If your answer is a resounding “yes,” then Perfect World is probably for you.

I’ve played around with Perfect World’s character customization in the past, and documented it here on MMOtaku under the title, Endless Fun With Perfect World’s Character Customization. Well, it’s really fun; it brings out the artist in every player wanting to be different from the rest of the pack.

Some players have taken character customization up a notch by designing their toons to look like celebrities. Here’s an example:

Yes, I admit that Rowan Atkinson, a.k.a. Mr. Bean, isn’t the most comely chap to copy, but it does wonders for popularity. And in case you haven’t tried it, it’s easier to copy the likeness of public figures who have exaggerated features.

Well, what are you waiting for? Register a Perfect World account and play with its amazing character customization feature.

Oh, before I forget, here’s a video about Perfect World’s character customization, in a nutshell:

Post from: MMOtaku

All dressed in red and shades of red, the avatars welcomed the Year of the Ox with fashion and style, and of course, with bow and arrows, swords, spears and axes, and bursts of powerful spells as they strutted their stuff down the length of the Great Wall and defended the land against powerful soulless beasts.

Ehem. Yeah, that’s how the story would have been written in a bit of journalese (you know, the journalist’s lingo). But I’m very rusty now that I’m on a different career path.

Anyway, the denizens of Perfect World Philippines didn’t do that—flying over to the Great Wall, wearing their best red-colored fashion items, and rushing headlong into battle against monsters—without the light of some reward at the end of the tunnel.

Here’s the event announcement from our friends at Perfect World Philippines publisher Level Up! Games:

Greetings, Heroes of the Perfect World!

Be online, invite your friends and be present on the Great Wall inside Perfect World and received modified rates for one week!

Contest mechanics:

• Just be at the Great Wall on the date and time prescribed for your server.
• Once at the location, participants are required to wear any RED fashion.
• GMs will be patrolling the area for 20 minutes and monitor the number of participants in the area.
• Monsters will appear after the 20 minutes patrolling.
• Monsters and item drops are free for all.
• The event ends once all the monsters have been killed.

How to win:

The server with at least 199 participants will win an experience and soul points and item drop mod for a week.

Needless to say, Tiger Server won an extra week of modified experience points and item drops, as I’m sure Dragon and Serpent got it, too.

Wunnerful! Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Post from: MMOtaku

Here’s an excerpt from GM Tristan’s article:

We always thought that MMORPGs were dominated by male players. That “fact” is now being challenged. Well, according to a recent study by BBC, 40 percent of MMO players are female, and that it’s the girls that are dead serious on their characters and the games.

The study discovered that “most hard-core players are female, that gamers are healthier than average, and that game playing is an increasingly social activity.”

Lead researcher Scott Caplan of the University of Delaware said the result demonstrated how out-of-date stereotypes can be.

Of course, the study might only be true in the United Kingdom, where the study was conducted, or North America. There’s nothing in the story that points to the same trend happening in the Philippines and the rest of Asia.

Fortunately, I have the pleasure of knowing quite a number of female gamers, and they are, as the BBC study points out, dead serious about leveling their characters, pushing their avatars to the limit with good equipment and stat and skill distribution, and making a killing in their chosen online game’s economy by dictating the prices of weapons and other equipment.

Take my wife Joyce, for example. If not for a family emergency, she might still be playing today. Her Perfect World character, Cesky (named after our daughter), is known by a majority of players, is almost at the peak of her online life at Level 98, has good equipment (like four slot armors with Level 9 hitpoint soul stones that adds 62 HP per stone and makes the armor light up like a Tesla coil), and holds her own in guild/clan wars and player-versus-player matches.

There’s also PJ Punla, a former Granado Espada Southeast Asia pioneer and blogger, and writes for one of the Philippines’ leading online gaming magazines. Oh, she’s been around, I assure you. PJ’s been playing online games longer than I’ve been writing about them, and she makes it a point to share whatever she learns about a game both to friends and strangers. One of my biggest frustrations is not being able to adventure with her in Granado Espada. Her Granado Espada family, NineMoons, would have been a great ally in eliminating the terrors in the New World.

Granado Espada girl gamers (from right): NineMoons, Lucido, and DeSanggria.

Finally, we have Trinity Divine, one of the most well-known female gamers in the world. Heck, she is The Female Gamer. Here’s an excerpt from the About Me entry on her blog:

“Trinity Divine” was the pseudonym I used when I first started contributing articles to a Matrix Online fansite. I have since then moved on to other games and other sites, but the name has stuck and I’ve grown rather fond of it.

I have been into video games for longer than I care to remember. In recent years, my interest shifted from console adventure and RPG games to online RPGs. I still play single player games once in a while but for the most part, my playtime is spent in virtual fantasy worlds with millions of other gamers from all over the world. Exciting, isn’t it?

Over the years I have met many other women gamers online and some of them have become my dearest friends. In spite of the fact that women have become more and more drawn into video games, the vast majority of gamers are still male and it’s not everyday that I get to meet a fellow female gamer. Through this website, I hope to meet more people—male and female alike—who share my interests.

Very interesting people, eh? Why don’t you take the time to comment, share your thoughts on why girl gamers rock, and tell us about the female gamers you know.

First image, that of Perfect World Philippines character Cesky, is from a screenshot in the online game Perfect World, developed by China-based Perfect World Co. Ltd. and published in the Philippines by Level Up! Games. Second image is from Joy Haruka’s Flickr photostream.

Post from: MMOtaku

First off, I’d like to thank MMOtaku’s avid readers, those who visit the blog every day, those who come and go for a dose of MMORPG news, reviews and what-have-yous, and those who have dropped in just to take a gander at what we have to offer. Without your constant support, MMOtaku would have floundered a long time ago.

Second, I’d like the acknowledge the inputs and help of several key people in the life of MMOtaku. To Mike Leaño, former b5media Video Games Channel editor, for putting trust in my abilities to bring the blog to life; to PJ Punla, pioneer blogger and player of Granado Espada Southeast Asia, for showing me that love for video games extends beyond playing them; to Siege Malvar and Alcarcalimo, for keeping me on my toes, a constant reminder that MMOtaku does have readers who crave insights on MMOs available in the market today; and to Joyce, my wife, for being the rigid wall off of which I throw my ideas to see if they stick.

Third and last, I salute the growing online games industry in Asia for giving us topnotch games (yes, despite Mike Leaño’s opinion that MMOGs developed in Asia are, ehem, excrement. These games are getting better, and they’re grabbing the attention of MMOG players in different parts of the globe.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I give you the best of MMOtaku:

November 2008
Granado Espada SEA pioneer pooh-poohs IP e-Games’ ‘mishandling’ of game
Zhu Xian: I came, I saw, I … got disappointed
Endless fun with Perfect World character customization

October 2008
Beach Volleyball Online: The latest craze
Florensia: Kill-stealers and other dregs of society are moving in
RF Online to go offline in November

September 2008
E-Games clamps down on Cabal botters
Perfect World: Bots popping out of the woodwork
NBA Street Online: Soon, real soon
Requiem Bloodymare: New race, yes, but what’s there to like?

August 2008
MMO Etiquette: Stop poking me!
Granado Espada fails to please Chinese market

July 2008
9you crushes Audition shutdown rumor
China’s online games market: 147 million players!
Dragon Nest: The King of MMORPGs

June 2008
Perfect World inks deal with IP e-Games
Requiem Bloodymare launched
Perfect World: Jump hack? Stop crying wolf

May 2008
MMO Etiquette: Pay it forward
Fly For Fun Penya Hack!
Khan Online Philippines bows out

April 2008
Philippines to host Ragnarok World Championships
In this part of the world, MMORPGs and cosplay go hand in hand
Pandora Saga to grace Philippine shores

March 2008
Fantasy Westward Journey online posts 166 million concurrent users
They’re cute and cuddly, and they’re coming to your PC
Not so supa anymore

February 2008
RF Online Crimson Dawn is now online
Blog post on Perfect World clan too hot to handle?
Third job classes coming to Ragnarok Online
Blog post on Perfect World clan’s struggle stirs hornets’ nest

January 2008
GigaMedia bags license to operate Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Reign of Revolution: No rules, just power
Counter-Strike Online to give other online shooters a run for their money
Top Ten Thursdays: Best MMORPGs in the Philippines

December 2007
China’s Perfect World claims strong presence in Asian MMORPG capital Korea
What’s in a(n MMOPRPG) name?
The Vista Trap: How to make your Asian MMOs work on Microsoft’s latest baby
FlyFF Philippines launches Volcane Legends
MMO war: Korea versus China

November 2007
Craving for a slice of Zhu Xian
Asian MMO, meet world

Screenshot taken by Joel from the online game Perfect World, developed by Beijing-based Perfect World Co. Ltd. and published in the Philippines by Level Up! Games.

Post from: MMOtaku

I don’t really have an idea if they’re right in terms of the number of players who give the way their characters look much thought. The only thing I’m sure of is that I some times enjoy creating characters than actually playing Perfect World.

To give you an idea just how flexible and extreme Perfect World’s character creation and customization system is, I’m posting screenshots of my newest avatars.

The system allows players to post an image in the character creation screen that players can use as a blueprint for their avatars. In this instance, I’ve chosen to create a character that more or less resembles the cartoon character Betty Boop.

The screenshot above shows the Face Menu where you can customize the shape and contour of your character’s, well, face and head (except hair).

Here we have the Hue Menu where you can change or assign the colors of different parts of your character’s body, from hair to facial hair (for male avatars only), to skin tone and eye shade.

Players can even customize a character’s figure. From the Body Menu, you can change the size of your avatar’s head, torso, breasts, waist, arms and legs.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more characters to create. Hmmm, how does Elvis Presley sound?

Post from: MMOtaku