Up close & personal with Aethrin

Curious on who the new GE Philippine CM is? Well then, here's your opportunity to know more about the soft-spoken, hardcore gamer, CM Aethrin!

Name: Aethrin
Server: Cervantes
Level: Veteran
MCC Team: Irawan, Grace Bernelli, Adelina the Pirate
Favorite NPC: Irawan

CM Aethrin (the one in purple) with the GE PH bloggers
Photo by NineMoons

Tell us something about yourself. How long have you been playing online games?

I’ve been playing online games for almost 5 years. I’m a gamer at heart. Aside from games, I like to travel, listen to music and dabble with art.

In your experience as a gamer, what makes GE stand out from the other games you’ve played?

GE has unique game features that other MMOs don’t have -- particularly the MCC and XAI. The game has an amazing concept and graphics. The RNPCs are also great because it allows you to include them in your family line-up.

You have big shoes to fill as the new CM for GE PH. Do you plan to pick up where CM Veya left off (in terms of projects, plans, etc.) or do you plan to come up with your own?

Being the new CM for GE is a very nice opportunity for me. I do plan to continue what CM Veya has started, but I have other plans for the improvement of the GE Community as well.

What’s the first thing you’ll do as the new Community Manager?

Do the unexpected.


What can the community expect from you as its new CM, and from IP e-Games in general?

Well, they can expect lot of good things. There will be more events for the GE Community.

We know that a lot of PH gamers are clamoring for more GE promotions and the availability/accessibility of the game in most Internet cafes and GVCs. What is your take on this?

We have good activities planned up for GE. We’ll be having more I-café/ground event tours. We will provide you with a better GVC distribution process.

Will the gamers be seeing more of you in-game? How often are you online? Will you also have server visits to check on the community?

Yes absolutely! I will be visiting the servers for them to know that CM Aethrin really exists. LOL. And yes, there will be server visits, schedules and activities that I’ll be doing. So for our GE gamers, check the GE PH website for updates on these.

I hear that you (or e-Games for that matter) is in the thick of hosting the GE PH anniversary this month. Are there any plans/activities that you have in mind? If so, what are those?

Yes, we have the activities lined up for the GE anniversary and we will communicate it to all players once everything’s settled and finalized.


I’m sure the PH gamers would want to know if the i-Café buff will be implemented here in the Philippines. Is this possible? When will this take effect if ever?

We are definitely planning to implement the i-Café buff here in the Philippines, and we are currently testing it. However, one of the major concern here is that our country has a dynamic IP address, meaning that most i-Cafes have varying IP addresses. But we’re working on ways to go around this concern. If things go well, we might implement it sometime soon.

Will e-Games also offer the 70k GP denomination? Does e-Games plan on expanding GVC denominations?

We are planning to work on the availability of the 70k G-Points, since many players prefer to buy the highest denomination.

I heard that e-Games is also working on implementing e-Points to G-Points for easier access. How soon will this be put into operation?

The EP-GP conversion project will be a big help for a lot of GE gamers; this project is one of our top priorities and will be launched as soon as it is ready.

What are your plans for the GE community in the Visayas and Mindanao?

For Visayas and Mindanao, we are doing ground events such as freeplays and tournaments.

Any words for the community?
Yeah, keep rockin’ the GE world! Make the Pinoy gamers proud!


There you have it! I tried to coax some more explanation from CM Aethrin, but he's kinda busy with a lot of things right now, and I am thankful as it is that he gave me a few moments of his time for this interview. ^_^

And for those in Cervantes who are curious to know his IGN, you're reading it right now. ^^ You can also reach him at: granadoespada[at]e-games[dot]com[dot]ph

Let's support the new CM of the Granado Espada Philippine community! Happy 1st anniversary!

Kubota Osamu on being a game composer/musician

If you’ve been playing Granado Espada up until now, chances are you’re most familiar with the music behind the dark, dangerous maps to the more laid back, pristine ones. Admittedly, GE is one game that has a plethora of musical scores that will get you in the mood, whether it’s just power levelling or going on raids.

Here’s a rather interesting article I was able to read in the net about one of GE’s music composers, Kubota Osamu. The interview, done by Jayson Napolitano of OSV, did a spectacular job on detailing his life and works. For the uninitiated, Kubota-san was also behind the music of the PlayStation game, Beatmania, among others.

Here’s some interesting tidbits about Kubota-san, as based from the interview:

• GE’s creator, Hakkyu Kim, is a fan of Kubota Osamu’s music and has contacted him to create music for the game.
• Kubota-san worked with the Asian Philharmony Orchestra in China to come up with the orchestra scores for the game.
• Kubota-san’s wife plays Granado Espada.
• He’d like to bring his music to cinematic MMORPGs, something similar to Final Fantasy or Evangelion.
• He experimented with the use of vocals in his music (check out Odyssey and Maya, the background music for the Al Quelt Moreza and Ustiur jungle maps respectively). The consonants and vowels used in the vocals do not mean anything in any native language.
• Granado Espada is his favourite project!
• Kubota-san speaks English, French, Japanese, Korean and Chinese! He’s a French literature graduate.
• His current projects include the Korean MMORPG, NED Online, as well as a Japanese video animation, entitled switch.
  

Read more about the interview here!

The secret guest unveiled

Yesterday, I talked about having a guest here in my blog. I was able to talk to this wonderful person via email for this interview, and I'm very happy and thrilled to provide a space for her in this site.

This esteemed person I'm talking about forms the gung ho team of hard working, fun loving people who manage the seaGE community. Although I may not be a GE gamer from their country, I nevertheless feel honored to have her here. I hope I have a few Malaysian GE gamers reading this blog because this is about your community manager, [CM] Calyce!

If you've been hanging around the GE forums, chances are you've seen this quirky, fun person. She's a mischievous individual who even earned several threads in the forums. Guess the gamers are quite curious to know about CM Calyce whose real life picture hasn't been seen to date. ^^

Anyhoo, let's get to know the new addition to the GE family in this interview. ^^


How does it feel to be the CM for the MY community?

It’s great to be the CM for MY Community, although it seems that the MY players are not so active compared to PH gamers. I believe that there’s a potential that GE Gamers will continue support GE and create a better community together. I still have a lot to learn from gamers. I want to continue my service to the players, and to provide them with a better gaming environment.

How did the community feel about your new position?

Hmm… the community seems to be quite interested in how I look instead of how I can help the growth of the community. Haha. Apparently, statistic showed that there’re more male gamers than female gamers in this game, so I kinda understand how they feel about the new female CM. lolz… joking…. Darren was promoted to handle some other things, therefore I’ll be taking over his position for the time ahead, please don’t make any wild guess, I’m not his “revamped” image. >.<

Note: Darren Khor used to be the MY Community Manager before CM Calyce. Before Darren was CM Selwyn.

Have you played any MMORPGs before? How do you find GE?

Yap, I’ve played couple of MMO before such as Maple Story, Mo Xiang and RO. But this game is totally a cool stuff to me. It has a very stylish movement, a brand new controlling of character like MCC and superb graphics as well as a marvelous soundtrack. I do enjoy the AFK function the most… lol… cuz most of the time I’m kinda busy with my work, so I don’t really have free time to play and commit to the Game. ^^

What are your plans for the MY community? How will you strengthen the bond between MY GE gamers?

Since this is the first time I’ve taken the position, I don't have that much of experience in managing the bond between gamers, and that’s why I started by spamming the general chat section, which… hahaha… got quite some good feedbacks. I assume that’s a good way to improve the bond between players and strengthen the bond between gamers.. ^^ In the future, we’ll try to organize some other event besides facing the computer and gaming; there might be some sports event as well. We'll see how it goes.

What's the best thing about your job?

The best thing about my job? I get to interact with gamers, get to play the game, get to chat with gamers, get to do what I like the most – talking and chatting ^^.

Why did you choose Calyce as your personal avatar?

Haha… cuz I’m Calyce? ^^ Simple answer. She kinda resembles the real-life me, so...hahaha..that’s bout it.

Any message to the MY community and the GE community in general?

My message to the MY Community...get more friends to join this game! The bigger the community, the more likely I’ll appear in a real life event ^^. For the general community...continue supporting GE then we shall have a biggest gaming event around the region! Life is never boring meet people from around the world. ^^ Cheers!


Many thanks to [CM] Calyce for indulging me in this interview request. I wish you good luck and more power in your future endeavors in your work! ^^

[Part2] Tete-a-Tete with the FFA grand winners

[Part1] Interview with 3rd place winners: Weisswritter, Fetuccini and Mortreux

As promised, here's my interview with Reclusion's Team. Also included in the interview are NineMoons and Fiksdotter, who were the scriptwriters for Not Another Love Story (1 & 2) and Le Blanc, respectively. Do also note that NineMoons and Fiksdotter were involved in both films as well (as voice actors & moral support cheering squad XD).

Not Another Love Story 2: Zee Musical!
Reclusion/NineMoons/Behringer
Carracci/Cervantes Servers

Le Blanc (White)
Reclusion/Fiksdotter/iCez
Carracci Server

DeSanggria (DS): What was your initial reaction upon learning that you won the 2 top spots in the competition?

Reclusion (R): Stunned...tumbling in the air while doing cappoera, diablo, verticals and a split in the finale.

Not to be a braggart and all, but I did expect that one of my entries will land on any of the 3 spots, but the shocking thing was both of my entries landed first and second!

NineMoons (NM): Initial reaction was, of course, to punch the air. Couldn't help but feel giddy, buoyant, happy. I had been waiting for the announcement with not a little dread, so when we heard, it was a huge relief.

Fiksdotter (F): I was really surprised about the result because the final week was opened for new entries and there was the possibility that there will be changes in results.

DS: Where did you get the idea to create Le Blanc and Not Another Love Story (NALS)?

R: For Le Blanc, I just told Fiksdotter that I want a movie that will promote the game as a whole. So we decided to make a biographical movie about Andre Janzur. By involving Andre, it involved in-game fashion since we were making a movie about the game's couturier.

Another thing notable thing in Le Blanc is the dialogue. I wanted a movie ala Will Ferell, where you can appreciate their quotable quotes. Zoolander was also one of Fiksdotter's inspiration for Le Blanc.


For NALS, we just wanted an out of the box idea with regards to the streotyping of the Royalists and Republicans. The first thing that you'll upon hearing the word Royalist Vs. Republicans is war, right? But my team begged to differ. We wanted something different! Talk about a failed love story from the leaders and making the Republican head a gay dude! Special thanks to you for your wild idea during the first bloggers' meet! [DS notes: Was it me? I thought it was all of us who thought about it. Hehehe.]

The musical part was also borne out of the idea that we wanted to something different yet again. Hrin commented that one of the edges of Le Blanc was the voice overs. But we already did that, so we thought of something else...WE WILL SING! Obviously, the musical was inspired from Disney films.

NM: The initial idea for NALS came about from silly, funny, half-joking discussions we'd had among our group of friends. We wanted to do a unique story, and we also wanted to be funny - and that's where we realized that the screwball/romantic comedy approach would work. We also wanted to poke fun at Gabriella and Simon - they were the leaders of the political parties, but why the heck were they fighting? The answer to that became the initial seed for NALS.

F: As the scriptwriter of Le Blanc, I was greatly influenced by Western films and some films here

in the Philippines.

DS: What was your most enjoyable experience in making the videos?

R: Sleepless nights! Yeah it's hard, but I enjoyed it! The bonding moments with my team in the Mountains of Sierra Madre...and the sGE secret Bloggers-turned-my-team meeting!

NM: I was responsible for half the scripts of the two NALS movies; the other team members contributed more than half of the humor to the dialogue. It was fun for me because I wanted to see if I could write the way sitcom writers do.

F: I should say doing voice over for the characters. This was really out of plan since we plotted the story for Le Blanc last November 2007.

DS: What was the most difficult experience in making both movies?

R: It's difficult to coordinate with your team especially when you're far away and the only means of communication is Yahoo Messenger and a telephone!

NM: The voice overs! Hands down! I was supposed to voice some of the minor female characters, but lost my recorder *grumble grumble*

F: Actually, I was really mixed up at first because as much as possible, there should be no external influence from other movies that I have watched. But thankfully, I made a good script out of it. In addition, the most difficult thing on writing Le Blanc's story is how to make a new character out of it.


DS: Who do you consider your biggest competitors in the FFA?

R: I admit I was shocked to see The Artist Society Team! Knowing that they are already "professionals in this kind of competition", they've already made movies such as 3D animations and real life movies. They're contest people in short.

NM: ...Ourselves? I mean, our director had three films in the competition, and every single one stood a more than decent chance of making the Grand Finale.

F: I found Fetuccini's team as a good competitor because their transitions were really good with clean feel on each scene, which made it outstanding.

DS: If you had the opportunity to create another GE flick, what theme would it be and why?

R: Let's try horror (I already did a test run to it!) and action-comedy. [DS notes: The horror film Reclusion's talking about is Circlo.]

NM: I want to try and do something like a kung fu movie! ...Maybe when Bai Hu comes out? I want him and Feng Ling to do something like my favorite Hong Kong action film, Hero! All nobility and flying swords and gorgeous cinematography!

F: I really would take the course of having a story about M'Boma.

DS: Do you plan to create more GE films in the future?

R: I'm planning to do a real-life-movie-meets-machinima this summer + teh sequel for Le Blanc. But for now, I don't even want to see a FRAPS watermark in my GE window!

NM: As scriptwriter, absolutely. As a movie maker myself, I think I owe it to myself to try my hand at it very soon.

F: If there will be an opportunity, why not!

DS: How are you going to spend your prize loot?

R: Me and Ace (Artaxerxes) are planning to go to Hong Kong to enjoy and relax this summer! Wanna come? [DS notes: Sure, as long as you provide teh moolah for the air fare. Bwahaha!]

NM: A nice day out with my BF, and buying lots of clothes. I've already got a shopping list in mind....

F: I would love to enroll myself for a crash course in computer multimedia as offered to me by an institution here in the Philippines.

DS: Any message to your teammates/FFA participants?

R: Three words: Boom we rock!

NM: Let's do this again! We must keep our banner flying! Remember - story first, video second, and friendship all the way!

F: To my teammates in FFA, it was really an honor to be with you guys working on this project. To the other participants, thanks for the competition and it was really worth competing with you guys.

Team Le Blanc (l-r): Artaxerxes (VO for Andres), Mena (VO for Andre/Andrew, La Stinka), Fiksdotter (scriptwriter, VO for La Passion), Behringer (subber, chocnut hoarder), DeSanggria (VO for 3 elem ladies), Reclusion (legendary director)

Team NALS (l-r): Artaxerxes (VO for Simon/Joseph), Reclusion (legendary director), Behringer (subber, VO for Jacobe), NineMoons (scriptwriter), DeSanggria (VO for Gabriella/Caridad/Graves)

[Part1] Tete-a-tete with the FFA grand winners

As previously mentioned, the grand winners of the recently-concluded Fantazztic Film Awards all came from the Philippines! It's such a big honor indeed to be a GE PH gamer, with these people bagging the honor and glory for our country!

And as my way for honoring these fantazztic people, I took the liberty to interview them about their experience before and after the harrowing process of creating their films.

Without further ado, here's my interview with Fetuccini's team!

Perdonato
Weisswritter/Fetuccini/Mortreux
Cervantes Server

DeSanggria (DS): What was your reaction when you learned that you won 3rd place in the finals?

Fetuccini (F): Zaleski (a friend/factionmate) told me about the results but I ignored him at first cause he usually jokes about it, then when I checked IAH website...I was happy!

DS: What was your inspiration why you came out with the movie Perdonato? What does "Perdonato" mean, btw?

F: Perdonato is an Italian word means "forgiven". I was surfing that time looking for a good short story. Then I read Leo Tolstoy's "God Sees The Truth". I asked Mortreux to read it, then his reaction was..aww sad. Then I got this feeling that we should submit a different FFA entry since we already did a comedy film that won in IAH week. [FFA entries: Everybody Loves Viki and Mr. & Mrs. G]

DS: What was the contribution of each member in the making of the film?

F: Mortreux did the shots/video editing. I arranged the story and the sound editing, and mostly did the finishing touches. Weisswritter did most of the morale support, since he was busy with his school. XD And yeah, he always suggested to use his fave character, Jack, to be the star.


DS: How long did it take you to make the movie?

F: Two weeks ><. We actually planned to get it with voice overs but Mortreux got busy with his masteral.

DS: What was the most enjoyable stuff that you experiened while making the video?

F: When we were almost done doing the video, we were all laughing cause Weiss was joking about the ending, suggesting a different way Jack died. But when I got the sounds done, we were like silent for a monent. We were touched by the story + music.

DS: What were some of the difficulties you encountered while making the video?

F: Shooting was the hard part. First, my HDD was goin full, then we had to adjust and plan when to shoot cause we have to borrow Gyges (Cervantes) and Familier (Cervantes) accounts for the Grandice and other characters. We almost ran out of ideas on how to shoot every scene. XD

DS: Do you have plans to make any more films now that FFA is over?

F: Yea.. but not too soon.. just waiting for an insipration and good ideas..


DS: How are you guys going to split the loot? >:)

F: I think it's already by "Possesion of a prior Family" option already. :D Though my mom was asking my bro (Weisswritter) that they split his share of the prize money.

DS: Do you guys have plans of joining the next FFA?

F: YEA!!

DS: Any message to your teammates/other FFA participants?

F: Congrats to all~ Everyone did a good job! Continue making movies and get inspired. We are all winners.. Gpts FTW~

(l-r) Weisswritter, Fetuccini & Mortreux

===

Due to the length of the interviews, my next post will include the interview with Reclusion's team, who bagged the first and second top spots!

Stay tuned, Pioneers! ^_~

An interview with the Republican President

The beginning of the month saw through the election of the Royalist Duke and the Republican President. We can all say that Colony Wars from this point in time will be fought with much ferocity and ardor, now that the stakes have been drawn and the challenge has been issued. But do you really know your Duke and President?

In this entry, I interviewed the first Republican President of Carracci, †Bayushi†, faction leader of Outcasts. Read on to know more of his plans as the leader of the Republicans, his efforts to mobilize the Alliance, and how his being President has shaped the way he leads his faction as a whole.

Family Name: †Bayushi†
Faction: Outcasts
Family Level: 24
Main Team: Actually this depends on the situation since I intentionally made a lot of characters which will best suit the faction’s activity. I have 2 Claude Baudez (LordClaude and Lord Oliver), 2 fighters (Hitomi no and Empress Kachiko), 2 Catherine’s (LadyKatherine and LadyCatherine), Emilia the Sage (Megumi no) and an Elementalist (Karina no).

DeSanggria (DS): You won the President seat by a landslide. Why did the Republican factions agree to let you take the helm without so much a competition?

†Bayushi† (B): The Republicans placed their trust in Outcasts Faction since we are always active every CW. Also, the Outcasts displayed good showmanship when it comes to every aspect of the game. Being the faction’s leader, the Republicans entrusted the task of the Presidency to me as they believed I can lead them all into battle with the Royalists.

DS: What are your plans as the President of the Republicans?

B: Gearing up the Alliance is the first task that we are doing right now. We all want to give the Royalists a good fight and to make a stand as Republicans, and so we want to equip ourselves with the right ammunition, armors and weapons-wise, as well as battle tactics. But I believe the Republicans go beyond the concept of winning the war. We want to be a united Alliance. As the Republican President, my main goal is to mobilize the Alliance to move as one, to win as one, even to lose as one. Winning and losing is part of the game, but I’d rather have us lose as one team, than to achieve victory as separate factions.

DeSanggria poses with Mr. President

DS: If given the opportunity to be the Chancellor, how will you distribute the tax among your members and the Republicans?

B: This is a very hard task since every Republican faction has varying numbers of attendance every CW. I think the best way to do this is to have a weekly attendance per faction to be submitted to the Alliance auditor, then sum it up, divide the tax by the total number of members present during that CW in order for all players to have an equal share in their hard work.

DS: How has the Presidency changed the way you run Outcasts as its Faction Leader?

B: Some of my members keep on calling me Mr. President, His Excellency and a lot more, but generally speaking, the faction management hasn’t changed since the elections.

DS: How will you mobilize the Republicans into a strong, solid Alliance?

B: For now, all I can do is to educate each faction leader about the appropriate attitude which best suits the situation of the Republicans here in Carracci and to bring it down to their subordinates. An alliance must always have faith and trust within the group in order for us to achieve our goal. Also, since it is hard for us to gain a colony because of the dominating presence of the Royalists here in Caracci, we must always do our part and avoid pointing fingers every time we fail. This will lessen misunderstandings and unwanted debates which happened with the old Republican Alliance.

†Bayushi† and his l337 toys

DS: The Royalists have dominated the Carracci map for a long time. How will the Republican Alliance change this?

B: As of now, the real issue here is about numbers. The ratio of the Royalists versus the active Republicans is 3:1 or even 4:1. We are trying hard to have more active members in order to increase the population of the Republican Army.

“We may not win this war, but we will meet them in battle nonetheless.” – Theoden, Lord of the Rings Two Towers and Return of the King

DS: What can you say about the Royalist Duke, Chan (FL of Destiny)?

B: Chan is a good friend of mine and I know he will be a responsible Duke and Chancellor. He speaks rarely but is very friendly.

†Bayushi† wearing the Sword of Freedom

DS: What's the best thing about being the Republican President?

B: More work, no pay. Just kidding ^_^. Popularity and respect is what I earned from being the President of the Republicans. I am enjoying it, but I really am not used to being addressed as Mr. President because I prefer being called by my name, Riko.

DS: Any message for the Republicans and the Royalists?

B: Faith is all it takes for us to achieve our goals. Trust is what we need to have a solid foundation with the people who share the same vision. We are the Republicans of Caracci! Through faith and trust, we will move on to survive as one!