[I realize I look like I'm copping out by only posting links, but I don't want to kill people's bandwidth.]
Many of the links point to the hi-res versions. If your system gets bricked by uber-slow buffing, please head on over to the Grand Finale Film Submissions thread for the list of mirrors.
[And then, my god, I started making a regular feature of it! XD This is the third one already!]
***
An empirical observation: there is a fairly foolproof way to find out if your Filipino GE buddy played or is still playing Kim Hakkyu's other game Ragnarok Online.
All you need to do is to ask him or her what AMF means.
AMF, often written Amp or Amf and variants thereof, is simply the very shortened form of the Filipino swearword "Ampota". This, in turn, is a contraction of "Ang puta" - literally meaning "The whore / That whore".
"Puta" is the integral insult in what everyone calls the Filipino language's equivalent to "Fuck you": "Putang ina mo", "Your mom's a whore". So, yeah, it's sorta like "Yo' momma", only it's a really bad thing to say in my country because of the strongly family-aspected culture we have here.
When Ragnarok Online hit our shores people swarmed in to live out their fantasies and what-not. Unfortunately, the road to glory was littered with many hazards, each of which called for a curse to properly express the thwarted players' feelings. Many times, saying something REALLY crude, such as the aforementioned "Putang ina mo", was the only way to vent.
And then we all found out that there was a built-in obscenity filter in the game's chat: ALL curses both in English and in Filipino were blanked out of chat windows. Even the word "Bastard" was blanked out, which made people laugh because one of the Swordman's weapon choices was the Bastard Sword - so people couldn't advertise for it whenever they wanted to sell.
People got around the obscenity filter by replacing letters with ASCII, or by shortening the insults; thus, "fuck you" became _|_ or some variation thereof, and "putang ina mo" became "ang puta", which became "amputa" - which finally evolved into "amfota" / "ampota" and "amp" / "amf". [It's just like Pokemon!]
And thus "amf" became the Ragnarok player's all-purpose complaint whenever he or she got stomped by a boss, or got KSed, or failed to upgrade equipment, or found out the in-game significant other was of the wrong gender...... You get the drift.
Next time you pass someone angry and you see them yell "Amf" - give them your sympathies if you're on the same side, or know that you've been successful in ticking them off if you're not.
I made a wish list at the end of 2007 for improvements and good changes for sGE as a whole, and one of those wishes was:
Fairer prices for all of the items in the Premium Item Shop. Please make the items more accessible to more players. More items costing under 500 G-Points, please!
As our team hurries to finish our final Fantazzztic Film Awards entry, a.k.a. the final version of our movie Not Another Love Story, I bring you a pair of relevant videos.
The following clips were taken from the 10th Anniversary Concert of the musical Les Misérables [Schönberg, Boublil, & Mackintosh]. This concert, now also known as Les Misérables - The Dream Cast in Concert, brought together many of the veterans from the show and was staged at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England.
Quick notes on the leads:
Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean [Original London / Broadway Cast] Philip Quast as Javert [Original Australian Cast / Complete Symphonic Recording] Ruthie Henshall as Fantine [Replacement London Cast] Jenny Galloway as Madame Thénardier [Replacement London Cast] Alun Armstrong as Thénardier [Original London Cast] Lea Salonga as Éponine [Replacement Broadway Cast, first non-Caucasian lead character] Michael Ball as Marius [Original London Cast / Complete Symphonic Recording] Michael Maguire as Enjolras [Original London Cast] Judy Kuhn as Cosette [Original London Cast] Anthony Crivello as Grantaire [Original London Cast]
First, the actual version of "Do You Hear the People Sing?", as it is sung by the indignant students on the eve of their revolution. Among the students are their leader Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Feuilly, Joly, and many others.
Second is the encore version of "Do You Hear the People Sing?", the first encore of the concert. This version is sung by, first, the Choir, and then expands to the entire Cast and Chorus.
There is some relevance between Les Miz and Granado Espada, which I'll be expanding on in future entries.
Hope you enjoy watching the videos - and watch out for the final version of Not Another Love Story!
[A million points to whoever gets the reference in the title. No, it has nothing to do with the game.]
Just to let you know why there was no Colony Wars report last night, and to anyone who's waiting for next week's report:
I hate to say it but the reporting chores have got me bogged down, and now prevent me from enjoying the sessions. In particular, I feel like I can't live up to my faction's expectations on everyone - to level up and to at least be of use during CW. I have to stop and be left behind when warping to new colonies to defend or attack because I'm afraid of missing some war declaration or truce or some other relevant broad or announcement.
So I'm quitting the reporting, and shifting my focus to just helping out my faction for now.
The time: ~2PM on a busy Sunday afternoon [17 February] The place: The Starbucks branch on the 2nd floor of the TriNoma mall, overlooking the Activity Center The occasion: The 2nd Granado Espada Bloggers' Meet!
Main issues on the agenda revolved around the following matters: issues involving the GE PH community; game imbalances/bugs/exploits, and the Fantazzztic Film Awards. The last issue was particularly relevant as nearly everyone there was part of one or more FFA competing teams. [Cast and crew pictures below to prove it ^^]
We talked a lot about how Granado Espada is being under-promoted in the country; until now there are PC shops that still have no idea of what the game is, much less have it installed in their machines. There were the continuing shenanigans of another MMO who stooped to low measures to not only block GE but also steal away its players by offering them GM positions - the condition, of course, being to quit GE in favor of that upstart MMO. The general consensus was that there were some difficulties with marketing the game from the official sources, and we might have to resort to viral means in order to get more people to play.
Regarding the FFA, we all expressed being busy for the final round of submissions, the Grand Finale competition being on till the 21st. We all agreed to promote each other's films in our respective blogs.
Community issues and game imbalances provided the bulk of the discussion, however, and the topics covered there were myriad: from the continued spamming of the RMT traders to the lack of real-life participation of the PH community to the in-game events that seem to use G-Points items as a crutch and sole means of participation.
The rest of the time, we spent making plans to help the community out just a tiny little bit [cue the patented NineMoons Evil Grin™]. Watch out for that just as soon as we all catch our breath from the hoopla and stress machine that is FFA.
And now, enough seriousness - on to the pictures!
***
From left to right, Sigrid, Nate Reclusion, and Darrick Reclusion. Taken while waiting for everyone else to arrive.
From left to right, DeSanggria, Illuvien, and Deniva. DeSanggria is busy taking notes!
From left to right, Fiksdotter, Artaxerxes, Mitchin, and Blacksword.
From left to right: Blacksword, Mena [standing], Lucido, Sigrid, and Nate.
Sitting, from left to right: DeSanggria, Lucido, Illuvien, Deniva, Fiksdotter, Artaxerxes, Mitchin, Blacksword, Mena, and Darrick. Standing: Nate and Sigrid.
The ladies! Sitting, from left to right: Illuvien, Sigrid, and DeSanggria. Standing: Lucido and NineMoons.
The gents! Sitting, from left to right: Mitchin, Deniva, Nate, and Fiksdotter. Standing, from left to right: Blacksword, Mena, Darrick, and Artaxerxes.
FFA Cast and Crew Pictures!
Cast and Crew of Le Blanc. Sitting: DeSanggria and Darrick. Standing, from left to right: Artaxerxes, Mena, Fiksdotter, and Nate.
Cast and Crew of One Letter For Freedom: Illuvien and Deniva.
Cast and Crew of Relapse, although the other two are missing: Sigrid.
Cast and Crew of Not Another Love Story. Sitting: NineMoons and DeSanggria. Standing, from left to right: Artaxerxes, Darrick, and Nate.
[If you want me to link to your blog - comment with the URL so I can link it here!]
And yeah, haha, one of the Not Another Love Story videos is in that list. I hope it helps to drum up interest for our final submission. We are cooking up something entirely new for you this time, and I really hope you tune in when we complete it!
Congrats to the winners - and let the competition for the Grand Finale week begin!
Added a new feature to the blog today, the first one in a long time - yay!
Now everyone who relies on the social bookmarking services to keep track of their favorite links on the go can use the handy widget appearing at the bottom of each post, just above the Post Comments link to easily bookmark their favorite posts ^^
Get one of your own by getting a free account at www.addthis.com.
Oh, and anyone who wants to join us at the 2nd Granado Espada Bloggers' Meet can come drop by on Sunday, 17 February. We'll be meeting up at the Starbucks branch on the third floor of the TriNoma mall. It's the freestanding branch near the Yellow Cab pizza place. See you there ^^
Sorry I haven't been much online in the past few days. I now work Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays as an IT wossperson [I love Neil Gaiman] and I'm helping to build and edit a fairly neat website. So that's why I've been limited to playing on the weekends and Mondays.
And I can't AFK level because 1 - the girls are 85 and it's AWKWARD to AFK them in El Canon, and the EXP is SLOW in Ustiur Zona 2. I'm going to do something suicidal and likely self-defeating to them on Friday just to see what happens. [LOL the wrong time to go to Topolo Durga whut.]
The other deadline I'm chasing? FFA! I'm trying to help my team make the deadline for the Grand Finale Submission week, which also starts this Friday. Please watch out for the finale of our machinima film series!
[Just as a note: today's the last day for submission of "Love, Me" entries. I hope mine gets on the shortlist - it's more for the love than for the lulz or the prizes, though who the heck doesn't want a Le Blanc armor?]
So, yeah, there are lots of reasons why I'm currently keeping a low profile in the game ^^ Sorry, a little swamped at the moment.......
Why am I so OC about collecting as many of the holiday-themed items/equips/gear as I can? I'm thinking of buying ONE Heart Chocolate and giving it to a GM just to get the sooper speshul Heart Spray.
In the meantime, bow down and worship my mousie of a scout. ^^
No one in Cervantes could complain about today's Colony Wars server being a dull one, no way! Lots of exciting action today, lots of war declarations, and most importantly - a boss met 6 factions, and much fun was had by all!
But serious stuff first: although a mass of different factions launched attacks against each member of the WrathOfGod-Vradical-Halcyon alliance, the three factions prevail once again in Granado Espada [Cervantes]:
This map seems familiar, doesn't it? At least I can report on behalf of WrathOfGod that we have reclaimed all seven of our January colonies. I think the same goes for both Vradical and Halcyon as well.
And now for the very surprising list of war declarations, featuring names both familiar and new, in various combinations of aggression and peace:
ForeverVN v HolyOrder [declared shortly before Colony War session] DCArebirth™ v WrathOfGod Halcyon v CARNAGE* WrathOfGod v GuardsOfHonour Vradical v GuardsOfHonour WrathOfGod v CARNAGE Vradical v CARNAGE [truced] Halcyon v GuardsOfHonour Cupid v FallenAngels [truced] ForeverVN v Vradical Cupid v Insomnia BlackSociety v Halcyon Vradical v FallenAngels Discipline v Insomnia WrathOfGod v ForeverVN Halcyon v ForeverVN FallenAngels v Halcyon FallenAngels v WrathOfGod ReBirth v CARNAGE** [truced] Vradical v Insomnia CARNAGE v Insomnia
* - Yes, here begins the long-awaited return of CARNAGE faction into the Colony Wars. They are still recruiting as of the moment. ** - I put a star on this one because it was pretty surprising, given that ReBirth were initially formed by ex-CARNAGE members.
As usual, if I've missed any declarations or truces due to lag / warping, please comment here and I will update the entry, with credits to you. [Remember that only declarations and truces taking effect DURING the session will be entertained.]
***
Notes from WrathOfGod:
There were worries that there might not be enough people online tonight due to holidays, exams, and other obligations for many of the critical personnel of the faction, so plans were made cautiously to begin with - until everyone tumbled back in just in time and the strategy was out: get all seven colonies back! It was going to be a tall order and accordingly, we had to follow a battle plan, and do it with dispatch, timing and pizazz into the bargain.
I joined the squad that was to attack Topolo Durga first, while two other squads went after Via Fluvial and Scorching Plateau at the same time.
Getting ready to claim Topolo Durga.
It took a while to do it, and we had to fend off the harassment from members of DCArebirth™ while we were at it. We eventually managed to take the first three colonies.
We retook the colony at El Canon de Diabolica from GuardsOfHonour, bounced back to Topolo as DCArebirth™ kept up their hit-and-run tactics, and then hoofed it to Porto Bello Deserted Quay to engage CARNAGE.
In the meantime, other squads had taken the Ferruccio Junction colony from its ForeverVN attackers, and staked our claim on Bonavista River.
The defenders at Ferruccio Junction.
Finally, there was a general call to the three-faction alliance: Halcyon was requesting for assistance at the colony at the Old Port of Coimbra. Accordingly, many families streamed in to bolster the defense. Both BlackSociety and ForeverVN were besieging the colony, and more of them were coming in with each moment. Even other factions such as ReBirth had showed up to fight.
In the midst of this chaos, someone offered to lure Dekaravia to the colony - to help defend, perhaps, and to take out the enemy, most certainly.
The answer to the question in the subtitle is, NONE!
Dekaravia: I can has colony nao? Vrad-WOG-Halc / Black-Forever / ReB: OMGWTFBBQpwned. *collective face-fault*
Yup, Dekaravia and his minions got the drop on ALL SIX factions represented at the Old Port, Cursed the lot of us, and left us all taking nice long dirt naps.
[The subtitle to this entry, as you can see, is based on CCB™'s joke in the screenshot.]
Good lord that was certainly a Colony Wars session to remember! And next week it's defense, as the many new factions [not to mention the returning CARNAGE] attempt to wrest colonies of their own!
[Last post for today, I swear! Suffering from blogorrhea today, sorry XD]
I see what you did there. Have fun in the Underground Prison~
[LOL instant Paint highlights!]
Not telling you what faction this family is from, but I can say that other players have suspected this faction to be both condoning AND supporting botters.
I finally did the last of the Grace Bernelli Pioneering Quests, venturing back into Prison de Joaquin, the Mohrgus to begin the mission called "Slaughter in the Prison de Joaquin".
...Not the most encouraging of names, eh?
I killed a vicious amount of time trying to get as many Puzzle Pieces as was possible - you have to kill the Failed Subject mobs - but I got just a bunch of them at random. What are they for anyway, and what do you get if you manage to complete the set???
Anyway, finally we got down to the ring at the end of the map where mobs were hitting the ugly mug of Dr. Fran Mothein. A brief dialogue with him and Grace Bernelli [who suddenly pops up like a most welcome jack-in-the-box] leads right into the appearance of none other than Montoro.
That guy's pretty much Granado Espada's most wanted, eh? His name comes up during several of the RNPC quests. I think both Torsche and Ulrik wanted to spit at him [and at the Ten Nobles], and of course Bernelli's pissed off as all hell at him....
Montoro's appearance, in turn, triggers the equally sudden teleport of Garcia Hingis. More dialogue, and Montoro makes Mothein go nuts, and then it's time to throw down with the ugly doc! Man, that guy has an even meaner Apocalypse than my wizard.
The good guys win and hey, there's Garcia Hingis's alias: Gavin Jameson!
The story ends at this point and Bernelli promises to keep investigating the Ten Nobles and Montoro and the prison.
I wonder what comes next for our intrepid intelligence gunsmith/gunslinger girl.....
Encounters with Garcia Hingis while doing the Grace Bernelli Pioneering Quests. This is a screenshot of the ending of the second fight with him, standing in the cemetery in Thueringenwald.
About the only thing I haven't done yet for this series of quests is the whole puzzle-pieces + Dr. Mothtein sequence, and I will probably attempt it for the first time after I gain a couple of levels. Have to be careful, you know - that doctor looks like he could kick my ass, and damn fugly to boot.
Talking to Feng Ling just before acquiring her character card in Bahia.
I need to buy a Barrack Slot to accommodate this feisty lass....
I could not find a translation of Feng Ling's name online and just now realized that it's almost impossible to obtain a translation without access to the characters that make up the name of this feisty, ice-wielding martial artist! I'd be very grateful for anyone who'd be able to provide both the characters and the meaning for her name.
Feng Ling from the country of Dang
I went looking for other characters or people who might share her name - and found myself pulling up the Wikipedia article for the manga series Crying Freeman! It turns out that Grandmother Tiger of the 108 Tigers, the Chinese mafia group headed by Yo Hinomura [Crying Freeman / Dragon Sun] and Emu Hino [Tiger Pure-Orchid], was once named Hǔ Fēng-Líng (虎風鈴). Grandmother Tiger was the trainer of Crying Freeman, and is therefore responsible for turning the formerly meek potter into the formidable assassin that he became. Former leader of the 108 Tigers and a skilled martial artist in her own right, she now regards Crying Freeman as a son and his bride, the swordmaster Emu, as a daughter-in-law.
How exciting that two women with names that, at the least, look alike [it's possible their names may not sound alike] should be so similar - hardened martial artists with their own definitions of nobility!
[Yes, I'm getting her on Thursday when I log back in. I'm at work right now! XD]
Additional pimpage: my dear friend Lucido updates her Granado Espada journal with the first of a series of articles on the Romance Languages which include Spanish and Italian.
The first entry in this blog was written on March 13, 2007, and I've just realized that this blog's one-year anniversary is literally just around the corner.
omgwtfbbq~
Anyone have any ideas as to how I should commemorate it? Yes, I'm thinking of overhauling the visuals a little. Perhaps a new banner, at least, and a change of background. I'm thinking of yoinking that trick with the banner image from one of the other blogs I used to read.
For today's media mash-up, enjoy the Youtube version, divided into four parts, of the FFA entry Le Blanc. Previously on Imeem.com, but it takes a while to load.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
As previously stated, turn up the volume on your speakers or headsets in order to best enjoy this machinima feature.
And one might be forgiven for thinking I mean that title more literally than figuratively.
Anyway, the map is the same as those of the last two weeks, with the three allied factions of Halcyon-Vradical-WrathOfGod holding on to their colonies.
With maintenance moved to tomorrow so people can play through the Chinese New Year, the map above will be wiped clean once again, and all colonies will be up for grabs for February and the Year of the Earth Rat.
There was one war declared tonight during the session:
rEbOrN v Halcyon
All other war declarations had been in place for some time now, without any truces being taking place.
Shocking news in Cervantes as word has come to this blog of two major movements with regards to the factions:
Illuminati faction has disbanded. That is, the faction only has one member left, its leader BaoBao. According to a source, over the week all the members found themselves removed from the faction roster, leaving just the one member. Speculation abounds as to where the former stalwarts will move to now, and the BlackSociety faction seems to be the leading candidate to absorb the former Illuminati.
CARNAGE faction has returned. I first got wind of this through a heads-up from the Ogasawara family - Overseer had returned to take back his faction, and they are now in the process of calling back the original members. This means that they may actually return to Colony Wars session next week - stay tuned!
***
Notes from WrathOfGod:
By the time we all began to assemble for tonight's Colony Wars session, we all knew that tomorrow the monthly colony reset would take place - meaning whatever we did tonight would be pretty much mooted, and we'd have to start over again next week to fight for new colonies.
That didn't stop us from making preparations, though.
This week I went back to Bonavista River and volunteered to put the squad together. I wasn't planning to lead the group though because I knew I had pretty much nil experience in CW tactics, even if we were expecting to just hold on as in previous last-one-before-the-reset sessions.
An icy buff, and it makes my levitating wizard look damn nice.
Most of the squad is represented in this long shot. There were at least two Tarys running around for most of the session, helping the other scouts detect for possible attackers.
A surprise appearance for the big guns, although they weren't really needed for this session: Steel Ararat, and Treasure Golem.
We killed the two hours at Bonavista by making jokes about animal cruelty and calling in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [SPCA], spurred in part by Tary's falling over dead whenever his time had expired, and by the many birds we killed on the map. There was even an instance when the Steel Ararat stomped on a mass of the hapless feathered mobs.
I also spent the time chatting with allied friends.
During the second half of the session, our colony at Via Fluvial was visited twice by attackers, but they were repelled each time by the faction members streaming in to bolster the squad already there.
Next week, the colonies are once again the subject of the Colony Wars' free-for-all struggle, and that promises to be quite an entertaining session. Until then, though, Kong Hei Fat Choi in advance.
