Monday, February 16, 2009

Still Having Doubts on Joining The "e-Games Correspondents"

Presea PM me yesterday about joining the "e-Games Correspondents". It's an official E-Games community blog writing articles related to E-Games like game info/guides, event happenings, technical problems and solutions, etc.

Here's the full entry I posted on the site:

Character Name: DelaValliele (family name)

Game: Granado Espada

Server: All Servers (mostly in Rembrandt)

Your Gaming Blog (optional): Absolute Randomness (http://djash1983.blogspot.com) -- not really a gaming blog, but I do post some Granado Espada related blog entries.

Why do you think you are qualified to be an e-Games Correspondent and how would this help the gaming community?

This is kinda difficult for me to write my reasons about joining this group, but I wanna let out my thoughts based on what I feel right now (as of this writing).

First of all, I'm neither a professional blogger nor a pro gamer. I'm only into blogging because I wanna let my online friends know about the events and experiences happening in my life that is worth writing: life at home or outside, school, work, etc. Gaming is no exception, either. As for gaming, I only play games, LAN or online, just to have fun and have friends but not really that competitive. I can be competitve if I wanted to, but not to that extent. I've tried and played most online games served inside and outside of the philippines, but Granado Espada is the only game that I played for a year; longer than other online games I've played.

Gaming is one huge part of my life. I've been into video games since my childhood days where Nintendo FamiCom was the hype of recreation before. Hell, I even cut classes on my highschool days just to play SNES (Super Famicom in Japan) and Playstation. 1997 was the beginning of my PC lifestyle by surfing the net at nearby netcafes (it was P75/hr that time, and there was no DSL that time). Then 1999 came and Starcraft & Counter Strike were popular games that time. Other game titles followed after. PS2 was released and played most game titles, including Metal Gear Solid 2 and Need For Speed Underground. I also played arcade games, but more into music/dance simulation games like Dance Dance Revolution and DrumMania. Online gaming went boom when LUG's Ragnarok Online, the philippine's first MMORPG, was launched as open beta. Of course me and my friends joined the hype. More online games and game service providers followed, like Mobuis Games (Gunbound and MU), NetGames (Flyff, Khan, Pangya), and, of course, E-Games (RAN, Audition, Supreme Destiny, O2Jam). I meet a lot of online friends, but as what a saying goes, "friends come and go". That never stopped me from playing online games though.

Looking back, I sometimes say to myself, "it would be great if I took time writing those events so I can live myself back to those times". I did have a journal, although in a MS word document format. Then I read about online blogging. I was hesitant on going along with it at first, but decided to give it a try. I made my first blog at MIXI, fully-japanese social community site much like friendster and myspace, ever since I was active at Apricotweb, a japanese-english learning site (and had japanese friends, too). Then I decided to have my own blog, which is currently named as "Absolute Randomness".

One of my favorites and longest blog entry was the "Davao Cyber Expo" where E-Games and other game service providers show their own stuff, as well as other well-known companies showing their PC techie stuff. That event really drove me to write a blog entry. Oh yeah, I do love going to local gaming events, especially E-Games events. I even remember joining Granado Espada's PVP tournament with my friend (and got pwned within less than a minute at the quarterfinals) during the "E-Games Evolution" event.

Now, some people here wants to join the group of correspondents because they have writing wkills, extensive knowledge on games served by E-Games, have the skills in handling PC and game technical problems/concerns, and other skills needed to become a good E-Games correspondent. I was like, "Wow... they really look promising. They could really help the entire E-Games community."

I got a PM from a friend of mine who encouraged me to join this group because she knew about me helping sGE Davao players, which is "valiant" to her. She's right though, I DO wanna encourage Davao players to play Granano Espada and help them as much as I can, as the game that I love is fading away from the netcafes around Davao city. But it seems that it isn't enough for a game to become popular again. Or more likely, I felt helpless. That's why up until now I'm still hesitant to join this group.

I do love Granado Espada. Hell, I even despised it during the open beta because of the huge PC requriements and, I have to admit, the game title is so "corny". But after I tried playing the game, I said to myself, "this is the game I've been looking for!". And because of my love of the game, I really wanna share it to others who haven't played the game yet, and help other players who already played it by any means like sharing client installers and dealing with technical problems/concerns. If writing a blog is one of many ways to share my love of the game, then I'll give it a shot.


I was like, "Whoa... I've done it again: a wall of text!". But since I want to let out my thoughs about it, I decided to post it anyway. :D

But even though I've already submitted my entry, I'm still having doubts on joining the community blog. Most of the people submitted their entries has higher standards on their motivations and objectives on joining than I am, thus having higher chances of being chosen. And most of all, am I really fit into joining that grand community blog? I'm not that good at comprehensive writing. Others has more knowledge in online games served by e-Games; I don't have enough of it. But I only know one thing: expressing my own thoughts, views, and concerns about what's happening on the online gaming community, especially related to Granado Espada.

Since I've already posted my entry, seems to me like backing off is not an option. *sigh*

Friday, February 13, 2009

3x The Events, 3x The Fun! :D

This day really made me happy. First up....

I've been woke up by knock on teh door. My mom told me there's a call from someone who needed me for a PC troubleshooting. Turns out to be uncle Jonard, one of my "clients", if you may, who is asking me for a lookup on 2 PCs at their office: one that the monitor suddenly turns off, and the other won't display at all. Easy on the other one, but the other really made me worked up. Turns out there's a problem on the power supply part, specifically on the power cable outlet. I told them how to turn it back on by pulling and pushing back the power cord socket to the monitor's power outlet. Then uncle Jonard noticed something lacking: a printer for the other PC. We bought one at a local PC shop, brought it back to teh office, and I'm the one installing the printer's cables and ink cartridges. After that, I finally got the pay. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAI! XD Now I have a reason to buy another GVC card! :D

Second...

The "[GCR In-Game Event] Win A Date With a Troll" day 2 is also as fun as day 1. This time, Presea (a.k.a. DeSanggria in sGE) joined teh event and gave Maki (a.k.a. Straightener in sGE) lotsa chocos! I thought Sinacy (a.k.a. Darjeeling in SGE) would pwn the rest of us on the event. :D Nzi wansn't able to attend the 1st day of the event, so I'm glad she had time on the 2nd day. Me and Maki thought there would be more voters on the 2nd, but it turned out to be lesser than the previous. During the event, we had a lot of funny things like doing a lot of poses from our characters, taking screenshots, and chatting random stuff. Oh yeah, gotta love poking fun on Nzi and Presea's female characters in a pervie way, nyahahahaha :D Imma SOOOOOOOOO evul! XD

Third....

Presea is on a FrogFish hunt to help her friend finish the FF quest. Maki and Al (Vashal in sGE) decided to come along, so I thought it would be fun to go along with them as well. Good thing my main characters are all veteran levels. And most of all, I'm a bit curious on why most players are having a hard time finishing the FF quest. Turns out that it's one helluvah monster to beat up. I mean, we have 8 (or 9, can't quite remember) on our squad but managed to kill the FF in 5 minutes! Not just 1 FF, but 4 of them! The swamp FF is the longest to beat in more or less 8 minutes. It was a bit disappointing though, since I have a lot of quests to catch up before proceeding with the FF quest. But it was still fun. At least I made Al piss off about him scaring Presea, hahahahaha :D Just kidding, Al! :D

That's it for now. I'm sooooooooooooo hungry now! *opens teh cabinet for canned goods for supper* :D

Update: Here's a group screenie from the event:
From left to right: GCResidents (Desmond), DeSanggria (Presea), Straightener (Maki), DelaValliele (Dj Ash 1983), and Vashal (Al)

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Having A Sideline Job Rockz! :D

Lol, it's been a while since my last entry. Or rather, I've done it again: too lazy to write a blog. Anyway...

Just got my pay from getting two PCs back to its good condition. Really, it was one helluvah work:

* Getting the display to work: Looks like a PCI-E slot is kinda loose for the vid card to fit in. Just enough dose of vibration on the card and you're in for some serious trouble... getting the mobo to detect the vid card.

* Stupid virus: Ever heard of a joleebee virus? It's much like SoWar, but in a more annoying way. Why? Coz before "Welcome" shows up, a window dialog pops up, greeting you with a message full of gibberish. Also, if you think SoWar can be eliminated easily, not this one. Even if you attempt to install any antivirus software in teh net, teh stupid virus automatically closes the window if the contents are the installer files of teh antivirus! Regedit? Gone. Folder Options? Hidden. Task Manager? Nada. MSCONFIG? I don't think so. Safe mode? Forget it! The only way to get rid of it is to reformat the HDD. Nuff said. Oh yeah.... two units suffered from it, all bcoz of a USB flash drive which teh files prolly came from a small-time netcafe. Sheesh.

* Games.... LOTS of games: The only way to please the kids is to give them a lot of toys to play with. In my case, I have to load both PCs up with lots of PC games, be it classic or close to latest. Added online games and kids' nagging into the mix, and I get 2 day trip to their house just to finish 'em. But seeing the kids' smile on their faces when they play those games makes me feel good emotionally.

When I was working on a netcafe before, I get Php 1,500 on a payday which is every 15 days, while I get the same amount on just 3 days. Wow... never imagined I get this much on a sideline job. My plan was to charge me Php 2,000 for it but since I'm kinda fresh to PC dagnostics/repair, that amount is kinda expensive for them. But still, having a proper job is the best way to earn money though. Now that I resigned from my job (and saved a lot from it), guess I have to wait for someone to call me for another techie service.

Still, having a sideline sure rockz, man. Even more cooler than that is if I decide to end my long break and find another job, a technician-related job, that is. :D