Looking back at 2008 (Part 1 out of 4)
Happy New Year everyone! Today’s the first Monday of the year and well… everyone is probably back to work or to school. I’d like to kick off 2009 by taking a look at the major events and activities that happened in 2008 which I covered through this blog. This is something that I got from GM Tristan who also did a recap of 2008 in his blog. However, I don’t think I have the patience and the willpower to write the entire thing yet since I did a lot of posts for 2008, haha! I’ll divide this into 3-4 posts.
For today, I’ll be talking about the major highlights of the first quarter - January, February, and March of 2008. Read about Ragnarok, Ragnarok Online 2, Cosplay, and Gadgets after the jump!
January 2008
2008 started off with a bang as Philippine Ragnarok Online released a lot of promos and events to liven up the community. We initially released the Episode 11.2: Veins Promotional Video. Other than Veins, I was also really impressed with the Freya server community. They came up with their own PVP Tournament.
I also explained why we delayed the release of Ragnarok Online 2 in the Philippines. There was still a lot of development needed on the side of Gravity but we’re very excited to see the game finally launch when it is finally completed. FYI - I initially wrote that it will be out in 2008 but that’s obviously not happening since it’s already 2009. Lol. Just stay tuned for further announcements.
For gadgets, we took a look into the Samsung U700, which basically looks kick-ass but eventually breaks down after a couple of months.
In the Cosplay and Anime part of the world, we saw the POGS: Re-Roll Cosplay event. Who can also forget the infamous “Sexy No Jutsu Kakashi” Cosplayer?
February 2008
I bought a bunch of stuff in February! I can still remember opening the boxes of my Macbook and my iPod Nano (Third Generation). The Macbook has been a very good investment since I primarily use it for presentations for my sideline as a New Media consultant. I also can’t live without my iPod Nano because it literally saves my sanity when I drive everyday from Quezon City to Makati to report for work. Level Up Founder Ben Colayco also shares with us his favorite gadgets in an interview with a print publication.
There was also a lot of good news for the online gaming industry as a whole. A study was released showing that Gaming is already outgrowing Music and is on the way to challenge Hollywood in terms of revenues and market share.
I also reviewed one of the best Samurai animes I’ve ever watched - Samurai Champloo. I strongly recommend this title to all of you. It is worth the download time or the DVD cost, whatever way you fancy of getting it.
February was also the month where the Adboard ruled against a print ad being used by another gaming company with their claim of being the number one online gaming publisher in the country.
March 2008
March was also a very memorable year for me personally. I bought my first laptop in February, and I bought my own car with my own money in March. After a long debate on the Honda City or the Toyota Vios, I eventually decided on getting the Honda City 2008. I’ve had no regrets ever since. The car has been the best investment I’ve gotten so far since I’ve really used it a lot and it has increased my personal productivity hundredfold (for my sidelines).
I also wrote a short article about business strategies for internet cafes. I used to own one way back in 2004 but we ended up selling it to the landlord due to conflicts with my partners. If there’s one advice I can give you guys is that you shouldn’t go into business with friends unless your prepared on them becoming your enemies, hahaha. The business was really good - but the friendships really turned sour.
In February, I recommended the best Samurai anime title I’ve ever watched. For March, I recommended the best mech-robot anime title I’ve ever seen - Gundam 00. Note that this anime is now on it’s second season and OMGWTFBBQ it still kicks major ass.
For Ragnarok Online, we uploaded the War of Emperium: Second Edition on Sakaray during this month.
Also, more controversies with the online gaming industry as more people keep claiming that they’re number one.
Okay! That’s it for now. I’ll be writing and publishing part 2 soon. Cheers and Happy New Year everyone!
Hello Kitty Online MMORPG Christmas News
For HKO Founders, this holiday season will be extra special! Come celebrate Christmas with all your friends from Hello Kitty Online! From December 17 until December 22, 2008, Hello Kitty Online will once again open its doors to all Founders to celebrate the last party of the year in Sanrio Land: the Founders’ Christmas Reunion!
The Founders’ Christmas Reunion will have new and updated game features and content made exclusively for all our Founders. Of special note:
New Christmas-themed maps!
A brand new winter wonderland complete with snowflakes gently floating down from the sky
The Item Mall is here! You will automatically receive 300 points to spend on exclusive items only available in the Item Mall.
Pets can now speak and will let you know how they feel!
Sanrio Land’s newest city: New York!
Christmas quests! Embark on a fun-filled adventure all over Sanrio Land to put Christmas back on track!
New Sanrio characters! You will meet many new faces in your quest to save Christmas!
Player profile page on SanrioTown that shows your character, farm, pet, buddies and more! Check it out!
In-game new email notification informs you when you have new mail.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION – PLEASE READ
The Hello Kitty Online Founders’ Christmas Reunion begins December 17, 2008 at 22:00 EST, and will finish December 22, 2008 at 23:59 EST. Please note that Hello Kitty Online will not be accessible outside of this period.
Only existing Founders will be able to play. No new players will be accepted during the Founders’ Christmas Reunion.
Updates for your game client will be available starting on December 16, 2008. All you need to do is start your game client and wait for the auto-update to complete. If you already uninstalled the game, the game is available for download at the Hello Kitty Online Download Center.
If you have any questions, please email us at onlinegame@hellokitty.com.
Hello Kitty Online players raises 12,273 USD for UNICEF and AYO
In a wonderful statement to the entire gaming world, the players of Hello Kitty Online show what they’re made of, by pulling together their time and resources for a good cause. Through the in-game charity event “Food for Friends” held from November 3-6, 2008, our players contributed a total of 344,965 different food items from registered guilds, and an additional 894 items from some who just wanted to help! As promised, Sanrio Digital will be donating over 12,000 USD to UNICEF and the Asian Youth Orchestra.
As stated in the mechanics of this event, our main focus in this event is not sheer amount of items, but the effort required to produce them, as a labor of love. And though our previous results showed only item totals, it’s time for us to see just how much these items translate to in the real-world!
Among the factors for calculating the equivalents are the type, source and availability of ingredients needed, the time it takes in general to make the item, and the effort that a player must put into making them.
Next, we will be posting the results we know you’ve also been waiting for — our biggest givers, the top 4 guilds, and the list of all our guilds who have contributed and just how much money they helped raise for this cause.
We will be posting the receipts of the deposits made to UNICEF and AYO soon. Once again, we would like to thank all those who participated in this event, for working together, and for waiting in line just to make sure that we get your contributions. We’re all very proud of you! Whatever the results tomorrow, let us all remember what this is truly about — giving! Good luck all!
Thoughts on the Upcoming Server Merge
Philippine Ragnarok Online will have one more major server merge that will bring together the 3 subscription servers - Baldur, Tyr, and Freya. The new server will be called New Chaos and the date of the merge is slated for November 14, 2008. There are no major details yet posted on the official website like the actual mechanics but it will probably be the same as the previous merges that we’ve done before. There are a lot of pros and cons for this move but I believe that this will be for the better. I have a few reflections and thoughts about the merge that I’d like to share with everyone today with this post. Feel free to leave your comment as well.
BAKBAKAN NA!
To quote Powerspoonz: “Bakbakan na!” That pretty much sums up the pros of the server merge. New alliances will be made and this means a more vibrant political in-game landscape which will result to more action-packed and intense sieges. The balance of power will definitely be shaken up since guilds that are powerful in their own home servers will now have to contend with the best that the other servers have.
It will be interesting to monitor what the top guilds from each server will do given the new scenario. Will they ally with one another? Or will they bash each other’s skulls in? If I know the community right - it will be more of the “bashing”. In my 5 year gaming career one thing has always been constant in gaming communities and that’s the fact that alliances will always crumble and end. I’ve seen this happen countless times across games and servers and I’m sure that whatever alliance happens after the merge it will only be temporary.
TECH PROBLEMS?
The major concern being raised by the community is the possibility of having technical problems ruin the gameplay post-merge. Since we’re putting everyone in one place, people are spectulating that the latency will be terrible. We obviously can’t let this happen because it ruins the purpose of the merge in the first place. I can’t guarantee you guys 100% that there won’t be lag but I can assure you that everyone here will be prioritizing the performance of the servers after the merge.
OLD CHAOS
I can still remember the old Chaos server days. I was one of the first 50 people to log-in Chaos during the Beta Testing way back in 2003. I was there when the botting issue exploded. I was there when the Ragnarok players staged a mini-rally at Glorietta during a Level Up event. I was there when the concurrent users of Ragnarok in Chaos alone hit 16,000. I was there when the hack-delete sprees occured - and sadly I was part of the people who were erased, hehe. I was part of the in-game politics, having led a guild and faction.
Ragnarok Online, though riddled with controveries, has been one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences I’ve had and I will cherish the good and bad memories that I have about it. The server merge will open new doors for everyone and I’m sure that I would be excited about it if I was still an active guild leader in Chaos/Baldur.
Cheers!
MMORPG, Philippine Ragnarok Online Read more
Monster Wrangler!
It’s time for the second major event in Hello Kitty Online’s Founders’ Beta. Hunger Strike asked you to collect yummy, and somewhat hard to get delicacies. Monster Wrangler requires players to start hunting renegade pets in exchange for fame, fortune and… items 
Make sure you arm yourself well because these monsters are stronger than their normal counterparts. However, they won’t attack unless provoked so if you just go about your merry way, then it’s all good. For this event, players are tasked to help the plighted Keroleen for she has lost her beloved pets and are now scattered all over Sanrio Land.
To participate in Monster Wrangler, you must be of substantial level (at least 15 unless you have a boatload of healing items and a bazooka) because Eagor, Speedy, Webster and Lobo are most definitely adept in fisticuffs.
- Keroleen can be found in Paris. Yep, Paris.
- Once you’re done helping her, take a screenshot of your inventory containing the Liberty Key (with tooltip) and send it to hkoevent[at]hellokitty.com.
- The email subject should read “Liberty Key”
- The screenshot should contain your character info page opened – so that we can get your in-game name.
Again, whatever you do, DO NOT DROP/SELL/TRADE it! Online glory and immortalization is at stake! Enjoy!
Hello Kitty Online Beta Oversubscribed
Massive Demand for Founders’ Beta Accounts
A special announcement for all aspiring Founders: the response to the call for the Hello Kitty Online Founders’ Beta has been overwhelming, and as of right now all Founders’ Beta slots have been filled. We would like to thank everyone who has shown such enthusiasm for Hello Kitty Online. We were so impressed by the response (and the impassioned pleas for acceptance) that we are working hard to increase the quota of Founders, so if you haven’t applied yet, do so now!
To those who have already applied, please keep checking your SanrioTown account. We will be notifying you this week to let you know if you are one of the Founders.
For those who have not yet applied, do not be discouraged! Follow these simple steps:
- Sign up for an account at SanrioTown.com,
- Using the SanrioTown account, send a BLANK email to hkofounder@hellokitty.com.
We want to see all of you in the upcoming Beta, and because of that, we will try our best to accommodate as many requests as we can. We can’t guarantee you will get in, but we are trying our best.
Once again, thank you for your continued support! Keep checking your SanrioTown emails and the HKO Official Blog for more updates!
Hello Kitty Online News: Be a Founder
Hello Kitty Online announces Founders’ Beta
Wanted: Founders for the world’s cutest MMORPG
Hong Kong – September 12, 2008: Sanrio Digital (www.sanriodigital.com) announced today that Hello Kitty Online will begin an exclusive Founders’ Beta on October 8, 2008. The Founders’ Beta will allow a limited number of users to play the official Hello Kitty MMORPG ahead of launch while receiving Founder benefits and participating in special in-game events.
Hello Kitty Online (www.hellokittyonline.com) is a free-to-play Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) based on Sanrio’s famous characters. The game transports players into the cute and cuddly world of Sanrio Land, where players will meet and interact with over a hundred Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty, Badtz-Maru, Keroppi, Dear Daniel, My Melody, Pochacco, Cinnamoroll, and many others.
Hello Kitty Online boasts several new additions and improvements since the Closed Beta version, and the Founder’s Beta will feature a new game client with an improved interface, improved graphics and special effects, new monsters, new maps, new items, and the opening of London and Paris. The Founders’ Beta will also introduce gameplay changes such an improved skill system, new pet systems and team-play oriented enhancements.
20,000 Founder accounts will be issued on a first-come first-served basis. Players who wish to become Hello Kitty Online Founders are required to sign up on SanrioTown (www.SanrioTown.com) and use the SanrioTown email system to send a blank message to hkofounder@hellokitty.com. Only emails originating from SanrioTown will qualify.
Hello Kitty Online is fully integrated with SanrioTown (www.sanriotown.com) and offers several features of the popular community site, including:
- Fully developed email system available in-game
- Players can create, post and view blogs from inside the game
- Upload, share and view videos in-game
- Social networking options
- Multiplayer mini games with ranking system
Hello Kitty Online Trailer receives Top Honors!
The Hello Kitty MMORPG Game Trailer has received top honors on Youtube, these are:
#6 - Most Discussed (This Month) - Gaming - Hong Kong
#23 - Most Discussed (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong
#2 - Most Viewed (This Month) - Gaming - Hong Kong
#16 - Most Viewed (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong
#4 - Top Favorited (This Month) - Gaming - Hong Kong
#8 - Top Favorited (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong
#11 - Top Rated (This Month) - Gaming - Hong Kong
#38 - Top Rated (All Time) - Gaming - Hong Kong
The video is embedded below
Bad MMORPG launch? Fine. It’s really par for the course!
The whole Age of Conan debacle did more than just highlight that the entire staff at Funcom probably shouldn’t be entrusted to mail a letter, let alone produce a multi-million dollar MMORPG. It also resurrected an old MMORPG community meme that has been repeated 1000s of times in forums, blogs and podcasts. What is this meme? You’ll probably find that you start nodding sagely as you start reading the next few words, “MMORPGs have never been any good in their first six months…” For added emphasis, some forumites/bloggers/podcasters will also slip in a knowing, “… even WoW.”
Now, far be it for me to don my Captain Obvious outfit but there is a vast difference between calling a situation for what it is, and actually being happy with it. In other words, yes, there are definitely many MMORPGs which got better over their first six months of release. But does that make things OK? Is that an acceptable situation for us as consumers? The resigned way in which people parrot the line whenever a bad game launches is rather disturbing. It’s like people have given up hoping for an MMORPG to release with minimal issues. As if it’s somehow impossible. Oh God, it is still possible, isn’t it?
Do I need to start slapping folks around the head at this juncture? This is so wrong, people! You certainly never see an automobile company produce a car which breaks down every few kilometres and have people standing on the footpath nodding and telling you, “Yes, cars are always unreliable for the first six months. But stick with it, mate…” And you never buy an electrical product which fails to work reliably or, worse, tries to electrocute you, only to have someone suggest that this is situation normal, pesky electrocutions be damned. It’s actually your fault for wanting to use that toaster so soon!
Seriously, why is this tolerated in the MMORPG community? Nay, not just tolerated, but celebrated by some? Just because a game can be patched and upgraded on the fly, doesn’t mean it should be released in a terrible state and fixed on the fly as the days, weeks and months go by. Age of Conan has proven, if such a thing was even necessary, that trying to fix an unfinished and buggy game on the fly is a recipe for disaster. Even Funcom fanboi’s are horrified at how the company’s game patches seem to break more than they fix and, worryingly, the company doesn’t even try to fix the worst issues in the first place.
Can anyone suggest why this situation exists? I’m at a loss. It wouldn’t be tolerated in so many other industries, yet we just sit here and collectively eat it up. Things have to change. Thankfully, over 400,000 people walking out on Funcom during the first three months of Age of Conan might be a start. A step in the right direction, if you will, that even though the new car smell has yet to wear off a new game, that people are becoming more willing to take their $50 investment and flush it down the toilet, rather than labor with a flawed game and a never-ending selection of developer lies.
I can only hope that this situation inspires all developers, currently working on games, to take quality assurance a lot more seriously. And, you know, rather than better graphics, more levels, more quests and all the other measures of e-peen that games try and compete on, why not pull your current projects back to manageable levels, employ excellent QA people, run more in-house testing with respected guilds and gamers in the community and basically hash out your problems in advance of beta testing, let alone the actual game launch?
It’s almost embarrassing to have to tell people who call themselves professionals how to launch a good product, but the truth is a good PC game is no different to a good car or good electrical appliance. It simply needs to be as good as it can be when the consumer buys it otherwise your reputation could be sunk quicker than you can say, “What’s Quality Assurance?” Save those extra ideas, or classes, or quests, or zones, for the game’s first update in a year’s time. Concentrate on the core, and get that right, first. You can always continue to build in the future off a solid base, after all.
Bad MMORPG launch? Fine. It’s really par for the course!
The whole Age of Conan debacle did more than just highlight that the entire staff at Funcom probably shouldn’t be entrusted to mail a letter, let alone produce a multi-million dollar MMORPG. It also resurrected an old MMORPG community meme that has been repeated 1000s of times in forums, blogs and podcasts. What is this meme? You’ll probably find that you start nodding sagely as you start reading the next few words, “MMORPGs have never been any good in their first six months…” For added emphasis, some forumites/bloggers/podcasters will also slip in a knowing, “… even WoW.”
Now, far be it for me to don my Captain Obvious outfit but there is a vast difference between calling a situation for what it is, and actually being happy with it. In other words, yes, there are definitely many MMORPGs which got better over their first six months of release. But does that make things OK? Is that an acceptable situation for us as consumers? The resigned way in which people parrot the line whenever a bad game launches is rather disturbing. It’s like people have given up hoping for an MMORPG to release with minimal issues. As if it’s somehow impossible. Oh God, it is still possible, isn’t it?
Do I need to start slapping folks around the head at this juncture? This is so wrong, people! You certainly never see an automobile company produce a car which breaks down every few kilometres and have people standing on the footpath nodding and telling you, “Yes, cars are always unreliable for the first six months. But stick with it, mate…” And you never buy an electrical product which fails to work reliably or, worse, tries to electrocute you, only to have someone suggest that this is situation normal, pesky electrocutions be damned. It’s actually your fault for wanting to use that toaster so soon!
Seriously, why is this tolerated in the MMORPG community? Nay, not just tolerated, but celebrated by some? Just because a game can be patched and upgraded on the fly, doesn’t mean it should be released in a terrible state and fixed on the fly as the days, weeks and months go by. Age of Conan has proven, if such a thing was even necessary, that trying to fix an unfinished and buggy game on the fly is a recipe for disaster. Even Funcom fanboi’s are horrified at how the company’s game patches seem to break more than they fix and, worryingly, the company doesn’t even try to fix the worst issues in the first place.
Can anyone suggest why this situation exists? I’m at a loss. It wouldn’t be tolerated in so many other industries, yet we just sit here and collectively eat it up. Things have to change. Thankfully, over 400,000 people walking out on Funcom during the first three months of Age of Conan might be a start. A step in the right direction, if you will, that even though the new car smell has yet to wear off a new game, that people are becoming more willing to take their $50 investment and flush it down the toilet, rather than labor with a flawed game and a never-ending selection of developer lies.
I can only hope that this situation inspires all developers, currently working on games, to take quality assurance a lot more seriously. And, you know, rather than better graphics, more levels, more quests and all the other measures of e-peen that games try and compete on, why not pull your current projects back to manageable levels, employ excellent QA people, run more in-house testing with respected guilds and gamers in the community and basically hash out your problems in advance of beta testing, let alone the actual game launch?
It’s almost embarrassing to have to tell people who call themselves professionals how to launch a good product, but the truth is a good PC game is no different to a good car or good electrical appliance. It simply needs to be as good as it can be when the consumer buys it otherwise your reputation could be sunk quicker than you can say, “What’s Quality Assurance?” Save those extra ideas, or classes, or quests, or zones, for the game’s first update in a year’s time. Concentrate on the core, and get that right, first. You can always continue to build in the future off a solid base, after all.
