Saichotick's story

Yesterday, a fellow WOW player Saichotick post about his "adventures" in World of Warcraft with his wife Cillie, and in a shocking turn of event Cillie was recently diagnosed a rare form of cancer and only got a year to live, the thread got +237 like, one of the most highest rated thread in general discussion forum nowadays, in this post Saichotick describe his thanks for the makers of WOW and the player, the post was so gut-wrenching...

He wrote:

Seeing as how we have millions of players in WoW, I'm fairly positive that like 99.999% of you have no clue who I am. And that's ok, because I don't want to talk about myself.

I wanted to take a little bit of time to thank Blizzard. My wife and I both play WoW, she more so than I do. We've enjoyed this game together since TBC started, and it's been our main hobby and form of entertainment as she has gotten through nursing school. She and I even decided to run our own guild and raid team since Firelands, and we've been really enjoying that aspect of the game together ever since that decision was made. Her toon name is Cillie.

We've had the worst thing in our lives happen just a few weeks ago. Just after graduating school, she was diagnosed with Cholangiacarcinoma, a rare-ish form of cancer, especially for someone in their thirties and in good health to get. It is aggressive, and the initial prognosis from our first doctor was that she would have up to a year to live. Naturally, we weren't satisfied with that result. We're looking into multiple second opinions all over the country.

But she and I have had WoW as the one thing that we share and love together. We raid together (we're just 11/14 heroic, but we're working on the rest of them as hard as we can!), we run the guild together (she does like 99.99% of the work). She has loved meeting everyone she has come across in game, and she's so outgoing and nice, and she's what has kept so many people still playing in our little guild. We've got 3 (maybe a 4th) raid teams, from super casual to our casual heroic team, but really we have a LOT of really great, really nice, really awesome people that can all log on, hop into mumble, guild chat, do stuff, play games together, and it's mainly because she has had this great vision of what a fun guild can be.

We even managed to secure Blizzcon tickets for this year. We danced like 8 year old kids when I was able to hit refresh and enter my credit card info and lock down two tickets. We'd never gone before, just got the virtual tickets, and we were so pumped. Of course now treatments and doctors take precedence over that, but we're still going to try to go.

I wanted to thank Blizzard for their creations. These games, WoW, Starcraft, D3, Hearthstone, HotS (I'm in the alpha, it's amazing!), mainly just WoW but she and I have played them all together from time to time, we love them. You have created these wonderful, fantastic, tantalizing games for us to enjoy together, for us to share our time doing things we really enjoy together. Our relationship has been so strong, so amazing, and a part of that belongs to you guys and gals at Blizzard.

Besides these great games, you've created ways for us to connect to so many people all over the world. We've had people from every part of the planet in our WoW guild at one point or another. We've had people in Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, and even Japan as guildies, and all of that was to play this game we all love and enjoy.

Some of our guildies are throwing a benefit/fundraiser on August 30th. I'm not asking for people to come donate, but if anyone would like to come hang out with us on Eldre'thalas, we'd love to have anyone show up. We're going to be doing flex runs, a level 1 race through Azeroth, and all sorts of silliness like that. You can contact Raidwiper, our host for this event if you need more information.

I can't thank you all enough for giving us so much fun for so long. I'm hoping and praying that she and I will get to enjoy many more years of everything Blizzard. She and I both love WoW immensely, and we're hoping to see each and every expansion together. Please keep up the great work making these fun, enjoyable games for us. We love them, and we love all of you!

Stay strong Saichotick and Cillie, stay strong, I'll be there for the events, probably won't participate, but I will be there

/cried

link to full post

if you want to donate for Cillie, here's the link 

Media coverage: on Venturebeat

Shingeki No Kyojin opening spoofs

Since the good people at Blizzard taking down WOW for their usual maintenance (after a suspicious ddos attack) I take my time on writing about Aldnoah Zero, apparently I was distracted by a youtube link sent to me, another spoof of Shingeki No Kyojin opening

Shingeki No Kyojin a.k.a Attack on Titan was the most hyped anime this year, when I read the source manga about two years ago I never imagined that it will be the most spoofed anime because the opening theme is so good it's stuck to your ear and eyes after watching it the first time, it's not only prove that an opening can become so influential that everyone wants to be on it (or make anything with it), it also proves that Link Horizon's song Guren No Yumiya (which is only sounds good when paired with the anime opening) is also a perfect fit for everything that exists in this universe =))

First of all let's watch the original version first

You might want to watch it several times if it didn't stuck on your mind the first time. Now LET THE MADNESS BEGINS!!

-  First of all, let's visit another anime :D

- Let's spice things up a bit with girls!!

 - Not a fan of anime? Oh ok let's bring up the games!!

- You wouldn't think this one will fly...
 

- But THEY DID, and this one is my favorite

- Let's step up a bit, whoa

- Okay, that was weird... STAY AWAY FROM ME KOJIMA!!

- Well... this one is a proof that it's going global

- ................................................

Well that's it, you can scrounge youtube for more

EDIT: I forgot this, it's so subtle that it can be another original opening

Review: The Labor Age

Let me tell you something about ArcheAge....

It's good and surprisingly enjoyable

Except for one thing: Labor Points, Labor Points is your other resource in Archeage beside your usual MMORPG coins and points, and since EVERY activity like crafting, building, gathering, farming, buliding (did I said that twice? I lost track since economic based things is plenty in this game) and also recover XP when you're dead requires labor points it's quickly becomes a ridiculous gate, for free player it replenish slowly, every 5 minutes the game gave you 5 of it, only if you logged in, if you logged out or disconnected the game gave you nothing, yes nothing, none, nada, ZERO LP baby!!

Wants more LP? Only $15 a month!!! You know other game with time-based-self-replenishing resource like this? No? Let me refresh your mind

This

Also this

I don't remember whether it has it but I'm just gonna leave it here anyway

Please stuff your argument about balancing the economy here, I know Trion needs to make money, but this?

Blow me

Alright now that I let it out from my system, onto the review

Archeage is a sandbox/themepark hybrid MMORPG created by Korean developer XLGAMES two years ago, they localised it on Russia a year later, and then Trion picked it up for North American publishing last year, it's already entered beta phase now, and since it's freemium I treated it as it is, just between hype and anti-hype (or something)

And... I'm quite enjoying it, if I can describe it: Archeage's PVE battle aspect surprisingly played quite like RIFT, I rolled an Occultism mage coupled with Auramancy and Songcraft, and it played surprisingly similar as my Warlock-Pyromancer-Dominator spirit on RIFT (before I got bored and killed everything up close and personal with my Harbinger-Archon-Domi), I have a vivid imagination that two years ago a Trion employee played this game and said to the management, "Hey look, it's looks like our game RIFT, let's bring it to the state", and then magic happened

Spawning a galley in the city is pure magic

I don't know about the main story quest but it kept me intigued and wanting to quickly unfold it, the quests on Archeage is a part of your leveling process where you learn to battle, craft, gather, trade, build, climb, glide, explore, even rowboating (just keep your eye on your Labor Points). It's also quick, in just under 12 hrs I reached level 25, the PVE quests stopped at 30 where the sandbox element begins and you level through those thing you've learned before until you reached the cap (level 55)

Beside those thing I realized that I barely scraped what Archeage has to offer, but I also don't really know how deep it is, it's a good game, and it's free so I can check it out anytime (at least until the community become toxic and PKer started killing newbies, Trion stopped replenishing f2p player's LP, and destroy the population altogether), one of the most memorable thing on Archeage is when I snatched people's crops and raised my larceny level, but hey it was unprotected, and no one's there, and the game allowed me to do that, so I grabbed it (and run), why did I do that? I don't know, I probably just liked potato very much.

My ticket to jail

Read more about Archeage and their sandpark features here

Phantasy Star Online 2: First Look

Apparently the space is not always a star ocean.... It's full of PHANTASY!!! (whatever it is)

The English Version of Phantasy Star Online 2 probably will never see the light on western hemisphere, although you can play the Japanese version with a third party english patch but grouping with random player probably can be a hassle, but anyway let me told you about my first few days on PSO 2 English Version (South East Asia only)

Before I played I never read any review, description, or anything about PSO2, not even a beta, so when I first zoomed in to the server I got quite stunned that it has Gameguard.... okay move along, PSO2 has only three basic class: Hunter (melee based), Ranger (ranged based), and Force (healer/magic type), they can 'evolve' on level 30 to become Fighter, Gunner, and Techer, also apparently there's a tech tree which you can mix and match with skill from another class (cross class skill) but I don't know how deep the system is, I'll keep it up in mind for my next post. So anyway PSO2 has three races, Human, Newman (elves), and Cast (androids). each race can be of any class, there's some basic and deep appearance customization for each race, for Cast however you can only change your body tipe and head, there's also several human head options that you can customize but it's kinda put me off because putting it on a robot body... it looks like a disembodied emotionless head being put in a robotic body. so I go with the ordinary robot head, and this is the 'final form'

now all that's left is to find a young boy to pilot me and we can go save the universe!!

Okay, let's go to gameplay, as a Hunter I sported a really big two-handed power sword which kinda encumbered my character, the battle in PSO2 occured in real time, you have two kind of attack, left mouse is your ordinary attack, you can combo it with another timed left mouse, if perfectly timed (indicated by orange aura around your character like Legend of Dragoon) you can stagger or even stun enemies (called perfect strike), enemy performance can't be interrupted with any other way... so here's the thing: looking at a big giant monkey raising and then throwing a big boulder while I spin around creating a cyclone of blade around him --while he is doing that without a single hint on his perturbed face that I caused big numbers by hitting him repeatedly -- is kinda... odd. Anyway my cyclone of death is called photon arts and it's my super attack initaited by right mouse button, it needs resource called PP so it's kinda have to be reserved, oh yeah you can also dash by double tapping your arrow button, and attack while you're jumping (now every new MMO has it!!!) :P

Not Pictured: I stumbled

Beside the big sword I also have a gunslash which literally is my ranged attack weapon, I can also press shift to change it's mode into a fast-attack one hand sword, if the Shift button is used while you're using the big sword you'll defend against an attack, you can also customize weapons to change it's combo and foton arts, a regular and foton arts combo usually initiated by two perfectly timed push of a button, sometimes photon blast occured, an environmental anomaly triggered by defeating enemies perfectly and enhancing your attribute, making you an unstoppable engine of death, not always though, and when you become unstoppable usually the enemy's already down before you know it, this can change on higher level though, probably. One more thing: I can also press 'Z' to change my view into those third party shooter mode like those like Mass Effect.or Gears of Wars

Just shoot it Shepard!!

PSO2 is instance based, meaning like Guild Wars you have one central hub, you can meet anyone in this city hub (or in case in PSO2: Mothership), everytime you entered a mission (quest) instance you'll be assigned a 'room', you can name this room and recruit people for it, the number is varied on each missions, you can also solo it or bring an NPC party member that you'll recruit as the main story progress, don't want to wait? Just find and open room with people on it and join the fray (just like Diablo 3), before the mission begins there's also a 'preparation' room for you to strategize and buy/sell buffs and items, when you're in an instance your HP/PP/MP won't be replenished unless you found a replenishments (contained in destroyable objects) or a healing station (on instance intermissions), consumables like HP potions are a kind of big point in here, (just like Diablo 3/Path Of Exile all over again) so make sure you're prepared to bring a bunch of instant health potion before you go dive into a mission

In the mothership there's a lot you can do, first there's the main story, yes it's kinda just slapped there with a sprinkle of dramatic moments here and there, some fancy magic scenes, some pony summoning... (yes, they exists). Apparently some bug creature called D-arkers are destroying planets and it's up to us to prevent it... and so on.  There are daily quests, and some special missions which provides tutorial, mailbox, crafting, there are furnitures, one thing I like about PSO2 is that like guild wars 2 I'm free to deposit my item wherever, unfortunately my storage is limited on slots, and like all free to play titles I can expand it for a little cash. Playpark is kind enough to give me a bonus of points every time I did consecutive day logging.

Pictured: A representative  from a p2w game

The thing I dislike very much about PSO2 is how BLAND the interface is, all the good thing came in from combat, but that interface, my God, always a white courier font text on blue background, yes I know it's in space, but come on!!

It killed your soul, quickly

 also, when you're disconnected your instance will be reset... noooooooooooooooooooo!!!

Well, despite the tedious combat, PSO2 has something... shiny, apparently for me it's just too boring to go on and the shiny thing died inside, but since it's free to play it's a perfect place to spent times shooting, hacking and slashing with friends, there's probably a better game for that, but hey at least they have ponies...

Wanna be friends?

Being Saleh: (Not) One Left

My MMO shortlist only has one name left: Phantasy Star Online 2 which will have their english version-south east asia only beta on the end of the month, sure there will be Archeage on upcoming month, I also (mildly) interested in Elite: Dangerous but since one of them is a sandbox (open PVP) and the other is a space sim, I'll probably will be there just to try things out. Also PSO 2 is developed for console so probably  it'll be more action oriented like DCUO, the free to play is the perfect bait though.

With two MMOs crossed off my list is a real relieve. My latest encounter with ESO didn't really working, to be honest as i played the last beta months ago I can't seemed to understand the game, I can't even write a decent, coherent post about it, some of the player said that now the game has matured a bit despite all the fuss (especially about the free month fiasco), but still it didn't even piqued my interest yet. With Wildstar however I found a short-timed joy, before it got into the phase where internet connection become your biggest problem and I quit tanking, oh and also healing, how people can heal through those messed up telegraph amidst those jumping and dodging is still amazed me, I probably just sucked though

With only a week left in my sub on FFXIV I once again contemplating about my stand on MMORPGs, I burned out once three months ago because of all the things i must try at least once, including my steam games, and until now I still haven't finished any of it yet, I guess maybe MMOs has evolved into the next best thing and I'm just too lazy to keep up, or probably just too lazy to play

Update: I accidentally renewed my FFXIV sub, damn you auto payment

Now the smirk seems haunting...

Being Saleh: Trading Places with Patch 2.2

Patch 2.2 won't be news again when I publish this, but it's still worth mentioning, beside making everything worthy again by implementing challenge log, patch 2.2 is a turning point where everything becomes less chore and more fun

FUN??!! BLASHPEMY!!! Well okay, enough of jokes, you know what? What's the point of leveling my chocobo to level 50? Nothing, but with challenge log everytime you defeat a foe with him/her (i'm not picky) it'll be counted towards your progress of the challenge log, and if you complete that challenge you'll be granted significant amount of xp and money. And yeah, what about grinding those rep for the new sahagin faction? Boring! Well ok how about if it also counted towards your progress on this challenge log? Well ok, two bird in a stone I guess.

Challenge Log is a series of work order that can be completed which rewards titles, money, and xp. It lessened but not eliminated a series of 'useless grinding' chores on Final Fantasy XIV like running hests and leveling your crafting, they resets once a week so you can complete your five hests run on five days or less, oh yeah there's a challenge for dungeon too, that way you get your xp, mytho, soldiery tome, and much more money, all in one run, can i have an instant gratification, please?

Well for altholic challenge log is a blessing since it gave major boost to leveling process, for casual dungeoneers it gave more reason to run multiple dungeon a day, for gatherer and crafter it gives you money for each and every challenge completed for rare and plain items, and you do know that gil is everything a crafter can dream of, so yeah challenge log is for everyone, except maybe coil-dwelling hardcores. They have five more turn of no-ability-lag-dramafest implemented in this patch

Also i decided to move on from being a tank, the patch has created more group content benefits that the dps on duty finder only got several minutes of queue times, convenient. Also leviathan has interesting mechanic and it was more fun to dps than to tank

Amazing Spiderman 2: Reviewed

Since my previous review, life's been good to Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), finishing both high school and armed street thugs, it's probably one of his golden days of youth, beside his on-off relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) there's seemed nothing that can stop his pretty beautiful days.from go on.

Of course there is always a but, while life's been good with both Spidey and Peter, it's not really had it going on with Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), he's practically invisible, his boss stole his credit for his work, his colleauges doesn't even know about him, he's a nobody and he accepted that while at the same time harboring the growing need to be seen by the world, a really really unhealthy need. so it begins: The Amazing Spiderman 2

Being a sequel sucks, you must make sure you overshadow the first and deliver things that makes the audience said: "it's not a rehash of the first one", being a remake is even more sucks because you also have to make sure it's better in ALL things than the predecessors. So in this remake we've already knew that Spidey is a delinquent that enjoys spouting funny and catchy lines to the bad guys, and in this movie he also liked being in the spotlight and thrilled at every negative stigma of vigilantes labeled at him, Spidey made fun of the world while saving it, and that's cool, this movie is extremely optimistic and melancholic at the same time, Peter and Gwen has their share of optimistic love story, they're young, they're in love, and yes they can do anything....

Meanwhile: Max Dillon got into accident partially caused by the ignorance of his colleagues, while previously he has his issues with his obsession of Spiderman (after he got saved by Peter) when he finally returned as Electro he carried this unhealthy dose of his complex, so if you're bullied by almost everyone you met for God knows how long, what will you first do when you finally obtained a nearly unlimited power? revenge? unfortunately it's just a small prize, he's aiming beyond revenge, he developed a new obsession, obsession for his own power, and for that Spiderman must die since he's the only thing stand between him and his ultimate goal.

Spiderman and Electro are antithesis, it's the other theme of this movie, Spidey reject the statement of "the strong wins" while Electro accepted that, Spidey's aim is to protect while Electro is to rule, it's just like when the goblin said to Raimi's spiderman on the first movie: "they will hate you no matter what you do" Electro is that Spiderman if he accepted the offer to rule, and we can't really blamed him since Max was a broken man for far too long as the result of those who are strong, one more thing: the description of him in this movie never made the audience sympathizes with him, it's a perfect balance to split Max and Electro, when Electro lives Max is no more, while on the other hand just like the first movie we can't really split Spidey with Peter, with or without mask.

I know there are two other villain in this movie, The Goblin/Harry Osborn (Dan DeHaan) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) but their appearance here is only a prelude for what is coming on the next sequel, and to be honest I'm afraid that it won't deliver, Amazing Spiderman 2 is a decent sequel and deliver a progress of both on Peter and Spiderman's life, it prepared him to face the next level with these baddies (and others) but I really don't think next level can be described in two hours length of movie because it can only focus so much on some character, Avangers did it with six heroes but each of them has their own prequel movie, what about six villain? I know there wll be spin off about them, but it will come after Amazing Spiderman 3, so what will spidey do on the third? Another Venom thing? I really hope it won't become another Venom-Carnage comic relief like in the cartoon series where only one of them is the villain and the other is just stand there to deliver Strascream's-minion-like cheesy monologue.

For this sequel, despite the review I'm gonna give it an eight since it's optimistic and light-hearted