It’s actually a blogging contest, and those who know Robert can attest to his love for both blogging and massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The contest is an event aimed at boosting awareness about Perfect World Philippines‘ latest update, Lost Empire.

Perfect World Philippines teaser for the Lost Empire blogging contest

Among the features introduced by the Lost Empire patch are new equipment to craft (there are four new furnaces at Ancient Heaven-Tear City on top of the ones in Dragon City and Dusk Palace), new maps to explore and the continuation of the Hero Quest (courtesy of time travel from present-day Perfect World to Ancient Perfect world, a new esteem levels, Demon and Immortal (that give your Level 100+ characters a shiny new fairy or imp), and a whole lot more.

Robert’s winning of the top prize comes as a total surprise for the fellow who has just gone through the harrowing experience of seeing his house get flooded when Typhoon Ondoy (international name Ketsana) unleashed its fury on Metro Manila, the national capital region of the Philippines.

In a recent post on his blog Geek Papa, Alcarcalimo wrote, “I’m sorry if I haven’t posted in a while as a typhoon hit my country last Saturday and flooded my house. Unfortunately, it partially submerged my CPU as well when the flood suddenly surged inside.”

He added: “Me and my family are currently staying in another house until the old one is repaired. I hope my CPU still works…”

Well, seeing as how you’re getting a limited edition iPod Nano in these dark times, it’s a clear signal that things can only get better.

If you want to see what blog post bagged the iPod Nano for Robert, check out Geek Papa’s Perfect World Philippines: Lost Empire Update.

Congratulations, Robert!

Post from: MMOtaku

For those confused as to what I’m babbling about, it’s True Games Interactive’s current jewel Warrior Epic, a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game with a few tricks up its virtual sleeve, and the online games publisher’s recent move to have the game operated in Asia.

Here’s the announcement story in case you’ve missed it:

Global online game publisher True Games Interactive has announced the signing of an exclusive deal with leading Asian online games publisher Gamania Digital Entertainment to publish, distribute and operate True Games and Possibility Space’s upcoming MMORPG Warrior Epic in China.

“Gamania is one of the premier publishers of online content in Asia and it is an honor to have them as a partner for Warrior Epic,” said Jeff Lujan, founder and chairman of True Games Interactive. “While it is common for Eastern-developed online games to come West, it is rare that a Western-developed game would be published in the East, but that is how confident we are that Warrior Epic has an appeal that spans gamers worldwide.”

Where True Games’ confidence rises, mine wanes. As an Asian, I’ve experienced the difference of playing both Western and Eastern-made online games, and I find some Western MMOs a bit slow as opposed to the dynamic and fast pace of most Asian MMOs. Let me point out that I’m talking about massively multiplayer online games here and not other video game genres.

Bottomline: I don’t know if Warrior Epic, a Western MMO, will fit the gaming taste of Asians.

Well, of course there’s World of Warcraft, which is more the exception not the rule; and Warhammer Online, which has in the course of many years tickled the fancy of fantasy RPG fanatics worldwide.

Call me a killjoy, but I think True Games is moving too fast. A few months of operating the North American server and allowing connections from Asia would have given them a better idea of how Asians would receive Warrior Epic.

And then again, I might be wrong.

Post from: MMOtaku

Okay, enough of the cheese. It’s time to get down to serious business. First off, though, I’d like to apologize for not posting anything in the past couple of days. The wife and baby are down with the flu (not H1N1 or what is more popularly known as the swine flu, thank the gaming gods), and it’s taking a lot of effort to keep order in an otherwise chaotic home.

Going back to the topic, yes, I’m here to talk about how massively multiplayer online games affected, positively, of course, my relationship with the commander, uhmm, I mean, the wife.

Now, before I continue, let me clarify that I did not meet my wife in some MMORPG. We met through other means that shall remain undisclosed. It’s just that ever since I introduced her to the world of MMOs, she never let go.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way … our affair started way back in 2003, when I shoved her into my world, Rune Midgard, the mythical place spawned by the hit MMORPG Ragnarok Online.

Joyce, the commander, wasn’t really into video games—unless you consider Free Cell and Solitaire real, ehem, video games. So her introduction and eventual assimilation into mainstream MMORPG could be considered a leap and not just a step.

Since 2005, we’ve explored nearly a dozen other MMORPGs, from Ragnarok Online to PristonTale, from Tantra to R.O.S.E. Online, from Rising Force Online to Fly For Fun, from Silkroad Online to Perfect World … and the list goes on.

But it was only in Perfect World that we discovered how much MMOs have benefited us.

There was a time in our life as a family that I had to stay nearly a thousand kilometers apart from Joyce and our daughter Cesky because of work. While a lot of other couples—married or otherwise—would resort to the telephone or instant messenger to bridge the communication gap and have some semblance of a relationship, the wife and I spent most of our time “together” playing Perfect World.

Through Perfect World, we didn’t just talk, we had an entire world to explore, and we enjoyed it with friends and reveled in it without company but our own. From morning till late afternoon, I was at the office. When dusk settles, I enter Perfect World’s Pangu to be with my beloved (cheese alert!). Of course, we had to content ourselves with staring at our avatars or toons, which are so different from what we really look like. But who the hell cares when you’re having so much fun!

The online affair between husband and wife didn’t stop there. It prospered even when I moved to where they lived. We sat side by side in real life while our toons pwned mobs and bosses.

We’ve stopped playing Perfect World about two months ago, but we still play together, only in another world, the one spawned by Atlantica Online.

So my advice to guys out there, get your girlfriends, wives or, uhmm, mistresses to play video games, particularly massively multiplayer online games, with you. It’s worth the effort, and if things don’t turn out well (what I mean is, if she gives up on the idea), at the very least you’ll have another toon to play with.

Post from: MMOtaku

Too bad I can’t go since I now reside in a different part of the country. Sigh. Here’s a copy of my invitation:

Many thanks to Irish Santos of AMPR Consultancy for the invitation.

Like I said, it’s too bad I can’t go to the launch of the Acer Aspire Timeline in Manila on May 25, 2009. I’m sure it will be a blast playing with a shiny new laptop, and I mean this in the techie and the gamer sense. Of course I’m speaking from experience, as this is not my first encounter with Acer.

My affair with Acer started a couple of years back when the Aspire Gemstone was introduced to me. I wasn’t really a big fan of laptops. The idea of playing online games on a laptop didn’t really appeal to me. That was until I actually played one on the Aspire Gemstone.

The massively multiplayer online game of choice for me then was Perfect World, developed by Perfect World Co. Ltd. of China and operated in the Philippines by Level Up! Games.

What made me fall in love with the Acer Aspire Gemstone was the fact that it beat my friend Relly’s powerful desktop, a Quad Core AMD, in almost every aspect of MMORPG playing, from graphics to hardware response time. The Aspire only lost to the AMD desktop in terms of sound quality, courtesy of the PC’s boombastic subwoofer and speakers.

Now, it’s time for the Acer Aspire Timeline to take center stage. I’m not familiar with this laptop yet but I aim to get cozy with it soon.

Want a peek at the Acer Aspire Timeline?

Post from: MMOtaku

Actually, ever since we came out with news that The9 was sour-graping cooking up plans to launch a new game to replace World of Warcraft, nothing extraordinary has happened. Well, nothing except for my almost getting hospitalized because of overexposure to the afternoon sun while painting the house.

But let’s not talk about that. Rather, let’s focus on what we’ve been up to and what we’ll come up with in the next few days.

First up on MMOtaku’s plate is Rohan: Blood Feud, both the international and the Philippine versions. It’s been quite some time since I laid my hands on Rohan and I’ve been rearing to play a giant. Thing is, I uninstalled the client to the international version a couple of weeks ago and haven’t gotten around to reinstalling and updating it.

As for the Philippine version of Rohan Online, I’m back at Square One. This means I have to work my way up before I can write any substantive article. Fortunately, good friend Alcarcalimo is playing the game and I might get a bit of help from him in terms of proper equipment and (hint, hint!) in-game currency.

Of course, I’ll continue to play my current game of choice, Atlantica Online. The guild we help put up on the Delphi server, the Guardians, is doing great, and my character, Cooky, is shaping up to be one of my best Atlantica characters. The latter is more the result of my wife’s help, through her character Elphame, than anything else.

Look forward to more postings on Atlantica Online. Without going into too much details, I plan to launch a one-million-gold-a-day promo for players who will transfer to or open an account on Delphi server. I’ll also come up with more in-depth articles on Atlantica Online such as guides and features.

And because I can’t possibly play more than a couple of games at the same time without sacrificing the growth of some characters, I just vow to find some time to play a bit of the other games I’ve come to love in the past six years I’ve been playing online games. These games include Ragnarok Online, Fly For Fun, Granado Espada, and Perfect World.

Well, that’s it for now. Time to get down to business by playing online games and writing about them.

Post from: MMOtaku

At this point, let me just point out that since we don’t live in North America, certain features of Atlantica Online are beyond us or not within our means. One of these features is the Item Mall, where most premium in-game items are sold. Among these items, of course, are clothes and hair accessories, which not only give its wearer fashion flair but also bonuses to attributes.

Okay. Now that we have that out of the way, I present you my argument for prodding my wife into spending her dough on fashion items in Atlantica Online:

The wife is an avid PvPer, meaning she engages in Atlantica Online’s player-versus-player feature, the Free League, a competition where characters are matched up according to their level and/or strength. With this in mind, it’s only logical for her to purchase upgrades for her main character and mercenaries. These upgrades of course include better armor, weapons and accessories. However, like most players, the wife doesn’t see the potential of donning fashion items (except for eye candy).

The point: Each fashion item, or clothes (if you prefer to call it that), comes with a 50-point bonus to vitality. Ergo, by making your character wear clothes, you give them a decent bonus to their health, making them last longer in competitions.

And that’s just the clothes. Each hair accessory—Jiangshi Cap, Cute Bunny Hat or Casino Hat—also has a 50-point vitality bonus. Wearing both clothes and hair accessory gives your character a +100 to vitality. Yes, even when the hair accessory doesn’t match the clothes.

“Buy it! Buy it!” I told my wife. She did.

Screenshot taken by Joyce from the online game Atlantica Online, copyright NDOORS.

Post from: MMOtaku

So, without further ado, I present you the patch notes for April 21, 2009, of Atlantica Online:

New Event Dungeon: Goonzu World

- This event dungeon requires your main character to be at least Level 90. Goonzu World is located near Pusan in Northeast Asia, and is open only from 10 p.m. Friday to 10 p.m. Sunday every week. To enter this dungeon, however, you will need a Goonzu World Entry Pass, which can be obtained after completing a quest from the Suspicious Poet and trading its reward, a Goonzu World Coupon, with a pass from the Ticket Agent Acong.

New Individual Dungeon: Lerna’s Labyrinth

- This dungeon is for characters level 105 and above, and its entrance is located deep in the Cretan Labyrinth. The only way you can enter the dungeon, however, is to obtain a key from Treasure Chests spawned by Ornate Treasure Maps. The rewards are great—a choice between a Level 105 rare axe or rare bow.

Scenario Dungeon: Bulguksa

- The scenario dungeon has been reborn in Atlantica through Bulguksa, a Level 112-up temple-cum-dungeon. Rewards include Sealed Phoenix Equipment Boxes for high-level players.

Free League

- Winning in Free League will award a player three guild points and losing will give one guild point.
- If you do not participate in FL for more than seven days, you will be ranked in the minimum division your level allows. If you’re curious about this minimum division rule, go check out the Free League division table.
- The daily one fame reduction has been changed to scale based on your character’s division.
- Another bonus is the reward Proximo Supply Box for every 10 Free League battles. Note that Doppelganger fights are not counted. What’s inside these boxes? Scrolls, rare crafting materials, and Culture Boxes.

PvP Balancing

- Physical damage has been modified, meaning your melee and ranged characters will deal considerably higher damage.
- Max hit point calculations have also been changed.
- Max mana of melee characters and mercenaries have been increased, while that of staff-type mercs have been, well, decreased.
- Turn time limit is up at a maximum of 30 seconds.
- There are a lot of other changes in PvP, most of which are in spells like Storm Blast, Warrior’s Rage, Chaos edge, Princess’ Order, Freezing Atmosphere, and various vitality reduction spells.

Magic

- Speaking of Magic, the Elementalist has gained a new spell, Blazing Earth, which reduces melee attack damage and maximum HP. What’s better is that Blazing Earth stacks with Hex of Darkness, Vortex, and Hell Flame.
- Musicians, too, are having a blast with the increase in damage of their Ravaging Melody spell.

Safety System: Secret Vial of Protection

- Are you sick of losing items in PK (player-kill) battles? Well, fear no more, thanks to the Secret Vial of Protection that prevents the dropping of equipment when someone uses King’s Judgment or PK against you. This item is available at the Barter Shop.

Whew! There are dozens of other changes but MMOtaku has limited space. As a compromise, I give you the link to the full list of changes in Atlantica Online.

Post from: MMOtaku

Apparently, Perfect World Co. Ltd., the China-based company that has brought us MMORPG hits such as Perfect World, Zhu Xian and Ether Saga (known in the Orient as Pocketpet Journey West), has captured the attention of Western video gaming powers.

Here’s an excerpt from the announcement story on the publishing agreement:

Perfect World Enters into Publishing Agreement with Runic Games

Perfect World Co. Ltd., a leading online game developer and operator in China, has entered into a publishing agreement with Runic Games Inc., a specialized developer of PC-based entertainment software in the United States, for the exclusive rights and license to publish Torchlight, an action-packed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, throughout the world.

Being developed by Runic Games’ experienced team of industry veterans, Torchlight is an adventure-themed Action MMORPG. Adventurers set out from the town of Torchlight into the nearby mountains in search of the magic ore that imbues their equipment with power, yet imperils their very existence. Torchlight emphasizes a simple and intuitive interface, fast and furious action, and a colorful and compelling game world.

“Runic Games is very pleased to partner with Perfect World. Perfect World’s strength and expertise in creating and running MMORPGs and track record of high quality of service to the playing community give us great confidence and hopes for a long and prosperous partnership. With Torchlight, we strive to bring the best of Western and Eastern gaming together, creating a truly global title.

Post from: MMOtaku

About a week ago, MMOtaku reported a rumor that The9 had lost the license to the popular Western MMORPG franchise, which developer Blizzard Entertainment awarded to NetEase, another China-based online games operator. This supposedly tall tale was later confirmed by all three companies—Blizzard, NetEase and, surprisingly, The9.

Now comes news that The9 has opened a new server for World of Warcraft in China. What gives? I mean, why open a new server if you’re going to give up the franchise anyway?

Checkout the scoop from our friends at online games portal 17173:

The9 Opens New Server for WoW

Although The9 will lose the Chinese license for World of Warcraft in China, the Chinese operator is hardly giving up. Today, The9 opened a new server for WoW.

We visited the new server three hours after its opening. The players on the server act just like usual. No panic, no complaints. They seem not worried much despite the announcement of a change in operator.

Since I can’t find any suitable image to share with you guys, I’ll settle for this hilarious video—a fan-made adaptation—of World of Warcraft in China:

Post from: MMOtaku

Open Beta Test for EA Sports FIFA Online 2 to Begin on April 22, 2009, in China

SHANGHAI—The9 Limited, a leading online game operator in China, and Electronic Arts Inc., a leading global interactive entertainment software company, has announced in a press conference held at Shanghai Pu Dong Expo Center that the highly anticipated game EA Sports FIFA Online 2 will begin its open beta test in mainland China on April 22, 2009.

FIFA Online 2 is the latest online version of EA Sports’ officially licensed FIFA football video games. Built upon over a decade of success from the EA Sports FIFA video game franchise, EA Sports FIFA Online 2 features 30 licensed leagues, over 10,000 real players, 31 stadiums, and authentic team kits. The game has enhanced player controls so that gamers can direct each of their in-game team’s players to perform real football moves. EA Sports FIFA Online 2 also highly focuses on player interactivity. Gamers can set up matches, track each others’ scores, chat in the game, and enjoy other community functions. EA Sports FIFA Online 2 brings the ultimate online football gaming experience that mirrors the sophistication, finesse and beauty of the real-world sport.

“EA Sports FIFA Online 2 epitomizes a global sports game. During the closed beta test in China, it has received not only extremely positive feedback from game players but has also generated awareness and anticipation among football fans. The9 has been working actively with EA to add features that are tailor-made for local players and to prepare for all aspects of the game’s operation in the Chinese market. From April 22, gamers and football fans will enjoy the excitement about this brand new online sports game,” said Xiaowei Chen, president of The9.

For more information about the game in China, visit the official FIFA Online 2 website.

Post from: MMOtaku