Of closures and new stuff

Yep, it's me again, ready to deliver what's going on in the online gaming scene... ^^

Let me start with two new updates:

First up, I'm sure all Grand Chase players in the Philippines are excited about the coming of Sieghart's fourth job: the Prime Knight. 

The loading screen during the Prime Knight release in Korean servers

Here's some info about the class from the official news statement in the official GCPH website:

When the war against the forces of evil spread throughout Bermesiah and beyond, the gods soon realized that the mortal world was in peril. And so, they summoned the best knights from all over the world, looking for the few to be granted awesome powers for use against the coming threat.

It was then that Sieghart caught the eye of the gods because of his dedication to his cause, and his devotion to training and honing his skills to become the best that he can be. After a series of grueling trials and tests, Sieghart finally returned as a Prime Knight, wielding the authority of the gods as the most powerful kind warrior in the world!

As a Prime Knight, Sieghart uses the Executioner sword, blessed by the Sun and Moon. To wield Executioner, one must gain the approval of both Sol and Luna, and become the Primus of the Executioner, to use its full power. Don’t let its immense size fool you, it’s actually made up of two separate swords, allowing Sieghart to attack the enemy with quick swipes and strikes to catch evildoers off-guard!

In addition, Sieghart gets an upgraded Rage ability, increasing the number of hits he can do with normal and Rage attacks, and increasing the power of his attacks to staggering levels. Very few classes survive a battle with a Raging Prime Knight!

The Grand Chase has now tapped into the fury of Sieghart the Prime Knight!

Join them in their quest to rid the world of evil once and for all!

Yep, that description alone got all GCPH players all pumped up for the upcoming challenge, espcially with events to celebreate the Prime Knight's arrival... ^^

Check out this link for more info.

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Next on the list is the arrival of a new MMORPG, Battle of the Immortals, developed by Perfect World Shanghai and published in the PH by Cubizone Philippines. Currently in Open Beta, it boasts itself to be very different due to its unique avatar customization system, the pet & mount system, unique quests designed to give more than just exp. points, and even the wedding system and the so-called Realm of Love.






Check out the official website if you're curious and itching to know more... ^^

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But sadly, while there are new arrivals, there are also farewells, like Nostale Global going to shut down this month. As you all know, Nostale is one of the MMOs brought to us by E-Games, but it's actually on a global server and not the common misconception that E-Games is the one publishing it separately as a local game. According to the statement found in the Gamedok Chronicles, there will be a celebration of the server closing festival before the servers finally shut down for good.


Look here for the complete news regarding this matter.


Well, anyway, that's all for this day... Gotta hit the sack now! ZZZZzzzz

About the growth (and demise) of MMORPGS in the PH

Nowadays, MMORPGS are one of the popular sources of entertainment for Filipinos, as well as one of the most popular business opportunities, with the growth of Internet cafes and game publishers. Online gamers would flock at their favorite gaming spots and spend lots of time grinding and doing quests to fortify their characters, no matter what attack style they would be. More importantly, MMORPGs are also a way to socialize, with chatting and forming parties with friends and fellow players.

The MMORPG phenomenon started with Ragnarok Online, published by Level Up! Games, way back in 2003. Although not many people play the game like it used to be back in the early years, it was still marked as a unforgettable memory and still garnered a strong following, with lots of updates to keep it going.

More importantly, Level Up! Games now has a long list of online games for players to enjoy, including Flyff (formerly under NetGames Inc., which is now disbanded), Grand Chase, Hello Kitty Online, Perfect World, Rohan Online, and even KOS: Secret Operations, its first MMOFPS. It even brings international games to Pinoys, like Neo Steam, Silkroad Online and Deco Online.

From one online game publisher, others decided to step up to the competition, like E-Games. E-Games also managed to attract attention like its predecessor, with RAN Online as its debut MMORPG. And now, it still continues to entice gamers with Cabal Online, Dragonica, Runes of Magic, Nostale, Granado Espada, Audition Dance Battle, OP7, and its newest titles, Superstar (karaoke) and Band Master (instruments). And so there you have it, many more publishers will soon be coming, and still counting.

But if there are more online games coming into the spotlight, there are other online games reaching their end, which led to their ultimate demise. If you ever checked Alcarcalimo's post about the closing of Lineage 2 SEA here, and even the latest news about ZX Online's upcoming shutdown here, you'll get my point. I know it's melancholic, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.


So there, now you understand what is like to be a customer in the online gaming market, whether you're a hardcore gamer, casual player, or itching to try something new. I hope this will open your eyes to enjoy the life of an online gamer

The start of my PW adventure...

I was finally able to try out PW a while ago. After the downloading the patch (which lasted for about 12 hours, and it took overnight to finish since I started it last night), installing it and updating the patch, I started logging in to Tiger server and created a character (more on that later.). It really took me a while to customize my avatar because of the good-to-the-last-detail customization feature, but at least the output's not that bad. After adjusting her features and adding a name (In fact, I was frustrated because of my name suggestions being used up already by others), I logged out first, logged back in and started my adventure in the world of Pangu.

One thing I first noticed when I was sent to the starter town is the help pop-out window. Since I'm just a newbie there, I had no choice to read it, since it also served to orient me on how to get used to the game. After completing my first two quests, I was awestruck by the time I reached Sword City. It was because of the design of the buildings and landscapes, as well as the background music(kudos to Toni Gonzaga for the song used as the PW theme song... ^^), and believe me, there were lots of people hanging around there as well.

Well, just like my previous favorite game, Cabal Online, PW was loaded with lots of quest for players to accomplish. In fact, they really help in leveling up, learning new skills and even in attaining important items, because of experience, yuan, soul & item reawards. Later on, I'll focus on leaping and learning craft skills.

By the way, if you want to look for me in Tiger server, my avatar's name is Elegeia, a Human Wuxia. Elegeia is one of the Greek words used as the origin for the word elegy, which means a mournful song or poem (one of my naming suggestions.). In fact, I was really happy that I chose that name for her. Here's the picture of my character:

From perfect world

That's what I've experienced from the game so far. See you guys there! ^^

At least all hope's not lost...

I've just had another chat with Alcarcalimo a while ago via Windows Messenger, and he said to me that he was able to play Lineage 2 again because he just downloaded and installed the Nvidia driver for his graphics card. The graphic bug was the reason why he ceased to play the game (Look at my very first post with the link of his story to know why.). It was really a bittersweet relief for me to know that he finally got the remedy for that problem. Why bittersweet? Well, here are the reasons:

- He just tried playing in Blackbird server, which is somewhat a shame for me since we're both in Aria
before the loophole occured, and he's still not in the mood to go back there because of the tension
experienced while he was on the way to become a Bladedancer.

- His Soulshot Dependency Syndrome was not yet fully recovered.

- I have just spent P50 to buy the LU! card to buy credits so that I would start packing up on item
mall purchases by the time I'll start playing Perfect World.

Right now, I'm still thinking of names that I'll use for my characters in PW. I've thought of using words that depicted sorrow, pain and other deep emotions as names, and he suggested me to a link that would help in choosing names for my avatar. The reason behind this is that names must not be too long (not more than 10 letters). If you want to see the website, look here:

http://www.fantasynames.net

Because of these reasons, I'll be looking forward to the day in which my online gaming spirit will ignite once again. But in the meantime, I'm currently installing PW in my PC, and I might go back to continue playing L2 to experience more about the Gracia patch.

That's all for now, doodlez... ^^

Going to try out PW

Since I have no other option to keep my online gaming spirit from dwindling, I decided to try out PW, suggested by fellow XFire chatmate Alcarcalimo. I just bought the installer CD yesterday in Megamall, and so I installed it. But there are errors while I'm installing it because of decompression problems in some files. I tried it again for a few times, including a while ago after I installed the Frost City manual patch. But still, the results were the same.

Since I have no choice but to delete the files (again). I'm currently in exasperation at this moment. I'm planning to be a Wuxia in Tiger server since he's there as well. I have no choice but to download the whole manual patch the hard way, but I'll do it some other time.

By the way, if you want to read about his travels in PW, look here:

http://perfectworldphils.blogspot.com

That's all for now... ^^