Christmas Card – 17 Versions

Quick Blurbs

Hello everyone =) Thanks for dropping by :) I want to track from year to year who actually gets it so even if you hehe, decided not to read the wall of text, just leave me a message/comment by teleporting right below!

Oh, Mai is also thinking of hosting a contest of drawing lovely Mai & Otak :) Details below as well.

(Please no tweet/emails :P its easier for me to pull up a post and check comment ONE YEAR FROM NOW! :D!) I looked at comments haha, of who actually got it and make sure you get one this year :D!

Btw! If you missed out on this year Mai & Otak’s errr.. April Fools, be sure to check it out LOL! The comment is super entertaining =) LOL THANKS FOR PLAYING :D :D :D!

AND, during this year, I’ve COMPLETELY tagged ALL my screenshot :P with characters, like Facebook tagging :D! You might find yourself on my screenshot/chatlog/alliance member :D!

Christmas Card delivery! Mailman was mad!

Mai & Otak’s Christmas Card 2011

It’s been Mai’s 4th year doing Christmas Card to my gamer friends. I don’t even make them for my RL friends (if they don’t play games!). Gamer friends is just a lot cooler right? :) You are all a big part of who I am and :) I wanted to say even if I don’t see or ever met you before, you’re still important to Mai :)

The mailman was SO MAD delivering my cards… he had to breakout his trolleys :3 instead of putting it in his bags. He was like WTF is all these LOL :D! well 17 versions. 5 card per box.. that’s about right… lol Actually… it was delivered to Istari :D then Istari routed it back to Canada for me :D!

Here’s my previous 2. I think I skipped a year… maybe not. Somebody plz confirm xD! LOL

• Christmas Card 2010
• Christmas Card 2008

If you got hehe my previous one, zomg line em up for a picture and post under comment :O! They were so uniquely crafted for you that I no longer know what’s inside or outside ;; if only I can keep one for myself ;; but haha a pic would make me feel warm :D! Especially those that says THEY FRAMED IT (lol) Now that needs a PIC! *ahem Wicked/Jayashaya*

Anyway! You might get any of the 17 versions :) they come in various quantity ;) VARIOUS SIZES (like even ones that are like… 2cm high :D LOL) I just randomly select one out of the bucket :) Though I hehe, do try to personalize it =) not just Joy and Happy type stuff…. lolz. If you’ve drawn Mai a Kiriban/Commission/Gift of some sort, then I’ve sent you the one with your artwork as the front =)

This year’s Christmas Card is based on Otak’s FFXI fanbook design (she’s even got a few more of the fanbook if you wanna buy :-) ). Essentially, it’s a mini one :) But the art inside isn’t Otak’s artwork, but artwork from TONS of various artists :) All the artwork is about Mai and Otak :) spreading our Taru love throughout the Christmas =) I really love this card, its like a feature gallery, but everybody gets a paper copy of it :D!

All the Kiriban’s, commissions or gifts made after Nov 2010 was put into this year’s Christmas Card and due to limited space, I’ve made 17 versions of the Christmas Card =) With arts from artist including (alphabetical order).

Since I wasn’t able to include Blackash’ wonderful Christmas-Themed drawing in my Christmas Card, I’ve included here for everyone’s viewing pleasure =)

Dryopae, Petisu and Mai on Snow Day – by Blackash

• aaagh
• ainiwaffles
• blackash
• cactuar
• cynthea83
• demachic
• dhkite
• eiffelart
• ivloongoddess83
• lovelydagger
• mirroredsky
• neosorcerer
• priestessofpie
• rinielenika
• shiyu-chan
• sorasha
• vinhnyu
• witheringmoon
• xmireille-chanx

You can find the details of individual art pieces here, including link to the artist =)

Art… brings me a lot of happiness. It brings me more happiness than going out buying new pairs of shoes or clothes =) That’s just how much I love them :D! Loving art for me.. is a lifestyle :3 So I thought it’d be a nice time to share Mai & Otak’s love by sharing with everyone the artwork creations from various artists!

We stopped playing FFXI but still hops on from time to time for chats and giggles. We wish FFXIV was the way it’s suppose to be but it kinda dropped the balls. Lets hope XIV 2.0 will fix everything =)

The card is on its way to various places around the Globe, from Netherlands, Australia, Japan and United States =) I sent out the furthest one first and the closer one later :)

I hope you all enjoy Mai cards =) Iffff, you also have my previous one or kept it haha, I’d love to see them lined up :D! Take a pic and posted as comments below! I’ve never made or left one for myself ;; so :( sometimes I don’t even remember what it was ;;

Mai’s Cards – DIY

Oh, if you ever wonder how Mai create those Polaroid of your artwork/pictures etc, I actually use this machine :D! The paper is around $1.50 per piece.

For the cards, Mai used Picaboo. I used some other printing companies but I found Picaboo’s UI is very nice, easy to use. I pre-edit everything in Photoshop, import it to Picaboo and bam its done. They have various promotion. There’s always a promotion. The best one I’ve seen is 40% off order + free shipping. But those are like off-periods like.. June.. when nobody needs cards lol.

The card you are getting is either 100gsm (2.49/card) or 130gsm (2.99/card). If you draw Mai something, you have the thinner one since I can do low orders like 5 copies. The thick ones are 130gsm and they are in quantities of 10 increment.

If you happen to use Picabbo =) feel free to use the referral link so I get $10 :D Even if you print a single card, I’m happy xD! You can also ask Ainiwaffles, Blackash, PriestessOfPie :) they also used Picaboo before. :D! Let me know if you do use the link =) I’ll be sure to send you back a card next year LOL D:!

Also, these cards requires oil-based pen to write on. You can use… ball pen but they look not that great. Some cards I try to be fancy and used a silver… obviously it was a fail…

Mai /provoke Otak :3 – Switzerland

RL Mai and Otak

Many ask while I do address check of how’s life and love life. They are both going very well =) Otak and Mai went to Europe together and travel around Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time to visit Jowah from Italy, Aaagh from Spain, Veronique from Belgium or Calaelen from Germany. We’ll try our bestest to get some FFXI nerd meetup in the future :)

We’ll probably take another Europe trip :D this time to Northern Europe. Now that we got a hang of Europe’s rail system, its easier to navigate around :) We’ve gotten a ton of Europe Exp now :D! Hopefully we’d get at least Lv37 in Europe Navigation skillz :D!

Daggy, Recheche, Mai and Aene – San Francisco

Visiting FFXI Friends

Mai also travelled to NYC to meet Tsunade, Chidorii, Special, Eleira, Sibe and Xariana =) we had a blast nerding out with other FFXI people :) In fact, we’ve gotten closer everytime. FFXI meetup are best times ever ;) I enjoy every meet up xD

Mai also went to San Francisco this year and met up with Daggy, Cheche, Aene and Keiffa. Mai also took a trip to Vancouver to meet up with Jtaru/YarlyRagnarok and Calaera.

There’s one common thing I found in every one of these meetup. We had SO SO SO SO SO much to talk about, that we NEVER had enough time to finish any of the conversation we started. The old school, the drama, BOTS!! (lol), events, HNM, gear and all the old-school LOL chat just gets more fun and… never on Earth I left these meetup with time to spare. Everyone I met was super awesome, very social able and just have endless amount of stuff to talk about :3 I enjoy every moment I had with them.

Kennen and Teemo Snuggle – LoL Fanart by Rinielenika

Current Games!

With smaller and smaller free time available, I’ve started playing League of Legends =) (haha I gifted everyone I know in FFXI who plays League of Legends… some riot points card!). I’m also in the Diablo 3 Beta and plays Skyrim. It’s quite a lot on my plate but these are the games I currently play :) Go find me there :D!

Battle.Net Diablo 3 Real ID Account: maiev at StarOnionDotCom / BattleTag: Maiev
League of Legends (LoL) Summoner ID: Maiev
Zelda Skyward Sword on Wii *lol I just finished Twilight Princess*
Skyrim
Occasional Team Fortress 2 (Steam: maievfenrir)
Simcity 3000 Unlimited (lol)

If you hehe, really wanna play d3, give me a shout and hehe maybe we could work something out :)

No, I don’t play Microsoft Flight Simulators!

I’m new to this LoL thing so… no where a Pro, still learning =) So come and play :D! The picture you see on the right was drawn by Rinielenika from Fenrir. They look like Taru’s but they are call Yordle in League of Legends (LoL). Rinielenika, Mai and Tazo is a huge fan of Yordles :D!

League of Legends is really noob-friendly, and you play with people that’s equivalent to your level :)_ If you play with Mai, drop me a line :)

If you don’t have an account :) Use this referral link. I could see your progress, level and accounts ;) (and maybe, even get $10 Riot points card! I send everyone I know who plays LoL a $10 Riot Points card this year!)

[Signup for League of Legends.]

Connecting with Mai

With I dunno what I’m doing it with my gaming life :x I dunno how to keep in touch with all you awesome people. So all I can say is follow Mai twitter xD! No worries if you don’t have twitter :) can always add me on aim: maievfenrir or email me maiev @ [mydomain].

I hope to stay in touch with everyone of you =) I miss you all :3

If you wish to return a card etc and need my address. Again, leave a message below and I’ll email you my address. You can also find my return address behind the envelope that came with the card. =) Except the cards that I wrote for YOUR kids :P since my return address on the cards that I wrote for your kids is…

Santa Claus
North Pole
H0H 0H0
Canada

…. which doesn’t really goto me… LOL so yea in that case, leave me a comment and I’ll reply with addy :)

OR…if you want to be hehe, cheap :D you can take my envelope, cross out my address infront as if it was mis-delivered and it’d bounce back to me LOL.. ok, you did not hear this one from me :D

Shayx’ Christmas Card

Mai and Otak’s Artwork Contest

So Mai is thinking of.. meh, its getting more rare and rare to see Final Fantasy XI artwork :3 of Tarus. So I thought maybe I can throw out a contest :) just draw Mai and Otak in any way or form and I could perhaps do something like this.

5 Entries or more to have this contest and…

5 Entries + : Winner gets a $50 usd prepaid gift card + a 16×20 print of their winning artwork, sent to their home =)
If entries passes 15: Winner gets $80 prepaid gift card + 16×20 print of their artwork. Runner up gets $50. I thought about offering commissions, but with gift cards, you can buy whatever commission you like or fuel more art supplies.

And entries would be used to create a 12 month calendar =) for 2013 LOL (yes, Mai is thinking that far)!

Regardless, a random contestant will be drawn out of a hat and get a 3 month DA sub.

Lemme know if anyone would be interested =) I’ll then iron out the details and post it on DA. If you leave a comment, I’d have your email so I’ll email you the details =)

[Self Note]: People that received their cards in 2011: Shaya, keiffa

http://chocopiesforever.tumblr.com/tagged/mai-karla-ffxi

What’s wrong here?! Bottom Left: FFXI, Centre: FFXIV

Disclaimer: Thoughts expressed below are strictly my opinion. Stuff said is based on myself and other’s research but feel free to leave a comment to correct (esp names, I tried hard though :P)

FFXIV has reached it’s 10 month mark since initial release. While I’m still following up on the news. I have to say nothing is really drawing me back into giving it a second try. Though I still look at it, read about it and follow up on lodestone. Think of it like this. BlackBerry is like FFXIV. Apple is like WoW/Rift. What phone do you use? Some people would stick to BlackBerry simply because they like their features (or in FFXIV terms, enjoy this style of gameplay / being different), but some would be like… I rather spend my money/time on something good, like playing Rift or owning an Apple phone. But for your record, I am open mind about testing stuff such as I’m typing this on a BlackBerry Playbook, and not an iPad/WoWing.

I wanted to post these thoughts LONG ago, hell I had one before the launch. I held back and waiting to see what happens and… I think I’ve reach to the point I just accepted that FFXIV unfortunately, didn’t turn out as good and… I really wanted it to be good, so all my FFXI friends would reunite in FFXIV and have another great time (and waste another 10 years of our life. Oh yea, I have yet to write about my FFXI encounters :o).

So before I go into the current state of FFXIV. I’ve done some extensive research into the production of FFXIV and I’d like to share it.

What’s suppose to be Squaresoft’s last game, FF1!

History of Square (or Square-Enix)

Long before FFXIV was announced, the producer of FFXI said we’ve got all the know-how about MMORPG already to make a new MMO.

But I think it’s safe to say… after more than 10 months, that they got this game completely wrong on initial release and it’s to the stage where I don’t even know if it would ever take off.

Now before we discuss what exactly happened, lets first study the history of our game developer.

Remember how Square was born? They had failures after failures in their development of video games. So Koichi Ishii (石井浩一) and Hiromichi Tanaka (田中弘道) was like, we’ll have this one last chance and we’ll call our game “Final Fantasy”. These two made a name out of the Final Fantasy series. They made FF1, FF2 and FF3 together which pretty much resurrect Square-Enix out of their grave. Ever since then, they worked closely together for various projects! They had a vision of video games, a good one! Talking about long-term relationship, these two for sure share a good amount of time working with each other on video games. These two also made the Legend of Mana 2 & 3(聖劍) as well.

Chocobo was brought into the game by Koichi Ishii. When he was little, he bought a little chick from a summer festival, watching it grow up. However, the little chick grew too big for him to handle so parents gave it away. So he created Chocobo in Final Fantasy I. Since then, it has became the iconic mode of transportation within all Final Fantasy series.

Ishii and Takana never stopped there. They added Takahashi Tetsuya (高橋哲哉) *thanks Corinth Cat* into their Group 3 Development Team, together they made Xenogears and Chrono Cross. Takaashi also was the concept artist of Final Fantasy VII.

Sadly, Xenogears never had its game on continuation. This caused Takahashi Tetsuya and his bunch of followers rage quit. They were a good team so… since now they are understaffed. They swapped over people from various Development Groups, including people from the leftovers of Xenogears, the whole team from Brave Fencer Musashi (武藏傳) and together, they made the fellowship of Final Fantasy XI (not fellowship of the ring lol).

However, the people that made FFXI unfortunately, aren’t the same people who made FFXIV with Tanaka. Many has since left, changed or got paid better and moved to Konami or Capcom. We’ll examine that below.

Maiev & Otak by Shiyu-Chan

The Fellowship of Final Fantasy XI

So FFXI was developed by Koichi Ishii (石井浩一) and Hiromichi Tanaka (田中弘道). They did FFXI (the Original) and Zilart together. After Zilart, Koichi Ishii used the excuse of letting some other people have an opportunity at his position, to restart his development in Legend of Mana and taking along with him was Story Writer Masato Kato (加藤正人), battle effects 高井浩則 to his Team SaGa. Which explains the drastic difference in terms of playstyle in Zilart vs CoP.

Since then, a lot of people from team FFXI was swapped to various department such as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (FFCC), Legend of Mana 4, Final Fantasy XIII etc. (as of right now, some people from FFCC and FFXIII went back to code for FFXIV, but little do you know that they aren’t even the same people who went from FFXI to these projects, but was people who was already in FFCC/LoM that never coded FFXI that went to FFXIV). These people had no idea about FFXI gameplay and went to code FFXIV. WHAT

FFXI didn’t have many leftovers. The one that actually do remain with Tanaka was doing Version Update as well as Expansion Disc / Addons. But something worth noting was though nobody got fired, movements was seen especially in the art department of FFXI. Map and Stage development people from FFXI was slowly swapped to FFXIV since the release of Chains of Promathia (CoP), and more swapped over mid-ToAU days. When Wings of the Goddess came around… there was little to nobody left, which explains why Wings of the Goddess had no new map but maws that took you to a less-saturated version of the world using existing zone data. There wasn’t anyone to create it. Again, you can verify that from your FFXI Credit Screen :).

Oh yea, keep in mind ever since Koichi Ishii left after Zilart, Nobouaki Komoto (河本信昭) replaced him and directed CoP. Some people loved CoP, some hated. I myself didn’t mind it except for level caps. Japanese generally hated the difficulty of CoP. It’s a matter of preference but keep his name in mind. We’ll come back to it.

Put it in a better perspective of directors:

• 石井浩一/Koichi Ishii – Rise of the Zilart
• 河本信昭/Nobouaki Komoto – Chains of Promathia (CoP)
• 小川公一/Akihiko Matsui – Treasure of Aht Urghan (ToA/ToAU)
• 松井聪彦/Mizuki Ito – Wings of the Goddess (WoG/WoTG)

But, remember that FFXIII released and SE fired a ton of people for downsizing? Well apparently, they thought networking engineer people are kinda worthless so they fired a few from FFXI as well as FFXIV (January 2010). They left the guys who were doing FFXI Version Updates untouched since… all the engine and structure was there. PS2 limitations was just an excuse to keep a small amount of people making updates for FFXI. It wasn’t the almighty PS2 limitations, it’s just they didn’t wanna pour resources into making it a better engine. Using little resource to make a ton of money!

With little to nothing left to develop FFXI other than doing Version Update. All the add-ons such as Shantotto Ascension (石之見夢) was all outsourced to a company call Matrix except for all the CG, which was done in-house due to the well-developed (or old but working) game engine.

But never did SE know that the people that they fired, the networking engineers was actually a critical part of FFXIV. Remember all those lags and terrible server crashes? Apparently, an ex-employee said SE wanted to re-hire those people that they fired a few months ago. But most already moved on or refuse to come back and work for Square-Enix. To make matter worse, one of the manager of development FFXIV Akihiko Matsui (小川公一) left 1 month prior to FFXIV release. So they swap over Mizuki Ito (松井聰彥). As much as how good he’s good with battle system planning, you can’t really fix much with 1 month of time. They were still dealing with UI and server lag, as well as server crashes.

Maiev & Otak meet their Lalafell counterpart by Sorasha

FFXIV/FF14′s Development Team

FFXIV as we all know, used a game engine call Crystal Engine. Now when it was announced, most of the people was all over the place especially how Ishii took a bunch of people and went back to Team SaGa to develop his own stuff. Over the years if you examine the Credit Screen, you’d find people like the head of programming/networking 督成田賢, PS2 UI programming manager 宮川義之, 3D engine programmer 下野俊典, networking/AH protocol programmer 伊藤幸一, game database and server programmer 吉川清史, battle director 樋口勝久 all left or swapped to other teams or left, which was unavailable to help out in the development of FFXIV. They had a shortage of programmer for sure.

The people that survived from CoP till FFXIV’s consists of 山本泰弘 and a few others. All these people from XI dream about doing FFXIV, had to wait for FFXII’s programmer free up the work in their department in order to help develop the Crystal Engine for FFXIII and FFXIV. Crystal Engine… as much as it seems quite simple, took a wooping 3 years to complete lol.

Crystal Engine from Square-Enix

Now you would think Crystal Engine took 3 years to rewrite from ground up. It must be breath-taking. Well take a look… FFXIII didn’t really have an awesome city or a ton of towns. FFXIV was the same. It really looked like just a few counters (though the city is amazing), but nothing breathtaking about Crystal Engine. If anything.. lots of stuff is copy pasted terrain. I don’t see it being the wow factor. They sure spent way too much time creating the tool than using the tool to make some unique terrains for FFXIV.

Examining the FFXIV credit screen, you’d find out that the UI programmer was swapped over from FFCC, who programmed the UI for NDS LOL. Artwork, UI and game systems were all people swapping all over the place or new hires. As a FFXI player, I’d expect they’d at least talk to other departments about what they learn from FFXI and carried it over to FFXIV but… that didn’t seem to happened.

Personally playing FFXI, Legend of Mana 4, Xenogears (love the sound track :3), I feel like the new FFXIV game mechanics, UI and ergonomics wasn’t even the work of Tanaka. It seems like Tanaka never even sat down and play FFXI to see what’s all these lacking features in FFXIV. Of course the Beta forums was simply a place for players to vent privately without google airing their dirty laundry. There was so many pages about UI problems yet they were never addressed until FFXIV went on a landslide. If anything, nothing really feels like FFXI (a good thing), but similar to Stamina in Xenogears and Chrono Cross…. lol. The wrong people to develop the game?

The only two recognizable names from FFXI who went to FFXIV was 岡田厚志, who was in-charge of monster AI, as well as 鈴木敏章 who was monster design. Good thing was they took Mizuki Ito (松井聰彥) battle planner/director from FFXI, to fix up the half broken battle system. Considering Mizuki took over 1 month before FFXIV release, there wasn’t much stuff he could do! Though, he’s now revamping the battle system. Much needed revamp due to the mess that was made by Akihiko Matsui (小川公一). Okay, can’t completely blame him as he kinda directed Treasure of Aht Urghan because I personally, enjoyed that expansion a lot more than the others but… he messed up the battle system in FFXIV. Period.

One guy that stuck around from FFXI to FFXIV was Nobouaki Komoto (河本信昭); the CoP guy. He was assistant Director for both FFXI and FFXIV but got demoted in the managerial changes in Nov 2010. He was in charge of the story but…. the story was quite boring and linear. You don’t really get to pick how the story flows and… not sure. If you enjoy the story… sure, but I personally didn’t enjoy the storyline, I don’t think this guy got what it takes to be an awesome game developer. Look at the intro… absolutely no lore what so ever. The guildleve had no lore. At least in WoW as undead, I’d goto human towns and burn houses and steal pumpkins. Nobouaki IMO, was never the guy to make video games. He sucked at what he did and caused half of the mess in FFXIV.

Hyur with Bikini in FFXIV

November 2010 FFXIV Managerial Changes

Hiromichi Tanaka got debunked from being director. Not much of a surprise there. They got some good people from Saga Frontier Mizuki Ito (松井聪彦) / 高井浩, and everyone’s beloved FFXI director Naoki Yoshida got the FFXIV director spot to fix this thing up.

If you think FFXIV is now kinda going towards the right direction. You’d have to really thank Mizuki Ito (松井聪彦), who is the guy that also contributed Chrono Trigger and Legend of Mana’s design. He constantly listens to player feedback on Twitter and implement those changes. Too bad he wasn’t the original guy to design the FFXIV battle system, but left it to some incompetent dude.

连高井浩 was also on Team Saga to plan all those system commands, did some of FFXI’s game effects. He was quite a talent and when a few peeps left from SaGa team, he was the selection to replace 小泉今日治. This guy, takes complement very well, will take it to the face value of people’s anger and make a change. Inf act, FFXIV is really making a lot of drastic changes, even including a re-design of the battle system as seen on patch notes. They seem to be making progress but rather they make the progress fast enough is just another question that nobody knows.

河本信昭 already finished writing the FFXIV storyline.

Ever since Naoki Yoshida (吉田直樹) came on to take the throne, a lot of numerous positive changes. Rather he’d make FFXIV come back alive is completely another story.

With 高井浩則 switching from FFXI to FFXIV fixing the battle system, we’d for sure won’t be looking forward to any drastic changes in FFXI. But lets do hope they could fix it.

Also following the credit screen, seems like 桥本善久 and 春日秀之 who are programmers for FFXIV got fired. Not sure what happened.

The new FFXI patch with the two new director seems to be doing well. Lets hope when they say they can keep FFXI alive, doesn’t mean by failing FFXIV so people fall back on FFXI.

Not Verified: Some forum poster days they’ve read that SE programmers have very bad working conditions. They work OT just to get the job done. The upper management have no idea the complexity of things and just say “get it done”.

Maiev and Otak by PriestessOfPie

Party’s Over Yet?

FFXIV will always have it’s loyal fan base. Just like people and their Apple products. Now the only thing is, would it ever reach mass reach. Would people that already quit come back to give FFXIV a try? Would people feel they are far too behind to even give it another try? Square-Enix is pretty much pouring a lot of resources to fix this flagship. They really want this to be their bread and butter. I really wish they’d really hear us out the players when it was still beta testing. The beta forum, which was filled with player’s suggestion/improvements simply evaporated.

Horsebird Drama-Lama over SE and FFXIV

We now know that SE made many managerial mistakes. Firing those people after FF13 wasn’t the most ideal solution just to boost your balance sheet. Selection of people to do your projects was another. Outsourcing (which we can never confirm) some Chinese firm to translate your Japanese storyline calling it horsebird (馬鳥)… got a lot of disappointing FFXIV Japanese fans. High requirements on the game was another (which, it could play both ways). Lag was another issue and last but not least, not knowing your competition well. Launching a half-baked game and selling me a 50 dollar open-beta game was not the way to present it to your fans. Yes, it’s free, but I’d still have to pay 50 bucks initially to get the game.

Not to mention if you got the collector’s edition, they gave you buddy passthat ended up being a real-deal official game instead of a trial version. So me buying the regular version.. got jipped off :3

Square-Enix might wanna fix up the Lalafell Bikini! :P

I just hope it isn’t too late. I’ll be paying close attention to FFXIV, but I don’t know if I’d ever tell my friends to get back into it. I sure hope it will but at the moment, I can’t ask myself to spend time in that game. It’s still going to need improvement. Maybe fixing Lalafell would be a good start? lol.

Work hard SE, I sure hope to be your subscriber one day but it is not privileged. You’d have to earn it. I hope to one day get friends and startup ffxivblog again. I’d love to be your fan, but don’t disappoint your fan :3!

One last note. Square-Enix should concentrate in making good games than to satisfy stockholders. Everytime something doesn’t go too well, recruiters from Konami snatch a few people. You lose talent when you lay blame.

Here’s a list when stuff fails and which executive leaves the house.

• FFXI CoP – 樋口勝久
• FF Crystal Chronicles – 守屋俊
• Legend of Mana 4 – 石井浩一、下野俊典、外岡高明、宮川義之、篠宮淳一、大岩幹治
• Blood of Bahamut – Blood of Bahamut
• FFXIII – 松村敏明

Hope SE Exec not drunk like this Miqo’te.

If anything, I’d blame that CEO Yoichi Wada, who twitter about him eating ramen and firing people for downsizing. There’s obviously problem with his management and the ways ideas are communicated between Development Groups.

From my forum reading, people that left Square-Enix for other jobs usually don’t make as much, but they are a lot happier than working in Square-Enix.

I do hope FFXIV will pick-up pace someday. I just hope it’s not too little too late. MMO have it’s life expectancy. If it doesn’t pickup, newer better MMO with better graphics (hell Blizzard is working on their next-gen MMO), is going to eat you alive. I am hoping it picks up so Otak and Mai can once again spend their time on FFXIV. I had high hopes but it have certainly died down a little. I hope SE also don’t leave the FFXIV people high and dry and not just go make another new MMO! We know you’re trying hard and try to clean up the mess, but please make it quick =)

Source:

• FFXI/FFXIV Credit Screen
• Square-Enix Development Team Staff Tracker/Departure Wiki
• Squaresoft Staff Tracker Wiki
• Koichi Ishii (石井浩一), Second Source
• Crystal Tools
• ffsky forum post.
• FFXIV Managerial Changes
• FFXI Wikipedia
• [Not Related] JP XIV Bikini Discussion lol

Summary of Managerial Changes / Movement

Side Note: I hope this isn’t true in regards to how Square-Enix treat their contractor. GRIN of Sweeden bankrupted due to Square-Enix making unreasonable requests.

Otak’s Gift to Mai!

We’re getting Married!!

http://ffxiv.lalafella.com (Wedding Website)

Jeffrey & Karla (or Otak & Mai), finally reach the exp cap in our relationship! We’ve decided to go beat maat up and break the final tier of our Limit Break, exp to 75 and Merit!

I mean, we’re in so much love, can’t you just tell from the artwork she gave to me for my RL Birthday? :)

OMG Getting Married! /brag to Real-Life friends!

Anyway! I’m so excited to let everyone know that we’d be hosting our real wedding in Final Fantasy XIV (yes, the game). No, we didn’t do it through the Wedding Program like the one from Final Fantasy XI, it’d be just self organized wedding!

It’d be the wedding where both RL friends and e-friends come together and celebrate omg :O!

If you read this, you are already invited to our wedding!

Jeff & Karla’s Avatar in FFXI/FFXIV

For the details of our Final Fantasy XIV wedding, please visit

http://ffxiv.lalafella.com <-- Wedding Website!

For RSVP, simply leave a comment on this post! It's super simple! Once you leave a comment (with the correct email), we'd be sending you further details in regards to our wedding!

If for some odd reason you cannot post comment below, simply email RSVP to

rsvp at staronion dot com!

Hope to see you on 1st Sun of the 2nd Umbral Moon, 2012!

<3 Jeff & Karla

Happy April Fools!

Maiev and Otak’s 2010 Christmas Cards!

Holy, this blog is alive!

I haven’t posted for 9 months. Yes, swamped with various tasks :< but finally done with most of them, including writing my Christmas Cards!

I've made 5 version of this card. The front is all the same :) An art piece drawn by Otak name “Let it Snow Let it Snow!” It was a Christmas drawing prepared one year ago lolz! Of course, the Taru you see infront is Mai and Otak :)

4 Versions are BIG! The last version is tiny ones :P Hay! Doesn’t mean you’re less important if you get the small one! :D

Inside is… personalized! You’ll have to get yours to find out :) I wrote it in red! Don’t take it wrong! I did it purely for festivities! Also, red is a lucky color! Maybe I’d win the Mog Bonanza for writing cards!

Infront of the cards, is Otak’s 2010 Christmas present for Mai :D All those little dolls :D She knew I didn’t buy those little Shantotto FFXI taru set, so she made me Otak and Mai :D! <3

Anyway! The cards are already on its way to various places around the globe. Some went to JP, some went to Europe, but most of them are just going to United States =) of course, one is heading to Hong Kong (I wonder who '.')!

Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas =) & and Happy New Year! I'd be doing some traveling so by the time most of you get your card, I won't actually be here to see your reaction, but you can always leave a comment that I would be able to check on random computer terminals =) I'd love to read all those comments ;D!

One last thing! Sorry if I missed you :< I went through like 2k comments on my blog to ensure I didn’t miss anyone ‘~” or I try :O! There’s always another chance! I love to do cards (though it takes a hella a lot of time!) so don’t you worry!

Merry Christmas!

On the side: The Christmas 2008 Cards =) Nekeed Taru :D

Distant Worlds in Toronto!

Distant Worlds 2010

Yes, it’s almost been 3 weeks lolz! I should have done this long ago! So basically… 3 weeks ago I went to Distant Worlds (duh!). I went with Tazo and five other friends. We ate at the nearby Marche then just cross the street to the concert :D! I suddenly had a craving of that night’s performance, so I’ve decided to really finish the typing for this post :D!

The concert was at Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, which was also the same hall where Play! A Video-game Symphony performed their pieces back in 2006!

Distant Worlds seating, the $3x, the $6x, the $10x and the Nobuo Uematsu price $13x. I took the $6x along with my friends, but hell I’d take the Nobuo Uematsu price $13x if only… I had a friend who’s also willing to dish out that price :D

Upon entering, I saw the souvenir store! I’d buy the shirt but meh, I ended up just grabbing two Distant Worlds CD’s as a sign of support!~ Here’s the list of songs on those disks :)

After taking my seat, I looked around for DS. 4 years ago, all the nerds took out their NDS and use Pictochat! However, the same type of nerds wern’t here anymore :( But then I guess Video Game Symphony contains a lot more Nintendo-based music, so it was normal for them to own a DS. Whereas, FF fans don’t necessary own a DS.. since if anything, we dump all our time on XI and XIV lolz.

Btw, Nobuo Uematsu was sitting over here!

Orchestrated by the Kitchener/Waterloo Symphony, they were also the one which performed the Play Symphony – an outstanding group of musicians :D!

Below is the entire first half of the performance! (I’ll comment below)

Let’s Re-live the party :)

1. FF VIII – Liberi Fatali
2. FF Series – Victory Theme
3. FF X – To Zanarkand
4. FF VIII – Don’t be Afraid
5. FF VII – Aerith’s Theme
6. FF I to III – Assorted Melody
7. FF V – Dear Friends
8. FF IV – Vamo alla Flamenco
9. FF VII – JENOVA
10. FF XI – Ronfaure
11. FF V – Clash on the Big Bridge

Quick Comment for 1st half:

I loved the victory surprises lolz, FF X theme was so touchy :D, Aerith, it’s great, but I remember the Play Syphony did it better, at least the visual was synchronized with the music. The FF I to III melody was nice, and so is dear friends. Vamo all Flamenco was VERY NICE :D, I LOVED THIS SONG :D!, Jenova (again, having went to Play, it was alright). Ronfaure… the MUSIC was nice, the graphics that went with it… didn’t quite fit lolz.

— Intermission (where I found Yuna, but not Nobuo Uematsu with no success lolz! —

1. FF VII – Bombing Mission
2. FF VIII – Fisherman’s Horizon
3. FF XI – Memoro de la Stono
4. FF XIII – Fabula Nova Crystallis
5. FF XIII – Blinded by Light
6. FF XIV – Navigator’s Glory
7. FF XIV – Primal Judgement
8. FF XIV – Swing de Chocobo
9. FF VI – Opera – Maria and Draco
10. FF VI -Terra’s Theme
11. FF VII – One-Winged Angel

Quick Comment for 2nd half:

Bombing mission was awesome… Fisherman’s Horizon was… GOOD, but nothing beats Memoro de la Stono. Lets just put it this way, having play the story as well, you feel a little attached to the music. But you can obviously hear a lot of people don’t play XI, the clap was significantly less when they finish the piece. Fabula Nova… was okay to me. Blinded by Light was… um… I guess I didn’t play the story, hard to comment. Then we have XIV’s Navigator’s Glory (Limsa Lominsa Theme) which was awesome :D (I got bored of the one in XIV :<). Primal Judgement was um... the performance was good :D but I wish they performed like the... FFXIV theme music :D! Of course, Swing de Chocobo was a good addition :D. MY FAVORITE :D is the Maria and Draco's Opera performance :O! When they roll in the Terra's Theme with Credits, I really thought it was over (thinking.. how could they not have One-Winged Angel). and yep, rolled in One Winged Angel, and you'd see the conductor dragging on Nobuo to the Orchestra and sing along LOL

General Comment

Not having the program sucks. Play! Symphony had them for sale… for like $8. I’d buy it :). I actually like those stuff >.> too bad it’s

I’d give it maybe 95/100 :D The 5 points is probably some wrong-usage of cut scene to the music. Some was very nice, which even bought humor. However, some could have been better, especially XI, VII Aerith’s Theme, XIV, V’s Dear Friends. The musical performance, just the music was stunning :O especially how it was live.

Knowing FF XIV wasn’t doing too great, they didn’t really go a great deal into promoting it, keeping Distant Worlds “Distant Worlds”, and not XIV Distant Worlds.

Having went to Play! Symphony a few years ago, I’d like this one more due to personal preference and love with FF series and Nobuo Uematsu’s music. Everything was very fluid, and I have to encourage everyone to goto the next one :D! (They just need to do more promotion, because I found out a few of my friends would have went, if only they KNEW about it – -”).

I really enjoyed it! OMG I even wanna goto the next one >.> in Chicago lolz (It’s close to me!)

Digital Download of FF XIV Twilight over Thanalan, Beneath Bloodied Banners

In case you didn’t catch it, it’s only a dollar to get the latest performance of XIV pieces directly from FF Distant World’s website. Download away!

Maiev’s Lv99 Excitement by LovelyDagger

Limit Break Radio Ep51

Before I continue, Daggy felt my excitement for Lv99, and drew a Maiev with the Lv99 taru underwear. ROFL :D Please enjoy!

Nope, I didn’t take part of it if that’s what you’re wondering lol, but I did get a chance to listen under the Starbreakers status of the live recording of Episode 51 of Limit Break Radio (I think… I’ve listen to 45, 48 and 51). Starbreakers are the people who gets to listen as LBR performs the live recording. In this episode, ringthree was the guest for this discussion. He writes the infamous ringthree blog under blogspot ;)

Anyway, this episode was actually talking about the XI updates from VanaFest 2010, which I wanted to write about anyway. Having played WoW and FFXI and experience both end-game and expansion leeps, I’ve definitely got a few inputs in regards to the VanaFest announcement, and some thought of this overall Lv99 thing.

Lv99

Level 99 cap raise was definitely the biggest catch of the whole VanaFest 2010. Having played FFXI since 2003, they made it very clear back then the level cap will remain at 75. Over the years, content was developed around the fact that the leveling cap will be Lv75. To satisfying the craving for Exp, Squeenix developed a merit system to accommodate players who just loves to grind. I have to say I was pretty good in grinding in all of the jobs I played. I solo on Blue Mage in the early days, I’ve play RDM in different stages of FFXI such as healing RDM for KRT, performing skillchain in Sky Statue Party in 2004, walk around parties doing weapons at sky, I’ve also exp-ed @ Uleguerand Range etc… goes on and on. I was pretty convinced that Squeenix planned to develop content around the Lv75 system.

As time goes on, Squeenix released more merits, tier2 merits as well as new JA’s. A very predictable move and update from SE. But predictability doesn’t bring excitement! Then in 2010, Squeenix decided to throw a curve-ball and announce Lv99… they did say that they will make each job unique and is aware of it etc… and introduce new stuff etc.

Now lets think of Lv99. First of all, we all know that a lot of stuff in Vanadiel will need to be adjusted. Is it SE’s plan to make this a solo game now? It does sounds fun to solo Byakko, but problem is… it drops Lv75 gear. So in that case, equipment definitely needs an adjustment… to at least make these content more worthwhile than just soloing it. Is it going to scale like Level Sync? We don’t know as of this point but.. it sounds like a possibility. If equipment doesn’t scale, then it’s really just a one-time fun. Once you’ve done it, it gets boring, like killing a Bumblebee.

Story Telling – Old School FFXI!! by Rinielenika.

We all know jobs will be broken (as mentioned in LBR Ep51 as well).

If SE does decide to make adjustment, that is a lot of adjustment around Vanadiel. Are they simply going to scale up all mobs by adding +24? Equipment will probably need to be scaled up by 33% as well in terms of strength. You also can’t simply add 24 level to all mobs. Then we won’t have Lv1 mobs. That’s a lot of issues to think about before the June update. This is all assuming SE will scale up all equipment and mobs (which IMO, is an okay idea).

Another method they could approach this is… Lv99 cap is only to the new areas. I mean afterall, an expansion is also announced among all these update. So while you are in old content, stuff will remain Lv75. Once you exit the area, you will have access to the new cap of Lv99. This will not only save development time (since… they need to code the new expansion as well), but it takes a lot of the issues out of rebalancing and rescaling. This also keeps all the existing equipment on par and preserve its value, as well as preserving the old content for play. I mean, as an old school player, I still enjoy the old days where we have Summoner in Tank Party during Fafnir, calling out Garuda for blinks and tanking it with Paladin. Now there is no fun and glory of killing Fafnir, with all these merit points and Lv99 soon… it makes Fafnir a joke.

Last method… I hope not is really, recreate all the equipment for Lv75 to 99. One important thing to note is the level cap is raise in stages, with 3 month gap inbetween, so they could potentially recreate all gear. This is kinda similar to the WoW model, which is something I wouldn’t like. But with this model, it encourages new player (provided they know about it), into joining, since it seems like everyone is starting on the same ground (with all your old gear as garbage). But then again, the game is 7 years old for US (8 for JP), it would be pretty hard to get new players (also mentioned in LBR Ep51). It’s got out-dated graphics and still not too friendly for a newbie. With FFXIV around, I doubt their objective is to bring in new players.

A Business Perspective of Lv99

I’d like to think all this from another perspective, a business perspective of this announcement. Lets keep one important fact in mind. SE makes a lot from FFXI, from me and you. More than many other FF series due to the fact that other FF series can be pirated. We’ve almost paid over 1k for each player that play since 2003. That’s a lot of money. Times that by a peak of 100k subscriber (Lets say an average of 30k per month). That’s pretty good cash at one point just from subscription. This doesn’t even take into account the initial cost of the game, any expansion that you bought. Remember that announcement of “most character created”? That was coupled with Mog Bonanza. Everybody was creating extra mules to increase the chance of winning at least a Rank 4 item. To SE, it was great money, extra income. Instead of 12.95 per month, if everyone created 9 extra mules, that’s kinda like increasing the average monthly fee to 13.75 etc… (spreading the average cost over a year). Then you have the teleport body from buying The Star Onions (which was okay, if you wanted the product anyway). To me, it seems like Squeenix was doing a lot of these for cash. They know we are addicted to digital achievements, and is abusing it by offering it to us, indirectly =P. RMT indirectly.

Little Economics

Afterall, Squeenix is not a charity, but a business. They are here to satisfy their shareholders just like any other business. Buying a combo in McDonald always seems like a better deal than buying them separately because, its all part of the conspiracy to get you to spend the “maximum amount” of money that you are willing to pay.

Lets say McD Burgers cost 3 dollars, Fries is 2 bucks, Drink is 1 dollar. Buying them are 6 bucks separately. But a combo maybe cost 5.50. You might like fries and Burger (3 for burger, 2 for fries, costing you 5 bucks), but don’t really need a drink because you got water. But hay, it’s “only” 50c more for a drink. It’s a good deal. Lets say it only cost them 10% of the selling price to make. Well if you didn’t buy a drink… Burger is (3 dollar – 30c cost to make = 2.7 profit), 2 for fries – 0.20 = 1.80, Coke is 1 dollar – 10c = 0.90. Originally if you just bought burger, they would only be making 2.7 from Burger + 20c from Fries = 2.90 from you. But if the combo of costing 50c less works, they still make 2.90 + (coke is 1 dollar – 10c to make – 50c discount = 40c profit). They make 3.30 from you! They didn’t make as much, but the end point is, they still make more from you.

Maiev of DuckHUNT – by Aene

This is exactly what I think about when I think of SE’s action taken from this. By spreading it out, not only it gives them time to do adjustment, but you now spread your fun of leveling again throughout the 3 updates. That is 9 extra months of subscription per player. In LBR Ep51, they were discussing the 10 dollar addon. Immediately this model came to mind. It’s harder to sell 30 dollar expansion vs 10 dollar addon. It sounds cheaper but hay look at the end of the day, you still bought all 3, costing you 30. With a little sweet robe that you get after the addon, it creates an even more temptation to buy it. Since it’s Rare/Ex, it doesn’t even have an effect on game balance as much (well.. the Robe does replace a few equipment…. but not entirely). Add-on sold like this also provides them a chance to fix anything wrong with the previous add-on. (Though, the quest are still pretty crap). They were for sure testing out delivery method. One thing though was it was re-named as an addon, so unlike an expansion, the quality and expectation is just isn’t the same. At the end of the day, SE can always say this is an “addon”, not an expansion. Add-on, like browsers, are adding “additional” features. Not really expanding. It’s completely optional, and its what SE is doing IMO. Another method to sell an expansion, but with an excuse saying that …. hay quality doesn’t have to be up to par since its simply just an “add-on”.

So the way I see Lv99 is, by throwing out a curveball and… not announcing that much of a detail, it leaves it up to the players to do guess work. For those that got nothing to do before (like me, completely maxed out merit + jobs that I like), it gives me and a lot of other adventurers a reason to start leveling subs out of 37 to 49 to accommodate the new subjob at Lv99. This all comes down to squeezing the maximum amount of money you are willing to pay from a dead game (well, declining population). Now it all seems interesting, you are more willingly to pay that 12.95 versus before… it was just a dead game.

All for Profit?

Ringthree and Aniero all have different opinions on it. Ringthree think it could have been a little earlier. While Aniero think it’s done with the perfect timing. Me? I think its perfect as well. Lets go back a little bit! When ToAU was released, the game was still pretty alive. We often get lagsieged. Salvage and Dynamis was still packed. During that time, the Burning Crusade was also released. I was drawn into it, questing on my Blood Elf hunter while I was waiting for Salvage entry. But one thing that was sure was… the game was still lively.

Squeenix shareholders was probably okay, but not happy that they weren’t getting MORE players. Well, if you can’t get more players, then squeeze more out of the existing ones. WORLD TRANSFER opened, now that was a cash grab, definitely a good way to satisfy shareholders by changing ONE VARIBLE LOL (SERVER ID 9 to SERVER ID 7, thanks for cash XD)! Time pass by and Wings of the Goddess came out. Squeenix finally satisfy the casual gamer group by developing campaign, where people with little time to play (obviously not enough to get an exp time), to do something productive. Campaign was often busy and it definitely kept the casual player in check. One thing that I think a lot of us neglect is the amount of casual players. Remember that a lot of people have a RL obligation, and have a busy life. Hence they do not have all the time in this world to play. Therefore, it was very important to provide a source of good entertainment for the time that they have after a working day. End-game players is just a small portion of the FFXI community. A lot of people place once of twice a week, come in to socialize, to craft a little. You rarely see them but SE does. As much as it matters, a nerd and a casual both pays 12.95. It’s easier to satisfy casual players, and they are probably the bigger group (judging from Squeenix’ statistics counter every year). It’s more wise for SE to focus on casual more than the hardcore players.

With a slight decline with population over time, Campaign provide the perfect solution in keeping players happy by providing self-paced virtual achievements! It is something both the casual and the elitist can participate. You don’t need a party anymore. The add-on was timed okay. The content was generally crappy and slowly (as per LBR discussion), but I honestly think the… development was pressured by the upper management to grab more cash. Grabbing every single penny that they cane make from you.

With FFXI getting older and content getting crappier and more slowly, the population significantly declined. The server merge was a great hint. With shareholders saying “Hay, FFXIV isn’t ready, so its probably time to Squeeze more out of FFXI”! They had to come up with another idea…. ah ha! Lets throw the players something they always wanted!

• Odin and Alexander AVATAR (Which players was begging for years)
• Lv Cap Increase!

Instantly, we stirred up a heated discussion of the possibilities of Lv99, as well as the fun. SE did it, they got a lot of people pumped up again, revive some old character and started playing again. It’s also a good way to minimize the impact or negative aspect of a server merge . Players reactivated to enjoy the new content (yay more subscription!), but the most important part of all this was, they are taking out servers, which lowers the overall maintenance and operating cost, bandwidth and electricity. The savings are all profit! We all just look at the Lv99 possibilities and forgot all about the impact of a server merge. That reminds me of… China. Cheap shoes and TV’s makes us all forget about human rights and the June 4th, 1989 incident in China… lol)

Lv99 made FFXI like FFXI-X2 LOL!

Name Change is such a lame sauce.

Now with all the server merge, not everyone are satisfy with it. Some people lost names, some people probably felt like the new home isn’t that great. I mean if SE really wanted to do it right, they would have locked name creation on the same day as announcement as well as providing people a CHOICE of where they want to go. I mean yea, I could see why they didn’t want to offer that choice. They can ensure that the server merge are paired with servers with similar economy and conditions, as well as ensure that the population are well balanced. To ensure you aren’t merging 2 medium server. 1 medium + 1 small and not 1 medium + 1 medium size servers. So if you don’t like…well WORLD TRANSFER :) 25 bucks to change a VARIABLE hahaha! MONEY!

Don’t get me wrong, the server merge actually worked out. Otak is on Quetz, my 2nd Alt was in Midgard, SE decided to merge Quetz and Midgard =P Totally no complaint there! LOLZ (Saved me 25 bucks actually!)

However, there are side effects to this server merge. Some felt like they lost a home and quit. Some assumed that their gear is going to go to crap, so without a 2nd thought, already unsubscribed (I know at least 4 people around me that did it), but at the same time, I know 2 people at least who came back for this. So overall, I think it’s a gain. Even if SE don’t gain or lose subscription, at least they are keeping the ones that are still subscribing, to continue subscribing with the new level cap stuff :)

I believe Squeenix at this point, is all about the money. I can’t help myself but think that at this point, its not even about the game anymore. I do see the fun, but most importantly the profit from it. They need it for infrastructure for FFXIV, and this is a perfect time to get it. FFXIV isn’t even ready so there’s going to be time where they need the cash. FF13 is being sold, but it’s also not enough since people are selling it as they finish the game (I mean, its the most sold game in the 2nd hand market…). Therefore, I believe a lot of the move Squeenix now is about profit, more on the profit than the players and the fun. Generating the cash to prepare for FFXIV launch.

WoW Model

One thing that I always like about FFXI was…. no matter how long you quit or take a break for, when you subscribe again, you feel instantly back to the game. Your equipment is a little obsolute, but isn’t enough for you to spend like a few weeks to re-gear. The old content more or less are still around and… most importantly, the friends that you used to play with are mostly still around since… unlike WoW, your friend might now play on their Alt’s and other class… and you probably don’t know their name anymore.

WoW’s model has always been increasing the level cap and high rate of equipment replacement. It was clearly known that gear gets replaced one after another after each update. As more instances and raid opens, the new year replaces the old. It is a model the adopted, and it worked.

It was always unique to me until… FFXI announce Lv99. This brought my attention to the WoW model. Is Squeenix really trying to take what’s successful in WoW and try to implement it into FFXI? Take some portion of it if not all? I highly doubt but in a way, you got to learn from the best as well. Squeenix had a first-mover advantage, being 1 year ahead of WoW, they had the chance to grab a lot of subscribers but they fail to do so, and many quit to play WoW instead. But those that stayed FFXI, enjoyed FFXI and they enjoy it because of what it was…

Overtime, there were various features that was similar to WoW. Instances was one bit, set bonus was another. Campaign system was kinda like WoW’s casual exp system and now you have level cap increase. It maybe just so that its kinda similar. I doubt Squeenix was actually copying other games’ mechanism, but then at the same time… it worked for them. Maybe that’s exactly what we need.

WoW continues to climb in terms of subscription. The game continues to market itself despite its only a single platform, and with dated graphics. One thing that was obvious to me as a player who plays both FFXI and WoW is, WoW developer listens in while FFXI developer doesn’t. Last check, we only get automated replies when we send in suggestion. Whereas Blizzard, we could see Blue Post (aka Blizzard Poster) acknowledging ideas etc. Blizzard’s Blue Post may never get to the development, but to a player, its always nice to see that they care about their customers. SE never provided this type of customer care. Look at the hacking spree 2 years ago. It took them ages to develop counter measures. Powerless GM that can’t really do anything other than getting you un-stuck and banning people for walking faster than normal when you walk over the pond over at Caedarva Mire.

WoW continues to develop content that is catered to the players. A PvP system that rewards exp, more BG, random instance to recycle old content and rewarding more heroic badges. Whereas SE keeps going backwards… enhancing the NPC system that is so unusable. A chocobo race where you aren’t the person racing, but betting lol. Mobs that is unbeatable and when it is, it gets patched because it wasn’t the way it was “intended” to kill.

Midnight Excursion – by PriestessOfPie

Mai Thoughts

At the end of the day, I think Squeenix’ move of increasing the level cap is certainly a good move, but a move IMO that is motivated by the money than the players (in my perspective!!!!). It was a move that satisfy both ends, the business end as well as the players. It was also a move to cover the negative impact of server merge. It was a real perfect smart move. It’s not a bad thing and we got to understand…. like any other companies, they are motivated by profits as well. I think everyone is happy, both SE and the players. It gives the players a reason to subscribe and gives SE a longer life-span of the game. Lets just hope SE doesn’t screw up the Lv99 upgrade. Okay? lolz

Last but not least, I wanted to say thank you for the Birthday wishes and presents :) especially from Otak ^^, Priestessofpie and Fireal lolz :) Otak’s present is {secret} but I could share PoP’s present ;) The artwork on the right is drawn by Lyali of Titan (aka PriestessOfPie / PoP).

One thing I wanted to do, was leave with good terms and with a positive impact. I think I left quite a lot… on Google lolz :D There was many stuff I wanted to do back then, like speaking on podcasts of the stuff I like to play, my expertise, sharing the “old-school” experience. But I think I’ve done most of them.

I’m slowly reblogging my old-school days by simply indexing all screenshots (including drama ones lol, like the FFXI Fenrir WikiLeaks lulz) and someday write a passage and hopefully those old Fenrir people would drop by someday :D and remember their good/terrible times in XI lolz!

Go take a look =) You might be in it!

To finish, I found this nice niffy tool on Google about search on and figure I’d make a video out of how Mai made a difference in XI via this blog :) I really hope I did lolz…

It’s been awhile. I know, busy busy! So for those that do complain I haven’t been writing enough (I mean… common, my writing is terrible :x), you better let me know you read it by leaving a comment. lulz (which I doubt anyone would, ahem Jackblck!). I wonder how many people even check this anymore lolz!

Regardless, lets get on with some updates.

the StarOnion Website Revolution!

the StarOnion Version 5

If you haven’t already notice, I’ve reshaped Mai blog. The attractive banner is of course, done by Karla/Otak/Lurazeda (Mai girlfriend, yes I am not gay with Istari). I hope it is a lot pleasing to read (and hopefully, win the Kaeko eye-candy award again). Of course, stuff on the StarOnion is never friendly to 56k and I hope you know that by now.

One thing that took a lot of my time is by far the way I’ve decided to use the “tagging” system. Instead of tagging what I’m writing (which is what category / search is for), I’ve used it to tag players. If you exist in my writing even for a brief second, in a screenshot or video, you will be tagged. Yes, I went through all my 600 posts and tag everyone. If I miss you, just leave a comment and I’ll add you back in =) And yes, I did play with a lot of players it seems. My tag list is like amazingly long, but you’ll have fun scrolling them. You might even recognize a few names =)

There are still minor improvements, such as implementing RSS Email subscription etc, I’ll slowly get on with those.

This time around, I’ve implemented a flickr. I will be uploading all my screenshot that I’ve taken to that account. Feel free to browse my old-school screenshot. They are quite enjoyable to click around :D classic alliance for Mission 2-3 lolz! I might even have shouts when people were selling “Raise” back in Kazham/Yhotar Jungle.

When in doubt, use the search located at the top right corner. It searches everything =)

I know :( it could still be better, but then meh, I didn’t major in computer science lolz! This is just Mai hobby! :D

PS: Navigating this version should be same as before, I kept a lot of things unchanged :D for the most part.

Twitter Kills Blogs!

I honestly think the recent hype of Twitter just kills blogs.. hands down. I mean those that used to blog a lot like Kimiko Furball, Calaera, Etain, now just completely stop, hell even Otak stop = =. They didn’t quit, they just don’t write due to twitter (their twitter: Kimiko Furball, Calaera, Etain, Otak). As you see, they obviously still play FFXI (half and half for Etain ._.). Well can’t blame Twitter for being so accessible. You can tweet literally anywhere (maybe through payphones soon). Even those that don’t have smart phone can tweet via text messages. You could probably tweet while in shower soon via voice yelling to your neighbors. I believe Twitter activity and Blog activity are inversely proportional. =) Sucks for FFXI blog community but meh :x!

I vote for TaruTaruTweets-Online.net soon!

Otak’s Taru Figurine Collection

TaruTaru Trading Arts/Figurine

Its now on the market for real. I know Otak got it >.> /jealous. It actually looks pretty awesome :D Here’s some pics (Source)

• TaruTaru Collection – 9 Figurine Box Set
• Lay them out nicely! Group Picture!
• Lets Open a Box! Oww, bad AA TaruTaru!
• Lets assemble it!
• Completed AA Taru Assembly!
• Star Sybil TaruTaru Figurine assembled!
• Shantotto TaruTaru Figurine assembled as well!
• Group picture time!

Now that’s the cool stuff. Now the emo part is, you can’t tell which figurine is inside that box. They cost roughly 10 bucks USD per figurine. They also come in a box of 9 (like this), but lol people who buy that also have a chance of not getting all 5. So lol… But then, its how Square Enix deals with figurine collection so… I guess welcome to figurine collection.

I’d say the best idea is to buy it with a friend, and try to mix/match the missing pieces.

Yes ^^; FFXI-ing, I’ll update it with SS at another time!

Interesting Things!

Just click on related video if you like it, you’d find a couple more ;)

Maiev of Fenrir by Rinielenika

I don’t know if it will be live when you look at it, but live to me!

Rinielenika is another artist I met on Fenrir. Rini’s BF is Ditsy, a taru so naturally loves drawing taru. Tonight, she’s bored out of her mind and start drawing, started off drawing random taru titties :x lolz

Anyway, below is the livestream. I hope it will be live when you watch it!

[Dead Link]

Oh btw, happy new year! Serious FFXI post coming up (Cuz I am playing a lot more now!)

So yea, the lineart was drawn by Rini, but then it was posted on Rini’s DeviantArt for other’s to color. A few took the challenge, including PoP. Since PoP recorded it (and I watched it live), here’s the EMBED of her artwork :D

Updated: Another version colored by PriestessOfPie =)

Lalafella in FFXIV ZOMG! Adorable!

Seasons Greetings!

Happy Holidays :) Got a little bit of time to drop a message! Just to let everyone know I’m still alive! In fact, I’m even playing FFXI! Just look at my big fat shopping list lol!

So regardless, I hope you’re Christmas is going good as well! Yes, Mai xmas card of course its… still in the making. I’ll call this Happy Belated Christmas Card lol! (Sadly, probably the last one before ffxi completely dies out or no one plays with FFXIV just around the corner)

Well did play a few games of Heroes of Newerth before going out for Turkey dinner! Anyway, may all your wishes come true!

Btw: The FFXIV Theme music is so good, been playing it almost all day! Check it out XD

Maiev by Otak – Drawn IRL, no tracing!

Returned!

So I was away for a full month. No I didn’t went to play Aion or WoW, or hell even FFXI, but I did use this time not only to finally go visit my parents, but to also meet a ton of Mai FFXI friends.

Meeting FFXI friends was perhaps the most exciting activity IMO in Mai life. You see, people you met in school were your friends because you guys hang out for so long. But you might be friends simply because they seem like a nice person, see them a lot so they became friends, hopefully some of them will have similar interest. However, I find that FFXI friends are different… because at the end of the day, we are all gamers, interested with gaming/FFXI, as well as enjoy playing video games to chillax at the end of the day! (I mean if you don’t play FFXI long enough, I would not have known you to begin with!).

People I’ve Met (Included ones on this trip)

I’ve met a ton of people. Every single one of them turned out very good and became close friends. Lets see…

• May, 2006 – Eeto
• July, 2006 – Cus, SohJai, SohMui, Hkshady
• Sept, 2006 – Bubian
• Aug, 2007 – Shamu
• Jan, 2008 – Arcrist
• Aug, 2008 – Aene, Draci, Cloudstah, Keiffa
• Jan, 2009 – Shaya, Farkee
• Oct, 2009 – Xariana, Tsunade, Chidorii, Eleira, Sibe, Otak

Pretty long list huh. These are all just self-organized gathering. None are FFXI-based gathering (eg. Fanfest). We were just that close.

I think for being a big nerd, you tend to just able to strike a conversation so easily. I never get bored. I use my laptop/screenshot to break the ice, and after that I’d be able to carry out a normal conversation with them! Anyway, so lets showtime of who I met in the past month!

NYC to meet more Fenrir people!

FFXI Gathering Round 5!

I’ve finally was able to meet Sibe, the latest leader of DuckHUNT. Yes, ever since I had RL stuff to deal with, I’ve gave the throne away. It’s almost a year and… wow I can’t believe how much more free time I had. Though I do miss playing, but I’m still quite burned out so lets keep regening (I do login casually though!).

So while being away, Sibe was the dude that kept the linkshell running, nice and shiny =) Though we might fight in-game, IRL its all cool. Though I hate meeting LS people in a way, they all try to get me drunk >.> I guess its time for revenge IRL.

I’ve also met Xariana, one of the bestest RDM in Omen LS (HNMLS of Fenrir). Though I might have second thought about Female players, after meeting a few, I… don’t as much anymore. There are pretty serious female players out there, though most don’t give a shit. But Xariana was definitely someone serious in that HNMLS. I really enjoy meeting people who I HNM with, people that I spent countless hours around the clock to achieve something in-game LOL. Too bad all we got was some digital data of 01000100101010101 LOL!

Then I’ve met Tsunade/Chidorii/Eleira. They were pretty damn cool people IRL. They also play WoW and DotA with me, real smart and competitive player. It was also fun to meet people who are similar in a way, loves to win and be competitive :D, who would take the extra step to research and stay on top of everyone! We already had Chain 300 within a week of ToAU release. Raping Mamool’s and Puk’s like nothing, and making a killing selling Imp. Gold Pieces for people and their LOL 5% HAT!

Good times, though I think they need to work on their RL Drinking Skills. I know Asian’s drinking skills is like E (Caps at 200), but still, need to exp them rofl! Lets continue.

I’ve also claimed Otak! (Wutz That?)

What we were hoping to see IRL!!

Though I must say I do connect with FFXI people quite nicely. I’ve never imagined that I’ve claimed a girlfriend within FFXI (especially how I don’t even play as much anymore or better yet – little to none). Believe it or not, I claimed Otak (a male taru LOL) who isn’t even on Mai server lol! Yes, I might have 1-2 person who I really liked, but Otak was a little different :D. Yes, I flew half way around the globe to /check Otak out, saw it being “Impossible to Gauge” as well as “Perfect Match” (Not even Even Match) so I went to /claim Otak. She plays on Quetzquotal.

One might ask… holy moly how do you even know each other? Well remember I enjoy/like art a lot? That’s how it all started, getting a commission from Otak. I didn’t know Otak was a girl IRL, until I started harassing Otak with so many commission changes. I also bought a FFXI fanbook from her, and yea all these connected the dot. I found Mai RL NM in Mai life!

Pic on right: A girl that plays a boy taru, and a boy that plays girl taru. I can see a boy as girl taru, but girl that plays a boy? Not taking advantage of being a girl in MMO? That’s rare! Creek F Clomps was 200k, but 2m for boys! Jeez girl taru ftw!

Despite all the talk and chat, one thing I can never be sure was.. if Otak’s Male Taru means Otak’s a dude or a girl IRL. I gave her a call, she was like “okay” in meeting up (after I’ve arrived in HK). Crossed Mai finger hoping Otak’s a real chick (she was probably thinking, this better be a guy and not a female). We met in one of the most public place on Earth. She said it was for ease of locating a FFXI person, but I think it’s for safety =P Thank god after we met, she didn’t say {English} {Go Away!} and she was a REAL GIRL OMG!

We met a few more times, if Lv1-50 is friendship, and Lv50+ is relationship, we went from Lv1-50 pretty quick. I then did my Limit Break quest with her IRL :D completed :D! and went on! I had a lucky Critical Strike :D I didn’t know how but my Lv 1 GF skills was able to beat Limit Break quest :D. Too bad Mai 1337 269 Parrying Skills wasn’t any use, pity.

Maiev and Otak IRL =) Recording our FFXI Duets

So yea, the rest of Mai trip was exping with Otak IRL. Like FFXI, Lv50+ isn’t easy. It does take a lot more Exp to gain 1 level. Its okay though, we enjoy “Impossible to Gauge” stuff! But at the very least, we work very well together :) It’s like one of those Exp party that you don’t want to disband. It’s what it feels like with Otak, you just don’t ever want to disband.

Maybe someday we’d release our “FFXI Duet”. We played a few songs (Recollection, Mhaura) and recorded it with a MAC! (Yes, recording with a Mac makes the song sound better!). Haven’t exp my Violin skills for 8 years, jeez I was glad it was even making proper sound. Well… Otak was great with her Piano skills, she kept it level. Whereas me… I deleveled my Violin skills after my Violin got stolen… since 8 years ago lol. The picture on the right is us in a Piano room doing our recording =)

Here, let me use the stamp too made by priestessofpie. Though she uses to express her love with her art, I guess I’m using to express my love :)

FFXI to RL Relationship

Throughout Mai FFXI career, I’ve always heard about relationship that started from MMORPG. Hell I’ve even heard linkshell memeber getting together in a relationship. Too bad TV shows always make it look like a weirdo, especially in the Chinese culture. Regardless, I’m in one, and I think it’s just perfectly fine. I can’t even imagine finding someone with so many similar in interest, if it wasn’t through FFXI.

I guess I need to update my LBR App now, I can even talk about FFXI and Relationship! Jeez… talking about being a nerd, I think I’m definitely up there. Though, I think those guys are too busy. Anyway!

FFXI been a real rewarding adventure; in-game and IRL. If I didn’t play this game, numerous things wouldn’t be the way it is now. However, even if I was able to repick my path, I’d pick to play FFXI. This game was a positive impact to Mai life, and I wouldn’t have picked it any other way.

PS: I’ve taken myself off TTTO, since its rather not too FFXI anymore. So just follow via RSS or Mai Twitter if you’re still interested =) Though I do plan to keep it somewhat gaming related, if not FFXI. (No, doesn’t mean Aion or WoW!)

Mai Limit Break Radio App!

Application to Limit Break Radio Podcast Guest?!

Haha I know, I was going to surprise everyone but seems like errr.. it didn’t go as well as I planned.

I applied to be a LBR guest speaker. (It all started with Tuufless). I mean sure, I listen to it at work (and I like all the ??? faces when they hear these geek talk from my coworkers). But never thought I’d do it, since I am quite shy to… strangers/alien. Let alone being recorded.

But see, part of the app is to

• Answer some question here. I ended up creating this LONG PDF!
• Leave a Voicemail for “Mic Testing” purpose >.>.

It took me almost 2 months to grow some balls and record a … “imo quite shitty” voicemail LOL. Recording a FFXI one is definitely much more weird than recording a work-related one, which I do everyday. I actually had numerous practice over vent, to correct some of the minor speaking problems like a lot of “um…’s” and a few swearing. Although I wasn’t the person they are looking for, but I did enjoy rehearsing with Calaera, Tsunade/Eleira and Xariana. (and also my LS too LOL).

Anyway, here’s Mai app for LBR, please enjoy =)

Distant Worlds:

FF Distant Worlds – Fisherman’s Horizon

I know :( my 2nd home is in Vancouver, but I just couldn’t time it right to stop by and watch it.

Anyway, Distant Worlds is a video game concert featuring various music from Nobuo Uematsu (well, one from each Final Fantasy series). I really wanted to watch it but… man, the timing is messed up.

I went to Play! A Video Game Symphony a few years back, and it was a blast. I bet the one with just pure Final Fantasy music is much more touchy and nice!

However, I am trying to assemble a group to see the one at Chicago – Dec 12 – 2009, Rosemont Theater. Dates kinda odd… just before Christmas. I’m trying to at least get Roranora and Xariana to go XD We’ll see as it gets closer!

You can read more about the concert here.

Project XI:

I’ve actually dick around a little bit with Project XI. See the thing about playing the real thing is, you can never really reverse-engineer and try fun things. In Project XI, nobody cares :D It is definitely nice to really see stuff in bird-eye view, since you have total control of your client. Your BCNM, isn’t really an instance :D but just 4 separated duplicated zone in 1 map. Kinda like Limbus. It isn’t like 4-5 floors, but different “islands”, all on different section of the map. The teleport makes it feel like its layered.

One zone that always cease to amaze me is.. Castle Vazhl. That castle is really a castle, and I do feel a sense of adventure everytime I climb, although I wish everything is True Sneak/Sight, so you’d really have to beat everything up on the way.

No SS though =P for obvious reasons.

Oh, here’s a Project XI dude killing Nidhogg LOL.

Well that sums up my “Offline” fun, browsing what to do that is related to XI, and trying to get involved with less playing :D

If you want to read more about Offline XI / Project XI, feel free to visit them here.

Okay, too tired! Time to sleep! Hope you enjoy Mai app for LBR. (If you missed the link above)

LOL! It’s pretty good huh! Now here’s more XD! If you can’t laugh, you are either an alien or a weirdo! LOL XD

*Thanks Priestessofpie for the link*

and one last animation XD

Galka with the dance agility just made me *crackles* rofl D:

Aion’s METALLIC Game Box!

What?!

When I told people FFXI was my last MMO, I really mean it… “at that moment”. However, as more MMO came out, I was more than tempted to try. I went to try WoW, ended up taking it to Lv80, gank in Ulduar (I stopped after Ulduar, so no idea about Trial of the Crusader), but Aion’s buzz got me into just buying the game and really give it peek.

I went to EB, pay an extra 10 dollar versus online for an actual pretty-nice metal case of the game :) I really liked the case, not some paper-based boxes. I’m sure everything inside cost more than 10 bucks, so yea, I think the extra 10 was worth it.

Regarding collector’s edition, I’m not really sure if you want to RMT a flapping wing. That’s what you get :D A pair of wings, which you’ll get anyway when you’re Lv10.

Aion’s Character Selection!

First Impression

Installing, and looking at the art was quite amazing. I was pretty pleased with a 500MB update after the DVD installation, which took roughly 40min. I’m glad they download it as one package (not like FFXI, separate file) via BT, extract and install those file individually. I haven’t had time to look at the file system, but I did see individual file installed, not sure if its packed up like MPQ system in WoW, or a modular system like FFXI.

The account creation was nice. They used something similar to WoW system. Web-based registration, then in-game based login. There is also a NCSoft Launcher, which is optional to run. It’s kinda like the WoW launcher, serving you information. However, I see it as promoting their other games too =) Anyawy! So far so good!

Gameplay Experience

Now it really depends on where you’re coming from. For a ton of people who got tired of FFXI, and move directly from FFXI to Aion (such as Sumny, Jowah), they are really excited about a real UI comparing to FFXI (at least it seems like it), the amazing graphics, and just about anything in Aion. There is just one thing I can see, everything is completely new to them. An Abyss to PvP, flying in-game, personalization of your toon, class customization, customization of Action Bars, hell even the powerful macro system.

Now I’ll tell you mines!

Aion’s Character Creation!

I installed, and without even reading the Manual, I launched the game. WoW-style login screen, log right into char creation, then it loads Aion. Character creation is worthwhile to go over though!

Before you read on, play this! Aion’s Character Creation music!

You started with a preset. Now, there are a ton of choices. You have roughly 30 preset hairstyle, after you’ve picked, you can adjust a TON of parameters.

Now that you’re done with your face, you will be zoom-ed out and can customize your body. I did try to configure a… Lalafella, but you can’t do a fat waist :( with a skinny body top. But you can create some of the nicest character. If you spend enough time, I’m pretty sure you can even resemble yourself, if not it should be pretty close.

I had a lot of fun with the Character creation, which is what lot of people like anyway :D It’s really, nothing like F5B Taru customization. LOL :D Okay, time to run the game.

Aion’s graphics was shit to begin with, I thought it was my system. Well no, it doesn’t pre-configure your system or auto-detect. Adjust everything to high with a 3GHz HT (single core) with a 256MB X800, raid 0 raptors and 2GB DDR RAM, I manage to be able to play it on a 1920×1200 24″ screen with slight lag. Now common, coming from FFXI, I’m pretty sure Lag is Okay…! We used to have 30fps or less, so 35 in Aion was totally acceptable (but a lot of people won’t accept it!).

Pretty [awesome] [newbie tutorial], although I don’t read it at all. Oh its voice narrated and animated.

Oh, here’s your equipment and inventory box in Aion. AND RMT MESSAGE! LOL (This was taken from initial release date).

Aion’s Questing NPC!

I see a little arrow on a person, figure its an NPC from my WoW experience. Went to talk. Of course, real-human narrated voice saying “Good Morning” :D clicking through it, please slain some mobs. Usual habit of WoW, I like to browse around and of course it has to close the quest box. I wasn’t moving my XYZ, just moving camera (which again, same as WoW, right click hold to move around) and it disengage my NPC talk. That was terribly annoying but I’m sure they will patch it.

I walk towards a mob with WASD, pretty standard. See my action bar spell labeled with 1 2 3 4 5, figured its like WoW, press to cast. Target it with a MOUSE (ZOMG!) and press. Oww it fires. I started as a Mage. So you get.

1. Attack/Bitch Slap with a Book (Mage = Scholar look in XI)
2. Fire Ball
3. Bind/Root
4. Loot All
5. Forgot/Useless

On your “Action Bar”. Of course you’d figure it out later that maybe u should Fire first then Bind, part of a learning curve of course. You see that there is no global cooldown for all actions so if u want, you can blast and bind. (Or Keyboard smash).

Mob dies in 2 blast, cool! Right click for loot, instinct and of course, it worked. Pretty familiar to WoW, you get a loot box, with a “Loot All” button. Exp/Messages appear on bottom left saying how much Exp you got. Of course, you also get RMT tells.

Mini maps are similar to WoW, you can distinguish NPC from PC, and you can adjust your map to rotate with you, or static location. You kill a few mobs, drink for HP regen. You get the idea. It’s the same quest and kill system in WoW.

A Larger Town in Aion!

Quest givers leads to you other larger town, where you can make purchases and buy stuff (Which, from a FFXI person, much more easier to follow/play). Not too surprisingly, even the item are categorized. Greyed out item are worthless (usually with no description), and can NPC. So you wouldn’t do the same thing in FFXI, where I started off NPCing stacks of Silk Thread (lol) for gil. You would already get “Inscriptions” type stuff in Aion, call Gem and Socket. You can enhance a piece of your equipment conveniently by using the “Gem” onto a piece of your equipment.

I walked by a plant, right click and next thing is… you are a Herbalist. Again, same stuff as WoW. But again, with the pretty graphics :D.

I kept on doing quest for a bit, and I realize… man, this is “just like another MMO”. Difference is, this is WoW v2.0, with BETTER graphics and of course, with a new Toon.

Aion’s Mage Trainer!

Where you coming from Matters.

Depending on which game you play before this, you would get a totally different perspective of Aion.

• If you were a bored FFXI or a quit FFXI long time ago, haven’t play WoW, you would find Aion very new, interesting.
• If you were bored from FFXI, play WoW inbetween and now hoping to Aion, you would find it not too interesting, since it’s exactly WoW, but with a new theme/skin. It would be “just another MMORPG”. Might not necessary like it, but might not necessary hate it.
• If you were a new MMO player and started Aion, you would find it very new, interesting.
• If you play WoW, got bored and go into Aion, you would also find it not too interesting, despite a new skin/theme. You’d still play it though simply because.. WoW’s so watered down from the recent badge changes, so many old-content was burned by the Trial of the Crusader. Though I like Exping in Battleground.

Sorry, no swimming in Aion!

Now lets look deeper into Aion.

Aion.. you can’t swim =P You lose health in water. There is no swim motion like the ones in WoW. You actually run in water :D lol. It looks pretty funny but basically swim don’t exist.

At Lv9/10, you get your Ascension quest, to get your Wings. Well no, you can’t fly anywhere. Obviously you have restricted airspace as well, so you will be gliding. But air is one of the big things in Aion, and there will be Aerial combat. It is definitely something new.

Class specification is kinda like, merits. You can’t really be good in just about everything. You got to pick between being a half ass/hybrid by putting talent/merit points in just about every category, or focusing your talent points in one category, which they refer to class specification.

You’d start to discover the TP system in Aion (and of course, its not call TP). Same as FFXI but this one is… there is no zone =P So you can keep your TP to execute some WS. (Got to make this clear, I was told by Istari, who is actually playing Aion)

Learning new spells is just like WoW and FFXI, you buy a scroll and read it. Of course, there are spells you gain from class specification (hence, you can’t buy).

Of course while you fight/auto attack, you get very sparky and shadowy graphics. Every swing is so epic, it feels like a Relic. Graphics in this game is simply amazing, but if you’re coming from WoW, it’d just be a graphics upgrade.

The Stronghold in Abyss – Aion Online!

The Abyss

Now without being at Lv20/25 (forgot exact number), I wouldn’t be able to really experience the Abyss, perhaps the most interesting part of Aion (well, depends on how you look at it!). If you come from FFXI, this would be mind blowing! As a WoW player, not really. We got that long ago with the Vehicle system. You hop into a F18, you are now a figher pilot (just an example). Aion is wings built-in :D

Yes, PvP while you level. While some like it, some hate it since they can never get anything done. But to compensate for that type of inconvenience, the monster inside the Abyss slight give more experience points!

The designer Aion created “Fortress“, similar to Besiege in FFXI, but with the PvP. You can raid a fortress once every few hours, but by gaining control, you get access to specific PvE dungeons (eg. gain access to Dragon’s Aery), lower taxes, teleportaion. Basically, life easier with it. Therefore, every few hours, there will be a gank feast.

Imagine you and your guildmates gather up, and wanted to goto Dragon’s Aery. Oh shit the other faction have control. Now either you sit there do nothing hoping it goes back to your side (which it might not), or PvP for the access to go into the dungeon. There goes a night. Also, some factions tend to have all the shitty players. If the other faction can never win, you can never enter Dragon’s Aery, which is equally annoying to not getting claim for a week.

You can read more about Abyss here. (Yea, Abyss is like 80% of Aion)

Final Word

Aion’s Talent Point System!

I try to be as non-bias as possible, but I am bias in a certain aspect. However, this is not a review, but simply what I feel like about Aion on Mai blog. I do have to say, my mindset was already set to “not play Aion”, not because its a shitty game, but because I just got to EXP in Real-Life instead. It’s a great game, but I’m using this break between FFXi and FFXIV to get some real life accomplishment.

Shitty graphics might play a role, but I am a very game-play person. I play DotA because the gameplay is fun (shitty graphics). Same goes for FFXI and WoW. Fun goes down when it starts to be repetitive.

But I do have to say, a lot of Asian-based MMO are all grind feast. It’s the same leveling/grinding system that you seen in any other MMO. Me being tired of grinding, I naturally already dislike Aion. However, I do believe a lot of people out there don’t mind it. It gives them time to learn about the game, as well as a way to burn time.

However, I do see it that if you are coming from WoW, you would find it very repetitive. If you hate repetitive and grinding, then I truly think Aion isn’t worth your 50 bucks to even try. Coming from XI, you’d find it interesting. Everything considered, I still enjoy FFXI. I just wish it had better graphics lol.

Anyway, I know I haven’t covered many other game mechanics. Feel free to drop what you feel about Aion in comment. Everyone will have a different perspective, and the above writing is simply my perspective of Aion. :)

<br/><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&amp;vid=6f31eb66-4360-439a-ad62-f2bdf28f550e" target="_new" title="Season 3 - Episode 1: Expansion Time">Video: Season 3 &#8211; Episode 1: Expansion Time</a>

Oh jeez, Felicia Day is back with more entertainment. Although this doesn’t really apply to FFXI, a lineup for expansion but… still LOL. That guild leader is quite awesome :D I need to be him!

You can find Season 3, EP 2-4 of WatchTheGuild here :)

EP 4 is just hilarious rofl :O

Then you have crazy people stomping in like Omen rofl! (kidding)! But yea, don’t miss out and watch it :D

Gag reel can be found here.