things perfected.

We'll try to provide more frequent updates until launch.  I don't want to give any date yet, but we're hoping for "soon(tm)".  If you have questions feel free to leave them in the comments and we'll try to answer them.

Combining the convenience of an Internet cafe or hotel business center with the thrill of action-packed gaming to create an ideal environment for work or play, The Office Games in San Diego is hosting a launch event for the Sony Online Entertainment’s EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey. This will be an exclusive event for fans to play the game, get tips and tricks from SOE’s Community Relations team and EQII developers, as well as have the chance at exciting prizes and giveaways. Light refreshments will be available.

When: Tuesday, November 18, 2008
2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Where:  The Office Games, Mission Valley Westfield Shopping Center
1640 Camino Del Rio N #1228
San Diego, CA 92108