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Role Playing (Games)

Sony Online Seeking Queen of Everquest II 85

Posted by Zonk from the soe-abandons-last-shred-of-dignity dept.
KingSkippus writes "Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and Stuff Magazine is seeking a real life look-alike for Everquest II's Antonia Bayle, Queen of Qeynos. In preparation, it has launched a Web site that will go live on May 17. The winner will receive a modeling contract with SOE and a photo spread in Stuff Magazine. Perhaps pictures would make lucrative auction items as well?"
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Sony Online Seeking Queen of Everquest II More

Sony Online Seeking Queen of Everquest II

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  • While other companies turn out innovative MMO's... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dhakbar ( 783117 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @02:52AM (#12429461)
    ... SOE continues running one retarded marketing campaign after another.

    SOE can't make a good MMO anymore.

  • Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Amiasian ( 157604 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @02:57AM (#12429479)
    This coming from someone who never was much into MMORPGs, what sets Everquest apart and makes it so crack-like? Any time I've ever given a hand at the genre (or the hack and slash variant) it just seems to get redundant very quickly and sure there's better items and abilities, but it's more of the same.

    As for the modeling campaign . . . seems tacky. If I wanted to market a game, sex appeal works, yeah - but I'd rather market it on technical merits. I suppose EQ is more of a general population game, though. So, you use the most basic of methods.

    • Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Temporal ( 96070 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @03:34AM (#12429595) Journal
      I haven't played Everquest, but I've played plenty of WoW, which is just as addictive. Basically, the feeling of accomplishment from completing a quest, gaining a level, etc., feels good. Becoming more powerful as a result of these things also feels good.

      All this is magnified by the fact that there are thousands of other people in the same world as you, and your accomplishments make you "better" relative to them. At some point, you find yourself dreaming about all the great things you'll be able to do once you hit the level cap, and all the power you will have over the average player. So the desire to become ultra-powerful also drives you on.

      I also rather enjoy just exploring new areas. The world in WoW is huge and beautiful. It would literally take days of play time to see everything, even if there were no enemies to slow you down.

      That said, it does get really repetitive. If you snap yourself out of the spell for a bit and realize "This is just a game. My status relative to all these other players is totally irrelevant.", the game gets really boring really fast.
      • That said, it does get really repetitive. If you snap yourself out of the spell for a bit and realize "This is just a game. My status relative to all these other players is totally irrelevant.", the game gets really boring really fast.

        This could be applied to all games, more or less. Just rephrase it "This is just a game. My status is totally meaningless outside of this program on my computer." and it applies to single-player games as well.

        The important part is fun. I don't enjoy MMORPGs. But if you e
        • Yes, verily, in any other game the level is irrelevant outside the game. E.g., being level 20 in KOTOR can't even be compared in any form or shape to being level 450 on some MUD I've played before, and both are irrelevant outside both.

          But the thing is: we usually _don't_ play those other games for the level. If the only achievement I had in KOTOR or Fable was the level, I would have found them bloody boring and pointless too.

          The level is just a prop, not a goal. A game which turns it into a goal, and inde
          • If you snap yourself out of the spell for a bit and realize "This is just a game. My status relative to all these other players is totally irrelevant.", the game gets really boring really fast.

            You guys are ignoring the obvious response to this near-nihilistic comment.
          • Congrats, you levelled up, you're allowed a bigger stick and... you get bigger rats to beat with it. In fact, you _have_ to go for bigger rats to have any chance to level up again.

            Let's take this vapid generalization and apply it to other multiplayer games in different genres, shall we?

            Counter-Strike: Take a player who started playing the game on public servers designated as "amateur" (low level) with admins who kept very skilled players (high level) off the server so the amateur players could frag
            • Actually, I'm not even argue with you there. I do not play FPS and RTS either, and definitely not multi-player. For exactly the reasons you write.

              I've had a somewhat less than one year period where shooting newbies in a FPS seemed like fun. I've even played some CS back then, enough to understand your point anyway, though I found Unreal Tournament slightly more entertaining.

              Now I never was some first league player, but I did find enough people to slaughter. God knows the average on-line player aims worse
              • So basically you are bored with computer games in general?

                Probally not just computer games, since sports are based on the same principle, you play a game to get better at the game to play against better opponents, just the same.

                Or going to the pub, since the only reason to drink is so you can drink more next time, right?

                Or just maybe there is more to it than just the act of leveling itself, maybe it's the fun you have during it, the people you meet etc....
      • That said, it does get really repetitive. If you snap yourself out of the spell for a bit and realize "This is just a game. My status relative to all these other players is totally irrelevant.", the game gets really boring really fast.

        That is, unless your real life if even more boring and you're current status in real life is irrelevant. (See: College student stuck on the four year plan).

        Sure you can go get a job, but if you play a MMO chances are you already have one and don't want a second. Go back to

      • I also rather enjoy just exploring new areas. The world in WoW is huge and beautiful. It would literally take days of play time to see everything, even if there were no enemies to slow you down.

        That's the aspect that'd appeal to me. I really wish Uru had taken off, with less of a social aspect, and more of an exploration one. The idea of an Infinite Myst type game will take off at some point, and I think it's going to dominate the industry.

        However, this is offtopic and I'll probably be modded down.

    • Re:Hmm. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Golias ( 176380 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @04:58AM (#12429866)
      This coming from someone who never was much into MMORPGs, what sets Everquest apart and makes it so crack-like?

      The same thing which psychologists have found makes just about any activity addictive/compulsive: a random distribution of positive reinforcement.

      Whether you are training an animal to do tricks, or conditioning a person to waste their life, the most reliable way to do it is to reward the behavior some of the time. Give the rat a food pellet one time out of every three times he hits a lever (on average, but without a predictible pattern), and it will spend it's little life hitting that lever long after you stop giving the food away.

      This is also why so many people sit in dreary casino's, playing those mind-nummingly dull video slot machines while telling themselves they are having fun. Every once in a while, light light up, bells ring, and you get some of your money back. Plus, every time you loose, the machine shows a cartoon of wheels spinning in such a way to imply that you "almost" won!
      • You are applying a general concept to a much more complex, conscious experience. In this case, abstracting the problem entirely to random stimulus is incorrect.

        While I don't speak for everyone who plays Everquest, the vast majority of people are painfully aware of the normal drop rate percentages for items, and spawn rates for mobs. Weighing the probability that a particular mob will drop a particular item occurs commonly in many decisions made in the game. The game is played with a much more objective

    • Re:Hmm. (Score:2, Funny)

      by freaksta ( 524994 )
      The unique experience with SOE is the NERF bat.
    • Any time I've ever given a hand at the genre (or the hack and slash variant) it just seems to get redundant very quickly and sure there's better items and abilities, but it's more of the same.

      You're right. They are all basically the same if you boil them down far enough. The player is always after something a little bit better, or to go to some new area they shoehorned into the game. Everquest (well, all the MMOGs I've played recently) are essentially expensive chat rooms. I hang out, play the game wi
  • Hold a contest to find who looks closest to the woman in the original EQ ads. Dressed in blue... wow! Much hotter.
  • ... Fairuza Balk.

  • Sony should just visit Match.com (Score:5, Funny)

    by ElVaquero ( 867318 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @03:16AM (#12429551) Homepage
    Wow, just from that title it looks like Sony's getting lonely.

  • Every geek just whipped out the lube (Score:3, Funny)

    by dauthur ( 828910 ) <johannesmozart@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @03:48AM (#12429648)
    And I need to get her email address.

  • My question... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SB5 ( 165464 ) <.moc.liamtoh. .ta. .tapdribeerf.> on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @03:59AM (#12429684)
    My question is do you have to be female to get the position? If no, where should I send my photos?
  • She doesn't look all that special.
    In fact she looks just like 50% of the g****m photomodels.
    This is just another marketing trick, they can't really be searching for a look-a-like for this looks-like-anybody.
    • Possibly a bit of that, but I'm guessing it's also probably cheaper. They can go to modelling agencies, but they're mostly going to have established models who want a huge heap of cash. Alternatively they can get someone who doesn't already have a careers, and isn;t going to ask for top model rates.

  • More CG photos... (Score:5, Informative)

    by KingSkippus ( 799657 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @05:15AM (#12429902) Homepage Journal

    Okay, maybe it's bad form to reply to my own submission, but just for the sake of more useless information, here are some links to wallpaper photos of Antonia Bayle.

    Picture 1:
    800x600 [sony.com], 1024x768 [sony.com], 1280x960 [sony.com], Oh my god, she's HUGE! [sony.com]

    Picture 2 (for dual monitors):
    1600x600 [sony.com], 2048x768 [sony.com], 2560x960 [sony.com], I can hang this up in my bedroom! [sony.com]

    There is also a bio of Antonia here [sony.com] (flash site) accessbile by navigating to The Game / lore / people.

    And if anyone is remotely interested, her voice in the game is provided by Heather Graham [imdb.com]. Come to think of it, whether or not anyone is remotely interested, her voice in the game is STILL provided by Heather Graham.

    And sorry, TFA actually says that SOE "encourages women (sorry, fellas)" [my emphasis, their parentheses] to send in pictures. Okay, that's a lie, I'm not really sorry at all.

  • She'd be fairly close, and actually more attactive than Antonia, IMHO.

    I wonder if SOE thought of her?

  • I gotta call my mom (Score:5, Funny)

    by stoolpigeon ( 454276 ) * <bittercode@gmail> on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @06:42AM (#12430199) Homepage Journal
    She could totally land that gig. She can not only do the flaming hand thing she can also do the flaming eyes thing too. And based on previous experienced involving brooms, I have no doubt she'd have no trouble swinging around staffs or swords or whatever.

    She'd balk at the bikini thing-- but a few minutes of aforementioned skills in the dark arts would bring the sony folks around.

  • They had one before... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Jerrith ( 6472 ) on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @09:00AM (#12430816) Homepage
    Interesting. They had a model for Antonia before, I wonder what happened. Was she not close enough to what they wanted, or was there some sort of falling out?

    I used GIS to find an image from the New Orleans Fan Faire of her: http://gallery.townrebels.org/album10/Picture_023 [townrebels.org]
    (she's the one on the left)
  • Come on, there are tons of strong, busty, long-haired big-eyed dirtily-clad pouty-lipped fierce-legged babes in the world. They just happen to all live in Quebec :D /Parlez francais?
  • Just do a Google image search.
  • I'm glad that SOE is taking great pains to appeal to the female gamers it counts among its customers. A contest tie-in with that fountainhead of female sensibility, Stuff, is sure to expose EQ to even more progressively-minded women.
  • What in the Frinken Hell will SOE bow to now. It was alawys know as Evercrack and Now it looks like they need An Evercrack Whore ( and I don't care , The Jestor banned away./lol) SOE - if I did not care reaaly then I would not post. If you do not know my story by now google or search the name "Jestor Rodo" Banned for all SOE games for aledged forum misuse 1/9/05 and attended the SOE SWG breakfast about 10 days ago ( Morons , have no sense of security , good thing I am a passive peaceful kind in RL) I hav

  • Wow, nice Sony (Score:4, Insightful)

    by jayhawk88 ( 160512 ) <jayhawk88@gmail.com> on Wednesday May 04, 2005 @06:07PM (#12436073)
    Here's how this went down:

    Sony Boss: OK, so we need a new Everquest model. Who can we get?
    Sony Lacky: No one for under $500k.
    Boss: What? Why the hell so much?
    Lacky: The words out on this gig. Models know they basically spend 200 days a year standing for 16 hours in two-bit comic book shops and trade show barns, being pawed at by guys who's main interaction with females are through McDonalds drive through windows.
    Boss: No one will do it for less?
    Lacky: Not any professional models, but there may be a solution. Run a contest, a look-a-like thing or something like that, and basically get some college student in here, flash a few thousand in her face, sign her up with one of those "special" contracts Legal keeps in that steel vault in the basement, and we're set for the next 5 years.
    Boss: You really think this will work?
    Lacky: It worked for Hollywood didn't it?
  • The only girls that play MMO RPG's (real girls, not guys posing as them) are the ones you'd find here [google.com], nothing like the Queen.

    Note: Not a work-safe link

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