[Picspam] Girl gamers...not a myth!

And today's event was proof of that.

The Girl Gamer Gathering, spearheaded by pCM Veya, gathered the female GE gamers to a day of freeplay and chit chat. I am happy to say that the servers were well represented, well, except for Caravaggio which had no representatives.

Anyway, I saw some familiar faces there while enjoying the freeplay that time, not to mention the fact that I made new friends.

Among the familiar faces I saw was Riasa, known in-game as stormseeks from Vivaldi. I've known her for a long time in the cosplay community, and I think I dragooned her into playing GE back in the CBT days. Time does fly so fast and I was surprised to know that she was the one (and only) gamer in the group who reached Expert level just a week ago. In the course of our talk, she told me she just upgraded her PC and spent more than Php 30k just to put her stuff on a nice Quadcore processor, super nice video card, a huge memory, and a flatscreen monitor. And of course with a spazzy PC, she almost always never experiences the lag most of us grit our teeth over.

Moral lesson: get yourself a super high-end PC to enjoy (and actually kill people) during Colony Wars.

We had a raffle as well, and some lucky gahls went home with great prizes. NineMoons got herself a Le Blanc of her choice, Oliveoyl won for herself 500 Adelina's Booty searches, stormseeks got an Elite La Ventisca, and Sigrid bagged a Cumolonimbus shield.

A focus group discussion was also held to talk about player issues about the game. Among those discussed were the feedback about certain cash shop items that should be priced more reasonably, the ever-persistent issue on lag, bots and RMTers, and suggestions for improvement.

All in all, the event was great...it was nice to hang around with fellow girl gamers, and yes, we're not a myth. Girl gamers do exist. ^_^

And now for some browser-killing pictures. >:)

Moi, NineMoons, Veya, Fetuccini

Girl gamers serious mode

What would be a girl gathering without teh pics? XD

FFA winners: NineMoons, Fetuccini & Mortreux

stormseeks of Vivaldi...the resident girl gamer mamaw XD
also known as the girl who only turns off her PC during maintenance

We love our GE shirts! Front view..

We love our GE shirts! Back view..

See you all in the next event! ^_^

The not-so-secret project

Soon to be seen on e-Games Domination II

Let's just hope I get it done on time.

Faction activities galore

This week has been a flurry of faction events for the DeSanggria family, starting off with †Legion†. Last Saturday we visited Chrysalis and Dr. Fran once again in the Corridor of Assize. Along with some of our Veteran mates (with the special participation of Warhogs hehe), we easily pawned Chrysalis, but took a beating out of Dr. Fran. We were nearly wiped out too, if not for a few who were quick to resu the others.

Everybody gathers for a pictorial in Gehenna

PWNAGE!

But the disaster started when my brother stupidly unplugged the router, and thus I was disconnected from the server right in the thick of the battle. =_="

Nevertheless, the guys were able to beat the crap out of Dr. Fran and got the loot. Some were still on a high after the raid, so we took on the Golden Bat in the Capybara Plantation to farm for some keys.

I think I died quite a few times while we were doing the raid because the Ugly Slug (aka the Golden Bat itself) kept on chasing me. It seemed that it was inevitable that I had to be the sacrificial lamb while our tankers Spardo, TheLastLegion and Leks began their handiwork while our ranged characters whacked it from afar.

Pwned by teh Ugly Slug

I must say that we farmed about 5 or so of the Ugly Slug while passing the time. It was quite fun actually, and I'm looking forward for a Hellbreaker raid sometime soon.

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Meanwhile, me and pCM Veya attended the faction EB of Outcasts from Caracci. Incidentally, it was Haagendazz's birthday as well and we had an avalanche of pies to pig out on. I met the fun and lively players of Outcasts and some of the people behind the Caracci Republican Alliance (with Fiksdotter and Takhisis Faction) and I have to say that these guys are closely knit that they know each other's life stories.

Fun with Outcasts Faction

And with the prodding of the guys, I made a visit to Caracci and had my noob family leeched by Southernsky and DMB. I even tried joining the chat in Ventrilo. These guys are freaking hilarious. Srsly.

Leech mode c/o Southernsky's Hill Giant summon

Here's to hoping more fun gatherings with Outcasts! See you guys in Caracci. ^_~

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Oh and just today, I got reported as a botter in Caracci. Super! *drips with sarcasm*


I guess the non-PK server's way of getting back at you is to actually send you to the dungeons as a bot. Wow. Talk about getting the ultimate piss off. It's a good thing I wasn't AFK that time.

[Picspam Aftermath] POGS 2008 + Thoughts on CW

As most of you all well know, the Philippine Online Gaming Summit (POGS) 2008 was held at the TriNoma Mall. As part of the GE PH team, I spent my Sunday covering the event, along with my GE blogger friends.

Right at the mall opening, there was already a long queue of people buying their copy of GAME! Magazine, which serves as their ticket to the event. I felt quite proud to see the latest issue being sold like hotcakes, with the GE cover story written by none other than NineMoons.

Anyway, I spent most of the day hanging out with NineMoons, the Reclusion brothers, Fixdotter, Mena, Sigrid, BlackSword, and a few other new found friends from Caracci. Speaking of which, I've observed that the Caracci players are rather active in attending events, though it would be nice to see a good representation of PH players in all servers in GE-related events.

Anyhoo, there was much activity in POGS, starting of with the 2vs2 PvP Tournament in which some of the GE bloggers took part of, along with the AdeptasFraternas boys (who emerged victorious in the tourney as expected :P). I was also able to bully ask the technical peepz to play on the big screen two of the winning entries to the Fantazztic Film Awards: Not Another Love Story? and Lonely Hearts Club II.

The event was also an opportune time for us to have an unofficial bloggers' meeting when we had dinner that night. We've talked about a lot of things, mostly about the game and the community, and a few other stuff. But before I ramble further, I'll kill your browsers with some of the pictures in the event. Hehe.

GE PH Bloggers DeSanggria, Darrick Reclusion, NineMoons, Mena, pCM Veya, Fiksdotter, Nate Reclusion

Charles (Outcasts Faction), Darrick, Fiksdotter, Sigrid, me, NineMoons, Mena & Sigrid's friend (forgot your name wah! T_T)

Nate showing off his babies wearing Le Blanc and The Bracelet of the 3 Kings ( * 3 * )

An endless sea of people...

Another vanity shot from the boys.

Mena & Fiksdotter prepare for the tournament (with photo is GE PH Product Manager Ivee Feria)

Fiksdotter-Mena Team of Takhisis v. Pinkzy-Hudiciaro of AF

The Reclusion brothers all prepped up for PvP.

Lonely Hearts Club II on the big screen!

pCM Veya gets interviewed by the POGS host.

Me & Veya with the AF boys.

Nabbed from Fiksdotter: GE Bloggers Tea Par-tay! XD

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Since I wasn't around to take peek at yesterday's war, I was naturally surprised to see Reconquista down to 5 colonies from last week's 13. O.O Shocking indeed.

Meanwhile, EdeN and Eclipse are getting back on track with 5 colonies each. Not bad, people. ^_^

We have familiar faces on the map again this week, but this time, it's more of a proverbial shift in power. Congratulations to all colony holders! ^_~ Here's to seeing more diversity in Colony Wars in the weeks to come!

Holy Crap!: v.2.4 updates and why it kinda sucks having RNPCs in your main team

That was quite a mouthful for a blog topic, huh? XD

Surprisingly, I was able to go home from work at a much earlier time, although I'm actually working from home as I speak. While browsing a few blogs and finally getting to the sGE site, my senses got tickled wih news from the upcoming Bahia Island patch (v.2.4).

One such feature is the Super Fight, as shown here.

Comments: It's good to know that the non-Veterans can enjoy what it's like to fight against raid bosses. GE is fast becoming a game for high levels and I'm excited to try out this feature that enables mid-levels like me to be a bit more daring not just with PvE, but with PvP as well.

Another thing worth looking forward to is Tropical Island, as shown here.

Comments: This is where the sucky part comes in. If you have an RNPC team, you're gonna miss half your life. I guess only my Elementalist can look hot, but not Bernelli and Emilia *le sigh*. Which brings me to a point that I have to revive my Cervantes girls. Hehe. Wouldn't want them to miss the action as well.

RCM Hrin has likewise put up a poll regarding the much-awaited RNPCs Karjalainen, Jameson brothers Edward and Gavin, Kurt Lyndon, Viki, Angie and Feng Ling.

Oh Gavin, my Gavin! *swoons*

Comments: Where are the freaking girl gamers of GE? I can't believe this low turnout of votes for Gavin Jameson. Well, for one this he's hot. Secondly, he's hot. And third, he's soooooo hot!!!! Hahaha. I just might erect a small shrine for this handsome dude. Too bad quests to get this hunk of an RNPC's going to be exclusive to Vets once again. *le sigh*.


And on a side note, GE Philippines is going to be at the Hero TV event happening on December 1 & 2 at the SMX Convention Center near the SM Mall of Asia. I'll be there dressed as Idge once again, so if there's anyone of you guys here in PH who wants a meet-up, lets! ^_^

DeSanggria's footnotes:

- I'd like to welcome the Yatsushiro family into the Vespanolan Times CW correspondent team! Yatsushiro will be reporting for Pachelbel! Yay! So we need one more brave soul for Vivaldi and our group is set! ^0^

- Just today, I got my first experience of being deleveled...and in the Forgotten Territories no less. Yep, not a pretty picture at all, and it's not even worth celebrating about. XD Now I've even got more reasons to get my @$$ to Veteran status. Mwehehe.

- Oh yeah, I'm in a new faction called †Legion†, under the leadership of Spardo. The group's a bit small right now, but despite that, all members are online almost every time I log in. It's been a great experience talking to these people and I'd like to thank Spardo for letting me in despite the faction's level requirements for members ^^. Hi and hello as well to my new faction mates!

GE PH bloggers meet for the first time

For the first time ever, NineMoons and I extended an invitation to all GE PH bloggers for an afternoon of friendly chit chat as well as serious talks about GE and blogging in general.

There were just about 7 of us including me and NineMoons, Fixdotter, Welling, the Reclusion boys Nate & Darrick, and surprisingly, Mena. We were expecting the arrival of the others who were supposed to come, but got caught up in other stuff, hence the familiar faces in the group. What's monumental about this, however, was that most of the bloggers present have been blogspotted by RCM Hrin!

As we waited for the latecomers (ahem! ahem! :P), we talked about a lot of stuff, including the anticipated release of V2.4, which RCM Hrin has noted will be released before the year ends. I'm looking forward to the new RNPCs and other great features of this upcoming patch.

That's who we are!

Aside from which, we talked about each server's concerns and issues, most especially the cliques in the factions. We all noted in most of the represented servers (Cervantes, Caravaggio & Caracci) that no one would rather step up against the ruling political alliance. And of course with the diverse backgrounds of each faction and player, drama and all other hullabaloos ensue via /broad and other chat systems.

NineMoons and Mena

Fixdotter and NineMoons

The discussions were different, mostly tackling concerns we normally deal with in-game such as the dynamics of a PK and non-PK server when it comes to settling scores, the upcoming baron RNPC (which will be a tad bit unfair for most non-PK server players), as well as tips and tricks in the game.

I'd like to note (and welcome) Mena who was surprisingly present after being inactive as a player and a blogger due to PC-related issues. Although he may have gone on an unannounced hiatus, he was still able to keep abreast with updates from jGE.

Meeting up with fellow GE bloggers has been fun and informative too. For those who weren't able to attend, fear not because we will hold these meetings as often as we can depending on each one's schedules. So I do hope to see more faces in the meet as soon as we arrange for another one.

And here's something to leave you by...

L-R: Reclusion (Nate & Darrick), Welling, moi, NineMoons, Mena and Fixdotter

Many thanks to GE PH Product Manager Ivee Feria and pCM Veya for providing neat goodie bags for those who attended. ^.~

LONG LIVE, GE! ^0^

Oktoberfest...the Granado Espada way

Together with a few friends in GE, Welling and I trooped to Metrowalk in Ortigas, the popular haunt for nightlife and gimik place of most people, for the closing party of Oktoberfest. GE PH had a hand as one of the participating sponsors in the event. And of course when you talk about GE, you cannot discount freeplays...and there was just that, right at the Gamefrog i-Cafe.

L-R: NineMoons, Fixdotter, pCM Veya, Welling, DeSanggria & Conteza

I met fellow bloggers Fixdotter, NineMoons, and later on Daemonic in the event. I also got to meet new faces such as Conteza and Vivaldi's Carebear Faction Leader Lobishomen and Deputy MirageEros who were quite engrossed in a boss hunt that time.

Lobishomen and MirageEros engrossed in a boss raid.

Unable to resist the lure of freeplay, I too engaged in the Halloween in-game event in search of Tiburon's scarecrows. I managed to find a handful of them, but later on I had to squad up with Welling to get to the higher level areas.

And finally, my efforts paid off as I finished the quest. I got all the loot from Tiburon—chocolates, diamond coupons, lvl 64 enchantment chips...and pumpkin hats! Unfortunately, only the stock characters can wear them, so only my elementalist, Armeo, looked quite the silly one. The hats are tradeable, so I gave the remaining 2 to Welling. You should see how silly his wizard and fighter looked wearing those accessories. Hehe.

Beer! A huge one!

Anyway, we weren't able to stay for long. We just went to the GE booth at the main event area, and I was surprised to see a lot of premium GE merchandise. Take note that these are not the usual merchandise available here in the Philippines.

The stuff came from IAH Singapore, so you can just imagine all those hard to find goodies such as posters, door hangers, mugs, shirts and mousepads! I was drooling all over it and was even tempted to nick a few (mwehehehe), but alas, they were for token exchange thingamajig in the event.

GE PH Product Manager, Ivee Feria, with teh premium GE loot.

Later on, we'll be having our GE bloggers' meeting. I'm already running late so let's save the chit chat some other time.

Ciao for now!~