Monday, July 7, 2008

My "Davao Cyber Expo" Experience... Or Was It? >.>

Yeah, I know, I know... I've said in my previous entry that I'll continue to write a 2nd part of it the next day. But lemme get off the hook for today, 'kay?

Anyway, I can only write a li'l about my Davao Cyber Expo experience since I only showed up on the 1st & last day. Here's what happened:

1st Day:
* Since my very objective is to check out what's happening at the E-Games booth, I decided to go there first. I met Ces, one of my "barkadas" and one of my fellow DDRers (y'know, Dance Dance Revolution" players). He's one of the E-Games' event organization team here in Davao City, which is nice so that not only I can hang out with him during events, I can also contact him for anything related to E-Games from general inquiries to event dates to announcements of upcoming games.

And as usual, their games already gotten attention from both old players and newbies. Since DCE is a 3-day event, the games to be showcased was divided into 3: O2Jam & Audition for the 1st day, RAN & Supreme Destiny for the 2nd day, and Cabal & Granado Espada on the 3rd day. 1st day was jam-packed with players who wants to show off their skills, as well as the crowd who stuck their eyes on the players' screens and see who's the best there is. While I'm at the booth, I met Arfie, my schoolmate when we were in STI College. He's also an Audition player, but he didn't participate in the tournament coz he stopped playing for a long time. Now that I'm not alone anymore, I asked him if he wants to come along with me to see other booths and he's ok with that, so off we go as we chat along.

* We went to the other booth to see what they offer. Near the E-Games booth is the Blinque Tech booth, showcasing their products: Artic Cooling and Zalman, two of the best manufacturers of PC cooling solutions from CPU & GPU coolers (fan/heatsink/heatpipe combo) to water cooling systems. What interests me is the one of Zalman's giant CPU cooler codenamed "CNPS9500 AM2". And while the cooler's big enough to absorb the heat not only from the CPU but for the entire box, the price is also big... at Php 4,000! Well, it's too big for my current system box, though. For more info, check this site:
http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?Idx=162. As for Artic Cooling products, it's just the same as what Zalman offers, but I'm more into Zalman's unique design for their coolers.

* We decided to go to Amped Games booth. Amped is ABS-CBN Interactive's new name for their digital entertainment portal which currently offers 3 online games: Tantra, WarRock, and GetAmped. During the DCE event, they posted a steamer of their new online game titled "N-AGE: Ride To Freedom", and as the slogan states, there's a blue image at the back of the title looked like a bike to me. Curious about this new game, I signed up their registration form and they gave the installer. I haven't tried it yet, though. WarRock packed a punch when it comes to attention from players and audiences since that game is action-packed from 1st-person shooting view mode (the same view you get from CounterStrike) to 3rd person view mode (ever played Ace Combat & Top Gun? you'll have the same feel on WarRock with their own aircraft as well!)

* Next, we went to Levelup Games booth. Most of you know this already, but for others who don't know, here's a thing about the company: they're the pioneering online gaming company famous for the most popular game and the very first MMORPG in the philippines back in 2003.... RAGNAROK ONLINE. Now merged with NetGames, their games had expanded and the number of players grew more. But as what a popular saying goes: "what comes up must come down": 3 games are already shut down, namely ROSE Online, Pangya, and Khan Online. While Perfect World is indeed a great game and players loved it, it wasn't received enough attention from the crowd, not to mention that LUG had their own PW mascots...err, I mean cosplayers. Sorry, me and my bad mouth. XD

* After that, we went to a booth filled with posters and comic books. Those products are from AnimeCebu, which I don't have ANY idea where they came from (although it's obvious that their business originated from cebu from their business name) and why they're there with all their products which is NOT RELATED TO PC TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS/SERVICES/SOLUTIONS and just posters & comic books. Despite what I stated earlier, I decided to take a look at their posters anyway. Well, the way their posters printed wasn't that bad, the kind of paper they used is indeed durable and produces printed images with nice colors.... what's with their choice of anime titles? THEY'RE ALL TOO COMMON! Maybe it's just me, but I find it odd to see that although they represent their business name as anime-related, they don't have a wide range of anime titles which should have ones not currently aired in the phlippines! I was expecting to see such titles like Clannad or Blood+ or Initial D or Lucky Star, etc, etc, but what I only get is the poster of "Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu" (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)! And one more thing... what's with their posters laying on the floor without been taking care! I did get the poster I wanted, but its edges are already damaged with all the tear (although small, it's still noticeable). Good thing it costs 30 pesos.

* While we're looking for more booths, we stumbled on a booth which is the center of the event in that day: Warcraft III's DOTA tournament. Arfie talked about his situation with the kids who are customers of the netcafe where he worked: those kids are more talented that adults, but they're the poor ones you'll find mostly on residetial areas where there are poor families and, the most common, on the streets. I adviced him on creating a team of his own, but he hesitated since it's pretty obvious about the condition of those kids. If those kids really are good, then they must be recognized and give them a chance to participate. Well, that's philippines for ya.

Now, for the 3rd day, it wasn't that much to talk about, except for one thing and the only thing in mind: getting the Granado Espada's "Emilia The Sage Box" that I've been longing for since the introduction of the improved RNPC that I loved and adored so much, Emilia Guilliano.

You see, the kind of Eimilia Guilliano you get from her quest is a support-type character which has a lot of defense buffs you can get from a wizard, while also acts as a healer type with a set of healing skills you get from a scout. The problem? She lacks offensive skills, which is sad thing to have. Poor Emilia... T_T But our prayers are answered: a new kind of Emilia Guilliano that has ALL OF THE STANCES you find from a WIZARD, while retaining the HEALING STANCE from an ordinary Emilia.

Actually, after I got my salary of Php 1,500 last monday I decided to save it for a 160GB HDD for my 2nd PC on the next payday and start a small-time netcafe of 2 starting units which my potential customers are our boarders (yes, the 2nd floor of our home is a boarding house/dormitory). While I was tending the customers at the netcafe where I'm working as an attendant, I saw a notice of an event in RAN Online's patch update window: DAVAO CYBER EXPO!! If there's an event, there will be E-Games booth, which leads to one thing: ETS BOX!! XD With that in mind, I made sure that the money I got won't be spent. The 3rd day of the event finally arrived, but my body is still laying on the bed (well, my parent's bed actually which is more comfy, nyahahahaha XD) and my mind's still on dreamland having a great chat with Mizuki-chan, my favorite character from Lost Passage, a visual novel. When I got up, it was already 3PM! DAMN!! My chances of having an ETS Box is getting smaller! I hurriedly took a bath, until I heard a familiar voice... my buddy and a former classmate of mine during my STI COllege days, Ralph Pedrosa. After it, I had my lunch (well, lunch is already over so maybe a snack? nyahahahaha XD) while having a chat and watching TV with him. While I'm pretty much prepared and ready to go, I totally forgot that he has something for me which I already anticipated, Blood+ episodes in AVI format! While I'm copying those eps from his mp4 player (also acts as a data storage too) to my PC, I decided to kill a bit of time and play Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekitou (or Harugeki for short). He taught me some pointers on how to use Tsuruya (one of my favorite characters from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu) effectively, and it worked just the way I like it! She can do combos at ground, then performs two flash kicks, y'know, the kind of skill you can see mostly on other video game characters like Guile from Street Fighter and Law from Tekken series, then while midair you can continue on performing combos (I did a max of 3 hits in midair), and when the opponents starts to fall to the ground, she quickly dashes right to where her opponent lands and performs a barrage of ice that nearby enemies would get hit by it (this game has a max of 3 members per side). While I enjoyed playing that game, I noticed that it's getting dark and the files are already finished copying! I get the feeling that I'll have to wait for another event (in months, maybe next year!) since my chances of getting ETS box is zero, thanks to my stupidity (and my friend who I felt he always bring misfortune to my life... hahahaha, just kidding!). We went outside in a hurry to a highway where we can have a ride on a jeep to NCCC Mall. When we get there, the E-Games booth was filled with players and audiences, since the games they're showcasing that night is Cabal Online, which is the most played online game IMO due to 5 servers always full. When I asked Ces for an ETS box, he told me that the person who distributes the ETS boxes already left out the mall. I told him my situation and my need to have that box, he told me to go a internet cafe at the downtown area. No sweat, but when while we're on our way there, I forgot the name of the netcafe! Ok, now I'm doomed... T__T I tried to remember, but what I can only recall is "One Bar". We earched the area but we didn't find the netcafe we're looking for. Ces said that it's near Dover Mega Lanes and Cherry restaurant, but I don't see any, except for a nearby netcafe that doesn't have a signage and half-closed. I asked somebody on the area, but they didn't know a thing about "One Bar". After all failures, we decided to go back and ask Ces to reserve one for me. Sheesh... I was really excited to have that box that I can't wait to get my hand on it that night. But before we left, I just saw a motorcycle parked at the half-closed netcafe and saw a person closing the rollup, packing up and almost ready to go. I ran towards that guy before he starts up his motorcycle. I asked him if the cafe we're standing at is the "One Bar" that I can only remember hearing it from Ces. Then he said, "One Bar, or Quagmire?" Shit! That WAS the name of that cafe we're looking at! I'm such a forgetful piece of crap! >.<>

Ok, now it's already 8:AM and I haven't got any sleep yet so I guess this is it for now. Wait... what I just wrote isn't that "li'l", right? It's WAY TOO LONG! Sheesh.... This is just great. I'm getting too focused at this. >.> Oh well, I had fun remembering what happened yesterday while writing this entry anyway. XD On the next entry, I'll write about the ETS Box I've purchased. Till then, happy reading! :D

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