Learning a new language is simple, just visit any city and talk to the lords and ladies of any ‘houses’. As a clue, the names of these houses end up with the word ‘Estate’. Additionally, guild houses (Adventurer Guild, Maritime Guild, and Merchant/Trader Guild) also offer languages.

Below you will find a tabular list of the languages available per city and the establishment where you can learn it. A word of caution, languages count as one (1) skill. You will need to forget a skill if you already maxed out your allotted number of skills that you can learn. But be careful not to unlearn the language of the city you are currently in, lest you want to travel all the way back to where you first learnt of their language in the first place.

* Source: Great Voyage Online wiki sites.

Creative Commons-Attribution-Share_Alike 3.0

While waiting, I decided to browse the Netmarble website. All was fine until I logged-in to their website - their Netmarble Messenger is too persistent, no that is an understatement, they are forcing you to install their browser-based messenger, which unfortunately, is not compatible with Windows 7.

I tried installing the Netmarble Messenger on Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer, all failed. For Chrome and Firefox, it just kept on saying that the plugin crashed. For IE, it kept on saying that there’s a version incompatibility.

It then turns into a great annoyance because the Netmarble website will keep popping-up messages about the errors. As I’ve said we are being forced to install their browser plugin.

Here’s the solution if you encounter this problem, especially for Windows 7 users.

• Go to the folder of your favorite browser
• Right-Click on the executable file (firefox.exe or chrome.exe)
• Go to “General > Compatibility”
• Check the box “Run this program in compatibility mode for:
• In the drop-down box, select Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
• Click the Apply button

• Run your browser
• Visit the Netmarble website and re-install their messenger browser-plugin
• Once you see the Netmarble messenger on your screen, then it installed successfully
• Then just repeat the steps above and then
• Uncheck the box “Run this program in compatibility mode for:
• Click the Apply button and it should be okay from then on

By the way, it doesn’t work for Internet Explorer. Windows 7 will not allow IE to be in compatibility mode because it is an integral part of the operating system. If you only have IE and you want to, for example, post on the Netmarble forums, you better download Firefox and/or Chrome now.

Or better yet, tell Netmarble to give us an option to disable their messenger. In the first place who needs it? Do you think you will use it regularly and extensively?

UWO has been around for some time in its MMOG in China, Japan, and Korea. It is also known as Great Voyage Online, developed by KOEI, based on the Rekoeition Uncharted Waters game series.

Starting next week, International gamers can start un-uncharting Uncharted Waters Online as it goes beta. In line with that, the UWO team launched a Refer-A-Friend promo where the top 3 referrers on the August 25^th draw will win excellent in-game items not only for himself but for his group of referred friends!

You can check out the prizes at the UWO-Global event page here and I ask you to sign-up using my link to join my group and hopefully we (that includes you) can win on the first draw. And in case you already have an account, simply visit the event page and put my name laibcoms as your referrer to join the group.

Here are the system requirements:

• OS: Windows XP SP3 or above
• CPU: Pentium 3 - 800MHz or above
• GFX: DirectX 9.0c or above with VRAM of 32mb or above
• RAM: 256mb or above
• HDD: More than 8.7gb of space
• SND: 16-bit stereo 44KHz WAVE compatible sound card
• NET: 1Mbps or above

Don’t ask or look for beta keys as it is not needed. Just sign-up here, download the game, and wait for the official opening of the servers.

Here are the dates to remember:

• Closed Beta Test: 3:00pm UTC+9, August 25^th to 6:00pm UTC+9, September 6^th
• Client Download starts on August 20^th at 3:00pm UTC+9

All good? Great! See you in-game! Explore, Battle, and Conquer to Make History!

WINE or WINE Is Not an Emulator, is not “forever alpha/beta” as it was jokingly introduced by WINE users. Yes, after two years of active development, version 1.2 is now officially available for download, replacing the 0-stable branch.

With over 23,000 changes; 3,000 bug fixes; and the much awaited 64-bit support, this makes WINE even more useful for all GNU/Linux users, especially gamers and those who are having a hard time making a switch from their favorite Windows-only application to a (better) FLOSS application.

Here are some of the changes that are, in my opinion, very important.

COre functionality

• Loading and running 64-bit Windows applications is now supported on x86-64 processors (only on Linux at this point)
• There are now two flavors of WINE prefixes, 32-bit and 64-bit. 32-bit prefixes only support 32-bit applications, while 64-bit prefixes support both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.
• The mount manager now reports the actual UUID for disk devices that support it instead of a hard-coded one
• Symbolic links are now supported in the registry
• The C runtime libraries msvcr80, msvcr90, and msvcr100 used by recent Visual C++ versions are now partially implemented
• Some functions now use a Microsoft-compatible function prologue when building with a recent enough gcc. This allows Steam overlays to work.

User Interface

• The standard print and page setup dialogs are now working much better now
• There is now an application wizard control panel to manage installed applications
• There is now a proper user interface for importing, exporting, and managing cryptographic keys and certificates
• WINE is now fully translated to French, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Polish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, and Korean. It has partial translations for another twenty languages.

Desktop integration

• File associations created by a Windows application are now registered with the Unix desktop
• Start Menu entries are now properly removed when an application is uninstalled
• Copying and pasting images between Windows and Unix applications works more reliably now, and more image formats are supported
• Launching an external Unix web browser from a Windows application now works correctly
• MSI files are now associated with WINE to enable launching them directly from the desktop
• The virtual desktop window now switches to full-screen mode when its size matches that of the screen

Graphics

• The windowscodecs dll has been added, with codecs for the JPEG/JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, ICO, and TIFF image formats
• Many functions are now implemented in GDIPlus. The gdiplus dll is now considered good enough to load the built-in version by default.
• Overlays are now supported in DirectDraw

Audio

• The ALSA sound driver now works better with PulseAudio’s ALSA emulation
• Digital playback of audio CDs is now supported

Internet and networking

• The HTTP protocol implementation has seen many improvements, two in particular is support for IPv6 addresses and better certificate validation on secure connections
• The Gecko HTML engine has been updated to a more recent upstream version. Many more HTML objects are now implemented
• There is now an essentially complete implementation of the JavaScript language
• Many undocumented functions in the shlwapi dll have been implemented for improved Internet Explorer support

Direct3D

• A large portion of the d3d×9 dlls is now implemented, most notably the shader assembler, .x file support, functions for fonts, general 3D math, mesh handling, and sprites. A start has been made with the texture and effect functions.
• Fog handling has improved a lot
• The graphics card detection code has been improved, and many more graphics cards are now recognized
• User clip planes are now supported in shaders. This allows proper water reflections in Half-Life 2
• There is now an initial implementation of Direct3D 10, including the dxgi, d3d10core, and d3d10 dlls. Most of the work so far has gone into parsing d3d10 effects and SM4 shaders
• Shadow samplers are now properly supported. This fixes shadows in StarCraft II
• Many new OpenGL extensions are now supported

For the complete list, visit the official announcement.

And to download, simply head to WINE Official Download page.

There are no problems with b2evolution’s anti-spam system, in fact I have not seen a strong built-in anti-spam system like b2evolution’s - and that is without using Akismet yet! However, as I mentioned Disqus still has a better system and that’s the way to go.

Of course there are other reasons for using Disqus like the defragmentation of comments across the web and removing the load off from our servers - comments, especially with rampant automated and human spamming, do cause server load. With human spamming mentioned, there is only one effective and obvious way of combating such activities - forcing login to users when posting comments.

With that, from hereon forward, before your comment can be posted the Disqus system will ask you to login. You can use Disqus (with confirmed email address), OpenID, Facebook, or Yahoo! to login.

This does not mean that spams will be gone bye-bye. When a highly-paid human spammer is your enemy, they surely will take the time to register, re-register, and re-register new accounts just so they can spam your blog or website. But at least we can now make their lives harder and ours easier.

Once we ban the accounts they used, they have to create a new one to be able to post again. And in fact, we have seen a huge drop of human spammers on this site alone. We can already say that it is a victory.

(Digg.com feed claim code: 4149e36f9452430797a3d4cd4ad8191a )

Today another stable OpenTTD has been released to the wild - v1.0.2. This is of course for all platforms, Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, and GNU/Linux. There were many bug fixes since v1.0.1 but before I show you the changelog - 44 in all, 1 new feature, and 1 feature change.

Here’s the official announcement posted by TrueBrain.

Dear Diary,

People are so mean to me today. Here I am in this beautiful rainy day sitting outside a German’s house, waiting for more food which seems absent at the moment.

While we were eating, we faked the community in believing nothing was done. Nothing is less true. Ha-ha. How did we fool them. Not only we made 6 commits, we also released 1.0.2. Not to forget we cut this lovely r20000 cake, which planetmaker made, and it was lovely.

His hospitality is generous and we all seem to like being here.

With this, my dear diary, I would like to close up. I hope you enjoy 1.0.2, a new step forward to an even more stable version of the 1.0 branch.

Enjoy!

And here is the v1.0.2 changelog:

1.0.2 (2010-06-19)
————————————————————————
- Fix: Owner of the Waypoint View window was not properly set (r19990)
- Fix: Close list of vehicles with given oil rig in orders when the oil rig is deleted (r19956)
- Fix: Close list of vehicles with given buoy/oil rig in orders when switching company (r19955)
- Fix: Do not close list of waypoint’s trains when the waypoint view is closed when it is sticky (r19952)
- Fix: Close buoy’s vehicle list when the buoy is deleted [FS#3869] (r19951)

1.0.2-RC1 (2010-06-05)
————————————————————————
- Feature: Translated desktop shortcut comments (r19884)
- Fix: When ‘pause on new game’ is set, pause the game before CleanupGeneration() to avoid conflicts with concurrent GUI code [FS#3857] (r19934)
- Fix: Pay for the rail/road when constructing tunnels, bridges, depots and stations [FS#3859, FS#3827] (r19925, r19887, r19881)
- Fix: Closing chatbox could cause glitches when news message was shown [FS#3865] (r19921)
- Fix: [YAPP] Inform the pathfinder as well about the fact that the backside of an one-way path signal can be a safe waiting point [FS#3803] (r19896)
- Fix: Allow loading savegames from the console without specifying the “.sav” extension, i.e. make it consistent with saving savegames from the console [FS#3761] (r19885)
- Fix: Dropdowns did affect positioning of new windows because they were not yet removed when the new windows were positioned [FS#3812] (r19883)
- Fix: [NoAI] AIEngine::IsValidEngine() and AIEngine::IsBuildable() returned false positives. Especially wagons of unavailable railtypes were reported available (r19880)
- Fix: Default vehicle group texts were drawn one pixel too low [FS#3851] (r19878)
- Fix: It was not possible to send all trains with common waypoint order to depot (r19876)
- Fix: Compilation for NetBSD [FS#3809, FS#3840, FS#3845] (r19874, r19859, r19853, r19781)
- Fix: If the (guessed initial) destination tile of a road vehicle was not a road stop but was a T-junction or turn, the road vehicles would jump around in circles [FS#3817] (r19873)
- Fix: When a network connection gets lost and a game with AIs was loaded the client might crash due to the AIs not being loaded while the game loop is executed [FS#3819] (r19869)
- Fix: Use non-breaking spaces for currency pre-/postfixes (r19867)
- Fix: Crash when changing/viewing locale settings in the console [FS#3830] (r19865, r19864, r19863, r19862)
- Fix: Drawing fallback sprites for unavailable NewGRF waypoints failed (r19852)
- Fix: Ensure that both texts of the NewGRF gui download button fit (r19823)
- Fix: Kicking clients by IP did not work [FS#3784] (r19818)
- Fix: Compilation with MinGW GCC 4.5.0 and UNICODE (r19787)
- Fix: If a waypoint is immediately followed by a path signal a reservation would be made from that path signal before the waypoint is marked passed. As a result the order to go to the waypoint is used to reserve the path after the waypoint and as such trains get lost [FS#3770] (r19784)
- Fix: NULL pointer deference when testing relative scope *action2 on an unbuilt engine [FS#3828] (r19782)
- Fix: Crash on too long paths [FS#3807] (r19780, r19779, r19778, r19777, r19776)
- Fix: MP_VOID tiles shall have no tropic zone [FS#3820] (r19769)
- Fix: Half-desert tiles would never revert back to clear tiles (r19768)
- Fix: Height in smallmap was different from measured heights [FS#3808] (r19767)
- Fix: [NewGRF] Vehicle var 43 missed AI information in purchase list (r19761)
- Fix: Blocked roadvehicles should first check whether they are still blocked before accelerating again, instead of continuous starting/stopping (r19755)
- Fix: Try harder to find a suitable font that can be loaded, i.e. while searching for a suitable font test whether you can open it [FS#3740] (r19753)
- Fix: Make sure the chat area fits in the default window size; if you want it larger, you can always change/override it in the config file [FS#3798] (r19751)
- Fix: [NewGRF] Industry var 0x43 is not ’safe’ during callbacks 22 and 38 either (r19750)
- Fix: [NewGRF] Possible divide-by-zero if a NewGRF checked industry var 42 while the production level was 0 (r19749)
- Fix: Do not recenter usually centered windows when resizing main window or changing language, if they have been moved/resized before [FS#3675] (r19746)
- Fix: The GUI is controlled by _local_company, not _current_company (r19745)
- Fix: NewGRFs could access map bits of not yet constructed industries and houses during construction callbacks (r19748, r19743)
- Fix: [NewGRF] Passing some invalid data to industry variable 67/68 could cause a crash (r19713)
- Fix: Check for industry availability more thoroughly and cancel object placement when selecting not available industries [FS#3787] (r19701)
- Fix: Avoid showing building toolbars behind the main toolbar when the ‘Link landscape toolbar’ setting is active [FS#3781] (r19696)
- Fix: Under some circumstances the player’s name could be empty (r19693)
- Fix: Do not show an error message when trying to give another client an amount of 0 money [FS#3779] (r19684)
- Fix: Do not display an error message when double clicking on a vehicle in the ‘available vehicles’-window (r19669)
- Change: Name invalid engines, cargos and industries ‘invalid’, if the player removed the supplying NewGRFs, hide invalid engines from the purchase list (r19879, r19877)

You can download OpenTTD 1.0.2 stable by visiting their download site.

Discuss and talk about this game here: gameshogun forums

After taking a bath (gamers do take baths you know ) I realized how blessed I am to have been born in 1982 (the early years of Generation Y). Why? When I was growing up, I was there when electronic gaming - PC in particular - was in its childhood years.

I was there when Scorched Earth became a very popular shoot-em-up scrolling strategy tank game. I was there when the early first-person shooter games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom II, and Quake were storming LAN gaming centres. I was there when Sim and Tycoon games were born - Sim City and Transport Tycoon, being the fathers of these two genres respectively.

Would gamers who grew up in the 3^rd millennium (ie Year 2000 and up) enjoy these games?

Maniac Mansion

Nah, I highly doubt. Maybe 2 out of 10 and I am being overly optimistic already. Will today’s generation of gamers play these games?

OpenTTD (a clone of Transport Tycoon Deluxe)

UFO: Alien Invasion (inspired by X-COM game series)

Doom II: Hell on Earth

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

Majority of the millennium gamer generation are the eye-candy type. If it doesn’t look “modern” (and you have to ask them to define “modern"), they will ignore it. Do you think they will play this MMOG?

Ultima Online (isometric view made popular by Ultima VI: The False Prophet)

So yeah, I am blessed to have been born in the early 80s because I have far less of the biases of many gamers today. I am so glad, I am so overjoyed of realizing that. I can proudly say that I am part of the history of electronic gaming.

They laughed, they ridiculed the games of our time when I showed them our games. But I am glad to report that not one of those *cough* “modern” *cough* generation were able to beat a single nostalgia game. (I hope to meet one soon )

And didn’t I mention I was able to play many table-top arcade games before these disappeared from circulation? Now those are from the 70s gaming generation if you are not aware.

How about you? What makes you proud of your gaming generation? What makes your generation unique? What are the aspects that the newer and younger and next generation of gamers will never be able to experience? What are the things that they will never like from your gaming generation?

Or what were the reaction of your kids or students or younger gaming friends when you showed them the games of your time?

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Game Site:
Dev/GSP:
Client:
Platform:
Bus. Type:
Retail Price:

lordofultima.com
EA Phenomic
Browser

Item Mall
Free-to-Play

Category:
Game Style:
Singleplayer:
Multiplayer:
License:
Status:

Time-based Strategy
Linear
n/a
Yes
Proprietary
Released

Lord of Ultima™ is the latest browser online game from Electronic Arts®, developed by Phenomic®. It is a browser-based, time-based strategy MMOG, an empire building game.

But despite its title and the typography of the word “Ultima", it is not related to Richard Garriott’s popular RPG franchise Ultima or Ultima Online - not at all. I am telling you that early to save you from disappointment not like the lot of us currently playing this game.

However, there is a story that links Lord of Ultima™ to Ultima Online for those who love lores. The story goes like this: Time has passed in the Ultima Online universe, Sosaria (meaning, the whole of it and not just Britannia), was further shattered into islands, countless of islands, until it became just another part of history, a legend, forgotten, torn from its place in time.

Upon a vast ocean rises a new world, it was called Caledonia. From Sosaria’s ashes comes a new land to be conquered. From the kingdom of Britannia comes the dreams of many to re-establish a new kingdom. But only the most cunning, the strongest, and the wealthiest can come out as the new ruler of this new world. That is your goal, to become the new lord of Ultima.

Interesting? Well, lore-wise it is but if you are not into strategy games you probably will not enjoy this one.

Gameplay

The player is given a patch of land where he is the “lord” of that city (more appropriately “kingdom"). There are resources in every kingdom, these are: Wood, Stone, Iron, and Food. You as the lord will need a lot (I can not stress that enough) of each of these resources specially stone and wood. These resources are your building blocks - for your buildings and of your units.

On your first login, Lady Lyanna will teach you how to play the game by guiding you which buildings to build first while explaining the different functions and features of the game. Do not ever skip it even if you already know how to play the game, she gives you rewards for every instruction that you follow. Though small, but these helps you build your city and turn it into a kingdom.

As you gather resources, you will be able to level up your buildings. At the beginning you will have a very limited list of buildings to build, you have to upgrade your Town Hall. New buildings are unlocked for every Town Hall level, and you have to do it fast if you can before your seven days of immunity from raiding runs out.

From there, you should start building your military force. Upgrade your wall too for defense and build towers on your wall for additional defense and offense support. You can also send your military units abroad for an adventure like killing bosses which will give you a special item if you killed it. Or, just buy other useful items from the item mall.

That is basically the idea of LoU. You build your capital, build a new city or conquer someone else’s city, join or create an alliance, and make your empire the most formidable in your server.. or shard as it is called in Ultima Online.

It is a time-based strategy game so expect the gameplay to be slow, this is specially true once your buildings are on the levels 7 and up. Be sure to strategized your buildings as well to maximize the time that is passing while waiting for some building to finish an upgrade.

Game Features

• Customize your city in ways never seen before in this genre. Choose among 27 building types. Place and combine them strategically to maximize their effectiveness.
• A quest book full of interesting missions will guide you through exploring all the strategic possibilities Lord of Ultima has for you.
• Plunder dungeons and defeat mighty bosses to win their treasures.
• Choose your personal path to glory - Prosper as a peaceful merchant by trading resources over land or by sea and using diplomacy. Or become a feared conqueror, by creating mighty armies of knights and mages to crush your enemies.
• Forging alliances with other players (the guild system).
• Cities offer unseen level of detail and are packed with numerous animations. For comfortable navigation, players can zoom into their city as well as explore the lands of Caledonia in the region view.
• Easy to learn for any player, even those who are not into strategy games. But difficult to master even for those who are seasoned players in this genre.
• Best of all, it is free-to-play. You only need a browser to try become the next lord of Ultima.

gameshogun’s verdict

Grade: 8.2 out of 10. If you are into time-based strategy game, this is a recommended game for you. Become a lord of Ultima by signing-up at www.lordofultima.com.

Except where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Remember the online game I told you about? Heroes of Might and Magic Online, it is going open beta this June 11 exclusively for Asian gamers only.

When the game first launched in closed beta test last May 7^th, it received thousands of players and countless of visitors to the official website. Through the community’s help, the developers were able to squash as many bugs as possible - especially those that are causing game breakages.

Most of it are now gone, in just under one month.

Now TW Digital Entertainment and Ubisoft is ready to go open beta this June 11, at 9:00am Hong Kong Time (that is UTC+0800H, same time as ACT [Asean Common Time]). But the agreement between TQ Digital and Ubisoft is that the game will only be available within Asia.

In other words, all IP addresses that are not located in any Asian country will be blocked from access - even those who helped during the closed beta period. This is the nature of game publishing licensing, even though the game is in English, their agreement dictates that only Asians can play the game.

But knowing gamers, if they want to play the game they will find a way around this IP blocking - and there are plenty of ways to do that (don’t ask me because I won’t tell you). Am I right my fellow gamers?

If you are in Asia and you want to play Heroes of Might and Magic Online, you better start downloading the client now because it is a whopping 1,373.3MiB (1.37Gi. It will probably take 6 to 12 hours to download if you are not in any high-speed Internet countries like Korea; Japan; Singapore; and China (including Taipei and Hong Kong).

See you in-game!

Download the game here.

Update - Thursday, June 3, 2010

News has reached Lion’s Arch that the Mursaat themselves are now exerting some measure of control over White Mantle operations. Based on this information, Princess Salma is seeking the assistance of those who’ve earned the gift of True Sight. The chance to take direct action against the White Mantle’s false gods is one the Shining Blade cannot let pass.

Hopefully this will bring a fatal blow to the White Mantle operations and the Mursaats. Rise up heroes of Kryta and Ascalon, take up the call to arms! Go visit Princess Salma at the Lion’s Arch Keep to receive your sacred quest in ending the White Mantle and the Mursaat threat once-and-for-all!!

Universal Studios, Schell Games, and Bigpoint is bringing the hit movie series The Mummy into the online gaming world. The game will be launching in Winter 2010 according to their press release.

The Mummy Online is a free-to-play browser-based MMORPG set in Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century. Players will be able to explore the world of The Mummy while battling hordes of dead come alive because of another curse or guardian or evil dreaming of conquering the world.

The game is developed with Unity technology, a platform independent engine which makes it possible to produce real-time 3D applications in any browser without ever downloading a client. You can learn more about Unity by clicking here.

Visit the teaser website at themummy.bigpoint.com.

I even saw one user entering the same venue 4 times and another venue 5 times! Why? The venue can be written in different ways. I can say this guy is a seasoned Foursquare user because he added a lot of other venues, we can assume that he is aware of the rules and guidelines in entering a new venue.

But sad to say, he still did it - created multiple duplicates himself. The lack of a naming convention is not the only problem in this case, we can also safely assume that the search algorithm of Foursquare did not returned any result when he did search (if he did search for the venue). Of course it could also be that he was in a hurry and care less about duplicates at that time. I talked about these other problems here: Solutions to Foursquare Venue Problems, you better read it and give your inputs.

Today, it is about standardization of venue names. My proposal is simple to follow and to remember:
Official Venue Name [- sub-venue branch identifier] (parent-venue or location of branch identifier)

Official Venue Name - this is an existing, official rule and guideline of Foursquare. Venue names must use the official name of the venue, store, or any establishment. It should be 7-Eleven and not 7-11 / 711. The correct is Starbucks Coffee and not Starbucks.

sub-venue branch identifier - this is only applicable to sub-venues like those inside a Mall where there are more than one branch of the same sub-venue available. Examples are:

• Jollibee - Main Mall (SM Mall of Asia)
• Jollibee - Entertainment Mall (SM Mall of Asia)
• Jollibee (EDSA - Evangelista Makati)

(parent-venue or location of branch identifier) - mandatory for venues or establishments that are known to have multiple branches. Examples:

• 7-Eleven (Evangelista-Gen. Alejandro Makati)
• 7-Eleven (Evangelista-Arnaiz Makati)
• 7-Eleven (Don Bosco Street-Chino Roces Makati))

the suggested format, Foursquare venue names will be much clearer for everybody. When we search for venues especially if we’re using our mobile phones, we can tell in one glance if a particular venue that showed up in our search is the one we are looking for.

Here are more examples:

• SM Cinema (SM Mall of Asia)
• SM Cinema (SM Megamall)
• Starbucks Coffee - Main Mall (SM Mall of Asia)
• Starbucks Coffee - Entertainment Mall (SM Mall of Asia)
• Starbucks Coffee - One Ecom (SM Mall of Asia)
• Starbucks Coffee (Plaza One Hundred Makati)

I chose the name “SM Cinema” because I noticed how SM Supermalls separates each project or “sub-venue” of their mall into different “internal” departments. Another good example is “SM Cyberzone” which is in itself a department with its own management, and at the same time a “sub-venue” in SM Supermalls.

Last but not the least, a good example of following my suggested Foursquare Venue Naming convention - Starbucks Coffee. As you can see above, there are three branches of the coffee shop inside SM Mall of Asia.

The names “Main Mall", “Entertainment Mall", and “One Ecom” were taken from the official names of the “parent-venue” itself. That is our “sub-venue branch name". But I hear someone saying, “does it matter?”

Oh yes it does. Remember, Foursquare isn’t just a “game", it is a system that establishments can tap to reward the current “Mayor". How can you reward the current “Mayor” if the there are multiple branches of the same store inside a “parent-venue” like a Mall in this case?

It does matter, yes, because each branch of a store inside these “parent-venue” like a Mall have their own store staff and resources. Not because they are located inside a Mall does it mean they have one universal store manager nor does it mean their staff can be re-assigned to the other branch. They do not share their resources, they do not even combine their revenues together! Each branch within a “parent-venue” is independent - you can go ask them yourself because I did

So, a Foursquare Mayor of “Starbucks Coffee - Main Mall (SM Mall of Asia)” is different from the one in “Starbucks Coffee - Entertainment Mall (SM Mall of Asia)". The Main Mall branch could have been rewarding Mayors for some time already (example only) but the Entertainment Mall branch doesn’t have any plans to do so. They’re independent and as such should also be represented separately in Foursquare.

That is my suggestion, a proposal if you will. Let us follow the same format and I submit to Foursquare that they implement a standardized venue naming convention the soonest possible time.

We also need a way to lock editing of venues from the current “Mayors". If they want to do an edit, then it will require an approval from at least Super-User Level 2. We’re the volunteers after all, it is only appropriate to save us from re-editing venues some new Mayor changed to his own liking.

Be sure to read also: Solutions to Foursquare Venue Problems.

They said it themselves: Your dreams and fantasies will come to life in adventures yet to be told. You will become anything you like and live out the character you create. But this is no game. It’s real.

You stand in line with your family - your friends - your clan. You’re among many. Talks of strategies, goals and notoriety are all around you. What stands before you is a towering entrance, which calls to all and challenges your inner warrior. You know behind these walls there awaits a world filled with myths, legends and arenas all crying out for their champion.

As you pass through the gates, you leave behind all worldly stereotypes. You’re now one of millions, all equal, separated only by your skill, wit, and achievements, which will be proven. Your experience points and score are recognized by the guardians of this domain. As players walk by, recruits are saluted and veterans are bowed down to.

You are guided to the armory where you must select your weapon. You choose from majestic relics, whimsical hardware or advanced gear. Here your dreams and fantasies will come to life in adventures yet to be told. You will become anything you like and live out the character you create.

But this is no game. It’s real. Welcome to Game Nation!

In short, it’s a grandiose LARP or Live-Action Role-Playing. For the next twelve months, Game Nation will be deciding the best location for the Experiential Theme Park. I hope they check out the Philippines, there are many empty lands here that they can convert into a Video Game Theme Park.

Speaking of theme park, I just hope they have a section for sandbox gamers too. Haha, no seriously. Open-ended, skill-based, classless section where we can choose to hack down trees, fish, melt iron, etc. Well maybe not hacking down trees, we’ll have the environmentalists hacking our throats instead, but fishing is doable!

Don’t tell me it is boring, I haven’t failed to see players fishing in-game in any game with a fishing feature! And fishing is a real-life hobby and profession. (So does tree hacking )

There will be a resort too, maybe for those who just came from a bloodless battle, they can clean themselves up and relax before their next great adventure begins. And yeah I said bloodless there, what do you expect, you can hack down the arms and limbs of your opponents here?!

Of course the same goes with everything else in-game, there will be things that we will not exactly see and experience. Example, player-killing. Most gamers today play themepark games (no pun intended), best feature? Player respawn. Guess what? In real-life, once we die, it is game over. If you haven’t realized that yet, try to play games with perma-death and imagine yourself being that character. Oh, there are no resurrection spells either so don’t count on that.

Here’s another that I really hope we will not see there. The infamous World of Warcraft Night-Elven female nekkid dance. Haha, no sir, do that and I’m sure you’re going to get kicked-out. I will probably organize a raid to hunt down you all inside the Game Nation theme park

For now, all we can do is wait and to say to ourselves that finally we will be one step closer into living our fantasies.

Official website: demandgamenation.com.

There will be a hands-on demo of Counter-Strike Online, EA SPORTS™ FIFA Online 2 World Cup mode, Dragonica Chapter 2: Revenge of Paris, and Granado Espada v4.5.

Visit the official website for more information: oneasiagaming.com.

But if like us you are a regular of SM Mall of Asia then you already know about the project since two years ago. I think the SM Cyberzone at SM Mall of Asia was a trial run, a sort-of live sandbox.

Cyberzone is considered to be the largest chain of IT retail stores in the Philippines. Aside from holding the biggest gaming and Cosplay events the country has ever seen, Cyberzone is known for its notable product mix and quality. From the latest computers or gaming consoles, to the hottest cellular phones, we have it all. Visiting your nearest Cyberzone is a true shopping experience unlike any other. With over 600 tenants spread across the nation, everything you need in IT may be found here. This is your one stop IT destination. Cyberzone… Its all here!

SM Cyberzone, SM Mall of Asia was closed down last year. Here are some photos taken on New Year’s Eve of 2009 (ie December 31, 2008).

The SM Cyberzone at SM Southmall is bigger than the old one in SM Mall of Asia two years ago. The main attractions are all and any computer and technology stores, which includes gaming of course!

I arrived at around three in the afternoon, having come from Makati City, it took a long time to commute to SM Southmall. I registered as a blogger and I played picked-a-prize immediately (normally it should be after getting the stamps from each event booth). I got a PLDT-DSL polo and baseball cap for, well, as usual the try again consolation prize.

First booth, being a gamer, the Nintendo&reg: Wii booth #1 as shown below:

I’m not a fan of rhythm arcade games but the Wii guy insisted I should try it so I did. I tried the drums instrument. It is confusing me still when playing these type of games but I was able to tap to my long-lost music inclination inside of me. If I have it at home, I’ll be playing hard in no time. Thanks to Mr. Wii guy, I added the game to my wishlist (whatever that particular game title is).

Next stop, the EPSON Upload Express and Printing Stations. Immediately after standing in front of their booths, they EPSON guys asked me if I already passed by the photo booth and have my picture taken, I haven’t so I went there first.

It was only after that I upload express station made sense. After they take your photo you have the option to have it edited via this station. I took this path just to see what stuff they have that I do not see in my daily computing sessions.

Unfortunately, they only have the basic backgrounds and effects. I asked them if they have any science related backgrounds at least but they only have abstract designs. So much for my enthusiasm in seeing something new from EPSON editing services.

However, their printing station saved them. Since I am not into printing photos, their photo printers are all new to me. I was amazed at how small and portable these gadgets are now today. Just insert your flash card, choose the photo you want to print-out and voila, you now have a tradtional photo in your hands.

We have a photo printer at home but it is big and heavy. These portable photo printers is a must for group outings so you can distribute traditional photos right-there-and-then before the group goes back to the real world.

I visited next the sound mixing station. Probably not part of the event (he’s the one playing the music) but hey, it is still technology and gadgets!

Those things look really expensive for me. Portable mixers(?) and whatnot combined with a laptop (if I remember correctly, the software he’s using was a FLOSS or “Free/Libre Open-Source Software"). It’s the Digital DJ stuff.

Last but not the least, I played WiiSports. I already played Bowling back in 2008 at SM Cyberzone, SM Mall of Asia, so this time around I tried Tennis!

Compared to Bowling, the Tennis WiiSports is more active and engaging. When I played Bowling WiiSports the control was too simple to do justice to the Wii controller technology - A and B buttons for moving your character left or right; then swing your arm and release the C(?) button to shoot.

But Tennis, I experienced the beauty of the Wii controller. You don’t just swing your arms, the power of your shots also depends on how strong you swing your arm! Everything depends on your arm. I just hope the next version of Wii will be able to detect our feet as well.

After winning 3 out of 6 games, I passed on the Wii controller to the girl beside me who for the duration of my gametime did not move away from me. I almost hit her 4 times and she was stll standing within my swinging area. When I handed her the controller, she doesn’t want to take it! Anyway…. I still can’t help myself but smile…. evil thoughts

SM Cyberzone, SM Mall of Asia

That’s I.T.! If you want to visit one of their SM Cyberzone launch event, the last one will be on May 28, that’s a Friday, at SM Megamall. I might drop-by again, maybe this time I’ll get something better than a consolation prize.

If you want to know the latest happenings and promos, you can follow the SM Cyberzone team thru their Twitter account @smcyberzone or their Facebook fanpage.

You can also visit and bookmark their official website at smycyberzone.ph.

SM Cyberzon, SM Mall of Asia

Officially, there are no standard formatting for venue names other than using the establishment’s “official” name. For example, instead of Starbucks it must be Starbucks Coffee; instead of Kenny Rogers the correct name to use is Kenny Rogers Roasters. Additionally, there is no way in their current system to avoid the creation of duplicate entries and wrong addresses, most of these are coming from their mobile apps particularly the Foursquare iPhone app.

Adding new venues via the Foursquare iPhone app is very easy and unrestricted. Anyone with the app installed can simply add as many venues as s/he wants even leaving the address fields empty! This was my experience when I tested it and I’ve encountered plenty of these venue entries while cleaning up the venues in our locality. I really hope the Foursquare team fixes this problem.

Another thing that is good to mention, though trivial, is the confusion of Filipinos when entering something in the “State/Country” field via the Foursquare mobile apps. This field is simply named “State” when adding a new venue via mobile phones. Those who are not living in a Federal country considers “State” as “Region", which has been the practice for who-knows-how-long already.

But once you visit the venue page (or add a new venue) via the Foursquare website itself (or should I say web interface), the field is named “State/Country". Obviously, if you’re not living in a Federal country, you should put in your Country’s name. Can we blame Foursquare? Not really. As far as word meanings are concerned (and laws too), a State can be an independent State, as is the case with the Philippines, or a State within a State, as is the case with the United States of America.

The best solution I can suggest is to update all mobile apps and the mobile access interface to reflect “State/Country” instead of just “State". This will help a big deal in keeping the addresses close to correctness as possible. I mean, one less field to fix The other solution of course is to add a new field for “Country” but that will require a re-coding of the system, database changes, and countless of hours updating venues to take advantage of the “Country” field.

How about Duplicate Venues?

Ahh, the most annoying of all. I can think of plenty of reasons why there are many duplicate venues in the database, some of these are:

• They do not use “search” - which is very common even in forums.
• The mobile apps does not iterate enough to “search first before adding a new venue".
• The search algorithm is not powerful enough. And if my observation is correct, the search doesn’t consider the address at all.
• The search shows too less or too much results, when combined with #3 above and the fact that the mobile screen estate is small, then users will indeed opt to just add a “new” albeit duplicate, venue.
• The user is simply gaming the system (ie cheating for mayorship). And there are plenty of these type of Foursquare users.

You can add to the list if you want to. And even if we have identified these reasons, another problem arises - striking a balance between showing an “n number search results” vs. “mobile access screen estate". I for one will want to get my check-in done with when using mobile phones! (But I won’t if I’m using a netbook or anything bigger.)

The issue of huge venues…

These are malls, school premises, condominiums, hotels, theme parks, and even locations where the residential and commercial/industrial overlaps. The solution here will require database and system changes but I believe it is worth the effort and it is the best solution.

The variables: Our huge venue is SM Mall of Asia. Our sub-venue: Chowking - Main Mall (SM Mall of Asia). Take note, there are two Chowking branches in SM MoA (we’ll talk about this on my next post read: Foursquare Venue Names Standardization). Considerations to make are: [1] Of course Mayorship; [2] points/scores; [3] multiple check-ins - huge venue+sub-venue.

To solve this, each Sub-Venue will have a new flag/field that attaches it to its respective Huge-Venue. If I check-in to Sub-Venue Chowking - Main Mall (SM Mall of Asia), the system automatically checks me in to Huge-Venue SM Mall of Asia as well. The system gives me points, rewards, or even badges acquired, and adds me up to the Mayoralty race for that Huge-Venue.

If for example I checked-in to Huge-Venue SM Mall of Asia myself (I don’t want to eat at Chowking yet), the system works as it is currently - gives me score and adds me up to the Mayoralty race. Later, when I check-in at Chowking - Main Mall (SM Mall of Asia), the system will give me score and add me up to the Mayoralty race of that Sub-Venue but not on the Huge-Venue. The system should be able to detect that I already checked-in at the Huge-Venue earlier.

The only time that a new check-in will be considered for Huge-Venue SM Mall of Asia is when I check-in at a venue that is not flagged as a Sub-Venue of it. This calls for a major editing of venues but I doubt it will be a problem since there are Super-User Level 2 and 3 users already who are volunteering for the clean-ups and fixing of the current venue database - yours truly is one of those volunteers.

Homes and Bathrooms

This is a problem, and I for one sometimes can not understand why one would check-in in a bathroom.

Funny eh? The question is, when does a venue become a “venue"? Where and when do we draw the line? In my view, if it is publicly accessible then it counts as a “venue". Let’s use the bathroom for example. If it is inside your house then it is not publicly accessible and thus should not be in Foursquare!

But if it is a bathroom, say a sports or military complex where it is usually shared with everyone, then it can be entered as a “venue". Although it isn’t “public public", the fact remains that the people using that bathroom are mostly not related at all, it still falls under “public".

I hear someone say, “Foursquare is for rewarding Mayors not telling the world you are taking a bath!” True. However, in this scenario, these people who share the same bathroom can reward the current Mayor for something. It is up to them, it is their community after all. As long as people can fight over the Mayorship of a venue by being literally there when checking-in, then it is a valid venue. Which is not possible at locations inside your own house, unless of course you let us enter your humble house.

For Home check-ins, I think it should be allowed just like the Bathroom scenario we just talked about - the line is drawn when it stops being publicly accessible. A good example is what we did here at Bangkal Village (Makati City). Mainly a residential area, we check-in at the barangay/village/subdivision level - Bangkal Village (Makati City). Any check-in lower than that should only be a non-residential location, good examples are 7-Eleven, Chowking, and Jollibee, to name a few. Same goes with condominiums and hotels, as well as dormitories.

Now tie this in with my Huge-Venue + Sub-Venue flag solution and no one will need to re-check-in back to their barangay/village/subdivision level venue. I believe this is a valid “Home” check-in as anyone can compete for the Mayoralty position at the barangay/village/subdivision level. If we Bangkal Foursquare users come together and create some reward, then we’ll have a complete Foursquare “Home” check-in experience and fun.

Parting words…

Of course these are not the only problems we will encounter but these are the ones that we can find a solution from the community or users themselves. I hope the Foursquare team have already considered these approaches and are already coding the next great version of Foursquare.

For me it isn’t “just a game” but a very useful location-based marketing tool as well. Philippine establishments can benefit greatly from Foursquare but so far I haven’t seen any tapping the system. If time permits, I am going to post some suggestions for some of the widely known stores like 7-Eleven, Jollibee, Chowking, Starbucks Coffee (Philippines) (in fact, Starbucks Coffee Philippines can ask their US counterpart for help, they’re using Foursquare already!!), and Ministop.

Next stop, standardizing venue names. I have a simple solution, you’ll love it for sure read it here: Foursquare Venue Names Standardization

Some of the games developed and/or published by Acclaim are: RockFREE, a Facebook guitar game; 9DRAGONS; 2Moons (original title: Dekaron); DANCE! Online; The Chronicles of SpellBorn; Knight’s Blood; Age of Lore; and more.

Playdom’s game line-up includes Sorority Life, Social City, Mobsters, Tiki Resort, TreeTopia, Mobsters 2: Vendetta, Big City Life, TikiFarm, Wild Ones, Bola, Fish Friends, Super Farkle, Lil FarmLife, Mobsters: Overdrive, Bloodlines, and Poker Palace.

You can visit their official websites at: playdom.com & acclaim.com.