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!

The gates are open!

It's official, folks. The gates to Tierra Putrefacta, and ultimately, to Chaos Requiem, are now open, now that Vivaldi and Pachelbel did the job of pwning the Giant Keeper days after Caravaggio, Carracci and Cervantes killed the monster from their respective servers.

And here we thought that faction feuds would be a hindrance to resolve this matter. A big kudos to all seaGE factions for rising above the personal strife to come together for one cause. For that, you've given all citizens of Granado Espada the chance to venture into Chaos Requiem!

Not that I'm not miffed about what people were saying that this would further worsen the botting situation, I only see the more macro viewpoint, in this case, everyone is given the access to this new map. So this still calls for a big celebration.

Here's to hoping one day I can set foot in the new map as well. But for now, I gotta clear out my Katovic and Bahamas quests before I shoot for the stars. XD

Here's a few screenshots posted by our friends at the GE forums.

Pachelbel - SS by Xima

Vivaldi - SS by valinorian

I just went out for the day...

...and then here comes the news.

Apparently, Caravaggio's successful raid on the Giant Keeper went out as some sort of challenge to the rest of the other servers. Just tonight, I was alerted by Fiksdotter's & NineMoons' blog update that our server, Carracci, made a successful attempt in killing this monster.

E M I N E N C E Faction leader Nostradamus' name was announced in the entire server as the last person to have dealt the final blow on the critter. It's no surprise, given the fact that E M I N E N C E is the current superpower in Carracci. What makes me curious is how these guys actually did it.

Anyway, the topic's all over the GE forums, so better head on there if you want to know more about it. I'm a bit tired from today's activities so I'll check on it some other time.

Having said this, I guess it's now up to Pachelbel, Cervantes and Vivaldi to follow suit in this quest. Who will be next?

Now that's something worth anticipating.

[edit]

And so I heard Cervantes did the job as well. Knock, knock, knock on Pachelbel and Vivaldi! ^^

The fall of the Giant Keeper

This just in. Around 3 or so squads from Caravaggio efficiently pwned the Giant Keeper (Great Hill Giant) guarding the entrance to Chaos Requiem, making them the very first server to gain access to this never before chartered territory.

Screenshot c/o GrImRiPpEr at the GE forums

From Kai Kai at this thread

OMG this is absolutely monumental! I was actually thinking that it will take the cooperation of an entire server to kill this monster, but these guys just did it with 3 squads! Looking at the screenshot, they used a lot of DPS power, mainly using Musketeers, Wizards and Emilia the Sages. I can't even begin to imagine how they actually did it.

Kudos to you guys!

Now, some of the IAH staff are thinking of rewarding the raiders for their effort. Sweet! I wonder when will Carracci have its turn on pwning this tough cookie.

Stuff about being a girl gamer

Contrary to my un-updated blog, yes, I am still alive. Thanks to the culprit called real life (and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and Diner Dash on Nintendo DS, plus work woes to boot), things have been pretty busy for me.

Anyway, here's something I've been meaning to write a commentary about: Granado Espada's Gamer Girls.

If you know the whole story to it, chances are you know its herstory, stemming from the Community Managers, down to the gamers themselves. In fact, a long thread has been devoted to the discussion of this program, although admittedly, nothing worthwhile came up from the discussions, except for the proverbial masochistic harangue of "There are no girls on the Internets".

NineMoons has given us her own thoughts about this, and although I share her sentiments, I have a few things to add on my own.

1. Guys should learn how to grow up. Seriously. Just because there are girls playing online games, that doesn't mean they're guys masquerading as girls. You don't own the exclusive aptitude to play games.

2. Although I do applaud our CMs for starting the ball rolling for gamer girls, my only opinion is that it's not a huge issue at all. Don't get me wrong, but the fact that it's being hyped up only creates/worsens the gender disparity. You'd only have to look at the forums to know what I mean.

Seriously, it's nice to know that girls can pwn guys any time, but tooting our horns won't do that much difference. Refer to #1 for emphasis.

3. Why feature only the good looking girls? Not only will they elicit/bring up more masochistic discussions (in addition to weird advances and mindless ogling), it further aggravates the entire scenario. Ok, I know the gamer features are far from over, but it would be nice if all girls regardless of looks will be given space. Of course, we have to respect other's decision if they wish to remain anonymous.

I'm not speaking as if the gamer girl features are over. This may sound contradictory to my earlier point, but those who are willing to be featured should also be free to express their thoughts and not be hindered by what other people will say. And it would not be such a bad idea to feature the low to mid-level girl gamers of GE. We want to foster the spirit of community here and character levels are supposed to be irrelevant.

4. This one's for the girls: We don't need to prove ourselves to ANYONE. Regardless if you're a level 1 player or an Expert level player, the fact is that you love the game, that's more than enough reasons for you to continue playing. Let us not be impeded by our counterparts' serious, albeit wonked up, perspective on gaming. We're here to play and we're here to have fun!

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In other news, I has a Bai Hu! And since he's technically a Korean RNPC, I named him after my favorite Kpop idol, Ahn Chil Hyun, also known as Kangta to some.

Excuse me for the fangirling, but I've been wanting to give him that name ever since I knew he's from Coria. Haha. So I'm currently leveling both a Fighter and Bai Hu (at this rate, I'm never gonna be Expert if I keep on vetting new characters =_=).

But the good news is, my Gavin has a new playmate! >:)