This blog and its writer, yours truly, has always been a fan of machinima. For the benefit of those who don’t know what the heck machinima is, the terms stands for “machine-animation” or “machine-cinema” and, to borrow the definition of the first machinima film festival on my side of the pond, “utilizes widely popular videogames such as Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, etc. to produce short films and music videos, using avatars and characters as actors, and the maps and locations of the game as setting.”
So imagine my surprise—and excitement—when friend and fellow online games enthusiast PJ Punla informed …read more

Looks like Dragon Ball is shaping up to be an awesome online game. The market in China is definitely caught up in the hype as the game has been consistently placing in the Top 15 list of most expected online games of portal 17173.com.
Check out these videos and judge for yourself if Dragon Ball Online is worth the wait and worthy of the praise and adulation of the animated series’ fans worldwide.

I’ve been talking a great deal about Perfect World—a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed in China by Beijing Perfect World Technology and published in my home country, the Philippines, by Level Up! Games—but haven’t really shared much about its features.
Well, here I am, preparing to rectify the oversight in a section I’ve decided to call “My World,” which will feature games I’m currently playing. Right now, I’m deep into Perfect World, so I’ll start with it. Before I go into more details, let me share the first four paragraphs of a story on the game I wrote in April …read more

Okay. So we’ve established the fact that you are a player of one or more massively multiplayer online role-playing games. What we haven’t found out, however, is who you are in-game.
No, I’m not talking about the roles you play, including whether you cross-dress as much as your character. What I’m getting at, as the title of this post implies, is your what you name your avatar and how you arrived at such a name.
Let’s start with an example. I usually name my characters after, well, characters in books I’ve read. Yes, books are rich sources for MMORPG character names. My …read more

Shanda, an operator of massively multiplayer online role-playing games in China, is gunning for online gaming godhood.
In a recently released statement, Tan jun, chief executive officer of Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., said the company would operate 20 online games in 2008.
Here’s a quick rundown of Shanda’s plan:
Shanda Interactive has announced plans to operate over 20 online games next year right after bagging the license to operate upcoming 3D MMORPG Dragon Nest, which is being developed by Korea’s Eyedentity Games Inc. Shanda also plans to bring in and operate over 50 online games between 2008 and 2010.
At the earlier Q3 conference …read more

Must get mind off gold … loot … power! Arrrgh! No, wait, let me explain. My apologies for the absence. Aside from the Internet conking out at the most inopportune times, most of my waking hours have been spent researching more stories for MMOtaku.
This entry’s title speaks for itself. Yes, guilty as charged. I’ve been spending an obscene number of hours exploring dungeons in my game of choice, Perfect World, in hopes of finding and owning more artifacts to aid my avatar in her journey in the mythical world of Pangu.
Woe unto the monsters of the Treasure Grotto, where my …read more

Yes, we’ve heard ‘em all. Excuses crop up in a lot of MMO situations, especially at critical points of trading, boss fights, and even guild or clan wars. Here’s a rundown of the most commonly used excuses in Asian (and Western) MMOs:
I wasn’t ready!
This handy excuse is usually preceded by vigorous shouts of “Timeout! Timeout! Timeout!” I’m sure you hear this line streaming from the virtual mouths of characters who lose in duels and those who are assigned to heal party members in mob and boss hunts, especially when everyone gets wiped out.
What was that?!?
Ahhh, a classic. Duels and other …read more

I’m pissed. I’m fresh out of an argument with a clanmate in Perfect World Philippines’ Tiger Server, and it has left me seething and craving for blood. So what does this fight have to do with Asian MMOs? A lot.
Let’s talk about bad eggs for starters. Every group has them. Having them around can’t be helped but can be minimized. As an example, let’s use the player I had a verbal tussle with. His in-game name, ironically, is Apology.
I’ve heard just about every excuse possible for him and his actions, anywhere between “He’s just misunderstood” and “He’s trying to cope …read more

About a month ago, I had the privilege of “owning” a shiny new laptop. Yeah, go ahead and click that if you want to see how good it looks and how powerful it is. Anyway, being a gamer at heart, I didn’t use it for mundane tasks, such as writing stories for blogs and gaming magazines. No, the laptop was much too precious to waste for work that can be done on a soulless computer of yesteryear.
So true to form, I did what any other gamer would do—I installed as many games as I can fit in its 250-gigabyte drive. …read more

Our friends in Level Up! Games, an online game publisher in the Philippines, has good news for FlyFFers—Fly For Fun Version 10, more popularly known as Volcane Legends, is now up and running.
Here’s a quick rundown from Mon Macutay, better known as the infamous GM Tristan:
Named after one of the new dungeons in the update, Volcane Legends features exciting new content and updates to Fly For Fun, including a Master Hero system, Ultimate Weapons, and of course the Volcane Dungeon.
“Volcane Legends has features which will surely be welcomed by our high-level FlyFFers. For starters, the Master Hero system allows them …read more