GM Tristan dot com Year In Review 2008

January 2, 2009 · Filed Under Blogging, General, Level Up, MMORPG News, MMOments, Marketing, Musings, Online

Time to say goodbye to 2008 and welcome the new challenges of 2009. 2008 was a great year for the local gaming scene and even the worldwide gaming industry.

Here’s a Year-In-Review for the past year, 2008. Join me as we look back in the great year that was.

1st QUARTER 2008

JANUARY

For the local MMO scene, we got started by providing the download links for Crimson Dawn, RF Online’s biggest patch for 2008 as early as January. Crimson Dawn saw to the further growth of RF as a top favorite among Filipino MMO players. Crimson Dawn launched in February of 2008.

Meanwhile, we also said goodbye to Pangya, one of our casual games. Sadly, Pangya closed down on January 25. In the infotech scene, Netscape also said goodbye. After many years of battling IE, the curtains came down for the old browser that I grew up with in the early 90s. Meanwhile, the bad news continues as we we were all shocked by the death of actor Heath Ledger, his great performance in the Dark Knight will be unparalled in the years to come.

I also did a story on “Pilots” in MMORPGs. Piloting has grown recently in practice for Filipino MMO players and I wanted to look into this activity. While we’re at the gaming scene, my post on How To Start An Internet Cafe Business has been a great help to many budding entrepreneurs and it has maintained a good page rank in Google ever since.

To cap off January, I wrote some tips on Monetizing Your Blog and how to find great tools for gaming online.

To start off 2009, sizzling hot babes graced my pages for January - Olga Kurylenko (new Bond girl) Ruffa Mae Quinto , Shanella Strauss , and Sophie Monk

FEBRUARY

I started off Feb by featuring one of the most talented RO players in the country, Master Diwa (MD), MD is a musician, cosplayer and film maker and will end up making the score for Survivor Philippines and winning awards for 2008. Speaking of Ragnarok, the newest patch, Veins was now available for download. I also got to meet up with Happyslip, one of youtube’s rising Filipina stars. I was also busy for gaming events such as the Robinson’s event and our trip to Laoag.

As the month of hearts, I did some feature articles such as Romance in Online Games and also the Most Romantic Moments in Gaming video. In terms of MMO launches, we launched the much-anticipated Crimson Dawn patch for RF Online on Feb 26.

GM T Babes for the month of February were Marian Rivera , Katrina Halili , Maria Ozawa , and Mocha

MARCH

As summer fast approached, everything became frenetic. The movie scene was abuzz with hype for the coming Iron Man movie. Meanwhile, gaming lost another legend with the death of Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons and Dragons.

Back to online gaming, we started off preparations for LIVE 2008 with the unveiling of the teaser site and posting the mechanics for the individual tournaments. Speaking of “sneak peeks”, Flyff also gets some buzz with the teasers for Version 11. RF and Perfect World got new servers and for events, I was off to Baguio and then spent the Holy Week back in Manila.

In sports, Pacquiao defeats Marquez in their rematch fight..

In summer, the temp rose. But these girls added to the scorching heat - Olivia Munn and Marissa Miller

2ND QUARTER

APRIL

The web and the blogosphere had new, innovative April Fool Jokes to start off the month. I finally laid my old mobile to rest and got a new Nokia N77, which I have to this day. FlyFF launched its new patch - version 11, I visit the gaming crib of LU writer Gi Garcia, Rica Paralejo visits LU HQ to feature me and pals for Rock Band, Perfect World launched Dusk Palace, and we get the biggest news off by announcing that the RWC 2008 will be held in our very own country!

Babes for April: Rica Parelejo (with GM T) , Girls Aloud and Hazel Ann Mendoza

MAY

It’s summer time! And I start it with an interview at Rock Ed Radio and then the whole LU gang goes to its annual summer party! Weee! Loads of fun.

Meanwhile, Cebu gets a Level Up Facelift as the city hosts our mural project. Great paintings! Thanks to the officials at Cebu city for supporting us. We also announce Crazy Kart, our newest online racing game and the hype is off.

Unfortunately, RF has some duping problems and we had to make the hard decision of doing a major rollback to protect the integrity of the game.

May GM T Girls were Jessica Alba and Precious Adona

JUNE

The Philippine movie industry lost another icon when Rudy Fernandez died due to cancer. I was also one of the first bloggers to feature Pinoy duo, MoyMoy Palaboy even before their stars shined. Moymoy Palaboy were players of RF Online, btw.

By mid-June we bagan Closed Beta for Crazy Kart and the response was very enthusiastic. Thanks to all the players who participated in my CBT contest and everyone who played in the CBT. We all had a blast.

Our Game Heroes website was also launched and we sent out a Call for Heroes to be featured at the site. Speaking of websites, the Level Up website gets a makeover too. Finally, we all wiped the drool off our faces when we saw a preview for Diablo 3. Man, those videos rocked and will be one of the best memories of 2008 for me.

In the NBA, the Celtics win the 2008 championship over Kobe and the LA Lakers. It’s like the good old rivalry days all over again!

To end June and the 2nd quarter, Eva Mendez , Laika Pangilinan and Brooke Burke graced the GM T Girls section.

3RD QUARTER

JULY

It’s off to Davao for me and my team for the Davao Cyber Expo event. During the same week, we revived the Level Up Rewards program. Now all those rewards points can be redeemed for in-game items and more.

We did the press conference for Crazy Kart, land aunched the Pinoy Jeep - the first Jeepney in a racing game, btw.

Of course, let’s not forget the July girls - Adriana Lima , Jo Garcia and Denise Milani

AUGUST

Time sure flies when you’re having fun. Level Up is now on our 6th year. What better way to celebrate this milestone by having a fun and wacky cosplay event at the office? Each department was given a country as a theme for cosplay, food and decorations. The Sales department brought home the bacon with their rendition of the Philippines. Gratz! That was fun!

I also decided to get a new look and uploaded a new theme (skin) for gmtristan.com. Goodbye to the old orange-and-black theme that I had for more than a year. Check out the evolution of my blog over the years.

Meanwhile, we posted the official rules for all the LIVE 2008 contests and side-events such as cosplay, national art and video making (filmfest). Kevin Codamon and yours truly also spearheaded the special Level Up gaming blog category for the Phil. Blog Award that month.

August GM T babes - Christine Mendoza , Valerie Concepcion , Kelly Hu and Alison Caroll (new Lara Croft)

SEPTEMBER

Starting off September, Perfect World gives their website a major facelift and Ragnarok starts selling MVP boss cards in the item mall.

My new pRO Brand Manager, Ryan Sacares, joins my brand management team and steers pRO to even greater heights. Ryan gets to work and sets off the new Midgard Congress to get the feedback of the community. As another milestone, I was assigned to lead and manage the entire Level Up MMORPG portfolio - RO, RF, PW and FlyFF. Waukster takes the reins of the Casual Games group (CK, Grand Chase, Be There, SRO) and advergaming. They immediately get to work and announce another new casual game - Grand Chase.

September is also my birthday month and special thanks to everyone who remembered. Appreciation and gratitude also goes to Waukster for featuring me in his blog for a birthday interview. Thanks, brother.

We also launch a new website - Level Up Music featuring both old and new Level Up songs done by famous local artists. Barrio was a big hit!

And let’s not forget, my Babes for September - Mariah Carey , Veronica Zemanova , Leah Dizon , Carrie Keagan and Hwang Mi Hee

4TH QUARTER

OCTOBER

It’s the last quarter storm! And it’s time for LIVE 2008!

During the first week of October, RPC is down to its FINAL 8 to determine who will represent our country to fight in the coming RWC at LIVE. The Bozanian Beastfighers (Boza) came out on top as the Philippine Champions. Still at RO, and with a new team, we release the first official video trailer of Demise of Morroc featuring the PVP Battlegrounds. We also told everyone that Myung Jin Lee, the creator of Ragnarok, will be a special guest at LIVE 2008.

The entire Level Up team is down to the last stretch as we get ready for LIVE 2008 - our biggest gaming event yet for October 18 and 19. With competitors from more than 21 countries, all eyes were on us so we had to work double time and do the sprint.

Team Thailand - RWC Champions

Check out the highlights of LIVE 2008:

Thailand came out as the RWC 2008 Champions edging out Korea. Too bad we lost… but there’s still the next RWC! And our boys gave it their all. Hats off to the Philippine team. We’re proud of you.

LIVE 2008 was truly an event of firsts, the Filharmonika Orchestra performed the theme of Ragnarok for the first time in a gaming event, it’s the first time that the RWC was held outside of Korea - and more. I’m proud to be a part of this historic event. Thanks to everyone who attended and supported the event - it would not have been succesful without you. Congrats to all winners of the tournaments, side-events and contests, too!

October’s gotta be our busiest month ever! Level Up CEO Jane Walker and yours truly announce 3 new games (at LIVE) that we acquired and are going to launch in 2009

NOVEMBER

First, have a look at how Level Up celebrates the Halloween here.

After the successful LIVE 2008 event, there’s no rest for the wicked as we immediately drill down the details for the coming Ragnarok Server Merge, the 3 p2P servers will merge into NEW CHAOS with a new, cheaper subscription rate, tons of events and a lot of promos and discounts for the Ragnarok gamer. New Chaos was born on November 14, 2008.

Meanwhile, FlyFF gets new blood as we launched V12 - The Forsaken Tower.

I travel to Korea for the annual GStar 2008 game convention and get to see a lot of cool, new games. As always, the experience was a blast. The girls this year were hot, hot, hot!

The Girls of GStar 2008

The Rohan online presence also gets born via its official plurk page, teaser site and other SNS essentials. Rohan is clearly an anticipated title. Me and the rest of the gang are all excited about this game.

Finally, for November, allow me to present the Babes: Sunshine Rodriguez , Girls of GStar 2008 Part 1 , Girls of Gstar 2008 Part 2 , and Justene Jaro

DECEMBER

Ahh… 2008 is almost over. The year went through like a breeze.

Our Multimedia team led by Joey Allarilla and Kevin Codamon do MMO TV via the web in the Merry LU Christmas Video Feed. Here, we have our GMs and other guests chat and interact with the community. I do my regular Christmas shopping, finish up my gift list and start playing Left 4 Dead, one of the best games this year! Yeba! I love the zombie pop culture!

Meanwhile, me and my team are busy trying to prep up the Rohan CBT and plan for Q1 of 2009 for all the MMO brands. We’ve got a lot of surprises for everyone and we’re gonna announce it first thing in January.

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Whew! That’s it folks!

That was a long one. I hope you all enjoyed last year. 2008 was a great and memorable year for me, my blog and the local gaming industry. Thanks to you, my dear readers, for continuing to visit and support gmtristan.com and all our Level Up games. Thanks also to all members of my team and the rest of the guys at Level Up for bearing with me and for helping out with the tons of projects, deadlines and the rest of the work. Props to you, guys!

I promise more kewl stuff, posts, vids, girls, games and gadgets for 2009!

May the coming year bring you health, success and prosperity.

I hope the gaming gods will be kind. May the drops be plentiful and may all the boss monsters fall at your blade!

Strength and Honor!

Mon Macutay (aka GM Tristan)

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Comments

10 Responses to “GM Tristan dot com Year In Review 2008”

Jerome on January 2nd, 2009 10:59 am

whew, antagal ko na pala nabisita lagi sa gmtristan.com
Ragnarok Database on January 2nd, 2009 4:09 pm

That picture with the Dungeons and Dragons creator is a treasure
GM T on January 2nd, 2009 8:15 pm

Yeah. That was in GenCon, Seatlle, USA. 1997. Thanks
Trade-marT on January 2nd, 2009 11:02 pm

gm tristan merun po b kau email mag rerequest po sna ako n mag lagay n kau sa hypermart ng lucky embryo? na pag nag “call humunculus” automatic lvl 20 n agad ung humun and nkuha n ung random stats.
ex lvl 20 vanilmirth 100+ matk” ung ganean po kc po nhihirapan n po me mag p lvl ng vanil lageh nmn wlang nagyayari lageh sabog ung stats n matk! plsss help po GM tristan mag labas n kau ng ganun!!!
Trade-marT on January 2nd, 2009 11:09 pm

eto po email ko ooohhh.. secondhand_serenade2002@yahoo.com
Trade-marT on January 2nd, 2009 11:10 pm

eto nga po pla email ko.. secondhand_serenade2002@yahoo.com
sna nmn po pancin nyu tong cnabi ko plss!
GM T on January 4th, 2009 3:52 am

Hi, Trade-marT, I will consider your suggestion. But no promises, thanks
Paul on January 5th, 2009 4:29 am

Whew, tagal ko na pala nagbbrowse sa site mo GM-T wakoko. Got some ups and downs lalo na sa management ng LU. But nevertheless, you still rok’!!!
Oba on May 9th, 2009 9:26 am

So I stayed up WAY too late the other night and got caught up into watching some infomercials and really liked one in particular. It struck me as funny and inetersting at the same time.
Boshart on May 9th, 2009 2:06 pm

I could of sworn I read about this before. I forgot what website I’ve seen this on but nevertheless nice post.