SOE Begins Restoration of Services

UPDATE, May 14, 7:15p.m. EDT: SOE has slowly begun restoration of their services.

SOE - Restoration Announcement
SOE - Welcome Back Program
SOE - Recent Updates

SAN DIEGO, May 14, 2011 - Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announced today that restoration of its game services will begin today. The phased restoration will include the return of nearly all of SOE's portfolio of online games, the reinstatement of SOE's game forums and websites, and added functionality to require players to reset their passwords.


For details on the hacker attack that has kept SOE down since May 2 and compromised the personal information of players, check out SOE's brief FAQ and all of our previous coverage. See this article for the May 12th news on the "Make Good" program details.

During the downtime you are welcome to join us in ZAM's IRC chat. Feldon of EQ2Wire also has set up a ZAM IRC java applet that you can use.


Game-specific May 11th updates:

EverQuest: Players with an active house will be credited one month of upkeep costs and the inactive period will be extended from 90 to 150 days.

EverQuest II: All houses requiring rent will have one month added free to help offset any costs incurred during this outage.

Free Realms: The Free Realms birthday event and the New Member Bonus Bonanza will be extended to give everyone a chance to participate in them. Don’t worry about your farms; they’ll be taken care of too!

Star Wars Galaxies: All Galactic Civil War point decay has been suspended and inactive citizen removal time temporarily increased by 14 days. Item and vendor expiration timers have also been increased by 14 days.

Vanguard: One day for each day lost will be added to every player's Upkeep Bank to help offset any costs incurred during this outage.

Comments

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SOE vs WOW
# May 11 2011 at 6:06 AM Rating: Decent
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195 posts
Well, I thought I'd try the free trial of WOW while waiting for EQ to come back up... so far, they've gone down for updates 2 days in a row/11 hrs. each (my two days off, of course)! The 1st one, I knew about. The 2nd one, they just bumped everyone out without a word. At least SOE gives you fair warning when the system is coming down.

Also, graphics on EQ are so much better; as is the mapping! Not to mention, they're more expensive.

So, all in all, I'll play WOW til EQ comes back online. I'm just hoping it's SOOON!
Hmmm...
# May 11 2011 at 5:44 AM Rating: Excellent
Ya know what SOE? If I wanted to feel ignored, cheated out of my money, lied to, and had hopes dashed to pieces every night before bed, I would have stayed married. You remind me of my second.. and third, wives. Thanks for the pleasant memories!
Hmmm...
# May 11 2011 at 8:38 AM Rating: Default
+1 thumbs up! LMFAO
... And the PR Disaster Continues.
# May 11 2011 at 4:06 AM Rating: Decent
Right now, 6:06 am EST, would be a great time for one of those "round-the-clock" SOE workers to give us an update.

The public relations disaster continues...


Edited, May 11th 2011 6:07am by Yoor
... And the PR Disaster Continues.
# May 11 2011 at 4:34 AM Rating: Decent
Yoor wrote:
Right now, 6:06 am EST, would be a great time for one of those "round-the-clock" SOE workers to give us an update.

The public relations disaster continues...


Edited, May 11th 2011 6:07am by Yoor


Exactly,but we deal with Sony PR/CR so we get nothing but information from a 3rd party at best 10 hrs late.See you tomorrow for our late update.

/raspberry I feel so wanted and accepted





Edited, May 11th 2011 6:35am by jahledan
+1 day
# May 11 2011 at 2:11 AM Rating: Decent
Ok I'm confused people keep saying the +1 free day for each day the servers are down is a extra day of play time.
But say your card was charged May first for your next 30 days.
Servers went down May second so everyday that they are down until june first you have already paid for and can't play. So the +1 day is just a day you have already paid for and are getting back?
Or are we getting credit for the days we have paid for and + one day on top of that?
+1 day
# May 11 2011 at 4:20 AM Rating: Decent
My understanding is the first billing time after servers are back up gets pushed back. Servers came down 5am the 2nd where I live. If servers are down 2 weeks(14 days), the next bill date after they are up gets pushed back 44 days for example. In that case a person billed May 1stwould have their June 1st bill pushed back 44 days. I could be wrong but thats how I understand it is going to happen.
+1 day
# May 11 2011 at 3:27 AM Rating: Decent
it depends,

if its like wow, than its you get the day back and a free one for every down, as in 30 days down would be free days it was down, and free + however long it was down.

if its to my understanding, that is what they are doing, heres hoping every day we get from this is also double exp, id rather have x10-24 exp pots to make up lost time faster, but thats most likely a pipe dream.
It Really Isn't About The Game
# May 11 2011 at 12:34 AM Rating: Default
I have been following this whole situation on Facebook, Twitter, here on Zam and anywhere Google, Bing and Yahoo will suck information off the web for weeks now. I hear folks on these various mediums cursing Sony for not having the games they paid for up and running for their playing pleasure. I hear folks saying Sony had better make all this waiting worth some significant double XP, station cash or some cheesy free particle effet on this piece of gear or that. I hear folks saying saying Sony deserved to get hacked because of how they handled the whole Hotz situation. I have been playing EverQuest for over a decade now, running as many as six accounts at a time with a total investment of (near as I can figure given the variance in rates over the years)nearly $10,000.00 out of my own pocket. I love the game! I have to admit that I get a little bent when a four hour patch takes twelve hours, I get a little bent when when the servers come down for an emergency patch that address' an instability that doesn't seem obvious to us as players. I even get a little bent when a GM isn't available for days on end to deal with the plat farming *** hats that perma camp the gear I need with outside macros. But in the end I LOVE to play EverQuest!

But it seems to me that something has been lost in all the emotion and hype that is surrounding this event. IT REALLY ISN'T ABOUT THE GAME at this point. Over 100 million accounts have been breached here, if each and every one of those accounts had only been open for a single month (and we know this is a light number) at an average cost of say $12.00 then that means Sony has taken in 1.2 billion dollars in that single month!

Okay, so the question looms..."are we, as their clients, worth so little to them that they can't spend a portion of that sum on ensuring our security"?

Already this blunder has caused me real finacial damage, cancelling and re-issuing credit cards and bank debit cards isn't free, in most cases the bank charges a $15.00 to $35.00 fee. In my case I have used three different cards over the last couple of years, so wham bang I am out $75.00 right out of the gate. Sony says they will make it up to me with a free month, whooo hooo now I am only out $65.00!

This is an EPIC FAIL on Sony's part and there is no two ways about it. You can't take in that kind of revenue from your client base and turn around and say "well its really isn't our fault, we were the victim of a criminal action". I thought thats what we were paying you to prevent...did you think we just wanted to play video games for the fee we pay you? REALLY?

Then you are going to string us along, and I could give two squirts of **** about the game aspect of this. At first it was "no credit data was lost", then it was "well only 10,000 or so credit accounts were breached...but they were from an outdated server" and most recently its "oh sorry...its really over 12 million credit accounts that have been compromised"! Which is it? Are these three Security Consulting Firms you've contracted so inept? Was your system security so horrible that you placed over 100 million people (thats almost a third of the entire U.S. population!) at risk? REALLY?

Like I said it relly isn't about the games any more, I want to know why this happened.

Edited, May 10th 2011 11:52pm by Painterman

Edited, May 10th 2011 11:55pm by Painterman

Edited, May 11th 2011 6:48am by Painterman
It Really Isn't About The Game
# May 11 2011 at 5:50 AM Rating: Decent
Correct me if I'm wrong (I may not be knowledgable on how it all works) didn't Sony say the the credit card data base and information wasn't hacked directly? My question is if they shut the complete system down could the hackers still access our information? I mean if they logged on to our accounts yeah, butwas their time for that? How long was it between the time of the hack till the time Sony shut everything down?
It Really Isn't About The Game
# May 11 2011 at 1:36 AM Rating: Decent
ok, lets set a few guide lines here.

1) 100 million is not the number of cards they have, its accounts total. many do not have a card associated with it, and i believe it swas 27 million bought something with the account, for a max of 27 million credit cards (theoretical max) on the psn side.

2) the server that had the 12700 cards was an out of country server, and only ~700 of the cards were still active

3) when someone brute forces a creditcard, you get notified if the ANYONE did their job right, and future purchases get flagged as possibly not you.

4) you are getting free month on all your accounts + time they have off, we all are

and finally, on the psn side they are apparently giving a free month of all their pay services, and a game (keep hearing that, it will probably be something like flower), so that is about 14$ to 24$ for 77 million accounts. that would be 1.078-1.848 billion on the psn alone

add in 2 months of free game on the soe side (i'm guessing a month of down time, and their free month giveaway, based on bloomberg report on psn) that will be 30$ for 25 million people, thats 750 million right their that they are also eating, minimum. i'm assuming this isn't only for active accounts due to even if its inactive, they still have the info and it could get leaked.

so they are eating a net loss of 1.828 - 2.598 billion... sony is financially screwed as it is, without looking at the numbers, check the wiki on them... kind of depressing...
when are the server comeing back up
# May 10 2011 at 11:01 PM Rating: Decent
From what i have reading and hearing ppl have been tell me that the server will not be back till the 30 or 31 of may so this going to suck not haveing eq for other 2 week but then again this what i have been told and been reading on diff website as well so who know when the Hell there are going to be back up
Same password for years!
# May 10 2011 at 9:45 PM Rating: Default
I am sorry to admit I've been using the same password for years.Smiley: goat

No change password after 60 days warnings
No warning to password complexity

We who work using computers at our jobs will get a monthly reminder about password settings.

That would be a very secure feature to add in to the password reminders.Smiley: schooled

I could have used the work reminders to change my EQ password but I am lazy and took it to the extreme using same password for years.

Edited, May 10th 2011 11:53pm by namdaruluclin
Same password for years!
# May 11 2011 at 9:08 AM Rating: Decent
Avatar
7 posts
All password information was hashed meaning no one got it.
Same password for years!
# May 11 2011 at 4:54 AM Rating: Decent
Sir namdaruluclin wrote:
I am sorry to admit I've been using the same password for years.Smiley: goat

No change password after 60 days warnings
No warning to password complexity

We who work using computers at our jobs will get a monthly reminder about password settings.

That would be a very secure feature to add in to the password reminders.Smiley: schooled

I could have used the work reminders to change my EQ password but I am lazy and took it to the extreme using same password for years.


Why do you need reminders to change your password? Take some responsiblity and change it periodically yourself.
Same password for years!
# May 11 2011 at 2:35 PM Rating: Default
Bit me! Somebody got the words Responsiblity confused with judgemental.

Edited, May 13th 2011 8:17am by namdaruluclin
Same password for years!
# May 10 2011 at 11:02 PM Rating: Decent
?
Same password for years!
# May 10 2011 at 10:39 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
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344 posts
It wouldnt have mattered if you changed your password weekly. If their database is hacked its hacked.
It's time!
# May 10 2011 at 9:19 PM Rating: Good
LFM Raid: SOE HQ @ 11 p.m. CST. Target: Server On Switch Guardian Boss. +10 dkp on-time bonus, guaranteed loot and +5dkp/attempt. 90/1500 AA/no keys. PST for invite.
Updates after the fact...
# May 10 2011 at 8:54 PM Rating: Decent
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108 posts
I know its been stated before but isn't Sony good at giving us update at the end of a day about things we wanted to know in the morning.
w.o.w.
# May 10 2011 at 8:43 PM Rating: Good
22 posts
that bundle of world of warcraft has been laughing at me everytime i walk thru the pc section at the mall... tempted to try... HURRY UP SOE!!!
What is the problem? I'm still playing.
# May 10 2011 at 8:16 PM Rating: Decent
17 posts
I've been up and playing since the Live server went down. Just log onto an EMU server and quest away.
Do they care?
# May 10 2011 at 7:53 PM Rating: Default
I would just like to hear some sort of real response on the situation from one of the devs or game designers. Where are they, why can't they say anything?

Something like: "Guys, I really feel your pain, and I promise we are going to make things right for you. We miss it as much as you guys do. During this downtime we are working on bug fixes and content to improve the game once it's back up."

Just some kind of repsonse that shows they really care about their game and us would be so refreshing. When we get the same generic post on Facebook everyday it makes me feel very unwanted as a customer.

There is no way the EQ team has a gag order, they can say something to let us know they really care about us.

Edited, May 10th 2011 9:56pm by Ravenlock
Do they care?
# May 11 2011 at 3:31 AM Rating: Decent
28 posts
SOE Laid 'em all off and turned Customer Service over to Robby The Robot with a canned message about them working around the clock and that the servers will be up "Soon" *tm*.
Losing interest...
# May 10 2011 at 7:51 PM Rating: Default
Well this is really saying a LOT! The first few days EQ was down there was a post every 2-3 minutes. After a week, it died down to about 1 post every 10 minutes or so. Today I noticed that there are very few posts at all, and most of them are from the same handful of people. SOE is already losing their audience... or at least we are losing interest in our obsession.

This is definitely a bad sign...
Spam
# May 10 2011 at 7:21 PM Rating: Good
Scholar
Avatar
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1,074 posts
These threads are more fun than EQ.

Edited, May 11th 2011 1:22am by Reyla
____________________________
After 16 years, I'm not listing every friggin character.
Other MMOs
# May 10 2011 at 6:47 PM Rating: Good
17 posts
I've been playing Allods Online F2P waiting for EQ2 to come up. What is refreshing is that this is not an American/Asian game but a Russian MMO. It's refreshing to play a similar type of MMO with some cultural changes thrown in.

The architecture in the game is stunning and if you roll a female character you will see some really pretty underwear (There is a quest where you need to go and whip some soldiers with birch branches in a sauna and your toon is stripped down to some very sexy lingerie)

I would kill for EQ2 to adopt the Z and T key in that game, they are amazingly simple ideas but would make any MMO wonderful.
Patience and ETA Really
# May 10 2011 at 6:45 PM Rating: Default
Oh lookie here a free 7 day trial of rift hmm, SoE better start giving some updates i've been trying to hold out but between EvE and Rift the chances are getting smaller and smaller with no news. Come on just give us your best guess estamate, which really commits you to nothing.
Patience and ETA Really
# May 10 2011 at 6:49 PM Rating: Excellent
20 posts
Rift sucks
Me
# May 10 2011 at 6:41 PM Rating: Excellent
http://i.imgur.com/dBtTa.gif <-- My reaction everyday.
Me
# May 11 2011 at 6:45 AM Rating: Decent
lmfao this is freaking hillarious
Me
# May 10 2011 at 8:58 PM Rating: Default
ROFL, make it a thumbnail avitar.

Edited, May 11th 2011 12:01am by namdaruluclin
Me
# May 10 2011 at 8:50 PM Rating: Decent
2 Thumbs up!!!
Me
# May 10 2011 at 7:39 PM Rating: Excellent
Empress of News
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2,350 posts
ventuz wrote:
http://i.imgur.com/dBtTa.gif <-- My reaction everyday.

Haha nice!
____________________________
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Me
# May 10 2011 at 6:46 PM Rating: Good
17 posts
I like it.
password reset?
# May 10 2011 at 6:05 PM Rating: Decent
i thought i saw somewhere that once this is all back up we will have to reset our passwords. In order to this we will need our secret question. which i dont really remember the answer for. anyone know if this is true?
password reset?
# May 10 2011 at 6:48 PM Rating: Good
17 posts
42

We all used 42 as the answer to the secret question.....
password reset?
# May 11 2011 at 3:52 AM Rating: Decent
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63 posts
Crap, I used 43
round and round
# May 10 2011 at 6:00 PM Rating: Default
UPDATE,________________________: According to Facebook, "We thank everyone for their continued patience as work continues on SOE services. They will not be up today,______________, but we are working as quickly as possible to resolve this."


Canned message time."Fill in the blank today Mary it's your turn".

See you tomorrow when the day is over for the canned message update.


Good Day

To pass the time
# May 10 2011 at 5:42 PM Rating: Excellent
18 posts
Free, legal games you can download while you wait:

Zork I-III (great grue's)

http://www.infocom-if.org/downloads/downloads.html

Dwarf Fortress

http://bay12games.com/dwarves/

Goblin Camp (similar to DF but with a better UI)

http://www.goblincamp.com/

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (graphical, streamlined roguelike)

http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/

Aurora (very, very complex 4x)

http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Unreal World (wilderness survival, but not completely free)

http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.html

The Elder Scrolls I: Arena

http://www.elderscrolls.com/arena/
To pass the time
# May 10 2011 at 8:35 PM Rating: Decent
22 posts
is there any for win 7 64bit? finger nails are already gone
ETA?
# May 10 2011 at 5:35 PM Rating: Good
I just really want an ETA on when everything will be playable again. I literally have no games to play, owning a PS3 and playing EQ. There's only so much yard work to do, only so much I can walk my dogs. TV is boring except for Game of Thrones. I just want to play EQ ...

If I could get away with hurting the people responsible for the hacking, I would. I mean really hurt them. I don't think there's anything I hate more in the world than hacking.
ETA?
# May 10 2011 at 8:25 PM Rating: Decent
Game of Thrones! YES!
Anon should pay
# May 10 2011 at 5:01 PM Rating: Good
I'm really hoping that SoE will draw from some of their Japanese roots and send some Yakuza thugs to find these Anonymous ******* and break ever bone from their elbows to their finger tips to pieces smaller than gravel.

eta
# May 10 2011 at 4:43 PM Rating: Decent
So, any bets on servers being up and functional by this weekend?!
eta
# May 10 2011 at 5:46 PM Rating: Decent
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37 posts
one copper!
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