Tuesday, June 30, 2009 @ 7:11 PM

Marrying For Power, Straits Times 29 June 2009

Ok ok, one day late. But still, very interesting to read. (:

Copying it here would be plagiarism and will infringe copyrights. So, the link:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_396818.html?vgnmr=1

But it's not the full article.

I read the full article in Home Page 2 (I think) on Monday, and basically the article talks about marrying in virtual games (like MapleStory and AuditionSEA) for the added boosts and powers.

E.g. in Maple, the ring DOES add stats and makes your character look more aesthetically pleasing.

The issue of online unions surfaced last month in court, during a coroner's inquiry into the death of undergraduate David Hartanto Widjaja.

The 21-year-old Indonesian was "married" online to a 18-year-old girl on Destiny Online.

The article also states that these online unions are becoming more and more popular and prevalent, especially among youths today.

However, it also states that while gamers marry each other online, most would not even think about meeting their online partners in real life.

They draw the line distinctly between "online" and "offline".

For these people, an online relationship is just that - online!

(When asked as to why there is a "marriage" function in the games)

ASIASOFT Online, which publishes games such as MapleStory and AuditionSEA, said getting married in these games is purely for fun.

However, these marriages do not come cheap. A typical wedding costs more than 20,000 @Cash, roughly equivalent to SGD20. @Cash cards can be bought at 7-Eleven, Cheers, Popular bookstores, Comics Connections etc; at SGD10.70 (inclusive of 7% GST) for 10,000@Cash.

A divorce costs only 500,000 mesos, MapleStory's ingame currency (of which I am currently short of. hurhur. `HOGgie! Ok, digressing. Back to the topic -_-) and a "cool down" period of 4 days, I believe.

There are people who marry who are after the stats, those who do so for the fun of it, and those who are actually in a relationship in real life doing so.

Either way, I have witnessed all three types as mentioned above. So I shall not say anything more about this issue.

On this note, let me wish everybody..uhh...happy Mapling! Yay! :D

@ 6:43 PM

Xtreme Monster Attack & Mu Lung TC Screenshots

Coming from Dino once again! Yay! :D (he is one of the sole contributors of screenshots to this website/blog)

The following screenshots and comments are all from him; I only cropped the screenshots to make them smaller to fit the table width, and edited the sentences a little. (: and rearranged the order in which they appear. (:

Italic captions is I add de. Also censored out other people's names. (:




Look at the master panda's mouth 0.o btw, this monster is the last boss in Mu Lung training centre.











Hee, hope it brushed its teeth. When I look at these screenshots, all I can think about is the "Dragon Canyon" soundtrack.



Watch out for that spike! :O







The next boss after the Bear. And who said cats cannot be scary?




The next boss after the Heaven Cat thingy 0.o
JR.BALROG!!! AHHH! But it was easy in the end. :)



The next boss after Jr. balrog. Eliza! Yay!

Yay? Lols.



The next boss after Eliza. This boss is the one in Magatia PQ. Frankenroid thing! And this is where i die T.T But I manage to get a lot of training point!

Congratulations Dino for going where Rock has feared to tread! Yay!

*plays the Congratulatory song by Wizet*

On this note, I would like to wish everybody all the best, for Mu Lung PQ, GM events, Mapling, and studies! :D

Cheers,
`ROCK[:

Labels: Dino

Sunday, June 28, 2009 @ 6:07 PM

The Duck Prince

The Duck Prince

In a distant land lies a place where dreams come true and where fantasy awaits: the world of MapleStory.

It is in this wonderful world which our story unfolds. Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in the Shanghai Farmlands. He was not just any normal boy, however. He was the Prince of the Noobs (self-proclaimed). The Prince lived a very carefree lifestyle in the farmlands, always very active like many boys his age. However, something that would change his life forever was about to happen.

Most people living in the world are good, nice people. But there is always a minority, who, let's just say, are not as good or as nice.

Not far away from the happy Prince was an Evil Witch who was spying on him. She had her mind bent on causing unhappiness to the cheerful boy, because like all evil people, she does not like to see other people being happy. That being said, these evil people get joy only from others' misery.

The Evil Witch, however evil she was, had a weakness. She always has this horrible habit of saying out loud whatever she thought in her mind. Well, she just happened to be muttering about "turning the Prince into a Duck", when suddenly she saw her rival, Dinosaur, standing nearby.

The Dinosaur and the Evil Witch have been enemies for as long as they could remember. They opposed each other whenever they could; what the Evil Witch tried to do, the Dinosaur would go against her. Whatever the Dinosaur tried to do, the Evil Witch would try all ways and means to stop him from getting what he wanted.

The Dinosaur had overhead the Evil Witch's plan to transfrom the Prince into a Duck, and he was not about to let her do that.

Before you, my dear reader, assume that the Dinosaur is the Hero in this story (opposing the evil villain, blahs), PLEASE read on.

"I will not let you turn the Prince into a Duck!" The Dinosaur exclaimed.

"Why not?" The Evil Witch shouted back.

Despite the two of them yelling, the Prince did not seem to hear them. Which was good for them, that is.

"Because...I am going to turn him into a Duck first!" The Dinosaur quickly said.

The two of them quickly raced to the Prince, both trying to cast their transformation spells.

The Evil Witch was faster. She yelled out her spell, and *poof* the Prince transformed into a Duck!

"Quack?" The Prince quacked.

"MWAHAHAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THE PRINCE IS A DUCK NOW!" The Evil Witch shouted excitedly. "And, what's more, he's not just a duck. He's under a CURSE! Unless he is able to find a replacement to become a Duck, then only can he turn back to a human!"

The Dinosaur looked horrified. The Prince tried to look horrified as well.

"And how I suppose, is he going to transform another human into a Duck? Some secret spell perhaps?" The Dinosaur asked innocently.

"Well, of course the Prince has to say, I mean, quack, out the words 'Transformis Humanis Duckis!' But he does not know that, so, oh well, too bad." The Evil Witch said proudly.

The Dinosaur and the Prince exchanged glances. The Evil Witch had just told the latter what to say to transform a human into a duck.

The Evil Witch understood their mutual glances, and she suddenly realised what she had just said.

"Well, who is the Duck Prince going to find to be a replacement? And - ah, never mind." With that, the Evil Witch quickly walked back to her evil lair, hoping to learn how to be more careful with her words next time.

Dinosaur then decided that maybe he should help the Duck, but being an evil person too, he will try to do evil things along the way.

The Duck Prince looked at Dinosaur, his little duck face portraying a look of sadness and despair.
"I'll help you," Dinosaur volunteered.

The Duck Prince brightened up.

The Dinosaur then led the Duck to an area frequented by other adventurers.

"Here", Dinosaur said, "is where many people train. Whilst the majority of people here are of a rather high-standard mental calibre, there are, however, others who do lack a little bit of intelligence." Dinosaur motioned to a boy nearby who was trying to teleport, even though he was a warrior.

The Duck Prince nodded his head. Or at least he tried to.

TO BE CONTINUED

Labels: Guild-related

Friday, June 26, 2009 @ 6:41 PM

Credits

Credits are right at the bottom, at the footer. They are no longer at the sidebar (:

Labels: Website-related

@ 5:32 PM

New Screenshots!

Okay okay Dino reminded me about the Mu Lung ones, and I found some others. (:

Here are the pictures,


"The water freezes, and turns into MY ice chair~"

The following are pictures of L30N3r fighting Papa Pixie.





















And suddenly, a random question:

Why are all the strong boss monsters in Maple FAT?



Hmm, interesting reasoning, BishopYu.

Back to L30N3r;





I do not think that Papa Pixie would let those who have gone for OPQ and defeated him defeat him AGAIN. He killed us all in the end. After the Papa Pixie saga ended, we decided to challenge the tower again.

Note that we have some party members who are not our guild members, hence I have censored the non-guild members' names, for the sake of their privacy.









"This place is haunted by ghost....."




"and cow" -_-




See the cursed doll? Yep, that's me. :)



Yay. I am a cursed doll. Yippee.





And L30N3r had to taunt the cow bull.



"We're an embarassment to the guild". Yepp, I agree :)






Look how happy revenge makes people feel. (201600 damage!) Sweet vengeance~







And some other Mu Lung screenshots...







Dino's turn to cast cool skills. :)


Below are some random screenshots that I decided to put as well. :)



Lvl 70 Flame Wizard (whom I do not know) casting a skill. Cool eh? :D



Bain. Enough said.


And finally, a quote from the "Mysterious Little Egg" quest, pre-requisite lvl 15.



Snail Roon!

Below are some extracts on what Mar would say when you visit her with the little egg.

"...Do you understand now? Everything, including pet, require responsibility. The egg of Snail Roon is about to break now.

This snail can live only for 5 hours.

Show him how much you care, and you will get something from him in return."

The something, I believe, is the feeling of friendship and comfort, from the little Snail :')


"






To get out, head to the tree trunk on the right. Press 'up' on the black portal, and walk to the blue flower, as seen in the above screenshot. Press 'up' again, and walk out. :)

===

Labels: Guild-related