The first time I got my iPhone 4s, I was quite happy with the data plan speeds (Smart). I was reaching up to a maximum of 4.6MBPS on certain areas (like Makati, at work). Recently, the past week has been slow as hell. I thought it was due to me capping the speeds because of my MB consumption.

This started around a week ago. I continuously did troubleshooting, restarted the device and even read up on possible causes on the web. Speedtests indicate that now I get only about 0.03 MBPS on the average. That’s like a dial-up speed on a supposedly 4G network. Sheesh!

My iPhone plan allowed me 1.5 Gig per month consumption when using cellular data. The iPhone can track your consumption (Settings > General > Usage > Cellular Usage). My phone clocked in at only 280MB of usage for the first 30 days. So I called up Smart Customer Support for assistance. The agent told me that there was no network interruption or problem. I told him that it could be that the system cannot cope up with the demand. For me, that was the only logical explanation once I tried to eliminate the other possibilities. The agent then replied that he’d get back to me in 24 hours after escalating my concern with their IT guys. I asked if I already capped my 1GB consumption. He said “unlikely”.

Fast forward 4 days, still no response.

This is really frustrating. Especially for a customer’s perspective. I’m paying P2,000 per month just to have the convenience of having unlimited data – to be able to check email anytime, browse my social networks, search the web, use the GPS and do all the fun things that a Smartphone user can – upload photos, share anything, keep in touch with family and friends.

But if the network cannot handle the sheer volume of users after spending top dollar to market the iPhone, then this may be a success story that can easily backfire for Smart.

I just posted my problems at their Smart Facebook page and hopefully I get an answer soon.

So, calling the attention of the top honchos of Smart; here’s an unsolicited advice – please look into this problem and find solutions ASAP. I know I’m not the only one having this problem, some officemates and friends with the similar Smart iPhone plan have also experienced it.

Please fix this soon. Otherwise, you’ll be facing the ire of Unli-Data subscribers all over the country.

Thanks!

 Turtle image c/o GettyImages (Royalty-Free) http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/turtle-on-meadow-royalty-free-image/91273911

On January 27 to 29, the International Game Developers Association – Manila Chapter (IGDA Manila) presents Manila Game Jam 2012 (MGJ 2012), the biggest annual game-making event in the country. As part of the worldwide Global Game Jam, students, professional and hobbyist game developers will create games in just 48 hours, with the top games being awarded honors and special prizes.

MGJ 2012 is the 3rd game jam organized by IGDA Manila. Last year’s game jam had more than 80 participants forming 18 teams and producing more than 20 games. Among these submissions, the game “Speck” made it to the top ten games of the Game Sauce Challenge, showing that Filipino developers have what it takes to create globally competitive games.
This year, IGDA Manila partners with Developers Connect Philippines (DevCon), the University of the Philippines Information Technology Training Center (UP ITTC) and De La Salle – College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB) to make MGJ 2012 the best game jam to date. MGJ 2012 will be held in two sites, UP ITTC and DLS-CSB, to accommodate more participants and share the game-making experience with more people.

Similar to last year, a one-day game-making seminar will be conducted on January 20 in DLS-CSB, a week prior to MGJ 2012. Talks will be given by previous jam participants, discussing their game-making experience with tips and tricks on how to churn out a game in 48 hours. This seminar is free and open to all aspiring game developers, and will also serve as an orientation for this year’s participants.

MGJ 2012 is co-presented by Boomzap, Nokia and Accenture, with additional sponsorship from Microsoft, Anino Games, Proudcloud, Zachtronics Industries, Introversion Software, Casual Connect, Globe Labs, Unity 3D, Webgeekph.com and Spot.ph

Seeya there folks!

Pass the word around. We appreciate it.

More info? http://igdamanila.org/

Before the Christmas internet and network rush, I’d just like to wish all my readers, A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

May this Season of Joy fill your home with love, hope and good times. – From my family to yours.

This is our second roadshow or guild/player’s assembly for our newest game, Bounty Hounds Online. This time, BHO goes to San Fernando, Pampanga!

Last Dec 7, 2011, the BHO team, led by Ryan Sacares and GM Aveline trooped to Pampanga to show the game and have fun with BHO fans. We also gave away a LOT of beta keys. This was also the event where we unveiled the AWESOME, new, BHO shirt!

Check out more of the pics…

Our first event was at Metro Manila.

The BHO team will now head to Davao and Cebu! See you there!

For more details, head on over to our BHO Facebook Page and if you want to get exclusive Beta Keys, join my Facebook contest now!

Thanks!

In order to drum up and hype our latest game, Bounty Hounds Online, the BHO team is conducting a series of Guild/Player assemblies nationwide. The goal is to share the game’s features to players, guildmasters and avid fans. Also, it’s not just a one way street, so to speak. Our team, led by the BHO Marketing Manager, our Community Manager, Game Masters and game testers are on hand to hear suggestions on how we can improve the game come OBT and beyond.

The first one was held last November 30, 2011 at El Pueblo Grill.

The First Bounty Hounds Philippines Guild Assembly

Of course, gracing the event is our official BHO girl, FHM girl and model, Apple Angeles! Thanks, Apple for your support!

Meanwhile, check out more photos from the event:

We’re going to Luzon, Visayas (Cebu) and Mindanao (Davao) pretty soon! If you want to get invited or want to know details of the event, head on over to the official BHO Facebook Page.

For more photos, check out the BHO FB Album!

Props to my BHO team led by Mr. Ryan Sacares! Great work guys!

Thanks!

GM T

A facebook fan gave me feedback which led me thinkin’. Yup, he’s right. My Elly Tran profile pic (Elly Tran above) has been sitting there for more than a year now. It worked wonders marketing the page and now, sadly, it’s time to change it.

So, will you peeps help me decide which babe gets the new honors?

Just head on to my Facebook page and “like” the 6 candidates that are up for the new task.

To help you decide, here they are:

From Candidate 6 to 1…

I think I’ll let the guys help vote until Saturday and then get the winner.

So, what are you waiting for? VOTE HERE NOW

Oh, before I forget, here’s a MILLION THANK YOUS to all my peeps and fans at the FB page! We just unlocked another “achievement”, that’s 20,000++ likes and growing.

Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate it!

Seeya at the page daily…

GM T

Whew! It’s over! One day of pure AWESOMENEZZZ! That was Level Up LIVE 2011 last weekend, November 5, 2011. And, after 2 days of catatonic slumber, here (finally) is my blog coverage…

Ready?

So, what were the highlights for LIVE this year?

First off, we changed the rules for Early Birds. Instead of a long (and often chaotic line) on Saturday early morning. We had a single line on the wee hours of Friday. We also used high tech Biometrics Scanner to record and verify identities. Thanks to our staff, our agency and of course, the WTC security force and the PNP, the lines were orderly and everything moved fast. Too bad it rained a bit but a little water didn’t dampen the LU players which, methinks, do this yearly as either a “rite of passage” or tradition. Many thanks (and congrats) to all the Early Bird winners this year! Thanks once more for your unwavering patience and support!

Now, when it was time to start the show, after Gameboss Ben Colayco’s inspiring speech, it was an awesome production number! With mime artists, clowns, stilt walkers, and jugglers. But the star of the show were none other than the sexy R Girls. Our dancers wowed the audience with their Shakira-inspired belly dancing number! Woot! It was jaw-dropping awesome! I dare say that this year was one of the best dance numbers for LIVE. Thanks R Girls!!! You ‘Rok!

More! More! More!

For the tournaments, everything was facilitated without a glitch. Thanks to an early setup and anticipation for any technical problems, we finished the setup early and when it came to running the tournaments, each game’s tournament committee did their jobs like a well-oiled machine. Here are the list of Champions per game;

• KOS Champion – Simple Clan
• Perfect World Champion – Dius
• Allods Online Champion – Rebellion
• RF Online Champion – ClanRogueWolf
• Rohan Champion – Team RAI
• Grand Chase Champion – Nihil XML
• Ragnarok Champion – Harabas

Congrats to all the winning teams! And thanks too for their opponents for great fights! (There’s always next year again, dudes. Keep on aspiring for that goal)

Before the Cosplay, I had the honor of announcing our newest MMO game, Bounty Hounds Online. To help me promote it, we formed the special “BHO Girls”. Woot! Check out the pics…

Thanks, BHO Girls!

For more info about BHO, head on over to the official PH BHO site and the official BHO PH Facebook page.

And then it was time for the much anticipated Cosplay, check out some of the highlight photos here. This year’s batch were all talented cosplay artists! Congrats and thanks to all!

After that, it was time for the main event of the evening, the annual RPC 2011 finals. This was a great match between perennial finalist, Wanted and Team Harabas. Like a Manny Pacquioa fight! In a great series (which changed advantage after every match), Harabas squeeked in a victory to win 3-2 versus Wanted. Congrats to Harabas, our new RPC 2011 Champion!

During the finals match of RO, Miss Philippines-Universe Shamcey Supsup showed up! I heard that Shamcey was with his boyfriend (a FlyFF player) who was claiming an in-game prize at the redemption booth. The grapevine was also abuzz that Shamcey is a gamer herself. We’ll have to confirm that rumor, though.

After the RO finals, I showed the final list of winners for the main LIVE 2011 raffle (which we will also announce on our website and our FB pages) and the other raffle winners.

And that, ladies and gents, is how our event ends. It’s now part of the history books. Even if it was just one day, we still managed to show everyone that you’ll get the same excitement and experience compared to previous 2-day celebrations. (and yes, it’s less stress on the part of us organizers *wink*).

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the following special people who helped us mount and organize LIVE 2011:

To Adonna Tan (my Marketing Services Manager) for leading the charge and to his partner-in-crime, Jhay Jose (LU Events Coordinator) – thanks for all the hard work and the sacrifice. We couldn’t have done it without your dedication. To Niel Caruncho (our Web Team Head and Tech Setup Lead) and his staff, Jac and Sef, to Tournament Director Keith Morales, Assistant Tournament Director Gary Berba, all the games’ head judges (Ruth, Rica, Cath, Gef, Donald, Sheena, Louie, Jomar,) Marketing Managers Ryan and Roy. To all my BMs and ABMS, to the LIVE Execom members (Keith, Gary, Ryan, Janrey, Marx, JP, Nil, Sef, Pao, Lanie, Lex), to all the side-event managers and judges, to Cheena and Hazel for taking care of the cosplay, to all team members of Game Ops and CS led by JP and Dred, to all ICT team peeps led by Pao and Allan, to all the awesome Sales peeps led by Earl, Leo and Shella (special thanks to Dada for doing everything!);  to Kamesh and Caloy for handling our sponsors; to the HR and Finance team especially Ricky, Joyce, Janet and Pang for seeing to it that we have the finances in order, to all my team members in the marketing department, to the Creatives team Daqs, Sef, Otep, George, and Redg for volunteering to do a variety of tasks; to Dang and Joan for taking care of our VIPs; and of course to our head GM (General Manager), Jake, for his guidance and support, to the GameBoss Ben Colayco for his great speech and encouraging words to boost our morale and thanks also to my co-host Pam and to all the peeps at LU International. Special thanks too to former Level Up Multimedia Head, good friend and fellow blogger, Kiven Codamon for showing up and for his support.

A million thanks to all! I apologize if I missed anyone here. You know who you are.

Special thanks also to our agency, OGA led by Rod V and his trusted team members, Joie, Sheryl, Ivy, Joan, Ana and Greg. To Direk Alexa and to Nicky. To Ronald and his R Girls (paki hello mo ako kay Rea ha!) Maraming, maraming salamat po!

Of course, special thanks also to our sponsors; PLDT MyDSL, PC Express, Sykes, Star City, Yes FM, 99.5RT, No Fear, White Knight Hotel, Yeo’s Juice Drink, Lucky Me, Hero Hotdog. Thanks so much for your support!

Last but not least, our deepest gratitude to all our players and members of the community who attended the event. Seeing the crowd and your enthusiasm washed all our pagod away. You’re the reason we did this great event and without all of you, this wouldn’t have an awesome and successful event! Many thanks for continuing to believe in us, our company, and in our games.

See you again next year!

Rok On!

GM T

For more photos

• LIVE Album at my Facebook Page
• LIVE 2011 Cosplay Album

*some photos courtesy of Codamon.com and Teppie Exiled

It’s different this year. Although the Early Bird still catches the worm, please read up on the new mechanics that follows so that we won’t have a lot of Angry Birds come event time.

Repeat after me…

THERE WILL NO LONGER BE A LINE FOR EARLY BIRDS AT THE EARLY MORNING HOURS OF SATURDAY!

That’s the most important rule. Instead, we have a line for Early Birds that start on the early morning of Friday, November 4, 2011. Here are the details:

1. Early Bird stub distribution will be on November 4, 2011 (Friday) from 5 AM to 10 AM only, and will be on a first come first served basis. Only 1,000 Early Bird coupons will be given. Strictly one stub per person only. You must look for the official Level Up! Live 2011 Early Bird marshal at the gate of the World Trade Center. Early Birds may not enter the WTC premise unless advised by the marshal in charge.
2. Present a valid ID (School or Company ID, Passport, SSS ID or any government-issued ID) to the marshal.
3. Get the official Level Up Live Early Bird number stub. NO VALID ID, NO EARLY BIRD STUB. Do not lose your Early Bird Number stub, because that is your proof that you have a reserved slot on the early bird list. The Early Bird number stub is non-transferable.
4. Have your finger scanned at the biometrics machine.
5. Sign-up at the official Early Bird registration sheet.
6. Come back on November 5, 2011 between 4am to 6am only. You will be required to do the following:
   1. Present and surrender the official Early Bird number stub
   2. Scan your finger on the biometrics machine. Once the machine recognizes your finger print, exchange the Early Bird number stub with the official Early Bird prize claim stub.
7. Go through the usual registration process and claim your Early Bird in-game prize at the redemption area in the WTC Lobby.
8. Latecomers or those who do not show up on the designated time (between 4am – 6am) will forfeit their early bird slot, and will not be eligible to claim the Early Bird in-game prize.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. Failure to satisfy any of the organizer’s requirements would mean forfeiture of the early bird slot.
2. The organizer reserves the right to make amendments and adjustments anytime on the early bird mechanics, taking into consideration the safety and security of everybody.

PRIZES

Please help me pass the word and inform all your friends by sharing this post below.

Kita kits sa Sabado!

Ok peeps. Heads up. Just attending LIVE this weekend will give you that chance to win rare and IMBA itemz for your favorite LU game! Details follow….

How to Join?

1. Register on site and get your Level Up! Live 2011 Passport (see image above)
2. Fill up all the details clearly on the stub in your passport to be eligible for the raffle. (if we can’t read your handwriting, we will draw another winner)
3. Drop the Passport stub (STUB ONLY) on the RAFFLE Drop Box near the registration area to join!
4. Wait for the announcement of winners on-stage! (posted on the stage’s screen)

Prizes

• Grand Chase – Selion Gacha Set (3 Winners)
• Ragnarok – Asprika – Godly Item (3 Winners)    Brynhild – Godly Item (2 Winners)
• Allods – June Dreadnaught (5 Winners)
• FlyFF – Dragon Cloak – +10 to all stats (5 Winners)
• RF – 1 piece Type H Elem of Choice (5 Winners) – for Vasteral and Omicron Only
• Perfect World – +12 Dragon Ball (5 Winners)
• CK – RollinXairam Kart (5 Winners)
• KOS – XM8 X3 GM Gun – 120 days (5 Winners)
• Rohan – +12 Artisan Topaz Brooch V (2 Winners)    +12 Craftman Green Mano Bracers V (3 Winners)

Redemption

1. Go to the Redemption Booth located at the lobby near the food stall exit. You must be present at the Level Up Live! event to claim your prize.
2. Show at least one (1) valid ID at the Redemption Booth.
3. Fill-up the logbook on the booth with the details required. (Game, EXACT character name, Server where you play and username, etc)
4. Unclaimed prizes after 9:00pm of November 5, 2011 will be forfeited.
5. Please allow up to 2 weeks after the event for the prize awarding (insertion to your character)

Good luck!

Seeya at LIVE this weekend. November 5 at World Trade Center.

For more details, check out the OFFICIAL LIVE 2011 Website

Don’t forget to share! Thanks!

The PlayWeb/Level Up team has been planning and preparing for LIVE 2011 as soon as LIVE 2010 ended. For almost a year, we’ve been planning, implementing, coordinating and doing a million things. Now, after all the anxiety (and not to mention the hard work from everyone at Level Up), the main event is finally happening this weekend(Nov 5).

So, what’s in store for all you players? Hit the “read more” to find out!

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LIVE 2011

First, we have the tournament finals for seven (7) of our games. See the best teams/guilds go head on in your favorite game! Support them and pick out your favorite team, you’re in for an entire day of awesome PVP action, strategies and tactics. LIVE 2011 will just be a single day now and the critical element here is for the tournament committees to make their time on the stage quick and exciting. The finals will be for the following games

1. Ragnarok
2. RF Online
3. Perfect World
4. Rohan
5. Allods Online
6. KOS
7. Grand Chase

Second, there are exciting side events which you can join. Head on over here to see what we offer, we have the following

• Fan Art
• Cosplay
• FilmFest
• LU City
• Guild Rally
• Headgear Contest

Call all your guildmates and friends. You can win cash and imba in-game items for joining! Be sure to check out each activity’s mechanics for the details, ayt?

Another thing that you should know is that we have a different way of running the Early Bird this year. Since we’re concerned with everyone’s safety, there won’t be a line on the night before the event (Friday). Instead, we will be conducting and giving out early bird passes on early morning of Friday (Nov 4) once you get the Early Bird pass, you can then go home and just come back early the next day, Saturday, November 5. Check out all the rules and mechanics HERE for the Early Birds.

That’s basically it, just prep your P50 (unused) Level Up prepaid card as entrance and you’re also eligible to join the raffle (and maybe also win door prizes).

Bring an extra shirt, have lots of water (or liquids) and don’t forget to come on early to see the opening number (We’ve got an awesome number prepared for all of you).

Finally, do me a favor and hit the share button below to send this post and share with all your friends. Make sure you tell all your in-game friends, your guildmates to come celebrate with us as we do the BIGGEST ONLINE GAMING EVENT in the Philippines.

You’ll have a blast! We promise!

Seeya next weekend! Mark your calendars – NOVEMBER 5 (Sat), 2011.

Live na!!!!

For more details, head on over to the LIVE 2011 official website.

Thanks!