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Best Posts of June 2008 - gmtristan.com

Wow! Time really flies fast… if you’re having fun (and stressed out too *wink*). But it was all worth it, mind you.

June was a busy month. Again. What else is new?

For starters, we announced a new game, Crazy Kart and then migrated the Level Up website to the Wordpress platform. This move was met with positive feedback and comments. Our sincerest gratitude. I’m glad that you liked it. On the downside, RF Online had to do a major economy fix so that we can fix a serious game breach - duping.

Oh well… we have our ups and our downs. But the thought that there are still thousands upon thousands of loyal Level Up players (like you) - keeps our blood running…. I kid thee not when I say that we’re all working hard to make your gaming experience even better.

In case you missed some of the stuff here at my blog, I’ve compiled the best posts of June 2008 for your convenience.

And that’s just a click away, sir…(or madam)

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Gaming Legends

When we talk about “Legends”, these guys are of course, larger than life. People look up to them as role-models of the community. They idolize them due to their achievements, respect their views and often, follow them to the “ends of the earth.”.

These gamers may closely epitomize King Leonidas of the 300, one who will be the first one in a fight and the last one to leave.

What does it take to become a “Legend” inside the MMORPG or game that you play? Is it for everyone? In fact, is it easy at all?

That and more after the break

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Racists and Homophobes Online

Now they’ve done it!

They pissed off Adam Sessler, host of G4TV. According to Gaming Today, Sessler was playing Xbox Live when a 10-year-old kid started calling him names. Surely, these bigots can’t get enough of ruining a good guy’s day. This doesn’t happen just in Xbox Live, mind you. I’ve seen it (and experienced it) first-hand during the course of MMO playing.

Yes! I agree with you Adam! Let it rip…

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Game Management Wisdom

For the almost 5 years I’ve been in the gaming industry, I learned a lot of things. How to do things right and, in the course of handling the different aspects of the games and the business, I also learned what NOT to do.

During these times, experience has been my greatest teacher. I’ve had a lot of mentors too. Those who told me how to do the “corporate” stuff like juggling numbers, managing people, deliverables, to them - I all owe my sincerest gratitude. But like what I said before, failures are also something to embrace. Why? Because you learn from them. The taste of success will be sweeter if you get up when you fall down.

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D&D Launches 4th Ed

The much anticipated Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition was launched last June 7, 2008 with Wizards of the Coast, official publishers of game declaring that day as “Game Day”. A special game day website was made by WotC so that fans and players can hook up with one another to try out the new ed of D&D.

Without D&D, none of this MMORPG or fantasy gaming would have existed. Also, being an old vet of pen-and-paper RPGs, I’m quite excited about the launch too, having heard that the 4th Ed takes D&D gaming into the virtual and online environment with such tools as the D&D Insider.

After the break, I’ll show you what’s new in D&D 4th Ed and also a special video feature by G4TV with an interview with head designer and WotC R&D Director Bill Slaviseck.

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Blogging: Map of the Blogosphere

You’re probably wondering how many blogs are out there right now?

As of today, Technorati is currently tracking around 70 million blogs… with more being added by the minute. If it were a universe, how would the blogosphere look?

Well, these dudes with too-much-time on their hands did exactly that - map the blogosphere with “hyperbolic” data using actual blogs and their links.

Alright… where am I in this dense universe??? It looks like the Milky Way.

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How Rich Are Our Philippine Senators?

Time out!

Here’s a break from our regular game programming.

Alright, you voted for them. They won. Now, do you want to know how rich our currently-elected senators are?

Inquirer recently published an article saying that Senator Manny Villar leads the pack with a net worth of over 1 billion pesos (USD 23.8M) while Sen. Trillanes is the “poorest” with a net worth of just P2.6 million.

This is based on the senators’ recently declared statement of assets and liabilities (SAL) for 2007. The SAL is a yearly requirement for our officials and is for public consumption.

Want to know how the others fared? Hit jump.

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Best Feature of MMORPGs?

A lot of online gaming companies are banging their heads to come up with new and innovative features for the latest MMORPGs. No one wants to be another “cookie cutter” or another WoW clone.

Let’s face it. A lot of MMORPGs out there look the same. Except for a new “theme”, new monsters, or some subtle changes in gameplay, it’s not that all different. Go to a quest, kill a monster, get good item, level up. This evil cycle repeats itself ad nauseum.

Some games spend advertising money to harp about the better graphics and how real the light and shadows are. But do the real gamers care?

Meanwhile, I decided to come up with an informal poll on which features of a game would make one play. The choice is yours…

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Managing Virtual Economies

Part of managing an online game is keeping track of the economy within the delicate ecosystem of an MMORPG.

This means close monitoring of both supply, demand and the number of rare items in a given server. Fail to this, and the economy will falter. A game with a super-inflated economy will lose players faster than you can say “dupe”.

How do you monitor economies?

Hit jump to find out.

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Skipping the Meeting?

One of my favorite business authors and blogger, Seth Godin had a cool and short post about meetings.

Seth says that we should skip a meeting a day for two weeks and see what happens.

Come to think about it, I have around 2 to 4 meetings a day on the average. Only when I’m done can I get back to doing work and reading my mail. I’m not saying that meetings should’t be done. Let’s just pick out the really important ones and keep it short.

Perhaps this ad might open your eyes…

Gotta end this post now. I have to rush - to a meeting. Lol.

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