Do you have the Luck o' the Irish? Then you might want to add some Station Cash to your account this week or visit the Marketplace for a chance to win some prizes:

"Beginning on Thursday, March 17th, and continuing through March 20th, every time you add station cash to your account or make a purchase through the in-game marketplace in participating games you'll be entered in a drawing to win a Sony® Cyber-shot® Digital Camera, a Sony® Vaio® F Series Laptop, or a 55" Sony® BRAVIA® NX810 Television with 3D Sync Transmitter and 4 pairs of 3D Active Glasses!"

The participating games are EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest II Extended, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Free Realms, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, PoxNora and Magic: The Gathering - Tactics. The contest is open to U.S. residents only. Check out the official rules for all the details.

The Official SOE Podcast #105 is now available for your listening pleasure. The "St. Patty's Day Cast" features host Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske and co-host Tiffany “Amnerys” Spence discussing DC Universe Online's March update, EverQuest II's Brewday and EverQuest's 12th anniversary.

The podcast also includes an interview with Community Manager Linda "Brasse" Carlson and the latest updates on various SOE titles with Jason “Pex” Ryan.

Sony Online Entertainment is accepting applications through April 6 for their annual Gamers In Real Life Scholarship Program. $10,000 will be awarded to encourage students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, with the ultimate goal of developing video games that are more interesting for women to play.

Applicants should review the G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition 2011 official rules, determine if they are eligible to enter the competition and win, register and apply with Scholarship Management Services, and submit concept artwork, captions and an essay to SOE.

One winner will recieve:

• A $10,000 scholarship award to be applied toward tuition, room and board and other education-related expenses at the school in which the winner is enrolled.
• An internship of up to 10 weeks at SOE's headquarters in San Diego, California or at one of SOE's studio locations (Austin, Seattle or Denver). Location to be decided by SOE.

So what are you waiting for? G.I.R.L up!

SOE Podcast Episode 103 has been released, and this one focuses on Valentine's Day. In addition to the seasonal discussion, Pirates of the Burning Sea Design Department Lead Declan O’Connell stops by to talk about the free-to-play game.

Also, host Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske and co-host Linda “Brasse” Carlson discuss Plants vs. Zombies and the new SOE Universal Game Cards.

As always, Jason “Pex” Ryan joins the podcast to bring us the latest updates on many SOE titles. Head over to the SOE Podcast site to download the episode or subscribe through the iTunes store.

Sony Online Entertainment has posted two maintenance notices for tomorrow, Feb. 2. Below are the two posts taken from the SOE forums.

SOE Account and Commerce Flow and the Station Store

Beginning at 7 AM PST on Wednesday February 2, 2011, SOE Account and Commerce flow and the Station Store will be unavailable due to maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately 1 and 1/2 hours.

This might cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.

SOE Forum Downtime

All SOE forums will be undergoing maintenance on Wednesday, February 2, 2011, from 10:00am PST until around 11:00am PST. During this time the forums will not be accessible. We will return to regular functionality as quickly as possible.

SOE Podcast Episode 102 is now live and features some content that may be of interest to EverQuest and EverQuest II players. Host Aimee “Ashlanne” Rekoske and co-host Tiffany “Amnerys” Spence chat about EQII's Destiny of Velious expansion and the Fortune League Facebook game that brings EQII to the social networking site.

The hosts also interview Eric “Piestro” Cleaver, the new EverQuest community manager. And to top things off, Jason “Pex” Ryan reports the latest community news from many SOE titles. Head over to the SOE Podcast site to download the episode or subscribe through the iTunes store.

SOE Podcast #101 was just released, and it's called the "Hero-Cast" thanks to its focus on DC Universe Online. Host Aimee "Ashlanne" Rekoske and co-host Joel "Raijinn" Sasaki discuss the newly released comic MMO and include an interview with DCUO Community Manager Tony "RaderX" Jones.

The hosts also talk about Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, which just launched on PC yesterday, and Dungeon Overlord, SOE's newest Facebook game. Give the podcast a listen for information on these games and more!

NOTE:  The time of this maintenence has changed since the original announcement.

There will be some downtime for all SOE games in the early morning hours on Tuesday. Here's a note from Ashlanne over on the EQ Forums:

Beginning at 10pm PST on Monday, January 10th, ALL SOE games, subscription and commerce services will be unavailable for maintenance. We expect this maintenance to take approximately ten hours.

This might cause some forum accounts to temporarily lose permissions, due to the inability to verify account status while the maintenance is taking place. This is only temporary and normal permissions will return automatically once the maintenance is complete.

We apologize for this interruption and will resume the affected services as soon as the maintenance is completed.

If you're looking for a last-minute holiday gift, you may want to head over to Direct2Drive. All Sony Online Entertainment titles (excluding DC Universe Online) are 50% off until Monday, Dec. 27 at 10 a.m. PST. Games that are offered in the sale include PlanetSide, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II.

Direct2Drive is also currently offering sales on all sorts of indie games, including Plants vs. Zombies and Torchlight. You can grab both of these games for $5 each this weekend!

If none of these deals sound appealing to you, check out the above promo codes to save up to 25% off your entire order until 2011. Happy holidays!

It's almost time! The halls are decked, the stockings hung with care, and you've probably got some time off from work or school. It's the perfect time to get in some extra gaming, and why wouldn't you? Almost every MMO is running an in-game holiday event. With all the new zones, special items and festive quests, it's pretty much a digital winter wonderland. So to make things a little easier, we've compiled a list of in-game holiday events to help you narrow down which game to play!