The Gallery, and the MMOG Way of Life (Part 4~!)

Yup! Another pic for our gallery! The restoration of all the dead links and pictures seems to be going smoothly. This time I’m uploading something that was to be used in another literary for Another Dream. However, plans got delayed, something went off, blablabla. But what gives? I’m still posting.

Proposed Illustration for Scarlet Insanity.

So yeah, I take requests whenever someone in the doujin circle needs an illustration of some sort. Kills some time, and I like it.

Anyways, back to our MMOG business, this one is a better pastime somehow than doing the online stuff. Doing the good ol’ drill, holding pencils and erasers in hand, sketching, erasing, fabricating whatever comes into your minds into paper, If you’ve got a good hand on this kind of stuff, I know you’ll prefer drawing over some measly MMOG that makes you just waste time sitting or lying down in front of your PC screen, clicking away while your character kills some random monster or person (though killing other players seem to be a hype in itself)… Unless you see someone sporting hyper-smexy gear like this:

Pangya Season 2’s Ribbon Kooh: Still deelish after all these years…

Okay, I’m not discouraging you to play MMOGs, really. If there’s a good reason to play a certain online game, I do play it, even it it needs to be paid for game time. Okay, I admit, I’m one of those “MMOG = cash” haters, and I play freeware MMOGs more than paid ones since sustaining those things kinda hurts the pocket. Oh, and one rule you mustn’t break on payware games: Never leave anything out in the open, especially on very important items and account specifics. It either lets you lose items, or the whole account itself. And you’ll see more $$$ flying out before you can ask for help.

But heck, that would seem to be even useless when some nasty motherfucker stalks you, logs in some computer, turns on some program, and the next day you know it, everything’s gone. EVERYTHING, you hear? So maybe having a low profile garners you protection against keyloggers and account hackers, but hey, it doesn’t end there. If you’re one person who can’t satiate the MMOG addiction for more than half a day, and needs to login the game anytime, anywhere, then I guess you’ve encountered a story wherein one internet cafe patron gets all of his ingame possessions stolen, even though the shop is keylogging/hack-free. Beware my friends, some people who spectate on cafes have a veeeeeeeeery keen eye when it comes to tapping account specifics, and before you know it, they already memorized your account username and password like a lover’s cellphone number. Trust me, “eyeloggers” ARE dangerous, especially if you’re playing a payware MMOG in public net cafes. But no, I’m not telling you to always look left and right like some kind of an idiot with a stalker.

But yeah, MOST of the good stuff or good games are payware. P.A.Y.W.A.R.E. The marketing is so obviously wrong, but people play it! Why? “Hey, it’s good stuff!” “It looks good! The sprites are cool!” “The skills are made of win and ausum!” Right. Such eye candy cannot be forgiven not to be played and so we delve into the world of the cash-paying MMOG world, the world I fear to tread upon.

Laying low on payware MMOG means less equips, just the adequate amount of cuteness, plus hidden character info.

So basically, you’re in. You paid, you got game time, and all that’s left is to dive into the game and see how it fares. But most importantly, if you’re to try out an online game, the most important time to do it is when the game is in Open Beta. That’s right: the stage where they’re testing all their shenanigans before they release it as payware. It’s the time you can roam free on your oh-so-limited timeframe just to enjoy the few months of eye candy. And trust me, it gets annoying as soon as Open Beta ends and it goes commercial.

Taitanians, as they would look like in GungHo/Gravity’s Emil Chronicle Online (a.k.a. ECO)

Take Emil Chronicle Online for example. It’s such a good MMOG, and it didn’t suffer the fate of all the crappy 3D MMOGs I saw in my online lifetime. But after Japan’s Open Beta, no news for the English one came out, and that made non-Moonlandians who tried the game on jECO go on RAGE. Go figure Hemisphere if you want details on the ORZ. Me? Don’t even ask me about it, I missed the whole gamut and Open Beta and all, so it pisses me off. No bull.

ECO Hatsune Miku: Proves Taitanias effin win.

So that’s the big weaknesses of MMOGs: If no company wants it, no country gets it. If no country gets it, the people in it go RAGE, or just hop in the caravan of another country’s MMOG. Such is the fate of the online gamer, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to enjoy something that you know people around don’t have. No bragging rights intended, but if you want to share, it’s fine too. But trust me, you won’t convince people on getting payware MMOGs unless it’s really good. So the logical explanation goes:

1. An MMOG is good, therefore it must be played

2. An MMOG is good in looks, and so an MMOG is good, therefore it must be played

3. An MMOG has a good interface and “way of life”, and so an MMOG is good, therefore it must be played

4. An MMOG needs to be paid to be able to play, therefore it is bad, and must not be played

5. An MMOG is good in looks, has a good interface and “way of life”, but it needs to be paid in order to play, therefore it is bad, and must not be played

6. An MMOG is good in looks, has a good interface and “way of life”, but it needs to be paid in order to play, but I like it, therefore it must be played

7. An MMOG is good overall, and I have a lot of money so I can pay if it’s payware, so what gives?

Note that number 7 is only for those rich bastards who can afford them payware MMOGs. And no, I don’t have money, so I’m not a rich bastard. I don’t even own a credit card!

The perfect fungus cutebait to lure Mario and Luigi out.

Of course, there’s still the company that gets said game, but doesn’t release it. That’s all the more anguish the gamers, and the game, will have. The process gets repeated: people hop into another country’s server to savor the goodness, or wallow in self-pity if the game’s payware and they can’t pay to continue. I mean, I do know the great loss one feels when they know they can’t play the character they’re invested so much upon. It’ll collect dust, sit in there unplayed, till the server or GMs delete it. Heck, I’d rather delete it or sell it to someone who can continue rather than leave it at that! An ingame character is a person’s embodiment, like the very soul of yourself in the internet, and for you to leave it lying in the game like that without doing anything with it (more like you can’t), it’s like killing yourself…

And that’s something going to be very emotional for a hardcore gamer, or possibly for someone who’s got a bad real life condition, but I won’t dabble with that…