Walking in a path of nowhere

Becoming Addicted to Games

2009-12-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well, this will be based here in the Philippines on how I see most gamers here recently. I mean, don't take it wrong I don't know how to spot hardcore gamers in your country because I'm not there lol!

So because of my observations lately here in our area well, err... I am not proud but still.. =_=; Anyway here goes the top 5 on how you can identify your friend becoming a addicted to games...

We can't blame the elders thinking that games are bad influence to the new generations. Why? Because kids these days can get carried away too easily that they forgotten what their real obligations are!

The 5 steps will let you know the stages on how to start getting addiction in games.

5. Telling stories about the game

-You'll just realize how your friend, classmate, co-worker or whatever he/she starts talking about games non stop. It just comes to the point that even you can be drag along because its too convincing or you'll be irritated for listening regarding games, games, games...I mean seriously talking it like a great topic non-stop is a bit overboard even at meal time.

This is the stage that you'll start saying to your friend how addicted he/she is. But that was just your joke of course you haven't realize yet how the game is really influencing your friend's mind. Just a warning, if you have a friend like this then start to panic already!

4. Cutting Classes

-At 1st your friend will tell you he/she is sick so he/she can't attend school and so on and so forth. The next few days you'll start to notice how the absences becoming a habit and not attending schools lately. You'll get worried thinking if he/she is ok. Then as you pass by a computer shop you'll just spot *bam!* your friend playing an online game. :)

Your friend is really getting close at the dark side. If your friend is on this step already you must start advising him/her.

3. Guides, game faqs and books related to games

-You'll be surprise on why your friend's been skipping schools but still gets money out of his/her parents. It's because of books and internet guides to teach you more about games. Nothing will make you amaze by seeing your friend being too hook-up on playing games and rather not eat lunch just to save money to buy the latest edition of magazines games and such.

It's like a drug that you can't live without having it or playing it.

2. New Friends

-Your friend had enough of you nagging him/her for being too much addicted to games. So you'll just see your friend hanging out with a new set of friends. Either a group he/she met in a computer shop or an EB (Eye Ball) it doesn't matter! As long as his/her friend of hers/him shares the same interest of game then welcome to the club!

1. Loner

-In the end you ended up being a loner. You only think that the players in the computer only understands you. You started to hate the real world and wished that you can play games forever. You don't want to work nor go to school just to get annoyed on things you think you don't need. You starting to realize you wish you're just part of the gaming world.

Worst scenario ever! The word "gamer otaku" will apply here if you've reached this point. You have no-life at all regarding reality and thinks that game characters are equal to humans.

If this happens, nobody knows if you'll still be saved. =/

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Well, that's all i think. Please be warned that this scenarios can really happen to anyone who forgotten about reality. =/

I warned you so good luck and be a middle type gamer only ok? :)

Ten Ways To Spot An Otaku (There You Are!!)

2009-12-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

So there you are!!! Your an otaku right?? RIGHT???!!! If you really are then you should meet the qualifications needed to be an official Otaku to everone's eye! Yes! That is needed to distinguish the normal to the obsess type!

So a voting system was made in Japan and the TOP 10 LIST on How you can spot an otaku was made! So don't blame me for the list! Blame the people who voted for this! And just look to where you fall in the category.

1. Has an anime T-shirt - anime t-shirt are now popular this days because anime characters looks good to both children and adult. It can even be modern type design or old fashion but still if its your favorite you must have it!

2. Has an anime shopping bag - You want to stay with your beloved character everywhere. So you bought a nice bag with double purpose. To have a new bag and to show off your favorite anime.

3. He has a waist pouch (”fanny pack” / “bum bag”) - Always must have for security purpose. If you spot anime products that are nice to buy you can easily get it using this!

4. He wears a bandanna (hachimaki) - Traditional way but still use up to now. This is made to show dedication on what you are doing, supporting etc.

5. His bag is covered in anime badges - You can't just live without badges. They are small, cute and can be put easily to anything you use.

6. His hair is excessively long - seriously... I don't know why this is noted here..

7. He wears his rucksack over both shoulders - too many things to buy and must have, you can't just have one. It won't fit all!

8. He has big, thick glasses - Not all otakus have glasses you know!! And I mean it! Who the hell put this on the vote?

9. He tucks his shirt/T-shirt into his trousers - Honestly, I don't know... And I can't find a right picture to discribe it..

10. He wears chemical wash jeans - because of lack of life. They commonly no sense of style. Always picking something that can be easily get or prepared. Doesn't care much as long as I can hug an anime pillow really. Maybe "no-life" to common people but hey! It's his problem not yours.

So all in all if you fuse all requirements together your face should be like this:

Some may pierce into your heart and soul but who cares!! Welcome to the club of Otakus!!

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P.S.

I saw this rankings at Kotaku and I laughed hard because I don't really see the point in the rankings.. Anyway.. This lead me to the real poster of the rankings by Sankaku Complex site which also said the original ranking system was made here. So you get the point that I was lead to these sites by accident (Thanks to Kotaku.. T_T)

Full Review Luna Online

2009-12-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

My beloved character!

“Luna Online” is a recently localized MMORPG from gPotato (This is the client I am currently playing). The characters and style have much similar to Ragnarok Online, well the beginner’s clothes reminds me of it because of the color. Popular in Asia, this game is more focus on “dating MMO” where you can find a match to your character, have social networks and stuff, make a family then own a farm! (Err.. wait, you will learn how to date and have a family?!o_o)

This is an f2p (free to play) so you don’t have to worry about entrance fee in playing this game. It also has cash shop too for extra accessories and other flashy things that you can live to not having it. So basically yes, seems fine to try the game.

I tried the game, made some quest, a NPC keeps popping every time I need to learn new things, tried the emoticons (it’s fun!^o^), grind a bit, change job, grind again with quest, excited to have wings (I want to fly!) so grind again, after that I rest a bit and talk to strangers, I mean players.

In the end here’s what I think:

ADVERTISEMENT:

Me want!!! *_*

-I got distracted at the advertisement and pictures Luna Online showed. The picture like a guy pulling a plant in a farm (and the plant has a facial expression!!!) made me wonder what kind of game is this? When someone told me Luna is like a Harvest Moon because you can have a farm and animals and plants I got excited (Ok so I’m being biased on this side because I love Harvest Moon). I also got hype to the concept of “Harvest Moon Online look-a-like? I like!!” But some pictures can be misleading too, like a picture of both girl characters kissing, (I mean it! Both girls kissing!!!) An online game where both genders can kiss?? This IS THE 1ST online game where both characters can kiss and same genders too can do it! So yeah I just warned you on the pictures, you should be at a right age to view it. I am not joking; the pictures and advertisements should have parental guidance because it can mislead players who can view/see these things;

CHARACTERS:

Reminds me of a knight in Ragnarok Online

-It’s a form of chibi so if you don’t like anime type characters this is not the game for you. Your character can form balloon expression, do actions such as dance (I can’t believe they are good dancers!) and most of all they can really do expressions such as sad, happy, angry, confuse depending on what your character is saying. You can choose different hairstyles and faces, it’s a bit simple and there’s not much to choose because it’s only few.

STORY:
-A life between elves and humans. It’s a floating island that was made that way to have a peaceful life because of monsters/dark forces roaming around below. And so on and so on, it’s a fantasy story like Peter Pan. Well, it reminds me really of Peter Pan because the island is floating and the characters are like children. The people that look old are the NPCs. No special attraction on the story really, just a normal fantasy-adventure type story.

GRAPHICS:
-The graphics is nice. The details of the characters are not beautiful but cute. Too cute that it really reminds you of Ragnarok Online just imagine it in 3D. It’s not that heavy on your PC and the colors are so light like a cotton candy type. It is eye-catchy due to cuteness but not beautiful to the point that you will be amaze. Overall of the graphics is fairly nice and cute.

SOUNDS AND MUSIC:
-The background music is nice and refreshing BUT the character’s voices are terrible. For the first time this is the only online game that I can’t appreciate the character’s voices and skill music. I don’t know if my ears have a problem but really it’s horrible. Whoever made the sound of characters and skill effect music please change it because I would rather play Luna when my sounds are off.

QUEST SYSTEM:
- The typical one. Watch me do it. Talk to the NPC over there, heads to get quests, and then turn them to get your reward to the NPC here. It’s like; go kill X monsters, go speak to Y NPC, now return to Z NPC to get that. One thing that can make you hold on in this kind of quest is the Map System displayed when you open the world map. The map shows the location of NPCs, they blink if you can have a quest or turn in a quest. So it’s not hassle to find the NPCs.

USER INTERFACE:
-It’s quite easy and nice. The layout from mini-map, health bar, action buttons, etc. was very well made. They don’t fill-up the screen and yet all the information you need is clearly provided.

CRAFTING:
-You don’t have to do a quest in order to learn crafting. Your character (before you can even made one) already knows how to craft! It’s up to you to gather the materials needed. Also, the material needed appears in the crafting window whatever you put there. So it won’t lead you to trash items that you don’t need and you will know what loots can be thrown, craft or stored.

DATING SYSTEM:

They don’t like each other I think..

One lucky guy! xD

-One of the unique things about this game is the dating system. It has a match maker program which matches you with someone inside the game depending on your likes and dislikes! It’s up to you if you want to try it, my character don’t have a partner so far because I don’t want to. Anyway, once you found a partner you can kiss each other, date, or do the next big thing, that’s to have a family! (Honestly parental guidance is necessary for the young ones. Geesh…) Once you have a family it has a family role concept too. It is compose of a father, a mother, and so on.

FARMING SYSTEM:
-The farming system! At last! Or is it awwww…. Bad News is you can only have a Farm if you have a family (it’s so unfair! What if my character wants to be single?!). It has a required level before you can buy a land, requires money to buy it, requires points to have and requires maintenance tax. Yes! Too many requirements! It shows that owning a farm you must be responsible. It also wakes us up in reality that owning your own land you must pay for a tax or you can say farewell to your loving farm. The good side about that is you can take care of plants, animals, even go fishing and all your hard efforts will be rewarded by using/trading the harvest things in the future of your character.

GAMEPLAY:
-To start, you have to choose between two races available: Humans or Elves. The differences between the two are minor; only slight variations in stats which can be overcome by equipment later on. After that you have three classes to choose from: Mage, Rouge and Fighter. The classes are pretty much what you'd expect from other MMORPGs in terms of playing style.

Once you made a character, it’s time to login inside the game. It is your 1st time right? So your character’s name will be announced at the whole server as they welcome you from joining them. Really this method is a bit old but still effective. Some players will welcome you through the shout chat. So if you just want to play the game without someone noticing you or you are hiding to some of your friends then don’t even bother. They will know you are playing it because of the announcement. You’re already busted!
Three classes may not seem like much, but at various points as you level up you'll be able to specialize into a subclass within one of the three core classes. Unlike most other games, you're able to switch between subclasses regardless of your previous choice; giving you a lot of freedom when deciding what you want to do, and a lot of variation should you get bored with just whacking things.

You can have small wings by finishing a required quest and must be in a required level. It’s a bit entertaining for the point because you are excited to have wings so you won’t mind grinding for now. After that there is also a required level of a fully grown wings (yes the big ones) but that’s so high you won’t except to level that fast right? Just finish some quest for now and grind again.

The sense of humor the monsters has makes me laugh sometimes! As I was about to kill a blue poring look-a-like (name: slime) I was surprised to find out that it can speak! Well, you can’t have a conversation with it, but, it is a bit entertaining! Slimes talk about how soft the grass is; turtles comment about how they are faster than Michael Phelps, and the list goes on! In fact, every monster, animal, or person that one can beat up has their own comments to make, and all of them are really funny and entertaining!

MY COMMENT:
-I got disappointed on the farming system due to I don’t want to have a family but I want to have a farm. But the rest are ok I really enjoyed the “emoticons” they are cute expressions your character makes depending on what your character is saying like the picture below;

Ok forget about the picture.. =_=

One that irritates me is the grinding here but as long as I know I have something to do then it keeps me entertained a bit.

*Credits to some players who posted this wonderful pictures in-game while they are playing..

Preparing~

2009-12-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

Yes! Been so long since my last post.. =/ Sorry about that. Been busy you know??

Well as you can see I have free time but been having troubles on using that free time. I mean I have too many to do that I don't know which one should I do 1st.

The time that I must return home again is getting near.. I don't know if I'm excited or frustrated but still I'm looking forward in returning home though.. =x

I have lots of blogs to catch up. Ah yes, I need to put all my blogs in other sites here for compilation so please bare with me while I transfer them. :) It will be flooded with blogs now.. hahaha!! XD

A Tour inside CTRacer (Full Review)

2009-10-18T18:23:00.001-07:00

As promise I will make a full review of this game. I will be you tour guide so that you can have an idea of this game!

NOTE: This is my full review of CTRacers. All comments and things that I use/said are mine alone.

CTRacer Online developed by Mobil Planet and was published by Gamenetworks, is one of the newest casual racing games ever for global market. CT Racer Online is an online racing game that will surely create a breed of racing fans among gamers of all ages. The game features an extensive list of unique racing cars which players can customize its appearance as well as modify its performance; colorful cars with different characteristics; and fun, challenging race tracks where players can master and compete with other drivers in every lap after lap.

This is also an f2p game so no payment requirement! The shops are composed of both in-game money called CTs and cash items. More CT items are offered than Cash items, and cash items are only for customization of car’s appearance and not the tune-ups itself so you can live without worrying of buying a cash item, still a fair play.

So yeah! I tried the game again, done some easy quest routes; the records are a bit realistic and breakable if you know about upgrades of cars and stuff. Talked to some players (they are all friendly) so nice environment, the sceneries/buildings are nice (it made me think to the point that I wish our country has those kinds of sceneries where it is clean and beautiful. The map is big so it’s really a free roaming around with your car. In the end I got addicted (again).

Here is my complete review:

ADVERTISEMENT:

-The cars at the advertisement are nice. At first I thought those are the cars you can have but unfortunately you will need cash items to design your cars and turned it to this;

Me drools.. *_*

Yep, the output is the same but the designs; well you need cash for those signs and color customization and other stuff for car appearance. Like I said you can still be the faster beast car without flashy car appearance if you don’t want to spend money.

CHARACTERS:

-Of course your character is not a human being nor an elf but a car! You can’t see the person driving inside. (It was made that way for you to focus on the car itself) Your car is your character, the clothes are dumper and body kits of your car, the potions are the gas stations scattered around the map and the upgrades are the engines a

nd tune ups you can do at your garage area.

This is my home area, and don't laugh about my scammer position! DX

STORY:
-No story. I mean it! No story on this one. Well, because it’s a racing game and not a RPG type. You just login the game buy your 1st primary car then choose a map to roam around then off you go and run like a wind!

GRAPHICS:

Love it! :)

-The graphics is great! A bit improvement was made, now you can choose between low or medium graphics. The low one of course your car will look lik

e a pixel type boxes a bit. The medium one the effects gotten smoother, so nice that you would want wipe the dirt at your car. (Just kidding)

SOUNDS AND MUSIC:

-Nice background. It’s like you are really racing! The good thing is you can customize the mp3 inside the game so that you can add-on songs that you want to hear. It’s like an mp3 inside a real car. Either you want to hear default songs or your favorite songs stored inside your computer.

MAPS:

-It’s a free roaming area really. It’s like a real map in a MMO game where your character can move and you can see co-players roaming too. You can bump their cars to ask duel (it’s like intimidating your opponent I think) and the sceneries are nice! It really looks like a city at night with neon lights and the most amazing part are the buildings and structures. Most are based on Korea Map so their famous building, surroundings and structures can be seen there.

QUEST SYSTEM:

-Located at different sections inside the map. You can choose three quests there your choice. (a)Course records; where you must go to an specific location within a specific time, (b)Road Runner; where you must finish 5 destination points w/out hunters seeing you, (c)Road Hunter; where you hunt the road runners! (I really like to be the hunter; I enjoy busting road runners around!)

USER INTERFACE:

-It’s a bit complicated. You have to look for a guide and be used to it in order for you understand the things to do. The good thing is the keyboard button commands can be custom. Either you can race using your keyboard or using a joystick or a wheel.

GUILD SYSTEM:

-You know, like a car gang or so. Yep, you can make guilds there then lead your guild to victory. Own a territory or beat other guilds. You will earn fame points and honor too! The emblem of your guild will be seen like a sticker at your car. This reminds me of Initial D.

GAMEPLAY:

-Let’s start your engines and be ready to roam around the city! As you login the game, you will first see your garage area where you can choose between automatic or manual transmission, view details of your car, your car list and other personal information.

But first, you have to buy a car of course! You can’t roam around the city without a car so off you go at the car mall area to buy cars. There are lots to choose from with different designs, colors and stats. Yes! Cars have stats and you can improve the stats more by tuning, putting engines, turbo, breaks and other stuffs you need for your car. After you bought your new sweet primary car (Of course it’s just a beginner car for now) you can start roaming around the city!

Every time you login inside the map your car will be at any point locations. This is random so every time you login your car can be in a different place/location. At first if you’re a newbie this is a bit confusing, because you don’t know what to do inside the game, there are no pop out instructions as to what you will do or so. It is best to read guides at their site or forums first before login in the game.

After reading guides or asking players out there (because they are friendly) you can choose what to do, either do quest to earn CT (currency inside the game) to buy new car that is much faster, or get tune ups or engines. This time you need to grind a bit. Mileage is recorded and you will be rewarded every time you reach a specific mileage. The faster your car is the more record breaker you can do and you can ask duel race to co-players too. Regarding trading, all transactions can only be done at the lobby area not inside the map so better go there first for transfer money or other stuff.

Lots of activities are done in a specific time and date. It is advisable to join on these events to gain more CTs easily. Doing quest also helps by gaining TP (Tech points) which is important because some parts inside your car requires TP. The higher the parts can give to your car stats the higher the TP needed.

After that, you can just roam around again, play with the race tracks either downhill or uphill. All race tracks are based in Japan’s mountain passes. Really, it reminds me of Initial D due to the mountain passes they choose. Myogi is a popular beginner mountain track to practice and unlocking the other passes needs required points to do so.

MY COMMENT:

-My first comment is I got lost first because after I login inside the game there are no tutorial as to what to do next. I would really appreciate an instructor NPC or so inside the game to make it a bit newbie friendly because most players don’t visit forums. They just Download the game, register and off you go playing it! But because the GMs are nice and players are accommodating that made my racing experience change a bit. They guided a newbie like me 1st in anything inside the game making it a good community. So yeah if you’re a type of player who can try racing games I would recommend this to you. If you’re a racing gamer fanatic then try this game!

Story does matter in any games

2009-10-18T18:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever played any MMORPG with stories? You know, story background on what is your character’s purpose inside the game or what is the story behind your hometown etc.?? No?? You don’t even know what I’m talking about?? Then maybe you’re one of the players who only kill monsters and don’t bother to read anything on your screen.

Let me tell you about stories. Either background, story of your character, story of your quest and so on are all important. Why? Because without it there is “no life” on the game itself. Before choosing a game what are the factors you first consider? And please don’t include the PC specs, graphics etc because we already know those are important depending on your taste. What I mean is what type of game are you looking? Racing? Shooting? Pvp? Horror type?? After choosing a type of game what’s next?? After you gathered your list of games what’s next??

I saw a comment of a player to another player which made my day WTF?...

“go rp nerd. no1 cares about what a quest involves, only what the reward is.”

Firstly, he didn’t read the whole article before commenting on the player's post OR MAYBE that is his understanding on the article which I don’t even know why it ended up with that comment.

Anyway that's just an example.

But yes! Story matters in any MMORPG games. It is so important that most players look at the story first before playing the game. Aside on the graphics, PC specs, console availability or any other things that you must consider first before playing the game, stories put a role of “making the game more interesting”.

And please, it doesn’t mean you’re a RPG nerd if you put story as one of the factors when choosing a game.

*So here is the list of why story matters in any games (online, offline, etc)

Without story there is no context

- Why would you do a quest in a first place then? If a NPC told you to go beat this monster you’ll just go there without knowing who, how and WHY?? It’s like you’re playing like a robot following instructions of anyone. Even if you don’t follow what they say what will you do then? Kill randomly whoever at your sight because you were given a weapon?

Ok.. I can see the ending already.

Massacre....

Without story there is only pure grind

- Before MMOs became popular, games are like brickgame, pacman etc. which have a common grinding. It just goes faster and faster but the stages are the same. When leveling up a character was invented, a total grindfest was establish and did you enjoy it? Just leveling up your character to the max without knowing why would you even bother to do that? Pure grinding is one of the most hated methods when playing a game. It’s like you’re repeating the same process over and over again. Now if you add a story to pure grinding it’s like a bit of light was given to your dark world. Now you will know the purpose why you need to grind. This little light can make the game a bit entertaining don’t you think?

Without story, RPG won’t exist

- That’s why it's called RPG. Role Playing Game. A game where your character has a role like an artist or an adventurer. Just because it’s just a game it doesn’t mean we can’t add a bit twist to it right? Popular games now such as Aion, maple story, wow, etc. can never be invented. That’s why it became popular, because of the story lines, backgrounds, character info’s and other stuff that made most players wonder or excited to play it. Even if just a game, just once you can be someone which is impossible in reality. You can be in a different world which doesn’t exist in real life. We can play a different character that we love.

If you really want a game that has no story at all play counterstrike or something along those. I know there are a lot of games that have no stories and you will just be given a weapon and off you go killing spree!

I really like what Tom Chilton said in the interview. This is base on The making of "World of Warcraft" article.

What we found was that all the feedback that we got from our alpha testers was that once they ran out of quests, the game got boring. They were like, 'I don't know what to do any more, and I don't really feel like playing any more once I run out of quests'. We came to that realization that, wow, this quest thing really works. We need to do this throughout the entire game!

Clueless about my boyfriend

2009-10-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

I've been working my ass of this manga.. It's a shoujo, so yes a love story-comedy type. Anyway, been posting updates regarding this to two sites; mangaworldproject and smackjeeves .

Here is the sample of it;
If you want to read it feel free to visit it. To have an idea about the story here is a short Intro of my manga;

A childish teenage girl name Apple who has a huge crush to her childhood friend Michael, but when things did'nt went to what she wants to be, she suddenly gotten herself a new boyfriend in an accidental way! Find out how she handles the pressure and responsibilities in her own ways.

Woot~ Hope you will try to visiting it! ^^

How to be famous in any gaming industry

2009-10-18T18:04:00.001-07:00

Do you want to shine? Or do you want your name/IGN be at the top where everyone knows you? Are any “signs” calling you that it’s your turn to have the glory?? Some of these wacky tips will guide you as to how will you become famous in an gaming industry.

NOTE: The following suggestions below are just my comments. Don’t be serious about it and use your brains before doing these things or even commenting at this article.

1. FIRST LAUNCH OF GAME EQUALS PRESENT!

–Try to be present every 1st launching of any games. This will let you feel “me first!!” in any games. I don’t know if anyone will recognize you but either way the achievement of being 1st to touch or do something in-game is a really nice feeling for you alone. Just don’t forget to use the same IGN in all games so someone WILL notice you’re existence and efforts of being 1st.

2. MAKING REVIEWS

– positive or negative feed backs. Reviews will always be a review. Lots of players (loyalist or not) will be commenting you’re reviews weather you like or not. Like the old saying; “Bad publicity is still publicity” always implies.

3. SUMMON AN ANTI-GAME ACTIVIST

– Yep. Just say the magic word and your name will appear in any blogs, plurk, facebook and if you’re lucky enough to summon a big one (popular) you might be put on TV! Just don’t forget to watch out, maybe your summoned being is already watching you in advance.

4. VIOLENCE IS NICE

– Become a popular player by hacking, stealing loots, scamming or even killing the noobs. You either be targeted by angry players or be banned by the game. But still, your name will be popular from being a notorious gamer and that will gain you a name for sure.

5. BE CREATIVE! USE YOUR IMAGINATION SKILLS

– Applying your skills such as making photos, cosplaying, doing fan-arts, make a flash game dedicated in the game or even sell some merchandise such as t-shirts, dolls and so. Addict gamers will surely be happy to look at your works, especially only you have done that and no one else.

6. TOP RECORD

– the basic thing that everyone wants. To be the best player on any games you play. By doing this you have to set outstanding and unbeatable records that will make your co-players

say either “you’re awesome!!” or “you’re a cheater!!"

7. HOT CHICKS ARE WELCOME

– Ok, I won’t explain this any further. Hot chicks playing the game equals more attention to men.

Why girls love cute mmorpg

2009-10-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

Since my college days I've seen online games come and go. Believe me or not I've been a player since 2nd year of college (so you can guess now what my age is?xD) up until now. Though I am not active at forums and blogs that time, I am more on "playing the game" and "looking for guides" than blogging what I do everyday. So yeah I just started blogging this year for two reasons, firstly I love mmo games it keeps me entertaining and away in reality for a while that I want to share this to some people out there to meet new friends and second to contact my friends who are in different countries but love to play online games. Well, global online games are the only games I played due to the fact that I can reach my friends out there (different countries I mean)

Based on my years in MMORPG industry, most of the poeple I talked to in-game or chatted girls have penchant for cute MMORPGs.

image from Luna Online

First, how do we define “cute”? There really is no accepted “industry standard”. For me, as long as it’s chibi or SD (Super Deformed, in the Japanese-anime style), that’s cute. Ragnarok, Rose, FlyFF fall into this category. Meanwhile, the full anatomically-correct games such as Perfect World or RF would fall into the other end of the spectrum.

Why Girls love Cute MMORPGs

PC Spec - We all know that not all have great pc specs specially with girls who don't know much about computers. Even on both internet cafes or home, only few girls know how pc works or what is needed to make the pc functional and running. Because of this they ended up having only the basic need of a computer which leads to normal specs. Cute games don't eat too much banwidth on pc making it a friendly user to most computers even if it's not that upgraded or older versions. This simplicity wins popularity to girls and the good part is they can ask friends to come along and play with them.

Cute is Cute - Do I have to explain this?? As long as it's a chibi and the character resembles to anime or so they are cute!!! I love cute characters specially with expressions making them cuter. No exceptions, even if the the story line is lame it's easy to get distracted on those adorable characters making you to try the game before you could even say; "This is a lame game and I just realize that just now!"

The girls are there - Admit it, guys. It's easier to find a girl playing a cute MMORPG than a hard-core game or FPS right? You can even collect girls in-game either inviting them to party or guild. It can even lead to romance making it a "worth-playing" game.

Gameplay - Cute MMO gameplay is not complicated. This means that it will be easier for anyone to teach even a non-gamer to play the game. The fact that the "cuteness" distracts a lot to be patient in studying the gameplay, the community that is strong and alive itself is also a plus. And because it's accessible to everyone this leads to good a community and a lot of gamers to play the game. Either you're a hard-core, average or non-gamer. As long as everyone is talkative and friendly it gives pleasure in playing the game. Heck, you can even teach your sister or mom to play the game.

Pop culture - Cute MMO's have transcended more than the game. Because they are cute in the eyes of people a lot of videos, cosplays, fan art or even flash games which the game as the base can be easily distributed or share to everyone. This can lead to merchandise (both official and unofficial) that were made for game(s). It's the truth that cute items are really "in-demand" to buyers even if they don't know what they just bought.

Although a lot of gamers are graduating to the more “hard-core” games. I still think there is a HUGE demand and market for cute MMOs. If analyzing the trends will be the basis, I’d predict that new cute MMOs with innovative features with regards to gameplay and community functions will sell well. A game that would drive all the current and new users into one big community where user-generated content will be crucial to keep it all alive and “sticky”.

This is just my comment, you can make your own comment too~

CTRacer online game WTH impression

2009-10-09T19:31:00.000-07:00

Whether you believe me or not I love playing racing games too. Mostly I’ve been playing Grand Turismo, Crash Bandicot etc. since high school so yeah I love race challenges. This year I tried an online game called CTRacer, it is a racing game the difference is it’s an online game.

"This is just a quick brief of CTRacer. I tried so many games these past weeks or so with different genres."

QUICK BRIEF OF WHAT IS CTRACER:

-"It’s an online racing game with a map to explore. Just imagine a RPG game where your character is not a being but a car, where your healing pots are not potions but gas stations, where your items/accessories are not clothes but engines/body kits/etc and where your map is a giant city with routes and highways to go. And yes just like an RPG you can take quest/mission either race with someone, destination points, hunt “speeding cars”(LOL) or challenge your co-racers (like a pvp equivalent). What I like in this game most (that made me try it) are the mountain courses that can make you remember “Initial D” (if you heard that). The mountain passes are all the same even the names are the same so yes I am a big fan of Takumi and I want to do the drifting just like he does on thoses mountain passes!"

ANYWAY BACK TO THE IMPRESSION:

-So I found out about CTRacer from an internet (thanks to surfing) and it has cool graphics so far. I started playing this game at OBT of CTRacer, play the courses, done some quest and missions then logout. The reason for logging out? Well, to be honest it has lots of hackers and I mean it! The records are like “WTF?! Is that even possible only 19 seconds to reach the goal??!!”

Just like me lots of racing fans got disappointed because of cheaters roaming around. We all know hackers are everywhere in any online games but the thing is the hackers at CTRacer are too obvious that you will end up cursing for playing fair but can’t have a fair players. There’s an old saying “If you can’t beat them, join them” along the line so now almost everyone (but not all) are hackers!! That time I expect the game will not last long and I was right! Later September only few are playing the game. The effects of hackers/cheaters really helped a lot in worsening the situation. It’s like a ghost town and I would love to draw ghost at the city roaming around to make it a realistic ghost city. The game did not meet the “fair play” that most players want making it a big EPIC FAIL in any racing online games.

So the GMs come up with a bright idea (sarcasm) and that is to reset the game AGAIN. This time they will be putting a hack preventing tool (Wow! You just thought about that now?) so hackers or 3rd party tools cannot get inside the game. They also made an event called “Ask the GM event” to drag the players to play the game, just ask the GMs anything like CT (currency in CTRacer), Mileage and stuffs. Just like the event title implies, you can ask anything and the GM will give it to you! (Except the Tech points which is equivalent to stat points of the car) This event lasted up to the day before the reset and after that all will start from scratch.

From what the announcement made by CTRacers, the Reset Date is October 6, 2009 (which is yesterday) and they will use HackShield services. I don’t know the difference of HackShield to GameGuard aside from the price but I hope it can wash away not all (because that’s impossible) but most hackers in-game.

I’ll try to play this game again and make a full review out of it maybe next-next week or so. For the meantime best of luck for me!!

NOTE: These are just my thoughts regarding this game, if you don’t agree that’s not my concern any more.

First Glance: Luna Online

2009-10-09T19:30:00.000-07:00

NOTE: This is just a quick glance of Luna Online. Next time I’ll be doing the full review of it with screenshots.

I got curious on the “farming system” like you can have a farm???Like harvest moon????It really made me wonder ended up downloading the game and because it's p2p I don't have to worry about fees for now. Well I love to play harvest moon because you must take care of your farm, plants, animals and stuff. So Luna Online made me think on how would the farming system goes in an online game.

After the download, I done some registration and stuff then started playing the game. Well, this is the 1st online game that I played were they announce your name throughout the whole server like “WTH?!I’m already busted? lol”

QUICK REVIEW:

-You can choose which race you want, a human or an elf. Regarding their appearances as expected Elves have bigger pointed ears while human is well human of course! You must also choose a job between the three available classes; Fighter, Mage and Rogue.

I decided to go with the mage thing because I want a healer type and mage is the closest job for it. After fixing my character’s name (like forever) I entered the game, play a bit, kill a (WTH? Is this a poring??) poring-look-a-like, done some quest and stuff (too many quest) then logout.

My 1st impression after playing the game in my 1st 5hours?? Well, the truth is I haven’t found out about the farming system. I want to ask around but the players are too busy to grind that you can’t talk to most of them. I found out I was in the area where newbies are so maybe the pro players are staying at a different town. If that’s the case then I need to login again next time to find out where it is.

Yep there are a lot of grinding here and the quest are piling up. I am not the type of person who wants to see quest notification at my window screen when I’m playing so I always finish the quest! The thing for now that keeps me playing this game is the emoticons, every time you say something like “hahaha” your character smiles. If you say “what is that?” your character’s expression becomes like thinking. Made me wonder what other emotions the character can do.

I wanted to find out about the following things you can do at Luna Online so I made a list before playing it and these are the result;

-Players can form Families and purchase farm to cultivate it.
(I still don’t know how so will play later to know)
- Dating System that would match your profile with other players in the game.
(date??you mean date?????? no idea)
- Auto looting after mobs kill
(yes! It’s fun when no one can grab your loots)
- Plenty of skills and quests
(sooooo many quest…)
- Aside from armor, you can also wear costumes.
(the chicken costume I found was nice..=_=)
- Transcend to over 40+ Jobs Classes with various combinations.
(too many jobs to choose!!)
- Fishing System
(don’t know yet)
- Craft System
(I tried it and the good thing is you don’t have to get the skill. It’s already a skill of your character)

I know there are guides lying around at the internet but I intend not to look at them (specially the farming system) because I want to be surprise on how can my character obtain it and if it has plants, animals etc. that you need to take care of.

This is all for now. My full review will be coming next week. I’m going to play this game for a while and find some friends, parties, explore the map more and add some stuffs. My client is gpotato by the way.

If anyone wants to try this I'm just lying around there wearing a chicken costume.

My review on Dragonica Online

2009-10-09T19:27:00.000-07:00

I've been playing this game quite a while now and I had fun playing my character magician. Yes, my job there is a magician. So I decided to make a review regarding it and thanks to matiasdk and Greed for comments I changed this a bit. This is my 1st time so I may have made some mistakes about making reviews but I'll improve this as I make more!

You don't expect innovative storytelling were when you start login the game you need to kill already or explore the map already or talk to the NPC before you know what to do or what your character's role is. In Dragonica you expect fairy tales alike. Forces of darkness, once-defeated and regathering power. It's like somewhere, something evil is preparing its return. But that's OK - while the dark forces are gathering power, it gives our hero a chance to go through a series of training montages. And what is an MMO, if not an infinite training montage?

This is the start of it, An evil forces awaken and YOU as a new forces of hero must gather strength to defeat the evil. Yes! It is like you're reading a fairy tale story at the same time you're the Hero. The feeling of while finishing some quest it's like your ending it per chapter. All the scenamatics are done per accomplished missions/quest, a never ending quest while leveling up awaits you, it's like you're really preparing you're character to be a Hero!

Dragonica can be best describe like a Maple Story but better. It's also a more fully-realized and good-looking 3D world and because (i love cute things..xD) if you love cute characters you should try this. It's a one-side scrolling and the attacks are fix, you don't have to click the monster all you have to do is click the skill and make sure you and the monster are aligned. You're movements are just left,right, jump, attack just like playing an old video game where you can't rotate 360 degrees. BUT even if it's a one-side movement the map is not like you could imagine, nope! It's not one straight road map, it really looks like a map! Thanks to the jump option where you can jump you're character to a different terrain! YES! There are different terrains to choose from per map and that made Dragonica "like" a 360 degrees exploration.

You patch the game then watch not the trailer but the story behind why YOU ARE NEEDED. Yes, It's pretty entertaining to see a movie 1st before playing the game. It's comes to the point that they need new heroes to defeat the enemy because the greatest evil has just escaped. After that you can choose what class/job you want. (Sorry on this part onwards my review will be just base on Magician class because that's currently ME right now.. =X hehe..)

There are four classes to choose from, two long range attackers (magician and archer) and two melee attakers (thief and fighter) note:The classes reminded me of ragnarok online though.. =X I think they look like these if ragnarok is a 3D, the fighter is pretty look like a knight. Well customization options include two genders, 10 hairstyles, 20 hair colours, and 10 faces. Leveling up boosts your stats automatically, leaving you with discretion only on how to spend your skill points on your class tree. A positive spin would be to call it accessible and fuss-free, but the truth is it's as shallow a character creation process as Gauntlet.

This game is currently an open beta by GPotato but they said once it's stable and bugs are fix they can put it to commercial launch. Well, luckily I have never encountered a bug yet.. @_@ The feeling of playing an old game (example: arcade, video, game boy etc) became more strong as you play Dragonica is because of the "THIS WAY" note that appears on the right side of you're screen once you killed all the monsters at the mission zone and yes you guessed it right the boss monster is next!

Regarding the controllers there is a beginner guide at the start of the game once you play it. It will teach you what to do or how to jump, attack etc before you can go at the nearest town. The controllers are simple and it's like you don't need the mouse at all. Almost everything is based on the keyboard like playing an rpg console game on your pc. With regards to combat it's really simple and not much of graphics but its not that bad too.

The only problem I have at Dragonica is the party mission. Well, not all the time I can find someone to help me when it's a party mission required or to find someone that has the same quest as you. That part is a no-no to me. But if you love party type games then this is one of the example games you can play. Some quest/mission need a party (which really sux on my side coz I sux on getting party members.. =X) But what can I do? Every quest/missions you finish you get up to 4 items depending on the performance of you're character. It's like a school ranking actually where they rank you A,B,C performances. At level 20 you can choose a different class.. NOTE:LIKE A RAGNAROK AGAIN per 1st job class you can choose two jobs go. Well, I choose the healing type of course.. =X Anyway, I don't have pictures of my character because this is a sudden review but next time I'll post my character 's pictures. And I love my character because she has a cold face expression which is not a type to heal others easily lol!

You also have a mission dragon quest called "test of love" at first it's like what kind of a test is that? But, it's just a killing monster mission quest. IDK why they think to call it that.. =X This is a F2P game so expect to use cash coins for some items.. Well, I'm sorry I dont buy from cash shops so I can't put more details to it because I haven't tried it yet. Regarding the clothes its a gender fix so make sure to buy the right gender clothes for your character. You can't crossplay here sorry..

This is just my comment/opinion though! Any violent reaction please make your own thread for it.

Just give her the Darn leek!! DX

2009-09-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

Technology....

We are advancing fast and here in our place technology is so hard to reach.

I saw this cute AR figure of Miku a popular character in Japan.

It is so cute that I want to have one!! ^o^

First time blogspot user!

2009-08-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Hello! You can call me Princess Doll (been using this nickname these past few months) and this is my first time to use a blogspot. Actually I'm pretty relieved that this site is easy to navigate. I'm having troubles on any site that is too techical for my brain to handle. Well even so, searching through the internet is one of the best options to choose when you can't understand something.

And yep this is me during MCC 2009 at megamall. This was taken by Aya Freya at the excalator. This is my latest favorite picture and I am happy with the result. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect to cosplay that time. It was a last minute decision and with the support/help by my clanmates our cosplay became possible.

The sad part is noone noticed who we are cosplaying. I can understand that because it is not popular here in the Philippines right now. It is not an anime "yet" so only manga readers would know who we are. Our group is cosplaying "Fairy Tail" and my character is Mirajane. Maybe I should have chosen Mirajane's TakeOver skill so someone may notice us haha! :D

I'll be blogging random thoughts and knowledge from now on. Please support me and be patient in every article/blog that I will post in the near future. Hope noone will react violently. You can see/read all the quest I have done so far regarding cosplaying, animes, mangas, games and societies. Feel free to surf and read it!

I accept violent reactions too. Err... well hope noone does that. ^^