Level Up LIVE 2007 Tournament Prizes

October 28, 2007 · Filed Under Contests, LIVE 2007, Events · 5 Comments

The Philippines’ BIGGEST and BADDEST online gaming tournament is just around the corner.

At November 3 and 4, all roads will lead to the World Trade Center as various teams and individuals compete for over 1.6 MILLION in total cash and prizes at stake!

I already blogged about the cash prizes for the side events and this time, I’ll be telling you how much the champions and the runner-ups can take home. As you may know, most of the games will have 2 teams who will be vying for the championship in their respective games in either a best-of-3 or best-of-5 (depending on the game and match rules).

For Day 1 (Saturday), here are the game finals that will be featured

Pangya
Khan
FlyFF
Perfect World

Day 2 (Sunday) will feature the finals for:

Freestyle
RF Online
Ragnarok

The complete list of cash and in-kind prizes after the jump!

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Level Up Mobile

October 28, 2007 · Filed Under Level Up, MMORPG News, Infotech, Videos · 9 Comments

Here’s another FIRST in online games and MMORPGs!

Level Up in cooperation with the Philippines’ biggest telecommunications company, Smart, is proud to announce LEVEL UP MOBILE!

For Smart subscribers, just text LEVEL UP to 299 to download the Level Up Mobile Menu. With the service, gamers can do the following:

Link your MyLevelUp Account to your phone
Manage your account - balance inquiry, change password, etc.
Lock and Unlock (willingly ban) your accounts for added security
Download content like wallpapers, ringtones and logos
Get regular news and updates for your favorite games
Guildtext - send one message to all your guildmates (soon)

Here’s a video of the service:

After the jump, I’ll discuss more details about Level Up Mobile

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Meet the Vii - China’s Answer to the Wii

October 27, 2007 · Filed Under Infotech, Gadgets · 2 Comments

Alrighty then!

The Chinese are at it again with a shameless clone. It’s the Vii

This time it’s a clone of the Nintendo Wii. They even cloned the controller. According to Gaming Today:

“They’ve even cloned the Wii-mote rather well, relatively speaking of course, giving it the Wii-esque pastel color of choice. Engadget’s China affiliate recently conducted hands-on experience with the Vii and even provide side by side comparisons with its genetic parent. “

Here’s a comparative photo:

Check out the clone of games after the jump…

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Erap Estrada Granted Pardon by GMA

October 27, 2007 · Filed Under Uncategorized, Musings, Videos · Comment

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has granted full executive pardon to ex-president Joseph “Erap” Estrada yesterday. Erap, as we all know, has been recently convicted of plunder just six weeks before. According to spokesperson Ignacio Bunye, GMA has exercised her executive powers to grant full clemency and that Malacanang has also a policy to grant pardon to prisoners “over 70 years of age”. The ex-president is exactly 70 years old.

DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno was tasked to serve the pardon and went to Tanay, Rizal to give Erap the good news. As of this writing, Erap has already come back to San Juan, his home city (where I also live).

It was really horrendous traffic here kanina as thousands gathered in front of the municipal hall where Erap gave a short speech around 8pm. The entire N.Domingo street was blocked to traffic all the way to the SM Centerpoint bridge.

Too bad, I was not able to get photos since I waited it out at the office, having to file a million forms and do final checks for the player kits for LIVE 2007.

Anyways, check out the video below if you missed it on TV.

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Writing Better News

October 27, 2007 · Filed Under Blogging · 2 Comments

I always try to install practical writing tips when I meet and talk with my community managers. These guys are in charge of general news and announcements in their game’s primary website and forums. Much of these are gleaned from the years of experience I had as a professional writer and also from being a community manager.

The following habits can also be synced into web-writing. The only additional knowledge and skill that you need is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is practically making certain that the keywords that you “protect” are always in your headline, blurb or first few paragraphs.

The same can be said for blog-writing.

Just follow the following notes, tips and guidelines and you’ll be on your way to writing better articles and being on top of Google and other search engines.

More after the jump

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Level Up Live Filmfest: Real Life Online

October 26, 2007 · Filed Under Contests, Videos, LIVE 2007, Ragnarok, Events · 6 Comments

It’s only a few days to Level Up LIVE 2007. 8 Days to be exact. I think I’m going to enjoy this long weekend and “recharge” my internal batteries to prepare for 3 days of no-sleep and “Red Bull” spamming when I go off with the team for the ingress.

Anyways, the deadline for entries for the Level Up Filmfest are now over. Last year we got 5 entries, this year we got 10.

And the lucky winner will go home with P20,000 in cash.

Meanwhile, check out this entry entitled “Real Life Online” by Castigador

Really funny. One of my personal favorites.

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Top 10 Weapons We Don’t Have Yet

October 25, 2007 · Filed Under Infotech, Gadgets · 6 Comments

Now these are NOT video game weapons. I already featured the top 10 video-game weapons before.

This post is about real-life weapons that we wished we had right now.

Technology is really growing at a fast pace. What seemed like science fiction a few decades ago is now reality. Do look at the bulky tablet PCs in Star Trek and you can see better products in the market today. Imagine bringing back an iPod or a Nokia N810 back in the 80s! You’d be considered an alien with alien technology during the days. Or how about travelling back in time with a Nintendo Wii?

Weapons are also advanced today. Look at a fully armed Apache helicopter. If the US had that in Vietname, it might have been a different ending. Anyways… let’s move on…

Check out the TOP 10 WEAPONS after the jump

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Early Birds’ Prizes for LIVE 2007

October 25, 2007 · Filed Under LIVE 2007, Events · 16 Comments

Last year, people were camping out as early as 10pm on the night BEFORE the big event (LIVE 2006). There were even false “sheets” about who was there first. We gave out a lot of in-game prizes for the “Early Birds”. This year, by virtue of tradition (and with even more titles in our online portfolio), LIVE 2007 Early Birds mechanics is now prepared.

Yes, Level Up! will be giving away awesome Early Bird prizes for the first 200 attendees who will come flying down to the World Trade Center! This will be for LIVE 2007: November 3 and 4

And the prize? In-game items for the game of your choice!

And they’re not just any random run-of-the-mill items either. These are premium items which you’ll surely want to get your mits on, guaranteed!

Complete list after the jump

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Butterfly Wing Vending at Valkyrie

October 25, 2007 · Filed Under Ragnarok · 9 Comments

If you live under a rock, you won’t know that teleport items such as Butterfly Wings or “Bwings” are illegal in Valkyrie, Philippine Ragnarok Online’s newest Free-to-Play (F2P) server.

But someone just e-mailed me an interesting screenshot.

Apparently, you can see in the photo below that a single butterfly wing is vending at 99M! Holy (*#&*(!@$!

Check out the screeny below. Just click on it to see the bigger version.

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Optimus Prime On Ebay (The Real Thing)

October 24, 2007 · Filed Under Musings, Movies, Gadgets · 2 Comments

No! It’s NOT an action figure. It’s not a toy!

It’s the real deal!

Someone had the cool idea of modding a REAL Peterbilt Truck to look exactly like Optimus Prime and then he placed it on ebay for bids. It’s a real Transformer… except that it doesn’t transform.
It started at $1,000.00 and the final selling price was over $55,000. Sweet! Easy way to make money eh?

Check this one out: