Granado Espada: Dispatches from the New World

NineMoons at the Fantazzztic Ads Awards 2008-2009

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:05:00 +0000

In this post, I just want to call attention to the fact that Darrick Reclusion, Presea, and I have submitted entries to the Open Category Week of the currently ongoing Fantazzztic Ads Awards 2008-2009. Please do check out our efforts, and remember to watch in high quality where it is available.

***
Presea

First Submission: Dumb & Dumber

Second Submission: NO BABES!

***

Darrick Reclusion: Detrimental

***

NineMoons: Priceless

NineMoons: The Credits Roll
Rosso, as always, for the inspiration
Presea for the kickass VO
ALL HAIL LELOUCH! [and we should!] for post-prod, SFX, and all-around awesomeness

This ad is an affectionate parody/spoof, adapted to Granado Espada, of MasterCard's Priceless campaign. The original slogan is "There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard."

It's just that my advocacy has always been about female gamers and how they should not be considered as separate and/or unequal to their male counterparts. Hence, a girl-powered spin on the beloved, long-running campaign.

NineMoons's Last Stand: Farewell to the New World

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:32:00 +0000

This is likely to be the final post at the NineMoons Family blog. I want to wrap things up properly, and get the last bits of everything off my chest, before I leave the New World, and I hope you and I can soldier on to the end together.

***

The Yays

YAY to RCM Hrin. She may not update her blog so frequently, and she may not always be in the forums or in-game, but she has always been my favorite GE-admin-type person. She's sweet and funny and kind - and if you're polite and patient enough she will always be accessible for any comments or questions.

YAY to the GE PH community, who continue to crusade for the game even after over a year of indifference, lack of promotion and distribution, and even the occasional act of sabotage. They come to the defense of the New World when they are called, and stay vigilant against all attacks. They are its true and stalwart pioneers and they are its most deserving inhabitants.

YAY to the GE PH fan artists: the fanfic writers, the fanart creators, the machinima directors, the independent cosplayers, and everyone else in between who has contributed their tangible and considerable talent to the community. You may be a small group and you may not always win the prizes, but your talent and sheer love for the game definitely show how much you rock.

YAY to the GE bloggers, and especially to the horde of them in the GE PH players' community. Without them, the game might have sunk into obscurity and be left on the wayside as other gamers rush towards what's new and what's shiny without considering the relative merits and demerits of each. The GE PH bloggers have fought long and hard for the game to get equal attention and love from the local gaming community. I may have started the entire GE fan-blog thing, but I could never in a million years have done it alone. It is everyone else who followed this little idea who are the real heroes - they didn't have to, but they did, and that makes all the difference.

And finally, YAY to all the friends I have made through this blog and through this game. I make no secret of the fact that if it weren't for GE in the first place I would never even have started this blog - hence I owe any tiny measure of celebrity and recognition I now possess to GE. But more important that that are the true friends that I have discovered in the process of playing, blogging, and living GE. There are many of them, and there are even some of them I may not get to meet in real life, and they are all cherished and dear to me.

[And now, because every list of Yays must have a list of Nays to balance it out.]

The Nays

NAY to IP e-Games. It's been a recurring theme in this blog, ever since that extreme disillusioning sometime during 2007. Thanks for nothing. Yes, you lot brought in the game, you distributed the pretty posters and the very first set of installers - and then after that there was really not a whole lot of anything. You let us down and dropped us as though we were hot potatoes, all the while enticing people to play your other games instead without mentioning the game you once marketed as the first Triple-A MMORPG brought to the Philippines. I don't know how to run a game publishing business, but I am certainly not going to run it as you attempted to do for GE, because you botched it, big time.

NAY to the fishers and to the saboteurs both in the community and from the competition. Nice try, kids.

***

As I write my final dispatch from the New World, I wonder how much it will take in terms of money, talent, and love to bring the game back to the forefront of gaming in the Philippines. GE has been unfairly sidelined and woefully underpromoted.

I only pray that the game can survive. It has its very devoted fans and its loyal players. Long may they last and well may they prosper.

Goodbye.

~NineMoons, as she lays her pen down
27 November 2008
[One year, eight months, and fifteen days in the New World]

NineMoons's Last Stand: 2008's Best Posts

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:56:00 +0000

I had been hoping that it would not come to this. But if I'm going out, I'm going out with a bang.

NineMoons's Last Stand, Part 1: The best posts from 2008

JANUARY
NineMoons at POGS 2008
Grace Bernelli and the Art of Dying

FEBRUARY
Dekaravia Owns Cervantes
The 2nd GE PH Bloggers' Meeting
World Premiere: Not Another Love Story Ze Musical

MARCH
For Love of the Game
FFA Grand Finale: The Philippines Rocks Machinima
Post-FFA Rant
NineMoons's First Anniversary
NineMoons Moves to Carracci
Not Another Love Story, all versions
GE PH Community Heroes
Tribute to the Ladies

APRIL
NineMoons's Convention Guide, Part 1
Dom1nation II: Cosplay and Factions
Dom1nation II: FFA Winners, GE PH Community Heroes
Dinner with RCM Hrin

MAY
I Believe in seaGE
GVCs Rant, Part 1
GVCs Rant, Part 2

JUNE
Takhisis Faction Anniversary EB
The Five Servers of SEA / ANZ Granado Espada
GE Hangaroo, Version 1.0
Introducing Granado Espada to Gamers

JULY
Introducing Granado Espada to Non-Gamers
GE Hangaroo, Version 1.2
NineMoons at the IGN.com Vault
50k Hits
If These Girls Played GE
NineMoons Makes Vet

SEPTEMBER
NineMoons and the One about the GE Gamer Girls
An Adventurer is You!
GE PH Mini Community Meeting with CM Aethrin
Vetting a Musk
GE PH First Anniversary
NineMoons's Convention Guide, Part 2
GE PH Black Party
The One About The Faithful Granado Espada Blogger

OCTOBER
NineMoons as Faction Leader: ShenAnCalhar
A Gamer Girl's Lament
e-Games Hosts the GE PH Gamer Girls
The Two Servers of SEA / ANZ Granado Espada
Presenting the NineMoons Family Grabber
Game! November 2008 Features GE Gamer Girls
Five Hundred Posts

Now is your chance to relive with me my memories of this year in Granado Espada. Please comment away!

Granado Espada Version 3.2: Cute Overload!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:07:00 +0000

Continuing the series of projected updates to Granado Espada from the Version 3.0 cycle, which is currently undergoing testing in kGE and has now been published to the doratomo.jp fan site:

- A new feature, the Team Arena, where you can do the usual plethora of boss hunting and rare-loot gathering, but with an extra bonus of having some sort of assistant personnel in there with you and your squad. From the little I could understand of the rudimentary translation into English, the assistant personnel - actually soldiers from the towns - grant buffs and debuffs to you and your squad, the better to take the bosses out.

- The Super Fight admission times will be reduced to just five minutes from the opening of the portals, rather than the current ten. Admission will now be secured through larger versions of the Ferruccio Espada statues - sort of like the Pioneering Memorials blown up to around thrice the usual size. Still not as large as the one in the Ferruccio Junction, of course.

- Seventh Barracks! Now it's possible to have up to 63 characters to choose your current MCC team from!

- Modifications to ~~the Colony Buffs~~ the Family's Protection buffs [thanks to commenter Souken], which look like they've been adjusted upwards.

- It's your birthday and you're logged in to the New World? Then you'll be receiving a Birthday Gift Box! There will be cake, a birthday firecracker - I wonder if it really does proclaim "Happy Birthday!" when you set it off - and at least a pair of wings for you! No word on the wings' duration, though.

But the thing that has me MOST excited about Granado Espada 3.2 is of course none other than THIS:

Yes, a PET PANDA! The official name of this cutest critter of them all is "Panpan." No word on stats, abilities, or cost yet but I DON'T CARE - wantwantwantwantwant. Pandas Rule!

Pandas are ♥♥♥♥♥ and you know it! *grabby hands*

Source
Source in English

Hmm, this is odd.

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:58:00 +0000

After taking such pains to explain and justify the merging of 3 PK servers into one, and 2 non-PK servers ditto, what is the reason for the sudden rush towards this?

[Unless, of course, the answer lies in the very fact of Bach containing THREE PK servers. Then the question becomes, have things gotten overcrowded in a hurry?]

NineMoons Talks About Fatigue

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:33:00 +0000

Once again, I begin this entry with an apology for the sudden decrease in posts on this blog.

The truth is, I'm kind of scaling back my Granado Espada playing time. Recently, my main reason for logging in at all was to farm Sun Stones for my pet Pilfurr Po - but even that wish was foiled, since the particular Poison Yard I entered was also occupied by people who insist that Super Fight maps are nothing but personal PvP shooting ranges. To no avail did my family carry the "Farmer" signs over their heads - they still got hunted as though they were animals.

In order to NOT lose my head in anger, I quit doing even that. People have to have their fun, and I decided to give mine up so others can enjoy theirs.

I'm sure Po will find it in his furry little heart to forgive his negligent mistress.

I wanted so much to increase the number of Veterans in my Rembrandt Barracks, but, well, I'm not sure I should be looking forward to the many days of grinding that I need to put in. And that's not mentioning the months it will take to train one single trio up to Expert level, too.

Certainly, there is no point in asking for the return of certain items if the regional distributors have already made it clear that the matter is not in their hands to control.

Certainly, there is no real reason to ask for an increase in experience rates.

Just to make it clear - I am not whining, I don't want anything, and I have absolutely no intentions of asking for sympathy. All I'm saying is that right now, the fatigue has set in, and I'm having to dig deep in order to find the reasons for me to stay in the New World.

Also, I wanted you all to know this because it is thanks to you that this blog has existed and flourished at all - and now that it seems to be undergoing a [temporary, I hope] downturn, I hope that you can understand, in one way or another, me, and my reasons why.

Back from the dead: Upcoming Back Costumes!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:18:00 +0000

Sorry for the delay in new posts. It's been a bit of a madhouse; it got to the point where I was not even able to log in to the game.

Today's entry over at doratomo.jp is devoted to showing off a new crop of back costumes. From my fuzzy deciphering of the translation, it looks like the costumes are only for Expert-level and above, with the notable exception of the standard Satchel in the final photo.

Since the flags are named for ranks of nobility - Earl, Knight, Grand Master [not a noble rank per se, but a rank that was used by associations of nobility such as the Knights Templar], Archduke, Marquis, and Viscount - it's an intriguing idea that maybe they DO have something to do with noble ranks in the New World.

The Grand Master flag.

The individual pages for the flags show that there is a hierarchy to this ranking: from lowest to highest, the ranks are Knight, Viscount, Earl, Marquis, Archduke, and Grand Master.

Blue Chrysalis Wings on Selva.

Additional new back costumes include two variations on the now-familiar Chrysalis Wings: a blue version, and a violet version.

Morada Puesta de sol.

Two pairs of Sunset Wings are also featured, similarly in blue and in violet. Since the wings are named in Spanish as "Puesta de sol", the blue version is called Azul and the violet, Morado.

Golden Archangel Wings on Lisa.

The standard Satchel is on Selva; the new version is on the elementalist.

Just prior to the Satchel and to its new variation, there is also mention of the Golden Archangel Wings, as well as the silver and gold versions of the Phoenix Wings.

Pictures taken from the post.

Recent Goings-On at the Forums

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:11:00 +0000

Just a linking post for today since there seems to be a lot of action going on at the SEA / ANZ Granado Espada Forums. Remember to log in during maintenance and check out what's happening!

From the Event and Contest Announcements sub-forum:

Pets Day, 14 November
War of the Factions III, 9-30 November
The Quest Master Challenge, 1-30 November
Title Change Event, 23 October - 6 November

Note that the Title Change event is only until 2359 tonight, Singapore time.

Also ongoing are the Newbie Faction and the Novia Execution events.

Enjoy and get a little R&R before the maintenance ends!

Finally! e-Games e-Points can now be converted to GE G-Points!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:23:00 +0000

Extra, extra, read all about it! Click the banner to see the official news article!

Allow me to repost the conversion values here. EP = e-Points, GP = G-Points, ABS = Adelina's Booty Search.

20 EP = 230 GP + 1 ABS

50 EP = 750 GP + 3 ABS

100 EP = 1800 GP + 5 ABS

200 EP = 3600 GP + 8 ABS

300 EP = 5800 GP + 10 ABS

1000 EP = 23800 GP + 35 ABS

Now, I guess my only question is, where can I buy me a 1000 eP card???

EDITED TO ADD: CM Aethrin has popped in with a link to a list of the e-Points retailers. The list is here: e-Games Partners. He says the list is updated on a monthly basis.

SON OF EDITED TO ADD: The forum discussion thread for this news is buzzing with CM Aethrin's announcement: Coming soon: the 70k g-points denomination in the Philippines!

O RLY? It Must Be The MMORPG Focus....

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:56:00 +0000

Cute way to start the next five hundred posts off. Never let it be said I wasn't up for laughing at myself....

While surfing through my daily complement of technology and gadgets blogs I saw an entry on news aggregator Boing Boing, in which Xeni, one of their editors, talks about a site called GenderAnalyzer. The deal with this site is, you type in a website URL, and its AI determines whether the site was written by a man or by a woman. GenderAnalyzer notes that it exists for "curiosity and fun", and helpfully, you can give the developers instant feedback on whether it guessed correctly or not via the attached poll on the front page.

Out of curiosity, I ran this site through their analyzer. Here's the result.

Yeah. There you have it. This analyzer thinks this blog is run by a guy. I immediately clicked in to the survey to say that the analyzer gave an incorrect result of the blog, and the survey results show that the analyzer is right roughly 56% of the time.

I think the incorrect result might be due to the AI being tested on, as the front page says, 2000-something blogs. No matter what, that remains a tiny proportion of all bloggers in the world today.

Also, I guess the AI wasn't tested on gamers' blogs, or on MMO blogs in particular. As a verification check, I ran RCM Hrin's blog through it - and got the same result as above.

It's good for a chuckle, eh? Try it out for yourselves and let me know what you got!

FIVE HUNDRED POSTS!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:56:00 +0000

[Okay, okay, it doesn't have quite the same ring as, say, Over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!!!, but hey, it's MY milestone, right?]

On Writing, Fangirling, and Blogging Granado Espada

So, yeah, here I am at the five hundred posts mark, with over sixty-four thousand visitors, and I have no idea how much Internet space I've consumed for all the photos, videos, and things of a widget-y nature posted to this one site.

Lately I've had this blog even more on my mind than usual, since a nephew of mine started consulting me about being a writer, and going to university specifically to take up a degree in Creative Writing. One of the first pieces of advice I wound up giving him was that he ought to start up a blog - his choice of topic, his choice of posting schedule - and update it as frequently as he was able.

The underlying lesson was that writing X number of words to a Y publishing schedule fosters both creativity and discipline in a budding writer. I got the initial piece of advice from none other but Neil Gaiman, and additional reinforcement and occasional elaborations from John Scalzi. You can't accuse those two gentlemen of not practicing what they preach, either....

But come on, NineMoons, some of you might be saying, you're writing about an MMORPG! How can that foster anything when you're just being a fan?

I actually submit that being a fan of something, who wants to write X number of words for a fairly regular Y publishing schedule, is a big help to meeting said schedule. Being a fan of something means you're immersed in it to some extent or another, and it often means being willing to add to one's store of information about the subject being fanboyed / fangirled.

Don't believe me? Check out the massive number of crafting, food, and review blogs, to name just three popular genres of blogging. They're not all "I love this" or "I'm really into that" - many of them are active learning experiences, where bloggers and readers interact to boost stocks of knowledge and skills.

The blog has been an immense help to me to become a more disciplined, and yes, certainly more prolific writer. And since writing is my greatest passion: being a fan is no small fry, this blog has been the greatest help to me, and Granado Espada continues to rock for providing me with such rich material to write with.

Here's to five hundred posts and to the next five hundred.

Stories of the New World: New Community Event!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:33:00 +0000

[In-Game Event] The Quest Master Challenge!

Now, here is a call for events that I can quite get behind!

If you have a story to tell in the New World - write it up, embellish it with screenshots and other details, and post it at the forums - you might see your story turned into an event for all the pioneers of Bach and Rembrandt!

Gosh, this might turn out to be a bit of an outlet for me. I'm a writer by training and this is really the sort of thing that could be an exercise for me. Not to mention that I've got quite a few tales I've always wanted to tell. I think I'll sign up for this one.

Edited to Add: Okay, here's my entry. I'll be updating it with the accompanying pictures very shortly.

[The Quest Master Challenge Entry – Rembrandt/NineMoons] Waiting For Fate

Do drop in soon and tell me what you think!

Pets, Poison Yards, and Farming for Fesos

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:18:00 +0000

Aww, look, I let my Grabber out to play!

Look, he thinks the croc-musk is his mommy!

***

I said I had to feed my Grabber Po, so I bravely entered the Poison Yard tonight with a few good raiders:

As it turns out, the Super Fight maps currently AREN'T PK heavens. Instead, everyone plays nice because everyone's farming for the stones that can be exchanged for Fesos.

As a precaution, squad leader Fiksdotter advised everyone to tag themselves as "Farmers" while inside PY, and to observe a few rules of conduct that he had laid out beforehand. Once inside, though, it was pretty much every pioneer for his or herself, with assistance given when someone got accidentally killed.

At the end of the night, here's the NineMoons family haul:

w00t! I've already converted those stones into Fesos. Now I have to make plans for the next farming session. ^^

[Anything for my cute little baby! ♥]

Halloween 2008 in Rembrandt!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:28:00 +0000

Last year, it was my girls in Bach and their Pumpkin Hats.

This year, it's my current leveling team in Rembrandt, marking Halloween with some good old-fashioned scares!

Anthy and Furyk taunt each other in their Croc and Bear suits, respectively, while Siuan looks on. Special guest appearance by the Winterlake family, DFL of ShenAnCalhar faction.

"They're behind me, aren't they?" Eeeeeeeeeek!

In the meantime, I wonder if the Trick or Treat event mentioned in Hrin's blog is pushing through?

A Future Pet: Meet Pigling!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:06:00 +0000

People are still wibbling out over Grabber/Pilfurr/Poppet, and wondering when Buppet/Broomy/Moppet will be out, and worrying about getting the fesos needed to keep them both alive. We haven't even started talking about the Grabber Lady yet, only Ferruccio knows when we're going to get THAT one....

And now here comes an update that will bring in a fourth pet, in Granado Espada Version 3.1.04.

Meet Pigling.

[Incidentally, that MCC team is quite beautifully dressed. The male elementalist looks especially dolled up for the occasion, to say nothing of his female counterpart and the male musketeer. It seems like Version 3.0 is the version where the male elementalist gets a lot of costume love....]

Anyway, the thing about Pigling is this: you have to pay real money to get her. The doratomo.jp article that's the source of this post's information and images guesses that the price may eventually be something around 10,000 Won.

Quickie conversion rates:

1 South Korean won = 0.0679724619 Japanese yen
= 0.00104722366 Singapore dollars
= 0.0337880175 Philippine pesos
= 0.000701 U.S. dollars

So,

10,000 South Korean won = 679.724619 Japanese yen
= 10.4722366 Singapore dollars
= 337.880175 Philippine pesos
= 7.01 U.S. dollars

What justifies spending that money? Well, the article claims that while Pigling has essentially the same skill set as Grabber/Pilfurr/Poppet, she has a wider range for picking up objects and a faster pick-up time. To balance that out, she goes through her Activity Power much faster, i.e. you need to feed her more often than for the other pets.

In closing, have a video of Pigling in action:

[No Sarah Palin jokes, please!]

Sources
The original doratomo.jp article describing Pigling
The same page run through Yahoo! BabelFish
Currency conversions from Google.com [just type in the currencies to be converted, i.e. "X to Y"]

GAME! November 2008 Feature: Granado Espada Gamer Girls In The Spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:30:00 +0000

Okay, I managed to make decent scans of the GAME! November issue - well, at least just the pages for the GE Gamer Girls Season 1 feature. So here are the JPEG versions.

Page 1, the title page for the feature.

Page 2 of the feature.

Page 3, the last page of the feature.

Click on the JPEGs to be able to read the text. They should be large enough that the article can be easily read.

Enjoy the article ^^ For the upcoming Dec-Jan issue, I contributed a story about the Black Party event that marked the first anniversary of Granado Espada in the Philippines, as well as a report on the Server Merge - so please watch out for that one, too.

GAME! November 2008 issue is out!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:09:00 +0000

This one is for all of the Granado Espada Gamer Girls - and especially those from the Philippines!

Never mind the main image; what you're looking for is in the bottom-left corner!

See the list of featured articles near the bottom? Check out the third entry on that list: Granado Espada Gamer Girls. That's right, you can now read the full article on the GE Gamer Girls Season 1 initiative - the same article I excerpted in this post!

Too bad I wasn't able to cover everyone. The article was set for deadline early in September, so I couldn't complete the list of Gamer Girls.

I owe someone scans of the pages where the article appeared.....

Talking about the Granado Espada "Web Controller"

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:09:00 +0000

[Goodness, I have just realized that this blog is well on the way to reaching its 500th post.

...Wow! *giddy*]

It seems as though the folks over in kGE and jGE can't wait to get their hands on the GEMOCON "Web Controller" function. From the looks of it, it's a way of keeping track of your pioneering family's progress from any other computer, in real time. The gushing article over at doratomo.jp even goes so far as to call it a "Messiah" for those people who have to work at the office and therefore have limited leveling time!

Here's the login screen for the beta version. The word on the street is that IMC and Microsoft - Microsoft! - worked together to produce this widget.

You'll get a sort of quickstart instruction screen to explain how the thing works, and then you'll go right into the actual GEMOCON UI.

[doratomo helpfully explains that the name of the web controller is derived from "GE" + the Korean and Japanese nicknames for a remote controller device, "rimokon", hence GEMOCON.]

Here's what the GEMOCON will allow users to do:

- Keep track of HP, SP, and EXP.
- Use the Call to Leader F4 function, the Select All/Select Individual F9 function, Hold attack order, Keep attack order, and even the Resurrect function if someone in the party dies. However, you'll need a supply of Soul Crystals to use the Resurrect function.
- Real-time chat mode. It looks like the PM, Faction Chat, at least one of the /broad-type messaging functions, and the "overhead message" [the one that you type in that begins with !!] are available in this mode.

While it does seem like something of a godsend to those of us who must go in to work daily, but still want to keep track of our leveling, I do have one immediate issue to bring up that may come into direct conflict with the GEMOCON: will GEMOCON users be subject to the Report Botters function? If the answer is yes, then there might as well be no point to using the GEMOCON, among other things; if the answer is no, then what prevents the botters from using the GEMOCON themselves?

Anyway, this thing is still in beta testing. We can hope that IMC tackles all the standing issues to do with this before releasing it to the player community.

Sources
The original doratomo.jp news article about the GEMOCON
The same article, run through the Yahoo BabelFish translator

Presenting: The NineMoons Family...Grabber!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:06:00 +0000

Today's the third day since acquiring the pet egg - so my current leveling team cleaned out the last of the rats from the Bahia Greenhouse. Here's what happened next:

Squee! One more visit to the Pet Expert!

Yes, you get to name your pet/s. You'll find out what I named mine in a second.

Access Pet Information by hitting Alt + P.

Pick "Pet list". Now you know that I named my Grabber after the Kung Fu Panda!

And there's the little guy, along with his owners! Meet the newest member of the family, Po NineMoons!

***

Problem is, I don't have any Fesos to buy Po some pet food, so I've sent him back home to hibernate for now. I guess I've got to go off and think about ways to earn some Fesos so I can see him in action, and keep him fed too. *sigh*

Screenshots and Comments from Version 2.9 GE

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:16:00 +0000

It took me a damn long while to patch in, but I'm back in the New World, and here are a few things I've noticed along the way.

Changes to UI and Game Mechanics

New login screen, showing what seems to be the haunted town in the upcoming Errac area.

STILL stuck with the Beta Test fonts, though.

The lower portion of the Barracks screen, showing the modifications to the "Start a team" fields.

STILL no Channel 3-4-5 or so, though.

The lower portion of the standard UI screen showing the family members, skills, HP/SP, and other quick information. Notice that the colors of the basic and stance experience bars have been changed.

Improved navigation ability in the Mini Map. Click on a place in the Mini Map and your characters will automatically move to that place. The red dot means I was looking for Claire - she's not in yet though.

Full lists of features and patch notes here and here.

Pet Quest

There's a nice and quick guide to getting a pet in the forums; requires login to view. Roussalier's Cute Pet Quest Guide

For Sword of the New World players, your guide to getting a pet is here: Starstorm's Poppet For Pet

I make the distinction because there are subtle differences between the two versions of the process.

Aww, gotta kill the cute li'l ones. You CANNOT kill the mom.

After the fight, you might just get this.

Clean the Greenhouse out and visit the egg every day for three days so it hatches.

My Pilfurr [a/k/a Grabber, a/k/a Poppet] will hatch on Sunday! Maybe by then I can earn the Fesos so I can feed it....

[Guide] NineMoons's Guide to Staying Updated with Granado Espada!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Want to receive updates about Granado Espada from anywhere in the world?

Want to know just how many fan blogs exist for Granado Espada?

Want a way to find all of them without breaking a sweat?

Want a way to keep track of all of them easily?

Then you've come to the right place. As promised earlier, it's time to let you all in on a couple of secret techniques that I use to keep track of news, updates, opinions, and blog posts that all talk about Granado Espada.

Welcome to:

NineMoons's Guide to Staying Updated with Granado Espada!

Starring three popular web-based services: Google's webmail service Gmail, related service Google Alerts, and the social bookmarking site Delicious!

Part I: Getting a Gmail Account

Click to Gmail. You should see something that looks like this:

If you don't have a Gmail account yet, click the "Sign Up for Gmail" link located in the second blue box on the right. Follow the instructions carefully. It's a quick and painless procedure that should take just a few minutes.

Signing up for a Gmail account means that you can now access all of Google's other services, including - ta-da! - Blogger!

If you already have a Gmail account, skip on ahead to the next step.

Part II: Creating a Google Alert

Without logging out of your Gmail account, open another browser window or tab and click through to Google Alerts. Here's what that page looks like:

Since in this case we want to create a Google Alert for something specific, type in the following in the box after "Search terms:"

"Granado Espada"

This is you telling Google to:

- Look for ANYTHING on the Internet that mentions Granado Espada, be it news articles, blog posts, general web page content, or even video and audio descriptions

- Collect a little basic information from each mention. This includes the title of the article/post/content/description in which the mention was found, a paragraph or two [usually the first one], and the complete URL of that mention.

- Sort these pieces of information, and send them on to you as an email.

Fill in the "Your email:" box with the email address that you want to receive the alerts at, and click "Create Alert".

This is how I find out all the blogs and fansites that talk about Granado Espada!

After receiving enough of these alerts, you might realize that the list is getting too long for a blog sidebar or a links page. You might also want to find a better way of letting others know that you've found this amazing collection of Granado Espada links. The quickest way to do that, I've found, is to use a social bookmarking site. The one I use is Delicious.

Part III: Collecting Links with Delicious

Click through to Delicious and you should see this at the top of the page:

If you don't already have a Delicious account, click the green "Join Now" box and follow the steps to getting an account. If you have one, just click the blue "Sign In" box to go to your page.

To save a new bookmark, after logging in, just click the "Save a new bookmark" link on the right-hand side of the page and follow the instructions there.

You can also install a Delicious widget in your browser for easy, one-touch bookmarking.

Want to know how effective Delicious is at keeping track of links? Check out my own page:

See that red box near the bottom right? It says I have 182 bookmarks saved to my Delicious account - and most of them are Granado Espada links that I've found through the Google Alerts function!

If you'd like to become my contact on Delicious - and thank you! - just check out this widget on the left-hand sidebar:

Click the "Add me to your network" link to go to that Delicious function.

***

While this blog post is dedicated mainly to my fellow Granado Espada bloggers, I'm also putting it up so that we can all share the experience of finding all the wonderful and informative sites out there that talk about this amazing game. I hope that it helps you, and I hope that it helps broaden the community and its reach.

Update: I've posted this guide in full at the SEA / ANZ Granado Espada forums. You can check it out here: [Guide] NineMoons's Guide to Staying Updated with Granado Espada!. Please respond with suggestions and possible improvements!

Get Ready for the Next Post!

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:18:00 +0000

Okay, yeah, I'm kind of cheating. This is a bit of a placeholder post. But I'm putting it up here because I want you to know what I'm up to next.

If you ever wanted to know exactly how to stay abreast of news in Granado Espada, or how to keep track of events and updates in the flourishing GE bloggers' community throughout Southeast Asia and Australia / New Zealand - then just you wait for the next post or two. Just you wait.

And did you want to know how to keep track of all the bloggers and all the fansites? I'll throw that in too, as a bonus!

Seriously, I'm going to let you all in on a NineMoons secret technique. I'll reveal the entire process, step-by-step details, screenshots and all. It'll be a guide for everyone!

So watch out for what NineMoons has got on tap!

After the Merge: The Two Servers of SEA/ANZ Granado Espada

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 01:42:00 +0000

To honor one of the traditions I've started on this blog, here now is a piece on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn and Johann Sebastian Bach, the namesakes of the new, post-Server Merge "worlds" of SEA/ANZ Granado Espada.

The facts of Rembrandt and Bach's lives were sourced mainly from Wikipedia. The videos of musical performances came from various YouTube videos and will be properly credited as they are introduced. The images of Rembrandt's work were also sourced from Wikipedia.

Previous Entry:

[Repost] The Five Servers of SEA/ANZ Granado Espada

***

After the Server Merge took place in SEA/ANZ Granado Espada, the original five servers have been compressed to two: the PK realms of Cervantes, Caravaggio, and Vivaldi were merged into Bach; the non-PK realms of Carracci and Pachelbel were merged into Rembrandt.

The previous five servers were named after just a handful of the top men of the Baroque Era: Cervantes, author of the masterpiece Don Quixote; Carracci, the paragon of Italian painters of the Baroque time; Caravaggio, the forerunner of modern painting; Pachelbel, composer of the Canon in D; and Vivaldi, composer of The Four Seasons.

The two post-Merge servers could do no less but be named after equally dominating artistic geniuses of the time - and so we have Bach, named for the man who brought Baroque music to its ultimate zenith; and Rembrandt, named for that great painter of shadow and light.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was a German composer and organist. He created music for both the church and for secular use, composing for choirs, orchestra, and solo instruments alike. He is best known for introducing a strong current of counterpoint, a technique in which harmony is derived from the interconnection of independent strands of melody.

Among his better-known works are the Goldberg Variations, a set of 30 variations for the harpsichord. In the works of author Thomas Harris, this is one of the musical favorites of the genius, Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter.

But certainly his most well-known piece is the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565. Just take a listen to the opening seconds of the videos below and you'll recognize it almost instantly.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Arrangement by Leopold Stokowski. Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Minato-Mirai Hall, Yokohama, Japan, 1999.

Here's a more familiar performance.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565. Arrangement by Leopold Stokowski. Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. The first segment of the 1940 Disney animated film Fantasia.

The opening of this work has been performed many, many times since, to the point where it has even become associated with Halloween and horror movies.

Edited to Add: And of course we hear a version of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor in Granado Espada itself, courtesy of S.F.A! Thanks to Palukz™ for commenting on this!

###

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher, generally considered once of the greatest visual artists of Europe, and certainly as the pinnacle of Dutch art. It was he who taught many of the important Dutch painters who succeeded him. He is famous for his portraits of his contemporaries, for his masterful self-portraits, for his paintings of Biblical scenes, and for the monumental painting Night Watch.

Night Watch by Rembrandt.

This painting was commissioned by a musketeer branch of a local civic militia of Rembrandt's acquaintance. It was named "The Night Watch" because when it was first discovered, it had been so darkened by age that it was thought to be a night scene. It shows Captain Frans Banning Cocq leading his group of musketeers out of their quarters. The exact nature of their errand is still unknown: are they going out on patrol? Are they going to a meeting? The girl near the center of the portrait carries many of the symbols of Cocq's group, serving as a mascot in the painting.

A little respect for your server, then, no matter what it be - it's named after a great man, so live up to its name! Forward the New World!

NineMoons's Memento: The First CW in Rembrandt Server

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:13:00 +0000

Not going back to Colony Wars reporting here - I just wanted to post something as unique as this. Have a look at the results of the very first Colony Wars session in Rembrandt, in the aftermath of the clash of the titans of the former Carracci and Pachelbel servers.

Comments are welcome - just keep them civil, eh?

A GE Gamer Girls Meeting at e-Games

noreply@blogger.com (PJ Punla) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:26:00 +0000

It was, rather ironically, Blacksword who called my attention to a posting in the SEA / ANZ Granado Espada forums on the second day of the Server Merge.

[Blacksword, of course, is a guy ^^]

e-Games is hosting a Focus Group Discussion for its female gamers! This forum thread was posted by GM Phryzea, a/k/a Grantoza in Rembrandt.

So I signed up, and got the details. Which meant that I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6am - on a weekend - and run off across the city to this Focus Group Discussion. The GE group was to be accommodated during the first session [of four], and it was to start at 10am.

Who else showed up?

Attendees:
NineMoons
ryuuosha
Serpentes [a/k/a Hahaziah]
Clairemont
Hargrove
Skeffington
Niji

Facilitators:
CM Jes, a/k/a GM Amethy
CM Aethrin [okay, he's a guy, but since he's the CM for GE....]
GM Phryzea [the aforementioned Grantoza family]
GM Makadesh
GM Chromium
GM Faiga

The session was supposed to have been shared with the gamer girls who played another e-Games-distributed game, Supreme Destiny, but it turned out that the GE players were the only ones who turned up, and not all of them besides. All of us attendees came from Rembrandt; the registrants from Bach seemed to be unable to make it.

We had the discussion solely to ourselves, and we talked about how GE could be better improved. To answer the always-thorny problem of GVC availability in the country, the e-Games people told us that they were finally in the last stages of putting together the process to be able to convert their own e-Points to GE's G-points. Apparently they'll be going public with this soon, denominations and all; they were at least able to claim it'll be up by November or so.

To answer the question of having more PH events both in-game and in real life, CM Aethrin mentioned that he had already turned in a list of suggested events [likely to both his bosses and to IAH, I guess]; GM Amethy said that by 25 October they'd start an all-new provincial tour, called "Road to Domination" or something like that.

They asked us what it would take for us to cosplay at events. We all looked at each other and held out our hands in a local gesture that means "money"! They wound up suggesting a quid-pro-quo scheme: show up in our own costumes, made at our own expense - which would be compensated by in-game items. We were pretty much unanimous in asking that if we were to be given items, the items should at least have some use to us in-game....

They gave us some tokens of appreciation for showing up - Field Manuals and 20 x Adelina's Booty Searches apiece - and also raffled off some prizes, including the rare and coveted GE ID laces / lanyards, GE mousepads, and a stuffed-toy version of the Ran Online mob "Hooligan". I got a mousepad, and it has Grace Bernelli on it ^^ They also gave us posters for The Requiem.

I think at some point we asked if e-Games would be distributing the actual DVDs of the Version 2.9 installer [as shown by RCM Hrin here] - they said they would. I hope so - I'd like to get my hands on one of those!

Okay, quick pics:

From right to left: NineMoons, ryuuosha, Serpentes, Clairemont, GM Phryzea a/k/a Grantoza, and GM Makadesh. [Oops, bunny ears!]

From left to right: GM Amethy, CM Aethrin, Niji, Skeffington, and Hargrove.

Seated, from left to right: Clairemont, Serpentes, and ryuuosha. Standing, from left to right: GM Phryzea, GM Faiga, NineMoons, GM Amethy, Hargrove, Skeffington, and Niji.

At the close of the discussion, we all promised we'd get together again; GM Amethy insisted it'd be a real event next time, and not just a Focus Group Discussion.

GE Gamer Girls Rule.