Age of Conan...

goes to show that MMOs are extremely profitable with unique selling points, acute marketing strategies ("the hype") and a nostalgic storyline. With these in your ammunition package, you can simply don't bother about UI, leave your attributes system hanging in the balcony and still sell 400,000 copies of your game on the first week! Just wow! Get real, I'm very unimpressed by the ethical stand-point of Funcom. What an extremely unpolished MMO that has neglected so many critical areas upon release.

Believe me when I say WoW is so successful because of its insanely user-friendly UI. AoC did not pick this up. Now, I understand that FPS game designers struggle with UI because apparently, it kills the 'feel'. I do think at some level yes, it is true, but it's largely because of FPS gaming habits. Most FPS dumbdown their GUI, which is fine because the focus of traditional FPS games has been to aim and shoot. In Dark Messiah and Oblivion you swing your baby and you don't really need a GUI for that yes. But hey in an MMO you socialize to gain political leverage (I'm making my point serious here). Keeping quiet and not participating is not real gaming and in some way, really phoney as well... Not having a decent chat interface for your paying subscribers is a gargantuan insult to the bread and butter of mmogaming period

Yet another critical mistake by the devs - sticking to traditional quest design. Come on, EQ did it, EQ2 did it, WoW did it, even small MIC (made-in-china) MMOs have done it. Yes, I give AoC high marks for being able to tell stories through their quests, but the whole system of quest-for-XP is so blatantly plagiarized and cliched. Can someone bring in an idiot so we can a different perspective already?

It was quite fascinating to hear somewhat professional voice-overs (when I wanted to) on every NPC I talked to. There was finally some level of emotion coming from an MMO, not the cheap player-based drama that MMOs commuters have been feeding on. But I'm sorry to reveal that all that voice-over in AoC disappears after lvl 20. Kudos to Funcom, they're Republicans now.

I hit lvl 53 after 1 week of play. Not bad I think. If I went harder I could have hit 55 (assuming I had no current knowledge of the game). It's definitely possible to grind to 80 in like, 100 hours of played time or less, but that kinda defeats the purpose anyway. I'm sure eventually someone would find an exploit to get 80 within 24 hours or something ridiculous like that. Athenelol

On a final note, the specs required are too ridiculous. I certainly do believe that their artists fcked up the texture sizes. It takes a couple of seconds to load scenes on a 8600 with extremely compromised video settings. It cannot be that way, and I believe that it's not the fault of the engine infrastructure too, just poor optimization...

By the way, I'm blogging tonight because servers are down lol. This patch better be good hehe and catch my aoc rants next time! ^_~

The Fury of Sunwell

I've been back to PVE again. I'm having problems coping with the late hours and I've missed a lot of classes. It's just been 2 weeks and I already want to take a step back.. A huge part of the problem is the difficulty scaling of bosses past Kalecgos. I'm not saying they're impossible or are unimaginably difficult to kill, but for example Brutallus and Felmyst have 23k bursts and I'm not sure if main tank healers are expected to heal it up. A lot of people are blaming Sunwell Radiance, I disagree. Case-in-point, the bosses hit too hard. Felmyst's corrosion needs to be nerfed and Brutallus needs to have a insertion time to prevent him from hitting 15k and 8k within 0.2 seconds. The only solution to such bursts are having more healers spamming so somehow a heal lands between 0.2s but yeah, that IS rng... Soccer only has 11 moving players and already so much rng is involved. It's a massive undertaking to organize 25 people, to lead them, to understand them, to rectify them, to see improvement, to see it all syncing. It can happen but only the top 0.001% can achieve this at an acceptable rate, if at all. Elementium has achieved it to some extent but not enough, not enough.. for the final 2.

I woke up feeling lost and depressed yesterday. My bio-clock is going a bit crazy, I think. Another theory is because the people I've been playing with for long hours (hardcore PVEers) have distinct mentality differences from PVPers. I have to say I'm culture shocked. Some people said Milynn was too hardcore too strict too rigid, I never agreed and I won't, because he was not. Kron is a bit crazy ever since he left DnT too, it's a mentality issue really. In a way the negativity during raids was something like Kyvaan who just snapped. This is the fury of PVE.

Twin Eredars is not a difficult fight at all, just rng. I'm still pissed we got to 10% and failed because cert died. It was a bit my fault because I knew cert was going to take much damage and was ready to drop a holy light but the burst.. at the same time everyone else missed the heal too.. But in retrospect we ultimately spent 7 hours in there.. So stupid..

Mu'ru is going to be worse and I'm not sure if I want to participate this much. Mekon, GM of SK-Gaming said of Mu'ru:

"Without doubt the best designed encounter Blizzard have made since Naxxramas. M'uru / Entropius is the hardest non blocked fight ever made no question. It is perfectly tuned, you cannot make a single mistake and need a flawless strat. It's a really fun and intense fight that allows all classes to play an active roll rather than sitting and spamming. I'm really not sure how many guilds are capable of killing it, the amount of dps you need is crazy and the healing is soo tight because you cant use many at all. I'm really proud of everyone in the guild and the effort they have put into this, it was well deserved. Looking forward to the race on KJ now!"


This was not the PVE I wanted. The difficulty is capped too high. As game designers Blizzard should know that playability =! hours of rng. I have 350 days of played time, I have 150k lifetime kills, Lambert is now the highest rated player on Blackrock, I spend more time than anyone else duelling, I do theorycrafting during insomnia, I draw spreadsheets, I read forums during classes but it's not enough... why do this to me and others..? I didn't get to see Kel'Thuzad under the same circumstances and believe me it's not an issue with being burning out, some bosses are just too difficult for 99% of guilds even if they're given the time...

I'm running out of time to raid 6 hours a day until Eredars... Muru... and KJ are down. There is skill involved but that doesn't mean it's necessarily fun. I take every fight seriously - I use consumables, I give my all but 1 mistake from any member is a wipe already... I don't blame people for mistakes, everyone makes mistakes and they must learn from it, but video game is not real life; UI, latency, com specs cannot be changed overnight. Some people just have poor UI and can't deal with so much crap, so that means more wipes and more time and more frustration... Mu'ru will be even more unforgiving and KJ would be unimaginable.. Maybe being top 0.0001% PVE is not my cup of tea.

I love you Episkey.

My Resolution

A lot has been happening in school, at work, in WoW. It's haphazard but I'm dealing with them quite well. I have been ignorant about troubles at school because I don't want to be part of the cesspool. It's something that I've shunned for quite a while because it's not my cup of tea anymore. I've played 17 MMOs and studied in 6 institutions, I'm sick of office politics. But this is the deal: I've kept my opinions under the carpet for a while and now I have finally used my voice when I felt it was most needed. Who wants to be a Millionaire enthusiasts know that a key strategy to win is to save lifelines till the very last moment. Undoubtedly, I had to execute my opinions at the right time, to the right persons and under the right circumstances and in the most rationale manner. It looks like I had entered the danger zone, picked up epic loot and got out of it without being ensnared.

My official ITP with Ksatria Gameworks ends tomorrow. It has been a wonderful journey. I have witnessed raw team synergy, dedication and solid player skill. I was largely soft-spoken because I didn't know my place. They're all so good and have inspired me to work harder and learn more. Some of them are so pro, especially Cedric the imbalanced. He's like the patriarch of the company, the untouchable and revered. Raymond my supervisor is pro too! I know I've been naughty and late a number of times, but I'm working on it! =p

This year my resolution is not too much to ask for. I'm going to attempt to juggle work, school and arena. This week we managed to pierce into top 5 5v5 again. It doesn't mean much really. We're one of the strongest 2345 teams but the latest comps completely nullify burst attempts. Fortunately I think we're beginning to be able to counter trifecta teams after losing so many points to low-rated ones. Anyhow, there is a high chance I won't be raiding as a full-time raider anymore and believe me when I say I still loathe the fact that Paladins require PVE gear to perform in 5s.

Celine Dion ft. Andrea Bocelli - The Prayer

I pray you’ll be our eyes,
and watch us where we go
And help us to be wise,
in times when we don’t know
Let this be our prayer,
when we lose our way
Lead us to a place,
guide us with your grace
To a place where we’ll be safe.

La luce che tu dai
I pray we’ll find your light
Nel cuore resterà
And hold it in our hearts
A ricordarci che
When stars go out each night
L’eterna stella sei
Nella mia preghiera
Let this be our prayer
Quanta fede c’è
When shadows fill our day
Lead us to a place
Guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we’ll be safe

Sognamo un mondo senza più violenza
Un mondo di giustizia e di speranza
Ognuno dia la mano al suo vicino
Simbolo di pace e di fraternità

La forza che ci dai
We ask that life be kind
È il desiderio che
And watch us from above
Ognuno trovi amore
We hope each soul will find
Intorno e dentro a sè
Another soul to love
Let this be our prayer
Let this be our prayer
Just like every child
Just like every child

Need to find a place,
guide us with your grace
Give us faith so we’ll be safe

E la fede che
Hai acceso in noi
Sento che ci salverà

What's Ahead

Viewing my unforced temporary departure from WoW as a mini-sabbatical of sorts, I've gotten in the mood of thinking what's next again.

I've been for a long time contemplating my desire to write a novel -- a fantasy one of course. I thought Conclave was a good attempt at fantasy, but it was inclined to be terribly cliche. My ideas tend to be lofty with some level of rationality in them, but this in my opinion constricts the level of creativity and eccentricity that is required to evoke good fantasy. I mean, magick has always been irrational.

My knowledge of the fantasy realm is truly limited. I didn't read a lot as a kid, so that's quite a disadvantage especially when time is of the essence. My advantage herein is a unique set of knowledge that has quite propitiously presented itself over my adolescent period. Romance of the Three Kingdoms has always captivated me and so has medieval fantasy. Can these 2 varying eras be merged into a new fantasy world? Yes, why not? Unfortunately there are some who staunchly reject such an appeal. I could never explain why. In fact, during the pre-production phase of the abomination - Stranger In The Mirror, suggestions to have some level of rojak in the story were refuted by my group members.

Anyway in some way or another, being intellectually cleansed of other similar works of fiction can be an advantage to any novelist. Think laureates who reached their level of literary evocation from the depths of post-war caste systems. The important ingredient in my opinion are ideas, which is why I always had some level of respect for History & Theory of Ideas. Unfortunately Year 2 was rather decimating (lolgpa), but through some level of practice over the last 2 years I'm now able to read really fast, grasping ideas from narratives without actually having to fully comprehend the story. So my plan of action is to read as selectively as I can. To say the least, working on Lone Wolf has helped me a lot.

As a disclaimer, I don't intend or have any thoughts of stealing Joe Dever's ideas. In a really brutal fashion, they have been robbed, twisted and exploited over and over again anyway.

I'll be celebrating the first anniversary of this blog in a couple of months. Don't expect much though, I'm completely antisocial to birthdays and what not. What I'll do though is start a series of short stories in attempt to slowly ease myself into the mood for writing. So maybe watch out for that =p

Amy Winehouse - Just Friends

When will we get, the time to be
Just friends?…

It’s never safe for us, not even in the evening
Cause I’ve been drinkin’
Not in the mornin‘, When yo shit works

Its always dangerous, when everybody is sleepin‘
When I’ve been thinkin’
Can we be alone,
Can we be alone?

When will we get, the time to be
Just friends?…

And though I’m not ashamed
But the guilt will kill you
If she don’t first
I’ll never love you like her

Though we need to find the time to just do this shit together
‘fore it gets worse
I wanna touch you,
But that just hurts.

When will we get, the time to be
Just friends?…

Just friends…

Japan pushes Technological Edge

Yesterday, Japan successfully launched a rocket containing Kizuna, a setallite set to redefine data transmission within the region. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) said that with Kizuna, it hoped to enable super high-speed internet speeds of up to 1.2 gigabits per second. That's a whopping 1200mbit, 120 times faster than a regular 10mbit connection. At this point in time, Jaxa has said that Kizuna would provide low-cost services across Japan and in 19 different locations in South-East Asia. Woo.

Kizuna is also known as the Wideband Inter-Networking Engineering Test and Demonstration Satellite, or WINDS.