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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?"

16 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm. by Amiasian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Hmm. by Temporal · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Hmm. by Golias · · Score: 4, Informative

      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!

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  2. Sony should just visit Match.com by ElVaquero · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wow, just from that title it looks like Sony's getting lonely.

  3. Every geek just whipped out the lube by dauthur · · Score: 3, Funny

    And I need to get her email address.

  4. My question... by SB5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
    1. Re:My question... by NeMon'ess · · Score: 4, Funny

      Unless your man-boobs are about as big as hers in the picture, you're not likely to win.

    2. Re:My question... by SB5 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Thats what surgery is for silly.

      --
      If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
      it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
  5. Re:While other companies turn out innovative MMO's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  6. More CG photos... by KingSkippus · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  7. I gotta call my mom by stoolpigeon · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?
  8. Re:While other companies turn out innovative MMO's by stanmann · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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
  9. Re:Joelene Blalock by hey! · · Score: 3, Funny

    Would SOE want to pay for her though?

    I dunno. I would.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  10. They had one before... by Jerrith · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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)

  11. Re:While other companies turn out innovative MMO's by supabeast! · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  12. Wow, nice Sony by jayhawk88 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?