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Sony Online Seeking Queen of Everquest II
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?"
... SOE continues running one retarded marketing campaign after another.
SOE can't make a good MMO anymore.
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.
Hold a contest to find who looks closest to the woman in the original EQ ads. Dressed in blue... wow! Much hotter.
That will literally change some peoples' lives. Yeah, this is fluff though.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
... Fairuza Balk.
a world in progress...
Wow, just from that title it looks like Sony's getting lonely.
And I need to get her email address.
My question is do you have to be female to get the position? If no, where should I send my photos?
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
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.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Anyone else notice that "Antonia's" body proportions have gotten slightly more realistic over the years, and her footwear more practical, as SOE slowly figured out that their gaming audience was not exclusively 12-year old boys?
On the original EQ box, she had hips that were easilly double the width of her mid-rift, massive globes of DD-cup flesh pressing against the bust-line, and was impossibly standing in a field of grass with spike-heel boots on while gently clinging to her staff as if it were a phallus.
With each iteration, her heels got lower (until the became flat soles), her figure (while still in absurd supermodel proportions) looked less and less like a barbie doll, her hair got shorter and darker.
It's perhaps the first time in computer game history that a central female character actually became less "sexed up" over time.
By the time EQ2 comes out, she will probably be slightly overweight, wearing Birkinstock sandals, ragged jeans, and a Megatokyo t-shirt.
g/EQ2/s//EQ3/
Four in the morning here.
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, 1024x768, 1280x960, Oh my god, she's HUGE!
Picture 2 (for dual monitors):
1600x600, 2048x768, 2560x960, I can hang this up in my bedroom!
There is also a bio of Antonia here (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. 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?
wow,i don't see enough trolls.....congratz
I mod everyone down who says "I'll get modded down for this." I hate to disappoint.
so many trolls........such little time.........religous trolls.......
"trolling for Jesus! Watch jesus get down and dirty with some co-eds!!"
I mod everyone down who says "I'll get modded down for this." I hate to disappoint.
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.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Perhaps pictures would make lucrative auction items as well?
what about soiled panties?
> SOE can't make a good MMO anymore.
Could SOE ever make a good MMO in the first place? Galaxies was always a bust, and I've got a suspicion that just about everything good in Everquest was put there by Verant before the acquisition.
Chris Mattern
This is the first time in their existence that SOE has tried something vaguely original and they are still getting burned for it on slashdot, who woulda guessed huh? :)
Congratulations to Sony's marketing department, I hope this is a big success AND that they manage to find an attractive model who plays one of their games.
**insert favorite profound quotation here**
Firiona Vie is *NOT* Antonia Bayle.
Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
Indeed, looks pretty normal now.
Having characters that could actually exist in reality is a good thing, IMHO. Some I've seen are so ridiculous that they'd probably have needed magic just to avoid falling from all the weight. I think the current record is held by anime, though. Divergence Eve took it to a really ridiculous level, so that it made it hard watching just because of that. Not that the plot was much better though.
Of course there are also male characters that make Schwarzenegger look like a wimp, but I'd say that's a somewhat different thing since an unrealistic amount of muscle is at least good for something, especially when using a sword is an everyday activity.
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 indeed the _only_ goal, has missed the whole point.
At the end of the day you're again and again just beating rats with a stick. Even if you were to focus only on levelling up and getting a bigger stick to beat rats with... what does it solve?
1. 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.
What's the difference? You're still doing the same thing, and it still didn't get any easier.
What was the point of that exercise? Did it at least bring you another piece of the story or anything? Well, no, because there was no story to start with. Did you make any real difference in that world? Well, no, because all those rats must respawn for the next in line.
2. Ok, let's talk about the social interaction part. So you levelled up. Does anyone really give a damn? Did it make you the hero every newbie dreams of?
Well, no. Chances are you can't even team up with newbies any more, or not without one of you getting no xp whatsoever. Chances are you don't even want to go in the newbie towns any more, because then it's too long a walk back to the areas where you get xp.
And the higher you get, the less people your level are there to group with. People give up. You could find 20 newbies idling or looking for a group in the newbie area at any time. Now you're level 40 and there are maybe 10 people your level on the whole server. Now instead of picking a couple of newbies and diving into the next dungeon, you get to spend a few hours just assembling the group.
So the point of all those mind-numbing hours of clicking on some variant of "attack rat" solved... what? All that work was to actually _restrict_ your social interaction?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
If only they were trying to find real-life spongmonkeys of Quiznos. I'd have that modelling contract in no time.
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
(she's the one on the left)
Yeah, your sed syntax shows it.
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.
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?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Antonia Bayle hasn't been around for years - she's a new character in EQ II. I think the character you're referring to is Fironia Vie, who looks the way she does because she's a goddess, not a normal human woman.
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.
...but we do not play these games because of basic concepts. If this were the case, we would simply enjoy just pointing and clicking things on our desktop.
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 each other and learn how to play the game without CAL players arriving on the server every once in a while to dominate the game.
Eventually, this player is going to get better (level up) and in order to have fun and become more skilled (level up further) they're going to need to find rats (whoops, I mean players) who are more skilled than they are (higher level MOBs).
Yes, Counter-Strike is based upon skill (or OMG HAX! depending on your perspective); however, as an avid player of CS and WoW, I see little difference between playing de_dust and running MC one more time. You know the map, you know the angles, and you pretty much know how the enemy is going to behave.
Dawn Of War: There is little I can do to differentiate the experence between playing an RTS and a FPS. The maps are continually the same, the strategies are continually the same.
Most interestingly in RTSes, is that the whole bigger sticks, bigger rats theory that can be applied. After all, what is the point of teching (leveling?) up? To deal more damage against your opponent (better armor / better sword / bow / dagger, etc.). All the while, your enemy is attempting to do the same thing, so, in the end, you end up using your bigger stick to fight their bigger rats.
So, in both cases (Counter-Strike and Dawn of War), you're still doing the same thing, and it still didn't get any easier (that sounded familiar, didn't it?). What was the point of that exercise? Did it at least bring you another piece of the story or anything? Well, no, because there was no story to start with. Did you make any real difference in that world? Well, no, because all those rats must respawn for the next in line. Granted, MMORPGs are not known for their stories; however, if I wanted a very good story, I would probably read a book or go to a movie.
Interestingly enough, in CS and DoW, you didn't make any REAL difference in the world either. Everything resets and it's, well, off to the rat races again.
I suppose I will come off in this post as a MMORPG fan boy; however, I suppose I have a bone to pick with people who constantly slam the genre for having "nothing to do". When you start breaking games down into their most basic forms, I suggest that they all look the same...
Just to be picky:
So the point of all those mind-numbing hours of clicking on some variant of "attack rat" solved... what? All that work was to actually _restrict_ your social interaction?
Do you know how much easier it is to find people to run high level instances than it is to find some random person to help you do low level quests? I honestly do not think you do, as your dislike for MMORPGs is evident in your post, and therefore, I can assume that you do not even play one.
Respect It.
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 than Star Wars stormtroopers. I also was the second best CS player in the company... which admittedly mostly just says that almost everyone else was a newbie. And yet I've quit playing those games, and felt better for it.
Why? Precisely for the reasons you write there. There is no point. It's repetitive. There are only so many newbies one can shoot before it gets old. There are only so many times I can play the same map before it gets old.
I've watched one CS player once spend _hours_ jumping up and down in front of a vent, to shoot anyone coming through there. _Hours_ FFS. And he did that every day. Just the thought of doing that kind of a mechanical repetitive thing is repulsive to me.
"I honestly do not think you do, as your dislike for MMORPGs is evident in your post, and therefore, I can assume that you do not even play one."
You'd be surprised. For starters, when I mentioned being level 450+ on one MUD, I actually meant it. Now _that_ took years
It's also what made me realize how pointless that treadmill was.
I've also tried, in no particular order, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online (now that was one buggy POS), Mimesis Online, and City Of Heroes. I really wanted to like one. Turned out that, while they did have good graphics, they were actually _worse_ games than the MUD I was already bored of.
So, trust me, when I slam the genre, it's not just some preconceptions talking. I tried to like it. I tried hard. I invariably just ended up bored out of my skull.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
If you find her, please give me a hint, yes? :)
...but hey, at least it won't be difficult to find a 'real' one. whoever came up with that graphic has no imagination...
sigs suck
Just do a Google image search.
Serve Gonk.
While there are probably less than half of the original Verant developers still working at SOE, you have to understand that the guys who made the big design decisions are still at SOE. The acquisition did not result in the firing of all the old Verant staff... Sony Pictures America just purchased Verant and changed the name.
Same company, different owner.
This is *not* Antonia, the GP must have her confused with Firiona Vie.
I think the current record is held by anime, though. Divergence Eve took it to a really ridiculous level, so that it made it hard watching just because of that.
Yeah, a little on the "OMG, who replaced Japan's fresh-ground coffee with new Folger's Mercury-Soaked Amphetamine Crystals again?" side of breast sizes.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
Give me a break, Sony must have designed this character from Tawny Kitaen. Whitesnake video. Why not call it a young Tawny Kitaen look a like contest?
She's just a High Elf. She isn't a goddess.
...unless you're a 13 year old EQ addict...
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
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.
Aria Giovanni with some red tint in her hair.
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?
So, in both cases (Counter-Strike and Dawn of War), you're still doing the same thing, and it still didn't get any easier (that sounded familiar, didn't it?).
I think that the major difference between mmorpgs and fps/rts games in your examples is that YOU are what gets better in the fps/rts. your reflexes improve, your spacial awareness improves, your problem solving skills improve. in a mmorpg the only thing that seems to get better are numbers on your character.
after years of playing a fps you could go to a new fps and chances are you'd be pretty good at it. after years of playing a mmorpg you could go to a new one and you would just be another newb.
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 have a great idea have the winner service ten random players ( throw in a set of kneepads as a prize). Love that Jestor - SOE does not!
Pretty soon Namco will start a search for real life "Taki jiggle".
This really shouldn't be getting press on slashdot, it's clearly a marketing campaign.
If you want a model with a certain look, go to a modeling agency.
If you want press, pretend it's some kind of contest, and wait for fan and news sites to give you lots of free publicity.
$10 says the "winner" of this contest will turn out to not be a gamer, and will never have even played everquest 2 prior to hearing about this contest.
I have no problem with Sony doing this, they're really smart, but following up on this as press is really dumb. Bad slashdot. No penguin cookie for you.
---
I support spreading santorum
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?
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 school? Few people have the time and money to do that. Work overtime? What for? So you waste your life away working some more? Video games are a new avenue of escapism for people. Throw in socialization into the mix (MMO games) and its just like the real world only with less BS. (Little/no taxes, a job you can 'quit' at any time, little/no crime, etc...)
Course, if your a -16, 25+ year old person then yeah MMO games suck ass. Theres better games out there for people with the time and money (disposable income and "$50 is nothing!"). But for people who are stuck in a rut for whatever reason (bad economy, in school, wage worker and can't find a better job...), then MMOs are awesome... That it unless you get addicted and continue playing after you lose your original reason for getting into it in the first place.
The only girls that play MMO RPG's (real girls, not guys posing as them) are the ones you'd find here, nothing like the Queen.
Note: Not a work-safe link
$10 says the "winner" of this contest will turn out to not be a gamer, and will never have even played everquest 2 prior to hearing about this contest.
Ya think?
http://www.bynarystudio.com
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....
Make a man a fire and he will be warm for a day, set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life