-Mog Bonanza is Here
-Introducing Mog Tablet
-7th Anniversary Art Contest Winners!
-Community Podcast Tour
-7th Anniversary Vana'diel Census Survey
-Community Team Version Update Report
-Special Edition 7th Anniversary Official Wallpaper from Square-Enix (^_^)!
Hail, gallant adventurers! Thanks to your feats of detection and derring-do, the lost Mog Tablets of King Kupofried have been recovered, and their mystic "Super Kupowers" freed to fill the realm with happiness and joy. The first phase of the quest will soon draw to a close, but fear not! After a random period of time (eight to twenty-four hours), the tablets will once more be scattered to the winds, and the quest will begin anew!
Would-be relic hunters be warned! The ethereal glow of the tablets will be faint this time around, testing your sleuthing skills to the fullest.
But stand strong, and shirk not from your moogle-appointed task! Restore the eleven tablets and their Super Kupowers to Vana'diel, and this time you could be among those to claim the elusive Kupofried's Ring!
Peruse the full details of the Mog Tablet quest here.
When we announced this year's Fan Art Contest with a special 7th Anniversary theme, we fully expected our talented players across the globe to produce some truly spectacular specimens. Still, nothing could have prepared us for the veritable cornucopia of captivating masterpieces that were submitted!
After days and nights spent poring over more than four hundred highly worthy entries, our development and operations team members have selected the thirty pieces that we felt best captured the anniversary spirit while also exhibiting the highest degree of artistic expression.
Who will claim the coveted Crystal Prize this year? The results you've been waiting for are here!
In the forthcoming days, all entries will be displayed on this site, so be sure to check back for yet more exemplary artwork!
IGN Vault's Marissa Monera took off to Seattle this past week to attend LOGIN Conference 2009 (plus to play in a grunge band and drink lots of coffee). Currently the first of her coverage articles are up 'n ready, and there's more to come as you can see from the image below! Dig in to find out what you missed.
Global IGN Update: With E3 right around the corner, we're upgrading our servers so they'll be ready to handle the slew of people who will be visiting our sites during this year's videogame convention. We'll have to take the site down this weekend for a bit to complete the maintenance, but it should only take an hour or so to upgrade our servers, which will be back stronger and faster than ever.
The following sites will be inaccessible between 10:30 and 11:30 PM (PST) on Sunday, May 17, 2009 for scheduled maintenance:
IGN, IGN Mobile, IGN Boards, IGN community sites
GameSpy
AskMen
Rotten Tomatoes
FilePlanet and D2D FLV videos
To help our international readers, here's a handy guide to the outage times around the world:
United States outage time: 10:30 - 11:30pm (Pacific) Sunday, May 17th
Aussie outage time: 3:30 - 4:30pm Monday, May 18th
If you're a Twitter user then let me tell you about Twitter Tuesday! Starting on Tuesday, May 18, at some point in the day on Tuesday, IGNcom will tweet out a trivia question. To answer this IGN and/or game related trivia question, simply email your answer along with name, mailing address and date of birth to igncommunity@ign.com. The 50th correct response will get their pick from a couple of items in the IGN swag bag. Read more on Staci-IGN's blog.
Join some of the IGN Network staff as we attempt to fumble our way through MMO podcasting! We're still working through the kinks as far as quality and content goes, but feedback is always welcome!
It's almost time for this year's FINAL FANTASY XI Vana'diel Census! We'll be taking a look behind the scenes at the numbers that made up your world in the past year. For the 9th Vana'diel Census, we'll be trying something different: a preliminary survey to find out all about each adventurer's day-to-day life in Vana'diel.
That means we need your help! Even if you're a silent ninja, a shy scholar, or a bard with laryngitis, let your voice be heard! Together, we can make the 9th Vana'diel Census the best one yet!
Ladies and gentlemen!
The event that adventurer dreams are made of—Mog Bonanza—is nigh!
Without a doubt, topics such as "what numbers are you going to pick?" and "what prize would you choose if you won?" are dominating conversations among friends and fellow linkshell members at this very moment.
Proceed here to learn how your dreams might be made reality via Mog Bonanza.
*Bonanza marbles will be available for purchase from Friday, May 15th, at 19:00pm.
Psst, you. Yes, you, kupo! You know the nomad moogles, do you not?
Turbans wrapped around their heads, looking like they just came back from a cross-Vana'diel hiking expedition?
Well, believe it or not, some say that they're actually the descendants of an ancient, long-lost moogle civilization that holds the key to a fabled treasure, kupo!
What's that? Just another tall moogle tale, you say?
Fine, then! Don't read on. You don't know what you're missing out on, kupo...
If you have news or content that you would like to see added to the MMO News Roundups, please email to hubnews@vaultnetwork.com! Roundups will be posted on IGN Vaults and Voodoo Extreme.
Seven years...
That's right folks—seven glorious years have zipped by at the speed of a race-bred chocobo since adventurers began stepping forth into the wilds of Vana'diel. This year, as in the past, we will be holding the Adventurer Appreciation Campaign as a way to express the incalculable feelings of gratitude we harbor for all the loyal and stalwart adventurers out there. And to make this year's celebration even more festive than previous occasions, there are plans for—
Hm? That moogle over there with her head in a turban is gesturing for me to shut my trap like there's no tomorrow. I guess I'd best leave the rest to the professionals...
Proceed here to lend an ear to the overexcited moogle's spiel.
Pet Food Alpha has kicked off the first leg of the Community Team Podcast Tour! The episode introduces the Community Team and discusses the Square Enix commitment to global support of FINAL FANTASY XI. Be sure to check out Pet Food Alpha and this initial look into the role of the Community Team!
We'd also like to remind players about the upcoming two episodes of He Says She Says and Limit Break Radio where guests from the Community Team will be providing more insight on in-game seasonal events and FINAL FANTASY XI live events! Please note that the air dates have been updated:
- Pet Food Alpha with Robert Peeler: Available Now! - He Says She Says with Matt Hilton: 5/6 - Limit Break Radio with Robert Peeler and Matt Hilton: 5/13
The following is a letter from Staci "Rosethorn" Krause, IGN Vault Editor in Chief.
Hi everyone,
There are some big changes afoot at IGN and for the first time, Vault is really being affected by them, but I think in a very positive way. The most important change to relay is that I am no longer the Editor in Chief of Vault Network. Instead, Teddy Pierson, who has previously been in charge of Vault community sites, will be taking the helm once again. He will continue to run the Planets and all future IGN Community sites as well as the IGN Community Site Manager. My position has changed and I am now the Community Outreach Manager for all of IGN. You are part of that community, so I’ll be doing plenty of reaching out to you as well. The MMO community is an integral part of the IGN Community as a whole and I hope everyone will embrace the idea of being an important part of a larger community.
My new position retains some of my old responsibilities, like getting together with developers to host developer chats or developer diaries. But some new exciting things will happen now that I can focus on community initiatives, like hosting competitions, and I plan to include the MMO community in those initiatives. I have some big plans for the future of IGN community and that includes every one of you.
This week's new poll discusses your thoughts on whether or not you'll get any of the other two upcoming add on scenarios. There are some really strong opinions out there regarding the success of "A Crystalline Prophecy" so that's the question: "Having tried A Crystalling Prophecy, will you purchase more of the Add-on scenarios?"
Brush off your bamboo swords and gird yourselves for a breathtaking battle royale, as the favored fete of lionhearted young lads everywhere—that exhilarating Far Eastern extravaganza of courage and valor known as the Feast of Swords—is set to make its triumphant return!
What hair-raising hijinks await participants in this year's event? Read on to find out!
*The Feast of Swords will come whirling into town on Tuesday, April 28 at 1:00 a.m. (PDT) and return to its sheath Tuesday, May 12 at the same hour.
Hot on the heels of yesterday's official acquisition of "the house that Lara built" (Eidos, folks), Square Enix has released a load of numbers on its biggest IPs -- including some that it just acquired yesterday. Unsurprisingly, the Final Fantasy series flies high above its brethren (in a fancy airship, of course) with over 85 million units moved over the series' lifetime. We imagine after the company releases its flurry of FFXIII titles, that number will jump considerably.
Among other details in the release is Dragon Quest's lifetime sales, reaching nearly 50 million units, and the Tomb Raider series showing up with 30 million units sold in the past 13 years. Also of note is Kane & Lynch: Dead Men selling nearly two million shameful, shameful copies. Can we expect the layoffs to stop for now?
