I'm moving there. I feel that Blogger is not keeping up with the times, and that its functionality is very limited.
Updates stopped for this blog. Last post 20 August 2013.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Well, its been one of the more eventful birthdays I've had so far. I got a slice of cake early in the morning from the class, complete with a birthday song and a candle to blow. For some reason, I also had more people wishing me happy birthday than I expected. Thanks everyone.
posted @ 6:58 pm
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Well look at that. In the past 7 days, I played for 73 hours. Beat that. Well, I spent most of the time AFK in Neo Steam. Lol. The real amount of time I actually spent playing is about 10-15 hours in that week. This screenshot was taken on Friday.
posted @ 10:24 pm
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Well I've been playing a lot of Neo Steam lately. Xfire says I've played for 39 hours in just 3 days, but most of that time is actually spent AFK (there's a mechanic that lets you AFK to earn training points, TP).Like I said two posts ago, this game is based on a steampunk setting, meaning that its somewhat like the 1800s where steam engines and stuff were used. You rarely see games featuring the 1800s era, so its pretty refreshing from all the futuristic and fantasy that floods the MMORPG scene. There are two nations in the game, Elerd and Rogwell. According to the descriptions, Elerd is the nation of magic, and Rogwell is the nation of science. Well, since I'm rather sick of fantasy and decided that I need a break, I chose Rogwell. Apparently, Rogwell is also the nation that's less populated, and the highest level character is an Elerd as well. That doesn't really bother me since I've been part of the Alliance in World of Warcraft for years, with 60% of the server being Horde. Besides, Rogwell gets a nicer symbol, and Rogwellians like to make a comparison with the USSR and communism. By the way, Rogwell is also known as the Republic of Rogwell, and some call it USRR or Mother Rogwell.
Rogwell= 
Anyway, I currently have a level 17 Justicular (think paladin in WoW), and a level 24 Sorcerer (mage). I actually started my Justicular as my first character, but I changed to Sorcerer instead. I didn't want to be in the healing or tanking role. I have to admit, this is a game where you have to grind, but so far, the grinding isn't anything too bad. The quests are actually rather interesting, as there are few quests that are merely "kill X and loot Y". So far, I've had quests where I had to go around interrogating people to find the suspected embezzler, I've had to attack an NPC of the opposing faction, I've went around to knock tombstones in the correct order so that I can obtain a quest item, and I've also sat in a siege machine to kill NPC Elerds. If you are me, the quests are better than those in Runes of Magic, and sad to say, WoW. However, that's not a fair comparison, because I can never do a special quest in WoW due to the private server's limited capabilities. Here are some pictures of the siege machine. I tried getting a screenshot of the machine shooting, but I couldn't seem to get the exact moment. =(
Also, Neo Steam has their own method of getting around places, and that is to use Steam Balloons. Here's a picture.
If you're wondering why the main object (me) is so much sharper and more detailed than the surroundings, its because I've set the settings to look that way.The focus on PvP in this game is very strong. PvP can be done anywhere, but there are some restrictions. If you're in enemy territory, you can only attack enemies who attack you, and if you're in PvP territory, its free for all. There are three main locations in the game, and that is the Elerd Kingdom, and Rogwell Kingdom and Riall. The first rule of PvP that I stated belongs to the two Kingdoms, although there are some PvP areas in the Kingdom itself. Riall is a full PvP area, except for the main town that's in it.
The community is great too. Whenever I log on, I love to read the world chat. Its funny, and its helpful (yes, it amazingly is). Actually, world chat amazes me. The moment someone starts swearing and making sensitive comments such as racism and stuff, another guy will come up and start to make peace. That peacemaker won't actually start scolding him, but he'll kind of say that "you should stop" and stuff like that. The thing is, most of the time, they actually do stop. And actually, I realised that I'm actually using the word actually too many times in this paragraph. So, I think I'll actually stop.
Well, so far, my experience in this game has been great. I'm not very sure if I'll actually want to play as a sorcerer as a main, since a sorcerer is kind of a squishy, though sorcerers do craploads of damage. I just find it tiring to watch both mana and health, especially since I have a skill that converts health into mana. I'd prefer a character that can go on killing with little rest. The thing that's really holding me onto the sorcerer is the fact that they should own in PvP, as long as they can stay away from enemies. At least that's what I think, I've never really heard such a concession or experienced PvP before. Maybe I should make a DPS warrior. Sigh, I am such an altoholic.
I ramble too much.
posted @ 11:45 pm
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Sunday, June 21, 2009
God of War. Everyone loves the action. Here's some nice and bloody action for you. And lol at around 8:55.posted @ 12:43 am
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Saturday, June 20, 2009
Right. About a week left before I go back through the gates of doom, to the capital of hell.Anyway, I've gone back to using Firefox. I was testing the two a few days ago and I realised that Firefox actually lags less, instead of what I've said when I changed to Opera. I guess the only real good thing about Opera is that it launches a lot faster than Firefox. I've gotten rid of some not so useful addons to try to increase the startup speed, and I have to say its a lot better now.
I'm also currently playing Neo Steam. Its your usual MMORPG, just that its based in a steampunk setting. I'm kind of getting sick of it already, as classes are horribly balanced as with all free MMORPGs out there. Is WoW and Guild Wars the only MMORPG's I've played without retardedly unbalanced classes? Sigh. This class imbalance is also the reason why Runes of Magic isn't in my computer anymore.
I went to Sentosa for a class outing on Monday, and seriously, I'm never going to Sentosa ever again. I was never an outdoor person, am not, and will most likely never be one. Besides, who the hell goes to Sentosa when the temperature feels like 39°C? Besides, I actually never wanted to go for the outing. No idea what made me go. Annoying. Waste of 6 hours of my life.
Just about 4-5 more months and I'll be free from the Singaporean education system. University deviates from the education system the most, so I guess that should be rather tolerable. But even then, it'll still be a rather horrible 4-5 months, since I'm still pretty screwed up with my studies and stuff. Sometimes I just wish I can start JC all over again, and pick better subjects, and get better teachers. Call me nuts, but maybe I'll take H2 Geography and H1 Biology, dumping H2 Chemistry and H1 Geography. Or maybe just H1 Chemistry. Chemistry can go burn in hell. Officially sick of Science. Science is stupid. Science is evil.
Hell, the best thing that could happen is to go to some western country to study. The only thing that would stop me is my family, since that's the only thing that I may miss. Food? Nah, Chinese food tastes like crap. Western food is the way to go. People? No thanks. I've had enough of Singlish, as well as rude, stuck-up people who don't know how to be a little more creative and flexible. Chinese-speaking people as well. Friends? I've never seen my friends ever since I've left Secondary school. I'm doing fine interacting over the Internet.
I've also read the posts in this blog that have been written before 2008. I realised that the tone of the posts are so much more lighthearted, so much happier and free. Ever since I entered JC, 90% of my posts are mostly rants and bitching about life. What's with the crap that JC is the best two years of a person's life? More like hell to me.
Sigh.
posted @ 12:04 am
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Friday, June 12, 2009
Unlucky me?
posted @ 9:37 pm
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Sunday, June 07, 2009
Like I said, I'll be writing a post on how Maplestory makes people think that games are shallow.
First, lets see what makes a game sophisticated, intellectual, and leaves a lasting impression on the player. Games like that usually have a solid storyline, with good character progression, a proper timeline and of course, a good plot. It doesn't necessarily need to have very challenging missions or achievements, but it needs to be enjoyable, and not frustrating. Also, it should be as immersive as possible, as that is where the video games genre shines the most. After all, we are advancing from books to movies to video games, where words become a fixed video, and the boundaries of that video is stripped off to give you a video game, where you become the main character.
Of course, not all games are made this way. Casual games are examples of games that cannot exactly feature such characteristics in a game. However, they do possess an entirely different set of features. Gameplay is definitely higher up in relation to the other aspects of such games, as they do not need to focus a lot of work on things I mentioned above. The gameplay has to be fun, enjoyable, difficulty rises on a progressive level, easy to grasp, and can be picked up to play anytime. Notice how the immersion factor is hugely reduced for such games.
Next, lets look at how Maplestory is played, as well as what it is (Maplestory 2 is in the works, by the way). As you should know, Maplestory is an MMORPG. You make a character, you start at level one, and you progress in the world of Victoria Island, leveling up, doing quests, and later you go on to more areas that you discover. That sounds pretty much like majority of MMORPG's out there, doesn't it? Well, the difference is that this form of gameplay is very poorly implemented into the game. Playing from level 1-40, I've only had one quest (party quest) out of a few hundred that wasn't about killing X monsters to get Y number of loot, or deliver items to people. Such quests are very inane in nature, and I'm pretty sure a chimpanzee can be taught to play it. Worse, the experience rates for the game is rather insane. You'd have to kill thousands, and maybe tens of thousands at higher levels just to gain a level. With a maximum level cap of 200, you'd have killed 100,000+ monsters in your lifetime.
Let's stop talking about the leveling, and move on to what a player can do. Hmm... socialise, kill world bosses, and doing party quests. You socialise in every MMORPG you play, so I'm not going to talk about that. Let's examine the part about killing bosses and doing party quests. Apparently, there's no real strategy or tactic that's needed in doing either of them. You just do them. Exactly. All you need is a bunch of potions to keep alive, and then you whack, run away, or jump.
Now, after examining the problems with Maplestory, let's see how it causes people to think that video games are stupid.
1. Apparently killing 100,000 creeps is really enjoyable and fun.
2. Bosses feel like a creep with 10x more health and 10x more damage.
3. You meet really immature people in Maplestory.
If people are brought into Maplestory and given such an idea of what a video game is like, of course they'll start stereotyping and generalising all video games. In my opinion, Tetris has more depth than Maplestory.
With no story, a repetitive gameplay, no sense of immersion at all, and childish-styled graphics to complement the game, casual players are tricked into thinking that the video game genre is going to be more or less similar to Maplestory, as Maplestory will be considered one of the bigger and "hardcore" games to them. They quit the game with a false idea of what video games are, do not go on to explore other games, and eventually label all video games as shallow.
posted @ 11:38 pm
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Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Ok, so its the holidays now, but that doesn't really mean I can start playing all day long. Got quite a lot of work to do.
Anyway, game update! I've completed Resistance: Retribution on the PSP about 2 weeks ago, just didn't say anything about it till now. Its a must-play if you have a PSP. The story is solid, and I really like how they implement automatic aiming for the game. I went ahead to try the multiplayer as well, and it works well too. It worked pretty smoothly without lag.
Now I'm playing Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce and Rock Band: Unplugged on the PSP. Dynasty Warriors isn't as good as I thought it would be, especially after having a lot of fun with Warriors Orochi. The epic scale of mass battles is not there anymore. The series is always about brainless hack and slash fun, but I think because Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce tried to make the game a little bit more intellectual, the fun just went poof. Its badly balanced as well. The game's missions are all designed for four players, but if you play single player mode, you'll have to cope with the difficulty. Also, the areas in multiplayer is dead empty. Pfft.
Rock Band: Unplugged is so far, the only good music rhythm game that I've played so far. Honestly, I've not played many music rhythm games on the PSP, but still, comparing with things like DJ Portable Max, Rock Band: Unplugged is much better. The songs are definitely much better than the stupid techo crap that comes with DJ Portable Max, although there are still some crappy songs in Rock Band.
I've I mentioned that I'm playing a druid in WoW now? Crap I just realised I need to write about Maplestory. Anyway, I am playing a druid now, and its already a level 80 Tauren. Yes, Tauren. Its one of the few Horde characters that I have. Also, I've also almost managed to hit the gold limit of 214k. I currently have about 205k gold. I've never imagined myself going over 10k gold, and now I'm actually going to hit the gold cap. For some reason, people are just buying raw materials off the auction house for insane prices, and while I was leveling, I managed to get hold of some of these raw materials. This, combined with the fact that the server keeps making used items appear back in your bag after a relog, made me a rich man. Not sure if I'm really rich though. 200k isn't worth much in a crazily inflated economy like this, and I've seen millionares around. Maybe I should make bank alts and horde more money.
Alright, enough about my riches. Back to my druid. As mentioned, the druid is the only hybrid class left for me to try. I haven't done a lot of hybrid work on the druid, simply because its quite a pain to change forms to use certain spells. I play a feral druid, so healing and fighting is not very viable. I'm intending to become a tank, since its the only role I've not played in a typical MMORPG group (DPS, tank, healer). Currently I have 14.5k unbuffed in bear form, and 16k armor (51% damage reduction). That's pretty horrible for a druid tank, since druid tanks are supposed to have the highest health and armor values out of all tanks. I've got a lot of work to do before I can tank proper bosses.
I've got stupid Tech Council tomorrow and Thursday. Its like from 10am to 6pm. The worst part is that we're just going to spend the whole day tomorrow to take pictures. These pictures are going to be used in the Virtual School Tour, which we are going to update. The stupid Virtual School Tour isn't even used or seen by anyone, and I bet 80% of people in ACJC don't even know it exists. Bloody waste of time tomorrow. At least we're going to learn some stuff on Thursday.
posted @ 11:09 pm
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