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The server that I usually play Everquest II on was down for about 2 days this weekend. After their normal early morning update on Friday, Sony had to take down all their US servers and I think one of their other servers. Most servers came back online yesterday morning, but the one that I usually play on didn’t come back on until this morning.

The latest message said something about hardware issues. A previous message said that they were doing a rollback. Whatever happened, they probably disappointed a lot of people. The downtime was good because I needed to work on other things this weekend.

At least they are going to try to make it up to everyone. Until Tuesday morning, everyone will receive a 50% XP bonus on adventuring and tradeskilling. I wasn’t planning on playing much over the next couple of days, but I think I will now. They also are giving everyone 3 free days.

Should I get a Nintendo DS or a Sony PSP? I’ve heard positive and negative things about both systems.

I went to GameStop today. The manager there is pretty cool. I went to buy the KOTOR II strategy guide because they didn’t have it in when I went to buy the game. He gave me the 20% discount that you get when you buy the guide at the same time as you purchase the game. We started talking about DS’s, and said that I should go play one. We played a multiplayer match in the Metroid game. It was a pretty even match, but he had to go talk to an applicant. Anyway, after playing it for a while, I’m pretty sure I want a DS. But I think I’ll put off a final decision until I can test drive a PSP.

It looks like EA has learning it’s lesson and will be trying to make working conditions better.

Read here.

A group led by The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility released a list of the Ten Most Violent Video Games as a warning to parents for the upcoming holiday shopping season. They are:
1. Doom 3
2. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
3. Gunslinger Girls 2
4. Half Life 2
5. Halo 2
6. Hitman: Blood Money
7. Manhunt
8. Mortal Combat
9. Postal 2
10. Shadow Heart

I have 3 of these games and plan on getting 2 more soon. You can read the official press release here.

As an alternative, they recommended 9 non-violent video games. They are:
1. Antigrave
2. EyeToy
3. Jak 3
4. Karaoke Revlution Vol. 3
5. Madden NFL 2005
6. Mario Power Tennis
7. Prince of Persia
8. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
9. SimCity 4

I only have 1 of these and don’t plan on getting any others. You can read that statement here.

There’s an article in MSU’s student newspaper,The Reflector, about the midnight release of Halo 2 last week at the local GameStop in Starkville. Apparently they had 2 armed ROTC guards with rifles there to make sure there wasn’t any trouble. As far as I know there wasn’t any. Seems a little extreme though.

After a night of heavy drinking, I find that I need 3 things: a few glasses of water, a decent meal, and a BM. After I’ve had those, I feel better in about an hour or two. Friday night was fun, but because of that early Saturday wasn’t.

The shifts in the temperature around here has also made me sick, literally. Most of the weekend was spent playing Everquest. I have to get back to more important things this week.

Oh well, today is payday. And the next weekend will be here soon enough.

Electronic Arts, the world’s largest third-party video game publisher, is in a little trouble. Yesterday, this Livejournal blog entry by the spouse of an EA worker started a buzz on the internet. She was unhappy with EA’s unfair treatment of its workers. During crunch time, they are expected to work at least 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. They get no overtime pay or additional days off for doing this.

I’ve known that in the software development industry, it’s expected that you work long hours during crunch time. I had heard that the video game industry was exceptionally harsh, but this is worse than I expected. I read some of the responses to the blog entry yesterday, and it seems like not all of EA is like that. And of course, not all video game companies are like that.

Now it appears that EA could be facing a class action lawsuit because of the unpaid overtime pay. I wonder how this will turn out.

Over the summer I went through part of the interview process with EA. I submitted my resume so that I could be considered for a position with their sports division in Orlando. They sent me a written test to fill out. I guess I did well on the test because they wanted a phone interview a couple of weeks later. The phone interview didn’t go so well, so I’m still here in Starkvegas. It would interesting to see how things are inside EA right now.

I finally got my copy of Everquest II just a little while ago. I ran into ole Russ at the store. I’m not surprised that he’s going to be playing the game as well. I think his group is going to be playing on the roleplaying-preferred server. It looks like I may be making multiple characters, which probably isn’t a bad thing. I’ve heard that Pacman might be interested in trying out Everquest. We must encourage him to pick up the habit.

I also got my copy of Halo 2 this morning. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

The manager of the GameStop here in Starkville told me that I could pick up my copy of Everquest II around 3:00 today. I probably won’t get a chance to go pick it up until around 5:30, and I’ll be playing most of the night (assuming that I can play today). I wish Sony would have released the name of the game servers. I think I’ll just pick the 4th one down the list and start playing on it.

GameStop is also going to start selling Halo 2 at 12:01 tonight. I hate to say it, but I think Halo may just have to wait a little bit. No longer than a couple of days, of course.

I spent a little time tonight playing in Guild Wars World Preview Event. It seems like a decent game so far. It’s weird, but fun to play. The preview lasts for only 3 days (Oct. 29-31), so get it now if interested.