And I’m not playing anymore!
Don’t you just hate that? I mean, quitting from a game only to find out later that it has improved … a lot. Well, it happens to me a lot. There goes that “a lot” again.
Anyway, I have no regrets, primarily because Florensia is free to play and I think my characters are still on the database of Florensia Western Global. But, again, this posting is not about what ifs. It’s more about what is and what will be.

Recently, Florensia has been updated to a newer version. Since the patch has no title or name, I’ll …read more

Whew! What a year! Indeed, it’s been one hell of a ride for me and, hopefully, for MMOtaku’s loyal followers. What started out as a mote of light in fellow b5media Technology Channel blogger Jayvee Fernandez’s brilliant mind is now a good—not yet great (that has yet to come)—source of news for massively multiplayer online games in Asia and those made in Asia.
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 …read more

My playing Perfect World—a popular Asian massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Beijing-based Perfect World Co. Ltd. and published in my little corner of the planet by Level Up! Games—day in and day out for the past year and a half has finally taken its toll. I’ve gone on semi-retirement, logging in only to link up and chat with friends and keep my characters, and those of my wife, leveling at a decent pace with daily doses of free experience points courtesy of two non-player characters, Du Heng and Li Meng Bai.
The reason for this hiatus: Perfect World, despite …read more

I hate to be the one to announce this but, yes, the dregs of online games, from kill-stealers to griefers to harassers, are moving in to Florensia, and seem to be hellbent on staying. Sigh.
While playing my Mercenary yesterday, I came across a player who, using his mother tongue, cussed and hurled invectives at other players. Gee, how brave of him, cursing from the comfort of his own home other players who haven’t done anything wrong against him. Unfortunately for the offending player, some people, including yours truly, understood every word he typed, including the phrase “Mga tanga at bakla …read more

I’m supposed to annex this phrase, “… bigger and better,” to the title, but long titles, no matter how SEOish they are, don’t sit well with my journalist side. Well, it’s true. Florensia seems bound for MMO greatness. For one, the introduction of server channels has managed to decongest, to a certain degree, the fast-filling up Lux Plena, Pardioc and Bergruen servers.
Here’s the official announcement on changes in Florensia:
The servers are back online and the Florensia Staff would like to list the changes that have been applied. We are sorry about the duration of today’s maintenance, but we hope you …read more

One of the best features of Florensia, a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Burda:ic GmbH and operated by alaplaya, is its sea movement and combat system. I’ll talk about this system in a later posting. As for now, content yourself with these two screenshots I’ve prepared of an assault ship going into hyperspace (yeah, right):

Screenshots taken by Joel from the online game Florensia, copyright Burda:ic GmbH.

Yeah, right. It’s more like a lady MMORPG player learning what else her character can do aside from gun down monsters with bolts of energy and walk around huge maps all day. Well, I have to hand it to my wife. She has probably explored more of Florensia in the past two days than my entire four days in this fascinating new world.
And to answer Alcarcalimo’s question, “Yes, we have two computers at home, but the other one’s crappy, and I can only install one MMORPG at a time on its limited hard drive.” At present, only Perfect World is …read more

Yeah, so I named my character after a popular brand of gin. So what? Every name I had in mind during character creation were already taken. So I settled on a name that nobody in the Western world would ever use.
And so, Ginebra the Explorer was born on Pardioc, Florensia’s US server. I chose the explorer class because the idea of playing a character that wields guns is refreshing, though not really original. My first brush with an MMORPG character with guns as primary weapons was the Gunslinger class in Ragnarok Online. I didn’t like it as much as my …read more

Ha, told you I’d get in! Now, my problem isn’t trying to get in, it’s doing my best to stay in the game. Let me explain.
As you may have noticed, my wife also plays MMORPGs, and it’s been quite a while since she has taken a liking to any of the new games I’ve been laying my hands on these past four or five months.
First, we rekindled our passion for our first MMORPG, Ragnarok Online. It was shortlived. My wife decided to keep playing Perfect World, leaving me saddled with the responsibility of leveling our twin Tika Waylans on Ragnarok …read more

Yes, I want to play Florensia, open beta bugs and all, now! But I can’t. At least, not yet. Not until this freakin’ update is finished.

And this is what I hate—and love—most about MMORPGs, the updates. I love it when an online game developers and operators update games, but I hate having to patch it because some times it takes just too long.
What’s worse is online game developers and operators ask you to download clients that are not updated, saddling us gamers with the responsibility of downloading and updating. Sigh.