Good grief. It's a pretty good thing that I decided to try downloading Granado Espada again. This is one of the (if not the) most interesting and enjoyable MMORPGs I have ever played, and I'm only about 3 hours into it. The game itself has some very interesting and unique features, including but not limited to, the MCC (Multiple Character Control) system.

This is possibly the brightest single idea ever implemented in an MMORPG. It actually makes your MMORPG a non-single-player game. The system allows you to control more than one character at a time. There are simple and complex ways of controlling your characters, everything ranging from a simple press of the space bar to make all three of your characters attack anything they see, to micromanaging each unit so that they can be killing different things at a time.

The system gives the game a bit of a RTS feel to it. If you're good at micromanagement, you can fight monsters much tougher than you should be able to, and even survive swarms of enemies.

Another fun thing to note is that the female elementalist, which is my favorite character now, has a British accent, which, as I may have mentioned before, I find very sexy in women. It's good too, because most Korean-made games that feature character voices have either poorly recorded or unnatural-sounding voices, or voices featuring Koreans speaking in poor English. In this game, the voices (including the western accents such as Spanish and British) sound pretty natural.

The music is also wonderful. They have some stuff from SoundTeMP (the people who brought us the BGMs from Ragnarok Online), and other brilliant composers and musicians. The music can really set the mood for each area, and it doesn't grow tiring or mind-numbing even after listening to it playing in the background for hours (though I'd recommend lowering your sounds anyway, if you're gonna leave it on for hours).

Lastly, I found it surprisingly not as choppy as I expected, for a huge game with awesome graphics, textures and detail, and a minimum resolution of 1024 x 768 (a resolution that usually causes major choppy graphics problems on my low-end game PC; I run best at 800 x 600 or less). This is a major plus factor for the game, because even if they spent a lot of time working on making the game look good, they didn't forget about those of us that don't have monster PCs with the 2 GB or more RAM and the 256 MB video cards and all that.

Unfortunately I have to get to work, otherwise I'd be playing GE until the morning, or at least leaving the characters on to level up by themselves, which is an automatic feature (space bar, like I said). The downside to this is you can't pick up any loot, so if a rare item happens to drop from one of the monsters you killed this way while AFK, too bad. D:

Anyway I love this game so much. I give it a score of 6 out of 5 stars.

Oh man. First we watched the end of Heroes season 1 yesterday. Pure awesome.

Next, Hayate no Gotoku episode 8 subtitled was released by Static-Subs/Eclipse. I haven't watched it yet, but I will probably by tomorrow (downloading something else).

Manabi Straight episodes 10, 11 and 12 subtitled all released within the same week by Eclipse. The ending is very sad, especially if high school was a memorable time to the watcher, which it was for me.

Lucky Star episode 7 released by AFK. Gonna download it tomorrow or the day after, too, along with Hayate no Gotoku.

Maria-sama ga Miteru OVA episode 4 (raw) scheduled for the end of this month, or so I've heard. Looking forward to that as well.

Granado Espada has been in Pre-Open Beta Testing since May 17th, whatever that means. It's like a post-alpha kinda thing, eh? In other words, supposedly less bugs than an alpha, but more than a beta? I dunno lol. Anyway the installer is 3.6 GB (good grief!). I'd already downloaded it once, but I made the mistake of downloading the entire 3.6 GB in one file. Chance that there was a power fluctuation in the middle of it, so the file ended up being corrupted, thereby wasting about 45 hours of my precious internet download time. So here I am, downloading it again, this time getting them piece-by-piece, so that if I get a fluctuation or a corrupted file, I only have to download about 700 MB, instead of the whole stupid 3.6 GB.

Btw, I wonder why the installer is so huge... I think I remember Mikey saying that there's a lot of media files like talking and stuff, but even so, 3.6 GB is overkill, don't you think? It's only a pre-open beta. But whatever, as long as the game is good, I guess.

Listening to:
平野 綾 - God Knows
平野 綾 - Lost My Music

Yeah I'm in one of those looping music moods. These are the songs I was talking about that I heard in Haruhi episode 12. I probably don't have to mention it again, but I will anyway: these songs are plain awesome.

Additionally, as we all know, Konata in Lucky Star is a MMO gamer. And all the references made in the show about MMORPGs in particular got me to remember why I was looking for MMORPGs, and how much fun they were. Because the only online game I play currently is SCO, which isn't really the same thing (although awesome), I really miss the old-fashioned MMORPG setting. You know, where you party up with a group of people into a dungeon. You have tanks and pullers, AoE damagers and healers, and stuff like that. Then when you finally beat the boss, or when you get a rare item, you go back to town and celebrate. Although I can do a translated version of that stuff in SCO, it feels absolutely different.

So I'm on the road to look for a casual MMORPG again, if such a thing even exists. Frankly, I have one in my sights right now. A MMORPG that I've heard about and been keeping my eye on for a long time now (over a year) called Granado Espada. As of right now it's in its Pre Open Beta Testing phase, whatever that is. It looks like fun, with original systems of gameplay (controlling more than one character at a time is awesome, said my friend Mikey who got to playtest it before). It also has the traditional MMORPG elements such as the basic classes; tanks, pullers, AoE casters and healers. I'll probably play it when it goes into open beta.

But first I need to free up some HD space. I'm looking to buy a DVD burner over the weekend so I can burn all this new anime I got lol. Only 248 MB free on my other HD, and under 8 GB left on my main. Tsk tsk.

Though I still have two episodes to go, this has turned out to be my favorite episode of Haruhi so far. It also features possibly their best animation, even if the entire series did pretty well throughout.

This is an episode where Haruhi and Yuki perform as stand-ins for a band at their school festival. The animation for the whole sequence was just awesome. It was timed very well, and they made it look like they were really playing (correct chords, hitting the right drums at the right time). Even drawing the sweaty Haruhi (like hair sticking to face) made it somehow feel like you really were watching a live concert.

That's not even mentioning yet that the songs they played were awesome. I like those kinds of songs, which is why I liked Judy and Mary. The lyrics were very nice and thoughtful, and the arrangement is excellent. Even the solo guitars part brought me goosebumps.

Finally, it's an episode where we see a more human side of Haruhi for a change. Tsuruya also gets some screen time, which is awesome. :D Wee.

There's this awesome new show I'm watching called Heroes. It's... so amazing. And no I'm not going to look for media about it online because I don't want spoilers. And that's all I'm going to say about it for now.

Additionally, I'm also watching Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi). It's a little late; I know I should've watched this sooner. It's so awesome. Haruhi is insane. D: I'm up to episode 4 (downloading more episodes as I go).

WinD's fansub of Lucky Star episode 4 came out a few days ago. I'm told AFK has up to episode 5 out now, but I prefer WinD's work. I might download episode 5 just for a fix, but when WinD comes out with theirs, I'm getting that.

I downloaded a raw version of Manabi Straight episode 10. And it was awesome, too. I'm thinking of downloading more raw episodes, but they're not too easy to find, especially if I'm a little hesitant to do so.

I'd just finished the series (end credits rolling as I type this). It was an awesome story, with awesome characters. The flow of the story was more realistic than typically ideal (as in important characters don't show up until later in the story), though, which is not a bad thing. I'm talking about the characters and how often they were seen, or how important they were portrayed. For example, Yomiko, whom I thought was the star of the story, didn't appear until well after the halfway mark. Nenene, whom I thought was the star judging from the beginning of the story, didn't turn out to have that big of a role either, in comparison to others. This is the way real-life stories go, though, which is why I said this is not a bad thing.

Now... to look for a version of episodes 24-26 with sound, because the versions I watched were corrupted or something apparently (this is the version from RealityLapse.com). They have no sound. It's been reported already to them, though.

Also I need to look for Read or Die. Yomiko's an interesting character. Nancy's personality is muchly unexpected (I thought she'd be the 'cool' type).

I'm just now watching Read or Die The TV, and to show how little I know about the series, I didn't know that this is a sequel to Read or Die (or that the two series were actually two different stories). So I'll have to look for Read or Die somewhere. Thanks to the people at RealityLapse.com, which is where I downloaded it.

Anyway the story is pretty cool. It's not as spectacular or clever as something like Ghost in the Shell (one of my all-time favorites), but the characters are lovable enough to make up for it. So far I seem to like every character, except for the bad guys (I can't say much without spoiling, but let's just say I don't like any of the bad guys except maybe for Junior.) It's funny though, that I'm only now watching this anime, considering how in the world of image boards Yomiko Readman is hailed as the queen of all meganekko, and I happen to be a fan of meganekko. Even Nenene is wearing glasses here, which makes her even cooler.

Other than that, after neglecting to do so for a long time, I'm going back to writing my story. I'm torn amongst all sorts of things, so much that I feel like starting from scratch again. So I was having second thoughts on whether or not I should write about it in this blog entry, but I guess I should, so that whenever I look at my blog, I'll remember that I'm supposed to be writing.

P.S.: Part of the reason I decided to go back to writing was because Nenene is a writer in the story, and she was at a point where she couldn't write anything, but suddenly got inspiration after hearing the story of Michelle, Maggie and Anita. So there, after seeing Nenene write, I suddenly got motivated to write too.

This is not so much a rant but rather, an observation. And I'm also a Filipino, and being in many online communities, games in particular, where Filipinos abound has allowed me to witness these things unfold. So don't think I'm talking without purpose or evidence.

Filipinos are known world-wide, sadly, as being the worst kind of online-gamer, mainly because of a few internet habits they picked up and passed on to each other. I'm not sure from where this stems, if it's a lack of netiquette from only making internet games widespread so late (only began around 2003), or if it's really just a bunch of popular people in particular games that act so hideously that the new players think it's cool to act the same way.

I'd just come out of playing Rakion (SEA server), which is, as you can imagine, primarily Filipino in population. It's exactly what Filipinos want: mindless killing. And it's loads of fun. The only reason I think it isn't catching on too well and spreading like wildfire is that not a lot of Filipinos have good connections. And being a fighting game, speed and latency is of the utmost importance. So some Filipinos have 128 or 256 kbps connections, and can only connect to people within the same area or circuit (myself included).

Anyway, the last game I had was muchly enjoyable. This is the game I'd just finished. There were two people who were probably friends or acquaintances in-game and/or in real life. When I entered the room they decided to team up on me. That's completely fine by me, in reality. And it was lots of fun because even if it was two characters teaming up just on me (an archer and a ninja, while I used a ninja), they seemed to have a hard time killing me. And when they did kill me, I saw it as a challenge and tried even harder to not get killed the next time. They had their rants here and there, cusses and saying that I'm "weak" (a Filipino habit), and saying "asa" (literally means "hoping", but in-context it could mean something like "You WISH!"; another Filipino habit that I'll explain a bit more later), and saying "walang iyakan" ("don't cry [if you get killed]"). As usual, I try not to pay attention to anything, and just do my job of beating them up. But the archer kept making the mistake of doing the invincible attack, which, if it misses, leaves the character completely vulnerable to any kind of attack for two (2) whole seconds. And in reality, my play style is more of a punisher, that is, I like to punish missed attacks with a grab-attack, which is the ninja's specialty.

So anyway, it turns out the dude playing the archer really got pissed after I killed him repeatedly in that way. It's not like I was dominating or anything. I think the kills were still evenly matched. This even after some other dude came in and semi-teamed up with me. The archer dude likes to come up and do the invincible attack, which would've been devastating to everybody in the area, and is likely to hit because basically you run into the crowd while the crowd is fighting each other. However, I don't do crowds. And guess who was there to punish the archer after the attack? This really pissed him off, which was in no way my intention of course; it's really just how grab ninjas are played. So he started venting his anger directly at me, saying I was "sawsaw" (the word literally pertains to somebody dipping in the dip of other people. It literally means "to dip". Used in games, it pertains to kill-stealing, or joining in the fight of other people, including backstabbing like what I do). I acknowledge the fact that I did "sawsaw", but the game is free for all, and in reality the archer was the first to jump into that crowd and try to kill both other players first. I find it weird that somebody that is "sawsaw" would have the thinking that he can do it, but others mustn't do it to him.

And so, pointing that out to him, which was probably a mistake, possibly pissed him off even more. He and his partner, who was getting his ass kicked by the other player, started calling me weak, useless, etc. I didn't mind of course. The archer then switched characters to a warrior, which is, if you ask me, the weakness of ninjas, because of their fast, powerful and wide-sweeping regular attacks (their 3-hit regular attack combo , which is done by a simple triple-click, does even more damage than my much-more difficult to perform grabs). So he proceeded to kick my ass. I'm serious, he really handed me my ass there, and I even congratulated him. But even my complements made him angry. I tried not talking at all, except to say that I was getting sleepy since it was 3 AM, and everything I said made him angry, making him say stuff like "takot ka lang" ("You're just scared") or "weak ka kasi". Still, I chose not to let any of these things piss me off. Instead I said, "Siyempre takot ako, magaling ka e" ("Of course I'm scared, you're very good"), followed by a reassurance that I'm not saying that in a patronizing way, that I really found him to be a good player (because the majority of warriors I fight really suck so bad that I can poke them repeatedly and they wouldn't kill me, but I didn't state this to him).

Anyway to end that story, I left there feeling a little sad because they turned what could've been such an awesome game of kicking each others' asses into an insult-fest. I'm pretty sure they were waiting for me to return fire, lose my cool, or rant in front of them because they teamed up on me pretty much the whole way. They were probably waiting for me to start cussing them, or say that they're unfair or whatever. I admit the whole ordeal seriously hurt my pride, especially knowing how the old me would've reacted. If it were me 3 or 4 years ago, like back in the days of Philippine Ragnarok Online, where people knew me as being unforgiving, violent, and frightening, with my ability to type very quickly. And I could type entire sentences full of rants and cursing (not just cussing, actual curses like "I hope you die in your sleep tonight. You and your entire family" and other terrible things) before the object of my anger could even finish reading the last sentence I typed. But I'm actually surprised at myself now, for how well I kept my cool. I tried hard but it was worth it. If I'd pronounced a curse like that, and that guy and his family actually died, it would be on my hands. Instead, I tried to act friendly even in the face of hostility. And if the other guy who was playing with us found that to be admirable in the least, or if I continue doing that and people take notice, then maybe I can make a change in Philippine Online Gaming for the better. And maybe foreigners wouldn't hate us so much when we invade their games.

Side notes:
Asa
I have reason to believe that it was my friend Francis (a.k.a., Krelian, the ultra support priest in our guild back in Philippine Ragnarok Online) that first coined this term in online gaming back in 2003. They would say it in PVP after they kill somebody. It's somewhat degrading, but he always made it sound like a joke. In other words, he wasn't necessarily disrespecting his victims (if he said it to me the same way he said it before, I wouldn't have gotten offended). The term spread quickly in its proper usage, but now, almost four years later, the term is now being incorrectly used. Now even the people who lose say "asa", something which I don't understand. It's like saying... "YOU WISH YOU COULD KILL ME" when he's already standing on top of your corpse. Or saying "YOU WISH YOU COULD DEFEAT ME" when he obviously schooled you. I guess it's just so convenient to say, seeing how you only need one hand to type it, and in many cases, for the lazy typist (like 99.999% of all internet people), just one finger.

Sawsaw
I first heard of this term in Counter-Strike, another game that was (and still is) very popular in the Philippines. As I said it means kill-stealing. I'm not sure why this is an issue in CS except that a lot of players think of the game as a one-on-one kind of thing, where everybody is rambo, and he has to kill the guy right in front of him, and nobody will help him, nor the other guy. So they get pissed, and even kick you off servers sometimes when you "sawsaw".

Weak
The term is pretty literal. But people will say it as an insult even if it isn't true. Like people saying players that killed them are weak (similar to the case of "asa", which I don't fully understand myself).


One more thing I observed is that Filipinos like hogging or dominating a game. This doesn't necessarily mean they become the strongest. Just that many Filipinos will look for other Filipinos, band together, treat the game as if it's a Filipino server, by speaking in Filipino, and even insulting or cussing in Filipino, to people who don't speak the language. I find nothing wrong in it if they want to do it amongst themselves, but they have to realize that they're on international servers, and if they're going to communicate with somebody they don't know is a Filipino, they should do it in English. If they find out the person is a Filipino, then it's fine to speak in Filipino with him. They should be considerate of those who don't speak the language.

Lastly, I hope Filipinos outgrow this childish behavior. It's much more fun to make a lot of friends (I mean actual friends, like what happened to me and my guild from pRO; we still talk a lot even if it's been 4 years since we've played together), rather than people to say "asa" and "weak" and hurl insults at other people repeatedly with. Even more fun than making enemies.

I'll have to reread this for congruency. My apologies for anyone who reads this, because it's 4 AM by now, and I'm really sleepy. D:

Now Listening To: Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go! - Yo! Brother

Yeah I was looking around the web (websites, WinMX and Limewire) for some songs from old anime that I miss. I found some of the songs I was looking for, including what I'm listening to now and:

Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go! - Flesh & Blood
Bakusou Kyoudai Let's & Go! - Winning Run
Fushigi Yuugi - Tokimeki no Doukasen
Monster Farm - Flame of Love
Eto Rangers - Aitakute

I'm looking for other songs from the same time period. It's kinda hard because a lot of this stuff is forgotten and not many people even have them anymore.


In other news, I'm anime tripping again lol. Hayate no Gotoku episodes 4 and 5 (joint project of Eclipse and Static-Subs) came out within one week of each other, and Lucky Star episode 3 came out by two different fansub groups (I like WinD's work). I'm also downloading GTO, because I like the anime and it's been a good 2 years since I last saw it.