My Pretty Face of Berita Harian... Sort-of.

A few weeks ago, sometime before Tour de Langkawi caused a massive traffic jam between LDP and Taman Tun Dr. Ismail's residential roads, a couple of nosy reporters armed with a camera invaded the space where I'm undergoing my internship. Predictably, they were interviewing the said company, a games development with a contract with Astro TV and Blue Hyppo for as long as cellphone TV-games had been around Malaysia.

Well, I'm not too big on reporters, even though I had aspired to join their club back when my Bahasa Melayu was better than my English (and reporting job was less dirty back then too). But when Berita Harian finally printed the centerfold story (coloured too~!), the interns' picture had more or less reminded me the nature of my position in this shoe box.

I know I hardly put the full picture of my face in this blog for reasons of security, but in the one area I would have been happy to smile for the camera was *ahem*ahem* blocked by Bun's arm. Awww damn-it, I'm the intern programmer in between the 3 graphics guys. I'm the REAL game builder!
... ...

Picture I 'borrowed' from Berita Harian: Ekonomi.

The picture is dated Monday, second of Match 2009 (today!). Haha, but for the laughs, that's the nature of many work environments. The joy is better in the job itself than the distraction that follows it, which in this case, a photographer who could have shown that girls can be game developers too.

Anyways, let me introduce you to my fellow interns. The boss in the coffee-chocolate shirt is Boss Bun himself. Bun is not his real name, naturally, but it was a nickname way back in university in United Kingdom. So everyone in the company calls him Bun. And yes, he's as big a gamer as the rest of us (occasionally helps with the music score on his guitar, so I've heard, hehehehe...).

Intern in far right is 3D artist no. 1, Zubs. Zubs is part of his real name but most folks around here call him Zubs (again, my secretive blogging nature, *squeak!*). Picture in his computer monitor is the texturing he's working, on a 3D model of a pot/vase/barrel/some other object, depending on his range of attention. He's one of the two older interns, fellows from the previous batch who came in the company a month early than me and Dinnie.

The Chinese guy in the red shirt squirming under Boss Bun's hovering presence is LM, another 3D artist. He's the youngest intern and most inexperienced. But oh-my-God he plays Devil May Cry 4 like it had been designed for him. Everyday, not a noon-hour goes by without a hacking-and-slashing hell-monsters with great sound effects.

See the pretty blue laptop, half-closed? Probably to hide his Dante-inaction (hehehehe!). LM's the only non-university intern. He's only here for a short job while wating for his SPM results.

Then there's me, sitting next to LM, just behind Boos Bun's arm/ You can't see my face but yes, I'm the girl with white headscarf and red shirt, covered by a coffee-chocolate sleeved arm. There's no pretty graphics on my monitor, even if you could have seen it. As programmer, I command piles of codes and written in a sequential order. And according to a chart my Supervisor-Nizam had on his cubicle (wow, a freaking dreaded box!), programmers are at the bottom of the developers' chain.

Nice... as an intern programmer, no wonder I'm invisible.

For the short of the blog message, the other 2 interns are another 3D artist, Dinnie, and a games designer, Nadia. Dinnie is the guy sitting on my right (you can see his head in a profile in the photo) and he came in at the same time I did. Dinnie is the 3rd 3D artist and is buddies with Zubs, coming from the same university and all.

The lady-not-in-the-picture is the only other female intern than myself, named Nadia. She's also from the previous batch as Zubs, specialty in game designing. Her table is somewhat on the wall facing the cameraman so she's completely covered by Boss Bun (Boss Bun was never a small guy or liked sitting small, I noticed). Like LM, she brings her own laptop to work, a powerful Acer which I totally envied.

There you go, the people of my station who I work with. The environment is great, as long as you understand that pizza and fizzy drinks are the main source of fuel in the company. Maybe if I stay a little longer than my internship, I'll finally get a real photo capture someday *winks*.

Full Games Review: Celestial Destroyer Online (3D MMORPG)

Celestial Destroyer Online
Developers: Beijing Perfect World Co, Ltd.
Publisher (MY): Cubinet Interactive

Introduction:
The original 3D MMORPG was a Chinese version called Zhu Xian and was made by developers Beijing Perfect World Co., Ltd. Recently, two versions of the game have been released in South East Asia; one in the Philippines and the other in a Malaysian server under Cubinet Interactive.
It is a free-to-play online game that is currently in an open beta version since January 2009. The game had been distributed online through various file-hosting servers and publicized in miscellaneous banner advertisements in game based websites. Free DVDs are also distributed throughout selected retail software outlets around Malaysia.
Celestial Destroyer Online’s story is based on a well-received online Chinese fantasy novel. Players are immersed in the land of ancient China that is filled in mystic and mythology, overrun by evil monsters, to investigate the outcome of the novel’s three main heroes; Zhang Xiaofan the betrayer, Lu Xueqi the heartbroken and Bi Yao, the daughter of a heretic clan.


Stunning visuals of the 3D world.

Like many online games, users are required to register for a user ID before they can create a male or female character to play as. Once entered into the world, players are given some basic weapons and equipments to begin, along with a starting quest that helps players to become familiar with the common essential features like inventory, interactive interfaces and in-game trading.
Players progress by completing mission quests and gaining experience points to level up character status. Mobs that are killed occasionally drop treasure items, which players could sell or use to craft special equipments. Once a player had reached a certain experience level, a mandatory quest would appear that required players to choose an alliance with one of five different clans in the game world. Each clan differs in strength, spell-casting ability and available magic items.


Male and female characters of the GhostLord Clan.

a) GhostLord Clan; barbarian-type abilities. Strong in defense and melee attack but weak against multiple mob hits.
b) GreenCloud Clan; mage-type abilities. Capable of long-range and large area attacks but weak in defense.
c) Joyous Clan; assassin-type abilities. Specializing in critical hits and instant kills but consumes excessive energy.
d) Skytone Clan; healer-type abilities. The only clan with protection and resurrection skills but not as powerful in melee battles.
e) GhostTrail Clan; parasitic-type abilities. Mysterious clan that is unaligned with either the righteous sect or the heretic sect.

Features:
Some of the unique features of CDO set it apart from most of other MMORPG. This includes the pathing system, player-kiling system, skill combinations library and clan contributions. After the clan system, two of the more notable features are the Kozo Amalgamation and the Pet Master system.
Kozo is a talisman players can bind their characters with to increase personal statistics and posses an exceptional skill. With constant use, Kozos can be upgraded to higher levels or players can combine two Kozos to melt into one to produce new and unique skills. The latter process could also possibly create an entirely new, stronger Kozo.
Most Kozos are available based on choice of clan. Kozos float around the player's in-game character and this enables other players identify the character's clan; Skytone clan's Kozo is bright pink while Joyous clan's Kozo is shaped like two little bells. Completing certain high-level quests would be rewarded with rare and unique Kozos. Players are encouraged to experiment with Kozo combinations to find best attributes to suit gaming style.


A Skytone Kozo, the Rebirth Bead, and its skill in action.


A GM with custom Celestial Dice Kozo floating on his left shoulder.

Another yet to be implemented is the Pet Master system. It is the bearing and training of magical creatures that players can choose as combat assistants in the mob field or city war. Like Kozos, Pets are bounded to a player’s character, can be raised to become stronger and learn special skills. There are many equipments that can be discovered which are only for Pet use. Pets can also be ‘sacrificed’ momentarily to empower the player's fighting capabilities.
There are many types of Pets to choose based on player’s experience and preferences. Certain quests and items can only be unlocked with possession of a Pet.
As the English version is still in its open beta version, features that have yet to be implemented but are promised are the following quest chapters for level 90, World Aviation, advance Kozo for GhostTrail clan and other versions of animal mounts.


Pig Pet. Click to see evolved version.


Tree Pet. Click to see evolved version.

Content:
As the game was based on an existing novel, there is a large variety of dialog, quests and miscellaneous monsters players will encounter. So far in the open beta, there are six or eight types of monsters on each map field, not including boss spawns. The game server handles up to 15 channels at a time so players can disperse around and play selectively without crowding the mob field.
As players progress by completing the main quests, they also unlock many side quests, mostly to achieve treasure rewards or large experience points as players discover more and more details of the fantasy world. There are also unique side quests that occur periodically and repeatedly at certain real time hours and only on selected channels, such as fishing competitions, poetry-hunting, group missions and boss-spawning.


Quest box to help you keep track.

Gameplay:
A lot of the interactivity and playability is basic point and click with customizable keyboard commands and are not hard to master. As a result, the solo quests are mostly repetitive and quick to complete. Certain enhancements to the individual gameplay includes skill combinations library, which players can activate a customized pattern of skills of self-buff or party-buff and trigger a sequence of strategic attacks towards a potentially risky mob.
A lot of the game’s capabilities are mainly to encourage large multiplayer groups, such as items trading, duel tournaments, party level-grinding, family alliances, guild wars and even in-game marriages. Players made full use of the world chat to offer item crafting, selling empowered equipments or request to form parties for missions.


GreenCloud sword skills in action.


GhostLord powerful attacks in action.

Visuals:
One of the best aspects immediately noted in the game are the 3D visualization and detailed graphics. Most of the terrain is based on the natural environment; the garden-like SlyRiver town, the hilly forests of GreenCloud map, the wide plains of Skytone field and etc.




Click the Thumbnails to see bigger picture.

There is a large skill tree system in CDO and each spell skill also posses its own animation effect sequence befitting the player’s choice of character; GhostLord clan’s powerful spell-casting causes the ground to shake while some spells of the GreenCloud clan exudes swarms of sword-shaped auras during battle.
Another feature of the game that is visually attentive is the large variety of animal mounts that players can purchase. Riding mounts give users an advantage to their in-game mobility and character customization. Mounts can be ridden by two characters at a time.


Two currently available mounts.



More mounts than just these are yet to come.

Sound and Music:
Much of the music used in the game are based on oriental instruments, such as flutes, chimes and strings, to give a very eastern feel, and the scores are mostly as long as two minutes apiece. Though the arrangement appears to be pre-set and unchanged, each maps of the game world had its own music score inserted periodically so players can be more immersed into the theme of the environment as they travel across the game world.
Sound effects are mostly kept at a typical package. Other than running water, combat attacks and monster cries, there are no other specific market town atmosphere or terrain-echo footsteps like in other MMOG. Both sound and music volumes are adjustable in game settings.

Overall pros and cons:
-Visually stunning environment and dynamic animations. Easy to level-up characters and master the controls. Lots of interesting new features. Multiplayer-friendly gameplay capabilities.
-Still in open beta version, many of the better features are still locked or unavailable. Quests tends to get repetitive. Some dialogs have not yet been translated and are still written in Chinese; this confuses many international players. Although it is free to play, certain in-game items can be purchased with real currency to Cubinet Interactive or by converting it into in-game currency, depending on the ever-changingexchange rate.




Jusr few of the Boss Monsters you'll encounter.

Love Thy Neighbour's Router

What I had always wanted for a long time was a kick-ass 3D capable portable computer with wireless processing so fast, it's only legal in a small group of selected WiFi restaurants (because it puts other users to shame... boo-hoo...).

See my new toy?

Smooth, silent keys...


Somewhere I belong...

It's my Acer Aspire. Though the specs were pretty mediocre as compared to my PC, the wireless modem, which is my most pressing need, is damn fast. And the webcam's icing on the cake.

Rejoice. There is a God.

My new sweetheart is second-hand, courtesy of older brotherly love (of which, the administrator-pic is still a football avatar) even though I had planned to pay him at least RM$800 for it when I heard he was selling. Reason pertaining for getting it as a freebie (a very good freebie) is that I suspect Mak had convinced him of an old story *cough* pinjaman Pity-Pity-Aunt *cough* [/pun].

But like a Ferarri lost in Tioman Island, no highway means no go.

So as blog topic hinted, I'm hanging on to my neighbour's very nice and very fast connection and never telling them about it too.

Oh, come one. Which do I ask? Neighboour Auntie-J or Neighbour Pak Guga? I suspected the latter since our houses share a wall. It started sometime back when MySis brought along her laptop to my house to do some work; she also brought along Oversized-BabyNabil (maybe in case she got bored and decided to chase after a diaper).

She didn't expect to suddenly discover an unsecured network in the middle of the living room and neither did we (then again, our laptop is a a year 2001 paperweight).

So ever since, though Prolink exists only as a name in the laptop's network device, it is always a very good friend of ours. Heck, nobody had paid a cent. Of course, availability is subjected to the will of the neighbour whose got the control (weekend nights are the longest online time) and if he/she suspected anything, which as unsecured networks go, neither had mentioned anything back in the last Hari Raya Open House.

Back then, it's only MySis's laptop that detects the signal. Now that there's a working machine with permanent residence in the house, obviously the whole family wants to dig in my Mozilla Firefox (though, without a USB Mouse, being touch-pad illiterate as they all are, I still rule... muahahahaha...). Mak wants Asian Food Channel, Ayah's checking on his new friends in Albania and Lil' Bro... being Lil' Bro, he just wants to register courses for school (Mr. No-Imagination).

Call it a guilt in the gut, but I do wonder if it's really okay to hog on my neighbour's router? I mean, they worked and paid to get the connection speed they asked for and here's me tagging on their bandwidth. Like a pedestrian with his bum on the wide bumper behind the bus, hogging free rides around town.

I can't be the only gal on the block who turns on their laptop for free ride. So I wonder, are there a lot of readers out there who enjoys their neighbour's signal as much as the neighbour does but never saying anything about it?

I know I do. I mean, I could say it's for work but I do more work at workplace than at home (also, I plan to super-upgrade its memory once I get more money). At home, whenever the signal's on, gaming instincts just takes over.


Love thy healing bubble...

First Paycheck is Like First Sex... Need Help

Wooooooow... Chinese New Year comes early-la for me! Yahooooooo...!

I don't care if you think I'm making a fuss over something as common as this for the average ordinary citizen, but for hell, there's only a few handfuls of 'first time's in your life (like first word or first civil arrest) so I really got to plan how to spend this memorably.

Especially being that it’s the first hard-earned cash I’ve been given that didn’t come straight out of a wallet *cough* Ayah *cough*, I just thought I’ll photograph it for memory’s sake (and to remind myself how damn cheap these people are, even for an intern).

The amount is only about RM$455 though. But as compared to my previous choices to work at, I’m still better off, I think. Companies with exposure to trouble-shooting, customer service and networking. Actually, I hate networking but I picked it out because that way, I build character (Character = Grumpy). Most internship jobs fluctuates between RM$200-RM$600 I’ve heard, but I didn’t do much research on that part though. I was more interested in a fast graduation and formally call myself a graduate.

Oh crap that. Please excuse me while I do money-check-porn.

I have MONEY! I freaking have money that’s mine! Mine, mine, mine, myyyyyyyiiine! All mine!!

Okay, I confess. I already know how to spend a bit of it already.

It's a trip to Majlis Bandaran Petaling Jaya.

To pay my parking fine.

Yeah, talk about a deflating orgasm.

Hey, why don’t YOU try to find a parking space around TTDI on every freaking weekday morning. Previously, I had resorted to get myself parking at the residential area near the Damansara Specialist Hospital. Unlucky me, it came the day when the men-in-uniform left me a pricey love note on my windshield. Of course I didn’t tell my dad. He had the bad habit of blowing things out of proportions when it comes to money (my first money, what's more).


The office party at MYGO. These were the leaving interns posing with the 2 bosses.


The project I had worked on is so top secret, even one of the major characters is not allowed to be seen in the intro screen *laughs*.

Still, the resulting three hundred bucks is nothing to sneeze at. But now I’m at a bind. As I had been living the beggar-student life, I have completely no idea what to do with the extra cash (I don’t pay taxes yet).
-I already got new shoes
-And a second-hand laptop
-My current favourite game is a free-to-play (heh...)
-I haven’t read my hefty new novel yet; Twilight

All that’s left is to eat something different. Maybe I’ll try Wendy’s at Giant Kota Damansara. Blearg, put it at the bank until further ideas. Or the next paycheck (hehehe!).

MySis and Abang Arsenal told me how lucky I was since they weren’t being paid for anything during their internship (both had internships close to their universities). Then again, my older siblings and I had a wide age gap between us so times must have changed since then.

It did got me wondering about other people’s internship jobs, particularly since it’s so interesting that nowadays, you can actually get paid to learn a real hands-on-skill, whereas back then, interns doing a good job is its own reward. Based on the current situation, how much do interns of today actually get paid?

Can anybody tell me about their first jobs? And what to do special with the first paycheck?

Things That Had Happened Since...

Just for the habit of updating, here are some of the stuff that I've been through since I stopped for a while. These events were in order between the months of April 2008 to January 2009. It's kind of a lot to squeeze into one blog entry but I'm going to try to put them in chronological order.

Well, obviously my cousin Cammy* got married. Apparently, she and Mr. Groom (a USJ guy) met at university in England and had a whirlwind romance. Though they were both still learning, they opted to get married straight away (no engagement period, holy-F, slow down girl). I suspected it's a genetic thing since her mom (my aunt) got married at age 18!

Baby Nephew No. 2 came into the world in late May. Thus, from now on, BabyNabil will be nicknamed as BratNabil and second baby shall be refered to as BabyNasar. Hahaha, MySis wanted the boys in her family to have their names start with the letter 'N' and any girls born shall have 'H' names. Reason pertaining is hinted at the said parents' own names. Heh, go figure.

Oh and her husband's youngest sister is getting married too. Unlike my cousin, she choose a period of engagement and the part was just recently last December. AbangHuzir's sister was my schoolmate back at primary-to-secondary school, one of the cool-crowd gals, so we don't really meet face-to-face. I'm mentioning it that since I'm confirming to myself that I'm now at the stage in life were women should be tied to a man by her ring finger or else she's considered strange without one.

*Sighs...* I'll worry about that one later. Luckily, with an intern job in my pocket, I'm excused from the comments, even though it won't stop the Surau-Aunties from poking he over their gates (Surau-Aunties are far nosier and scarier than Family-Aunties, eeep!).

I was at MdeC, btw. Took a look around in some of the best animators and programmers in the country... that are still residing in the country, of course. I still hope to work in here someday. I'm pretty obvious in one of the pics, hahaha...

Do I like my job so far? At the moment, it's 50-50 since it's still all new to me. And the thing I thought I missed, namely the back and shoulders pain from sitting around for so long, well, I still don't miss that (hadn't had that kind of pain since the beginning of university). And I'm missing it even less right now as I type this, aaaarrrgggghhh!!

*Stops to stretch* I'm getting pretty okay with the 2 systems they want me to get familiar with. One is a 3D SMS game with you play on TV to control your character. The other is for a super-massive 3D MMORPG project based on the early mythology of Langkasuka. I've read the tech book and the spoiler book and was impressed all the way.

At the moment my bosses/mentors (wow, I have 2 of them!), Kristie and E-Rick (the later being that I never seem to find him offline during breaks) are getting me to work on the engine system and get used to building the world before they assign me to any map-building or level-coding. It's almost as similar as my RPGMaker 2003, except that it's in 3D (3D, PEOPLE, I'M WORKING WITH 3D!!), so I'm pretty excited (woohoo!).

MySis had started out intern as a programmer too but now she's mostly in areas of trouble shooting, I think. In fact, my mom was a system analyst back when computers still came with punch-cards, 16-bits monitors and binary coding. So needless to say, computer's in my blood. Mak had built some of the country's first programs, MySis helps others how to make it better while I'm making programs that makes people useless.

In conclusion, yes, I like my job (muahahahahaaa!!).

Not-A-Games Review: Celestial Destroyer (3D MMORPG)

Full Games Review: Celestial Destroyer Online (3D MMORPG)
Shadow Pimpernel's longest and most extensive games review yet! I was playing so much at office that my boss made me write a report.

*****

Other than being able to blog again, having a readily accessible connection to cyberspace that does not include a nanny-firewall (but I still can’t access YouTube though) means that I get to try out neat stuff which I had never tried out before but had always, ALWAYS wanted to and was ashamed to call myself a game enthusiast since I’ve never tried it before.

I’m yapping about the great leap from stand-alone system to the client server network... 3D MMORPG.


Celestial Destroyer

I had never played any kind of adventure games on a network before. There were 3 strikes against me; original software, technical capabilities and internet connection. The former is what I can’t afford, the middle is what I can’t afford to have and the latter is what I can’t afford to have all the time.

And today, I still don’t have any of the damned 3. But since everyone around me is so generous to be taken advantage of, I finally became a proud member of the worldwide culture that young parents would rather let their babies starve of food than miss out on that “limited-time-only-magic yo-yo with super one-hit kill” (available with assorted power-ups; extra boost against ogres and politicians).






Screenies from the main website.

Yeah, it’s obviously the background art and 3D visuals that had captured me. As most 3D RPG goes, this is not as spectacular in the mind of a veteran (and I’ve been many times the cheerleader behind the plastic seats of many cyber-café veterans) but I feel that this game can really stand on its own right.


Damn, my character is sexy.

It’s not a games review here, but rather, just showing an excuse what I’m doing when I’m not working on flying camera angles on my own system (more on that later, someday) and when I should be making reading rounds to my old bloggers’ blog. Don’t worry; I’m not an addict (yet). Pretty much, when I play RPG in my stand-alone (like Dungeon Siege 2, waaaaaaaay back), my habit is taking the Grandma’s Guide for Leveling Up RPG Characters (guarantee not to break your hips).

After taking the most basic of basic requirement quests, I would look for a low-level monster...


Aww, a butterfly...


Go to hell, you F-ing butterfly!!!


Upgrade complete.

And I would probably do this all the way until level 20+ or I succumb to melting pulp to a cheats’ trainer, which ever comes first. Tell ya the truth, I’m freaking scared of quests, any type of quests, especially the boss battles that without a very high-level character, they are usually 999x tougher to kill (but oh, so visually bad-ass). It’s just that I go by the principle that running away and not getting hurt can also be considered a “smart” move (I’m not a hack-and-slash tank machine; I’m a hit-and-run yella-clucking chicken).


My dream clan to be in the healers’ category. Cos they’re yellow.

Which, coming back at my old-lady style of beat-‘em-up. At the rate of my play-time hours, about 6 hours a week (hey, I DO work!), I probably hit my I’m-not-scared-anymore target character-level by the end of my internship.

Bleeeeah, I’m just exaggerating (hehehe!). Who knows? I might take a bite at a major quest sooner than later. Hey, c’mon! It’s my freaking first online RPG. Although the game can have the players get resurrected in the nearest town after any death situation, there’s not reason to rush what I can experience at my own pace.

Thus, why I say this isn’t a games review but rather, just a tit bit of somethin’ that’s related to games since it’s just soooooooo me (this is a blog, remember?).

Celestial Destroyer is completely free to download, to install and to play. You can download the English version files (a pretty big 1.15 GBytes) at the Downloads Page at their main website. The game had just been upgraded to open beta by now and you can still order your free games DVDs until January 19th.

If you’re looking for me, I’m usually in the zone, around 9am (GMT+8) for only an hour on weekdays, but more-or-less for 3 hours on Saturday mornings.

Just ask for the master ass-whopping butterfly-killer.