AX!!!

Alright, I’ll stop with the exclamation points for now. On the topic at hand, I decided to register and attend Anime Expo, since I’ll be staying in Los Angeles for the next month or so anyways. I’ve lived in San Francisco and Sacramento ’till now, so I never had a chance to go to anything like this before. I’m planning on bringing a video camera to document the four days I’ll be there! I’ll be exploring as much as I can, naturally including Gravity and anywhere I see RO players. No, I’m not going to cosplay though. Not enough time to prepare ;].

 

HI!!!

Summer is actually the rainy season in Hawaii much to my surprise. It was only sprinkling though, and most of the time didn’t last long, so I very much enjoyed my week-long vacation there. If you want to read about my trip, see the next section! Otherwise, skip it.

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We were initially planning on leaving to Hawaii on Sunday morning, but our flight was delayed for 8 hours. Then it was delayed to Monday evening. Then it was rescheduled to Monday morning. Military flights are so unpredictable. But it’s free, so thats a huge plus (my return ticket on a regular plane costed $700 for just me, ouch). We got there ‘just’ two hours after we left, so we started doing some tourist stuff to make up for the day we lost. Our one week stay at our hotel (Marriott) was also free, courtesy of the US army once again. Wonder where your tax dollars are going? Into my vacation ;].

The first few days we went to a lot of places. First off was the Dole plantation and the world’s largest maze circa 2001. Draco and I went through the maze together. The objective was to find 8 hidden stamps within the maze and bring the completed card back to the entrance for a chance to get on the leader board. Fourty minutes into wandering around aimlessly, we only found 4. In the same amount of time, our parents found all 8 =_=;. We also went to Pearl Harbor. It was alright. Im thinking about naming new chars after ships now. But not exactly the American ones (IMS Akagi ftw). We visited the USS Arizona memorial later on. It was dead silent on the memorial, despite having 60 other people crammed into it.

At the end of the week, we were supposed to get back home on Saturday. But the first flight out just filled up. And the only other flight was on Sunday, leaving me no time to get back for summer school. So we decided to ship me off on my own so I could make it back on time while they stayed for the military flight (which was delayed again btw). So now I’m back in LA.

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Lemme tell ‘ya, that last week without internet was excrutiatingly painful. I’m seriously glad we kept busy all the time or I would’ve gone crazy. At this point, I don’t know what I’m missing or what has been going on this past week. Not to mention I’m going back to school in 9 hours. Ah, oh well.

Dream of Mirror Online (DOMO)

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve mysteriously disappeared to these past few weeks, here it is! Cleric, being the master detective he is, was absolutely right, The game I’ve been playing for a few weeks now is Dream of Mirror Online, or DOMO for short. Unlike a lot of MMOs I know, and I know a lot, DOMO is the only one I know that was developed in China. Which is half the reason why the translated name sounds grammatically wrong. I’ve currently spent about a month playing DOMO, and I must say, it’s very interesting to say the least.

Like most games, DOMO has multiple job classes, ranging from melee classes to magic classes to magic melee classes to ranged classes to support classes etc. One of the nice things about the job system is that you aren’t limited to one class. You can change your classes freely between the dozen or so unique classes in the game. Classes generally contain three “subs”, or skill sets. The cool thing about the skill system is that you can transfer subs to other classes and use those skills on that class instead. This opens up a huge range of character customization that makes playing your fine-tuned class fun.

Stats are simple enough to understand. They work much like Maplestory’s stats, you get a fixed amount of stat points each level and each point you add into a stat gives you a fixed amount of bonus. However, each class starts off with a different set of default stats ranging from higher wisdom in magic classes to heavy power in melees. Moreover, stats work differently on different classes. Power might add 2 attack for one class while adding 1 attack for another class.

Unlike basic progression in RO, where a character levels base levels and job levels seperately, DOMO characters get both stat and skill points from leveling a class. The other thing is that classes level seperately. That is, your character can be a lvl 40 blademaster, but when you change to a class you haven’t leveled, it’ll start out at the default level of 10. This situation creates an amazingly close-knit community. By making the leveling of low-leveled classes present even for veterans, you mix up the player community a lot.

Partying is a major part of why I actually played DOMO for so long. Soloing becomes increasingly fustrating after lvl20 or so, but by partying in aoe parties, you literally zoom through the levels. At higher levels, partying can even net you multiple levels in a mere hour. I personally have as much high level subs as someone who has played for months simply by partying a lot. Finding a party is easy as well. DOMO sports a flag system that allows you to add yourself on a global list of people looking for a party. Combined with the high demand for parties over soloing, it’s very easy to get in and start.

Although it’s an interesting game, there are some major flaws as well. The economy is broken, simple as that. NPC gears at a low level cost thousands of gold, while loots at the same level sell to the npc for 40 gold at a low drop rate. As a newbie, it’s almost impossible to buy new things if you don’t spend your gold wisely. DOMO also has a broken cash shop as well. The item mall items are tradeable, so people regularly buy and sell them, pretty much converting real money into ingame gold. 50% of the server’s wealth is in the hands of one person, who made a living off using the item mall. Parties also discriminate against certain classes. A typical party consists of a doctor, a muse, a merc, and three aoes. However, not all classes can aoe, so they are kept from partying at higher level training spots.

All in all, DOMO is a nice change of pace. The skill and class system reminded me of what RO2’s job system was described as. As far as comparing RO and DOMO, they’re pretty much different in all aspects. RO has better pvp elements, DOMO has a better community, RO has better endgame content, DOMO is more newbie-friendly, RO uses 2D sprites, DOMO is 3D, RO has a larger population, DOMO has a smaller world map.

Freedom!!!

I never thought I’d be so happy that finals are done. I can finally get back to my regularly scheduled updates! Meaning I’ll update My RO History, make a post about DOMO (cleric was dead on target), and take part of RO’s anniversary event to get myself an unfrozen wind armor. I’ll also be tanking Draco’s blacksmith wannabe, since he suddenly mysteriously took an interest in RO again for god knows what reason. Oh right, two new char slots. As of writing this post, I have 3 hours before my plane leaves. I better get going!

My Final Serenade

It was going to happen sooner or later, with college bearing heavily on my mind and general lack of interest, but with HE gone and many of my bridges lost, I’ve had just about enough of RO. Many members still play and there is still much to do, but I’ve grown tired, really.

I’ve played RO for nearly four years now, since the beginning of high school. In that time, I’ve learned a lot and helped others learn. I’ve formed lasting bonds and bonded with friends. I’ve overcome insurmountable hardships and brought my allies with me. But there is nothing left to learn, no one left to teach. Bonds that have broken and friendships that have been forgotten. And as time went by, the bar has left the threshold of my ability. Maybe I’ve just grown old in RO time.

There are 17 people on my champ’s friend list at the moment. Out of those, only four have ever logged on in the past year. Only two regularly log on now, but rarely outside of WoE anyways. The other thirteen have left long ago, maybe to another game, maybe to the real world.

It’d be a stretch to say RO is dying. However, it doesn’t seem likely to change at all. The recent Baphomet server on kRO looks to be a promising new spark should iRO decide to follow suit, but for me, it’s already too late. I’m not leaving due to money issues or anything. It’s not the lack of community either. It’s just I’m long overdue for my character’s death.

I’ve lived a long life on RO, and I have no regrets. Whether I leave today or a year from now, I’ll still take away from my experience a treasure trove of memories. Members of HolyEXE, members of Mutiny, members of Ethereal, you’ve all pushed me along in my journey through RO, but my adventure is nearing its end. I’ve done everything I’ve wanted to do on RO (except for one thing, which you’ll have to do some guess work to find out) and I feel qualified to lead a tranquil life away from RO.

According to my account, I’ll be completely gone on Halloween’s Eve later this year. Until then, I’ll be doing what I’ve always done in times of inactivity, WoE in Insur. “My RO History” doesn’t cover it yet, but I’ve been a relatively nameless Insur member for a while, waiting to fulfill my promise to V. What motive do I have now I wonder?

Unless something comes up, I’ll always be on my champ during WoE times. The chances are very high that I won’t be on at any other time. I have four slots left on my friends list. One is already reserved for a special friend. The other three slots are up for whoever wants ‘em. Unfortunately, I dont have the resolve to remove people from my friends list, no matter how long they’ve been gone.

You guys might’ve noticed by now, but I have a song for practically every occasion. The song currently in my playlist is “Dear you” from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

HE’s Final WoE

High Quality

My internet died a little bit after the end of WoE, so I decided to get to work on the vid to waste time. Playing on an 8x sin is as bad as playing on an 7x champ, only I can’t actually kill anyone on a sin. WoE for me was a mixture of freezing, dying, and freezing then dying.

The song I used, “Thank You”, was in my playlist for a very long time, but I never got the chance to use it until now. Thanks for everything, V, Ryn, and everyone in HE.

Ah, what the heck

I’ll give you a spoiler screenshot as to how I spent the last few weeks. If you’re good at detective work, find out where I was! Unless you’re Draco. You don’t count. Cheater.

My sylph doctor decked out in lvl35 heavy armor. Hawt.

On Proposals

So V and Rae just recently got married in-game (it was a private affair it seems) and it reminded me of something my friend and I were talking about some time ago.

So we were talking about marriage proposals and all when the subject came up about the possibility that the girl says no.

Say you’ve been going out with someone for a year or so and you finally work up the courage to pose the question. You take her out to an expensive restaurant, get down on your knees, take out the ring and ask, “Will you marry me?”. She says no. What do you do then? Continue eating like nothing happened? Run out of the place in shame? Take a gun out of your pocket and blow your brains out? Well, okay thats a little extreme.

In an instant, the past year of building your relationship have come crashing down into a see of oblivion. It may have been that you were doomed from the beginning, that from the very start, you were enrolled into “The Friend Zone”. Or so we said.

Well, whatever. Grats on your second marriage V. I have a theory about how your married life is going to go, but telling you would tip you off on what I’m observing. Ehh, maybe saying that is already going to tip you off x_X. Expect another post or something soon. Well, maybe not, next week is finals.