I didn’t give the free MMORPG Last Chaos much of a thought when an online friend first posted about it last year, because honestly, the screenshots weren’t particularly impressive and I was already busy with Guild Wars. When she posted again a few days ago about castle sieges (something I really enjoyed in Lineage II that Guild Wars didn’t give me) and marrying another character of the same sex in the game, however, I downloaded it right away!

[Brighter and glowy screenshots are ones with filtering turned on (max); darker and more jagged ones without.]

Game installed fine, ran fine, music and sound effects all zero by default but I immediately had the option to change everything on the character selection screen. So far so good! Until… character creation. (read more…)

If you’re the average Guild Wars gamer who’s English-speaking, white, male, straight, young, doesn’t have a disability and so on, the worst insults that get thrown at you are probably the N word, “fag” or “gay”, and you’d probably go, “Whatevs! I’m not even black / gay.” and move on with your day.

If you’re like the rest of us, particularly those of us who run around with a Chinese character name but are absolutely and obviously not a bot or gold farmer, it’s not uncommon to encounter personal attacks from racists, even in the supposed safety of our own PVE district (Asia – Traditional Chinese).

3 months ago, I had these two Warriors in the Traditional Chinese district of Leviathan Pits, that came doing the taunt, point, shoo and laugh emotes as soon as I mapped in. Bear in mind that players have the complete freedom and choice to travel between any districts of the same area — their intentions were clear.

(read more…)

Aidan and Zho first met possibly in Kaineng Center, standing just within earshot of each other. There was no evidence of them interacting then and they went on separate ways later on, one off to befriend the Luxons and the other the Kurzicks.

Aidan and Zho in Kaineng Center

A few years later, however, on our trips to various lands with tall folks who think we’re tiny, tiny folks who think we’re smelly, and smelly folks who are usually our enemies, Aidan and Zho got closer. (read more…)

This is a mini tribute to my brother’s Guild Wars Survivor (1) Monk, 智源, who recently died in the ending cinematic in the Vizunah Square mission, because someone else on the other team didn’t skip it — which is not that player’s fault, you know, because cutscenes are made to be watched.

Rest in peace, 智源.

ArenaNet, we have asked politely like civilised entities; we have whined relentlessly still rather like civilised entities… Now if you absolutely cannot reset a death count, please AT LEAST FIX THE STUPID BUG BEFORE ANOTHER SURVIVOR UNFAIRLY DIES CAPSLOCK KTHX

You know what’s ironic? This was originally going to be a bad review of the free MMORPG Granado Espada that I started to play 2 days ago (link goes to the site of the particular region I play on), but while I was taking screenshots and preparing for the entry, I actually learnt how to play the game properly and am shamefully enjoying it now. Damn you, grinding games and masochistic self!

Anyway, on to the game! (Very image heavy, as with other gaming blog entries!)

(read more…)