Celebrating Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, Philippines!

To celebrate one of the country's national holidays, I, along with my fellow Community Crew member Patronum, organized a small in-game get-together with the PH GE gamers. I started broading past 4PM to invite everyone for a fireworks display at the City of Auch in Channel 1 to commemorate the Philippine Independence Day.

I believe NineMoons made the same gathering last year, but this time, I was surprised to see so many people! Pinoys from Takhisis, E M I N E N C E and a few other factions were there, so were my good friends Vacciuolo (who finally went back to GE) and Trianna.

Instead of the usual fireworks thing, we decided to form a human "PH" sign at the city plaza. It took quite some time for us to rally the people to cooperate, but thanks mainly to Patronum's herding abilities (LOL), everyone managed to work together.

Here's some of the screenshots taken by Patronum:

And one pretty screenshot by Vacciuolo:

As for me, I was DC-ing so badly that I wasn't able to get any decent screenshots of my own. D:

Nonetheless, I'd like to thank all GE PH gamers who were present this afternoon, and even more so to the Malaysian players who joined in just for kicks! :D Thank you SO much for a successful gathering. :) Until the next one! ;)

Viva Las Islas Filipinas!

Domination III rules!

Late post is late. >_<

I’ve got about a dozen or so pics here about Domination III (pilfered from everyone else’s stash), so I’ll let the pictures do the talking. :D

All I can say is… Domination III rocked our socks off! It was great to meet some of the faces behind the family names!

For now, check out what happened...in vivid images. :p

Lines...as far as the eye can see...

There seems to be a lost soul...

Ah, there ya go.

CM Aethrin hosts the ABS Live activity. And no...there weren't watermelon skins, I swear!

CM Aethrin props up the stage for the PVP tournament.

Guess who wants to have an endless supply of watermelon skins. >:3

Ok, who wants a whole year's worth of Dried Maroon Grass?
I kid. This is teh trvia contest of doom.

But of course...Domination III wouldn't be complete without COSPLAYERS! GE had its fair share starting from those who just wanted to have fun on their own (or those who didn't join the cosplay contest)...

Yes. Cath's private stash of chocos was [this] big!

Cosplay. It. Be. Here.

Last year's Fire Elementalist got a wardrobe upgrade.

...to the brave souls who mustered their courage to ramp up the stage!

Too bad Phoenix Wings were removed in the Premium Treaure Box. T_T
Still, the Fighter in Beachwear sizzles!

Sweet Leticia...who's manning the cash shop?

Just for teh lulz...

It's Cornholio cosplaying as Spongebob.

Hand over the DHRs...now!

Factions and friends alike had their own EBs.

The (incomplete) PH CCrew team. Yes, it's Hakkyu Kim in the house!
Wait, wut?

The lovely ladies of Les Faction.

After the event, everyone else either went home or stayed for a couple of drinks and late dinner.

Omnomnomnomnomnom...

The All Star Faction in an all star booze session. With them are a few Le Conquistador members.
(Patronum bullied me to edit this. LOL.)

Photo credits:
Patronum
Ripclaw

Fresh blood & an invitation to D-Day!

Finally, the deliberations are over! I'd like to commend and congratulate the new batch of Community Crew!

• Arc
• Desmond
• Eleanor
• Glacie
• Kelvinator
• KUSABIREIKA
• Larg
• Miyu
• Remnants
• renn
• Sigisvult the Goth

I look forward to a fruitful working experience with you guys! ^^

And before I forget...it's only but 3 days left until e-Games Domination III! I hope you've all pre-registered for the event, because it would surely suck if you just spend the entire day in the line, right? Please do attend, and I hope to see new and familiar faces!

See you all this Saturday! :3

Event plugs for CCrew & Domination 3

I have 2 very important things to let you all know about. ^_^

March Community Crew Quest: A screenshot contest!

I'm inviting everyone to send their submissions for the March Community Crew Quest: Know the 7 Sins of Man! It's a pretty simple screenshot contest about the 7 sins, and we've already been flooded with a lot of entries. But we love viewing all your submissions, so do post yours if you haven't joined yet.

The lucky winner will win a whopping 70 ABS and a Grindstone back costume. ^_^

For contest mechanics and where to submit your entries, click here.

Contest ends on 31 March 2009, so don't think twice...join nao!

Domination 3 is but 2 weeks away! O.O

By next week it's going to be April already, and with that month comes the biggest event of e-Games, Domination III!

I just got word from CM Aethrin that he's inviting GE Bloggers to attend the event and write about the biggest gathering of GE gamers. And yes, he did say about giving away a few stuff here and there, so I suggest the dormant GE Bloggers to start clearing away the dust from their websites and to get ready for this action-packed event.

I won't reveal the exact prizes...I'll leave CM Aethrin to surprise you with that. ^_~

Hope to see you all on April 4 at the SMX Convention Center!

For more info about Domination 3, click here.

Rendezvous in Port of Coimbra

Over a week ago, my cosplay friends (also GE players) and I finally pulled off this small project that took almost a year in the making.

The girls already had their costumes done waaay before, and the reason why this project has ben delayed for the longest time was because of me. LOL. I wanted a new costume, so I took my sweet time getting Selva's clothes and props done.

I originally wanted to cosplay Selva back in last year's e-Games Domination II, but due to some circumstances, the costume was pushed back at a later date. In the end, I'm glad it was delayed because I had more time to hammer down the details to this really intricate but beautiful ensemble.

Anyway, our little photoshoot escapade was scheduled on the same day as the GE PH 2nd Community Gathering. I was forever anxious that day because the skies were overcast and there was an impending gloom with the weather. I certainly didn't expect Mother Nature's unpleasant disposition, and this made me nervous to the core.

We all planned to meet up at Lucido's (Brunie) place to have an early shoot in their lovely living room for the Barracks setting. But we all got there late, so we just stuck to the original plan, which was to shoot in Fort Santiago in Intramuros.

I'm glad I booked the place for our pictorial. RCM Hrin has been there before, and I highly agree with her that Fort Santiago can be likened to Port of Coimbra. The magnificent landscaping and awesome ruins make for a great Baroque-inspired setting.

Anyway, we arrived late again in the location (LOL Pinoy time XD), which meant we had little time left for the actual shoot. Dressing up in costume can take too much time as we had to make sure that everything's in place.

We met up with our other friends who are also our photographers, CryptSealer (an ex-Cervantes player) and Azartras (ex-Carraccian). Our long time friend, who I shall herewith dub as Anonymous Photographer-san, was also there to help stormseeks (Bernelli) and be photographer for a day as well.

Let me just say that it was so much strain for me to be cosplaying and taking photos at the same time. The costume didn't allow me to move around that much, hence I was limited to just shooting from a few angles. Thank God for photographer-friends who had awesome photo taking skills.

And since Fort Santiago is first and foremost a public park, we had scores of tourists fishing for their cameras and taking snaps of our group. There was quite a number of Korean tourists in the area, though we weren't sure if they're familiar with GE.

All in all, we had so much fun! Much thanks to the Intramuros Administration and the Park Administrator of Fort Santiago for being so gracious and accomodating. Much love as well to my cosplay buddies Lucido, Gatoblanca, stormseeks and to our awesome photographers!

There will most definitely be a part 2 of this!


And now, may I point you to this direction where I kill your browsers with photos. >:)

The Pirate Adelina

The Mistress of Pistols, Brunie Etienne

The bitter soul, Selva Norte

The Queen of Rifles, Grace Bernelli

Now we're done with the serious shots, let's take a look at the scenes we messed up. XD

Selva gets tips from Bernelli on how to properly wear the armshield.

This is how you do the poledance pose, noob!

Bernelli endorses Duty Free made lamp posts!


Photobombing is srs bsns.


OMG it's Man-Selva and Man-Bernelli!


The local Auch Infantry person-san looks clueless with all the ruckus.

Back in civilization

Man, oh man, did I miss out a lot.

Not only was I unable to attend last Saturday's GE PH Black Party, I was likewise absent in NineMoons' birthday bash on the event day (belated happy birthday, sis!).

If you're one of the people who missed out on the activities, check out the post-event accounts of NineMoons, Fiksdotter, Artaxerxes, Churvanesska, Sigrid, Mena and Blacksword! Seeing those fun photos made me want to wish I was there. ^^

Nevertheless, I'm glad that most of the Philippine GE players enjoyed the event, despite the earlier shocking news about the server merge. I hope you guys had the opportunity to talk and get to know each other. As what most people have been saying, the server merge is an opportunity for us to gain more friends, so it's nice that events like these can bring PH gamers from the various GE worlds some time to relax and socialize.

Hmm..where to go?

As for me, well, let's just say I went to El Lago de Tres Hermanas, Ustiur and the Skullic Caves for some much needed R&R. It felt like I was engaging in a 24-hr PvP match now that my body's aching all over, but much fun was had! I'll tell you more about it in the coming post. ^_^

GE on Pinoy Gamers!

I got a text message last night from the peepz at Pinoy Gamers that they were going to air the GE Launch Party segment in their show, and so I rushed home early to watch the said program over at Makisig Network (Ch. 82/76 on Sky Cable).

I was quite surprised that they devoted quite a number of air time for their coverage of the event, starting from the press conference, down to the party itself. I was able to capture some parts of the show, but my digicam had limited space...so please pardon the low quality of the videos, ok? ^_~

And yeah, don't mind the Idge person on the 3rd clip. Hahaha. (I look fugly! XD)

featuring e-Games' President and COO, Steve Tsao

featuring GE's Product Manager, Ivee Feria

featuring..err..never mind XD

a change of pace + GE in-game event

I've decided to move in to Caravaggio for the meantime in order to get to work on the next featured faction for the website. I'm currently within the ranks of the PasawayProphecy Faction, a fun group who enjoys sniffing katol (wehehehe) and passing around amusing comments on the Faction chat.

And with my temporary transfer to Caravaggio, I've revived the DeSanggria cousins Kahlil (Scout), Raquim (Musketeer), and Armeo (Elementalist), who all happen to be guys. LOL. I wonder what's the counterpart for chicksilog for girls then. XD

Anyway, I'm back to leveling the boys from scratch. It's such a chore to level, now with the 2XP event gone and all. I'm beginning to get tired of seeing the Ferruccio Junction and those blasted hopping crocodiles. But something unexpected happened last night in that very spot: some low level monster dude dropped the most insane item ever...a friggin' Lloyd Control Ring! O.O

Okay, I know this costs millions and all, with so many players getting their share of Catherine RNPCs. I thought it was my lucky day and that I can have this thing transferred to my Cervantes characters. But then again, stupid me, I just realized I can't very nearly transfer items to another server so that means either I train the boys decently to reach the appropriate level so I can get my own Catherine, sell it to the market place or to someone else, or to just plain give it away.

But I'm not that much of a saint to actually give it away without a catch. Mwahahahaha.

In other news, I've finally leveled the girls to 52! Hahahaha. It's such a big feat for me, considering the limited time I can play and that I don't have someone else to pilot my characters. I'm just glad they're finally eligible to wear other clothing aside from those leather armors and robes which have become really sickening to look at for the last 3 months. LOL.

At last, new wardrobe! :3

Oh and I just realized the girls can be Baroned now, but if we ever do meet in-game, go easy on me. ^^

But I'm not stopping there! I hope to see the Verdandi dressed in a Rosa Matrimonio gown, Alaena in a Gladiator Suit and Cyradis in a Laranja e Preto ensemble. That's gonna take a lot of grinding for me. XD I guess I ought to say goodbye to my social life for the meantime. Harharhar.

===

RCM Hrin has announced an in-game event happening in all of GE's 5 servers on Channel 1: The Return of the Dark Lord, Vergo The Cursed.

The event happens today, August 9, at 2000 (GMT +8) at the Reboldeoux Queen's Gate. I heard this Vergo dude's one tough nut...good thing wyldfyer from the GE forums had this handy screenshot of this monster.

Waah! Level 100 abomination!

I'm not too sure if I can stick around to cover the event (with the storm brewing and all), but we'll see!

P.S.: It's Singapore's National Day today! Have a great one, people! ^0^

weekend action up ahead!

A lot's going happen this weekend with GE...just thinking about it makes my head swim. XD

Anyway, what's this stuff I'm yakking about? For one, we're having an i-Cafe event in Malabon, where we'll be having a tournament for new Pioneering Families of levels 5-20. Players new to GE can experience the action first hand in a PvP tourney of "newbies". Hmmm..a newbie PvP tourney sounds exciting, but unfortunately, I live in the far side so I won't be able to see that for myself. Hehe. CM Veya, however, is going there so GE players in Malabon ought to watch out for that.

Read all about the event and tourney mechanics here.

Also on Saturday, there's going to be a War of the Factions, in which we in GE PH are hosting. This is going to be one hot competition against factions from all servers, and this is one more thing to anticipate this weekend (wonder if the paps from CARNAGE are joining too...I haven't seen their names in the official list as of this writing).

Read all about the War of the Faction mechanics here.

RCM Hrin has announced that Colony Wars will become a weekly event starting Sunday, July 29. Oh. my. God. Weekly CW = Dedz Anne. LOL.

I'm definitely going online to at least attempt a more comprehensive report similar to the Mena Family's coverage of CW in their server.

Lots of action this weekend! Now, if only I'd have enough time for sleep...

fun with squads & cosplay plans

Aside from my (very) obvious fandom for GE, I'm also a cosplay fanatic and have been a lot more active in the cosplay community since 2001. Most of my cosplayer friends are into games as well, and there's quite a handful of us playing GE.

Last Saturday, I invited some of my friends for an in-game meet up. The plan was to either engage in a mission as a team, or to just help each other out by squad level grinding. There were about 5 of us who met up in Cite de Reboldoeux Ch. 1, all excited for what lay ahead. Initially we were to have the Crowe family with us, who is also a cosplayer friend and perhaps the only high level player from among the lot. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to join us because of work concerns.

Find the DeSanggrias in the squad.

Inevitably, 5 families took on the Mission: Highway 1. The result? Disastrous.

Hahahaha.

Honestly though, I should've researched more on the kind of monsters in each mission to inform everyone on what kind of trouble to expect. Little did I know that this quest involved defending 2 towers, which happened to be on top of some platform of some sort. It was futile defending the bases if you had to contend with ground and airborne monsters, plus lag. Bad, bad combination.

Squadding in Porto Bello: The Cabin

In the end, we settled for squad mode and beat up a handful of mobs in Porto Bello: The Cabin. The girls leveled up 2 notches and earned quite a lot of loot which I sold to NPC merchants for a nifty price. Great stuff. Plus, it was great chatting with familiar friends in the cosplay community.

Speaking of which, I have to get started on the Idge cosplay project. This is going to be an exciting task. Time, money and effort consuming, but exciting nonetheless.

Many thanks to Lucido, SiegeVelentine, βeoulve, and Majeure family for last weekend's fun. Let's do this again another time. ^_~

GE PH site now LIVE!

Pinoy GE players, head over to Granado Espada Philippines and check out the website! It's just a beta site as of now and we are coming up with an even better version really soon!

The full version of my article on CARNAGE Faction can be found there as well, plus a feature on the Crowe Family, one of the members of GE Team Philippines who competed at the Zouk Raid Party during Toycon.

Please visit and give us feedback! ^_^

working on GE PH site

I've just finished writing the article for the website which is about the featured faction, CARNAGE. It took me quite a while to finally type the last word, but all in all, I'm proud of my handiwork. Blame it on the fact that I know these guys well enough to tell their story without the usual hassle.

We hope to launch the beta version of the GE PH website by tomorrow. This is the reason why I've been neck-deep in work since yesterday, foregoing all other stuff that I need to do for other projects.

I'd like to share with you a sneak peek of the article. Enjoy!

Perhaps one of the more evident instances where one can see CARNAGE’s synergy at play is during Colony Wars. During this in-game event, everyone discards their carefree selves to become full-fledged warriors. Their mission: to conquer and defend as many colonies as possible.

At this time, Overseer turns into a stern commander-in-chief, grouping members into platoons with their designated leaders for easier information dissemination. Platoon members quickly respond to their leaders’ commands in assisting other members during War Declarations.

After the battle, everyone switches back to their lax and funny selves. “I think what sets CARNAGE apart from other factions is the members’ diversity. We also have a few foreign members, but majority of us are Pinoys and with Pinoys, there’s a different kind of interaction. We may have different personalities and professions, but we all get along. We’re like one big barkada even if we haven’t seen each other in person,” says Stormrage.

Where I work, favorite RNPC, failed mission and more work

This current addiction to GE has made me some sort of a "freak employee" at work. For one, I log in at work at the most absurd time of the day (6AM being the earliest) at leave at an equally insane one (9PM being the latest). So in most cases, I report for work for 15 hours on a typical weekday, not discounting the overtime stuff I do on weekends.

God, this made me realize how much I miss sleeping on my bed for 12 hours straight. Hehe.

On a sudden streak of vanity, I took a few pictures of my workstation using my cellphone camera.

Anne's cluttered desk

Pardon the small size of the picture and the clutter. My seatmate's a terrible hax when it comes to tidiness. XD

Notice anything familiar? That's right, it's a GE tumbler sitting next to the monitor. I rarely use it now because it's sort of coming apart. Don't ask why, it's just that way. I dunno if I chose the substandard one from all the batches we gave away for the press last January, but I have a bad feeling that I did pick the worst in the lot.

And just this morning, my seatmate, who also happens to be my boss, had this lying around the table.

The Zouk Raid Party Guest Pass

Wow, neat! I still wish to this date that I was able to attend the Zouk event as well. Must've been loads of fun.

===

I am currently working on populating the content for the temporary GE PH site, which is why I've been recently spending more time in-game after work. Last night, Nepomuceno, one of my faction mates in CARNAGE, invited me for the Trinity Mission. We set off to meet in Port of Coimbra Ch. 2 and warp into the quest room from there.

It took me quite a while to get there because of this totally abominable work PC that I have. In the quest room itself, the girls got wiped out by several Escudo Pechers coming from all directions. So there I was getting frustrated with the uber slow machinations of this PC while Nepomuceno handled the mission all by himself.

Massive failure

Yeah, so we failed. Damn.

I just wish my request for better hardware gets here by next week, otherwise I'm going to scream bloody murder.

===

While on my usual level grinding moments, I took on Idge's last quest. Having previously collected the Liquefied Talts from Mermen in Porto Bello, I took quite some time finding that stone in Jezebel Glen to battle with the Grim Reaper. I thought I was going to have a hard time again, but thankfully, I finished the mission, and I'm totally bowled over by the reward:

Idge's great news for me

Yay! I finally got Idge! I've been wanting to have her in my lineup, given the fact that she's my favorite RNPC (next to Adelina Esperanza).

Idge is now a DeSanggria

Exploring the city with a new team

Idge and Cyradis up close

I felt like skipping for joy when I finally added her to the DeSanggria barracks. I didn't change her name just to stay on with the Idge fandom, though she now carries the DeSanggria surname. I'm thinking of having her and Alaena do some serious level grinding in Porto Bello The Deck. Alaena's has only 2 notches to go before Heaven and Hell! I can't wait!

Man, this is going to be fun later at 6PM when I go online. Woohoo!