So it’s Monday morning, and like any of you who have to head into an office for work, Mondays are always the hardest, aren’t they?

I did not want to get up this morning, especially when you live in a place where swimming pools seem to be attached to every single house you drive past, and the weather is just positively wonderful.  We’re lucky here in San Diego, it’s a nice 72 degrees F (23 degrees C), with hardly any humidity. I was in LA this weekend, and I don’t know how you guys do it!  The heat and humidity was just yucky!  I shall not be going up to see Beckham play at the Galaxy until the winter when it’s oooo 65 degrees? Heh.  Anyway, I managed to get here, and of course with it being the beginning of my week, it’s the busiest day.  

I was pleased to see the Star Wars ticket queue had reduced somewhat over the weekend.  We have been fighting with large queues recently as you SWG players have probably noticed; it has taken us some time to get to your ticket.  I do apologize, and promise we have been working as quickly as we could to get to you.  I don’t want to speak too soon, but it’s looking better this morning!

There are a lot of people buzzing around my office at the moment…something to do with Fan Faire and videos!  I won’t spill the beans, but if you’re heading to Fan Faire you’re certainly assured a great time and some superb inside looks at things. Las Vegas is hot at this time of year, so be sure to drink plenty….water that is J

Next weekend is the block party here at SOE.  Last year’s was a blast with Smed, Brenlo and others in the dunk tank, and demos of our games with developers on hand to chat.  I shall be there again this year and will unlock some of the GMs from their chains, so feel free to come up and say hi.

I’m starting to see e-mails from GM Brewko come into my inbox which reminds me that those of you who play Planetside and Matrix Online know him for sure.  He will also be at Fan Faire, and will be around for pictures to prove he really does exist, and for a poke in the ribs if he ever killed you in an event!

The afternoon shift for the Vanguard team is starting to trickle in and so I need to scoot, but again look forward to seeing those of you coming for the Block Party.  Beers on Brenlo I hear! 

Sharon “Moonlite” Morris, Senior Customer Service Manager

Welcome to the new Customer Support Web site and associated new look and feel of the overall site.   Our Marketing and Web Teams have been busy now that American Idol has ended and the summer re-runs have set in, to spice things up and make your support experience all the better.    The new look and feel are terrific and we wanted to add some additional features to keep you somewhat entertained (after all we are an entertainment company), while you wait for that petition to be answered or the servers to come up after their latest update.

In the coming weeks we will give you a glimpse of the inside life of a GM and Technical Support Agent here at SOE with some of the features of the site such as;

• “Pimp My Caption”:  Submit captions for the screenshots posted.
• “Nerfed Names:”  When not fighting the evil league of gold/credit spammers our crack staff of “name nerfers” are always on task.
• “Favorite Petitions”:  Sometimes the customers are what keep us entertained.

As always you will find the answers to hopefully all your questions with a Self Help Knowledge base of over 13,000 articles in four different languages and our Game Masters are here 24 X 7 to assist.

From time to time, we will publish a bit to our little blog here to give your further insight into the day to day happening of your game masters and customer support.   There will be various authors, spotlights etc, which come your way, so by way of introduction:

Brad “Mutato” Wilcox, Executive Director of Global Customer Service

My name is Brad Wilcox and I am the Executive Director of Global Customer Service.   Gaming and Technology is a passion, and when I am not getting yelled at by the wife to put down the mouse and get off the computer (EQ2 is my game of the moment) and mow the lawn, paint some room or whatever task is on the “honey-do” list I am spending way too much time and money on collectible card games or sports trading cards and action figures.

It’s all about the entertainment world for me with a love of movies, books and music, not to mention trying to catch the local baseball or football game with the family (I work on wife faction too, to only lose it later) as any baseball game is better than most other activities, and grabbing and converting the latest TV show from Tivo to PSP to watch on my daily commute.

See you Online!

Ima “Sentana” Somers, International Customer Service Manager

Hello, I am Ima Somers and I am the International Customer Service Manager. I am responsible for the customer service of the localized versions of our games and have an awesome team of French, German and Japanese employees to assure that our non English speaking customers are assisted in their own language.

I am originally from The Netherlands and moved to the United States 10 years ago. After several jobs in different industries I finally managed to find one that was the perfect combination to fuel my passion for games and get paid doing what I love at the same time! If I am not working or playing EQII you can find me at a gym for an hour of cardio or throwing around some weights. I also love to travel and while doing so take lots of pictures as photography is another big passion.

Tschüss,  Au revoir, さようなら, Tot ziens!!

Rich “Greeblen Dah Ogah” Schmelter, Customer Service Manager

Hail adventurer! My name is Rich Schmelter and I am the SOE Customer Service Manager for the EverQuest product line.

I’ve been with SOE for well over 5 years now, but when I first started with SOE, I worked as a GM on EverQuest (some of you may remember me as the server GM for Terris-Thule).  I quickly became a supervisor for EQ and later was chosen as the CS Manager for the launch of EverQuest II.  About 2 months after EQII’s launch, I was given the opportunity to also manage CS operations for EQ and EQOA and I’ve been going strong ever since.

Aside from PC and classic pen and paper gaming, I enjoy a wide variety of interests that include building computers, reading, sailing, martial arts, snowboarding, movies, historical re-enactment (yeah, I used to be a big Ren Faire geek), the occasional TV show (Mythbusters, CSI: Las Vegas), and of course attending Comic Con International (http://www.comic-con.org/) !

Safe Travels!

Sharon “Moonlite” Morris, Senior Customer Service Manager

I am Sharon Morris, Senior Customer Service Manager here at SOE. I’ve been here just over 5 years, originally on EverQuest, and then moved over to FINAL FANTASY XI.  About a year ago I took over Star Wars Galaxies, Matrix Online, and Planetside.  I now also have Vanguard:Saga of Heroes to look after! *puff pant*

I am known around these parts for my love of soccer and heavy metal music…looking forward to the upcoming Megadeth tour! I started playing online games with the now defunct Underlight that was originally on mplayer.

If you are heading to the block party here at SOE, or the upcoming Fan Faire in Vegas I shall look forward to seeing you all there, but am sure I shall post a blog or two here too!

Happy Gaming!

Satao “Tsunami” Minami, Customer Service Manager

My name is Satao Minami and I am the Customer Service Manager for our Accounts/Billing and Technical Support.  I have been here for 7 years working in both In-game and Technical Support.

I enjoy competition.  From sports to a good game of poker, I am a highly competitive person and will always put up a good fight.  Video Games has always been a passion of mine, particularly strategy type games.  You may have seen me running around with my Ratonga fighting some Epic mob or running away from a band of PvP’ers.

See you online!