Since Aeria can't run J-Server events...

I swear, it seems like every single time I update the blog, something else post-worthy happens. Who knows, maybe Aeria's logic is bad press > no press...

Anyway, after yesterday's broken promise, Aeria's Producers and Cave (see also: the new scapegoats... inb4 "my dog calls the shots on how content is released" comments) decided they weren't giving the community the shaft enough, so they decided to go above and beyond the call of asshattery.

Aeria Staff: The community seems to sincerely dislike our mystery boxes.

Aeria Producer: Well you all had better find a way to sell these things.

Aeria Staff: What if we did something like this?

Aeria Producer: FUCKING GENIUS! Have my secretary hold my calls, I'll be pleasuring myself in my office.

And there you have it. Mystery box solution = putting a mystery box inside of a mystery box. As if you had a chance of actually winning the top prize in these boxes, now you have an even less of a chance of actually getting the Summon PG you want. It prints fucking money.

Here's where all the vouchers originally came from:

Demon Voucher 1: Joyful Alice

• 2008/2009 1-Year Anniversary 

Demon Voucher 2: Inexperienced Elf/Inexperienced Succubus/Inexperienced Jikokuten

• I'm unsure on the specifics of this one since there's no campaign page (that I've found yet), but pro-tool Google Translator says "Campaign GW reward for perfect attendance"

Demon Voucher 3: Inexperienced Lilim/Inexperienced Andras/Inexperienced Hathor

• Imagine Summer Festival 2007
  Create a new character and reach Lvl 11 during the duration of the event.

Summon PG-- Fuji: Shining Shishimai Frost

• 2008 Christmas Event
  

Summon PG-- Electric Shock: Shocking Cait Sith

• OnlineGames Collaboration (inb4 D.O.G. Costume is top spender/raffle)

Voucher ( Demon Helper ): Fresh Poltergeist/Fresh Archangel/Fresh Harpy

• Unsure of specifics again, quoted: "Goo or OCN GAME Game Start Campaign"

Summon PG-- Inexperienced Thoth: Inexperienced Thoth 

• Valentine's Day 2009 Event

Summon PG-- Inexperienced Okuninushi: Inexperienced Okuninushi

• Valentine's Day 2009 Event
  

Summon PG-- Hawk: Shishimai Frost

• 2008 Christmas Event
  

Summon PG-- Eggplant: Inexperienced Shishimai Frost 

• Part III of the 2008 Christmas Event (that we never saw) 

I find it ironic that Aeria states we're not the J-Server and can't run J-Server events, yet they have time to make up the "Bad Acts" series. How hard is it to make up smaller monthly/seasonal events with the same prizes from the J-Server?

Edit: 
Am I the only person who was disappointed with the Kuchinawa Cave email? Oh 200AP and non-repairable Frost Cameo Ring... how my heart races for you~

Since Bleach doesn't understand how devils work...

So in today's patch we received the update with the AP Alpha Hack. Aeria at one point stated that it was not in their business model to release the plug-ins for these devils in this fashion. I pointed this out via forums (which was locked faster than I had hoped for) which resulted in Bleach basically admitting he's the biggest idiot on the server.

First off, I'd like to say I sincerely dislike Evilbleachman.

Now that that's out of the way, I really fail to see how someone who doesn't understand the mechanics of the game is a GameSage. It's a well known fact that's the only demons that Bleach ever summons are his Little Demon Lilim and Nightmare Jack Frost. .That alone should show exactly how little he knows about devils... but he felt the need to further prove he knows shit-all about the subject by implying demons obtained from vouchers are the same thing as plug-ins. So I'd like to take this opportunity to explain the difference between a devil that comes from a Demon Voucher and a devil that's made from Demon Fusion. I wasn't aware this was a hard concept to grasp, but apparently for our beloved GameSage it's a tricky subject.

Let's look at the 1-Year Anniversary Joyful Alice versus the Alpha Hack Plug-in Alice:

Joyful Alice:

Base Level: 1

Base Skills: Death Touch, Hell's Eye, Defensive Stance, Makarakarn

Learned Skills: Counter (2), Mudo (5), Dormina (9) Petra Eyes (15), Eternal Sleep (20), Vamp Cyclone (25), Magic Tea Party (30), Mahatarunda (36), Megido (43), Absolute Zero (50), Void Death (58), 30 Percent Life Boost (66), Bufudyne (74), Anti-Fire (83), Megidora (92), Megidoraon (99)
*Cannot fuse with other demons*
 

Alice: 

Base Level: 35
Base Skills: Death Touch, Hell's Eye, Defensive Stance, Mudo 
Learned Skills: Counter (36), Mahamudo (37), Dormina (38), Petra Eyes (39), Eternal Sleep (40), Vamp Cyclone (43), Magic Tea Party (45), Mahatarunda (48), Megido (50), Absolute Zero (52), Void Death (55), 30 Percent MP Boost (58), Bufudyne (62), Anti-Fire (65), Megidora (70), Megidoraon (80)

*Can fuse with other demons*

Inb4 GSiBleach says: "But Joyful Alice learns skills at lower levels! Why would you want to fuse away your Alice?! She's so kawaii-dess~"

In comparison, they have similar skillsets. However, for those of us who actually play the game and aren't trapped-in-the-closet fashionistas, having a fuseable demon with the Void Death skill would be very handy. Sure, there is always Loa who learns Void Death at 93, but that's a totally different story. There's also the Alice fanboys (also see: pedos) who might want to make their own Alice with their own skillset with moves she doesn't learn on her own. The same goes for the Little Demon Lilim. 

Apparently the latter half of the Bleach discussion was deleted, but the term "vanity" was thrown around in regards to Mara. Let's take a look at Mara for a moment:

Mara:

Base Level: 95

Base Skills: Body Slam, Rampage, Fierce Counter, Vamp Cyclone, Soul Suck, Megidora, Anti-Death, Anti-Expel

Learned Skills: Dekaja (96), Mahamudoon (96), Megidoraon (96), Sexy Eyes (97), Void Ice (97), Mazandyne (97)

Features: 

• Technician: -30% cooldown to all skills
  
• Acme of Wit: 0 MP Cost to all skills
  
• Fruits of Labor: 0 HP Cost to all skills
  
• Force Boost: +50% damage to Force-based skills
  

Resists:

---Physical Resistance---

Slash	130%	Pierce	Resist 50%	Blunt	130%
Handgun	130%	Rifle	130%	Shotgun	100%

---Other Resistance---

Fire	Resist 50%	Ice	Resist 50%	Electric	70%
Force	Resist 20% (Reflect 100%)	Expel	Resist 50%	Death	Resist 50%
Magic	100% (Reflect 100%)	Nerve	Resist 50% (Void 100%)	Mind	Resist 50% (Void 100%)
Almighty	100%	Special	100%	Suicide	100%
Curative	100%	Support	100%	Kotodama	100%

I don't know about you all, but I think Mara doesn't seem that "vanity" to me, and it shouldn't to anyone else (unless you have a fetish for dick-demons). Sure there's better demons out there, but defaulting with Anti-Death (previously only attainable on our server via leveling Thoth to 92) and Anti-Expel (previously unavailable) makes him a bit more useful than a Nightmare Jack Frost. Mara is also currently the only way of obtaining Mahamudoon, the AoE verison of Mudoon (10% chance of inflicting instant-death).

So Bleach, I challenge you to actually do something other than collect clothes and pretend like you used to be good at this game. At this point the whole server is laughing at how much of a complete failure you are.

Non-Imagine Update

Over the last two weeks it's been nice to take a bit of a break (regardless of it being forced or not) from Imagine. I've had the opportunity to catch up on some other games, got my bass playing chops back up to speed and a few other things. A few highlights include:

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony

For all intents and purposes, Lunar is the Star Wars of RPGs for me. There's other RPGs that may have been more "cutting edge," had a "better story" or whatever; but this was the game that won me over as an RPG fan. This marks the 4th edition of the original game in the series (Sega CD, Sega Saturn/PSX, Gameboy Advance, and now PSP). This version sees yet another graphical update, Alex (the main character) actually has a decent amount of dialogue now, all the original voice actors have been redubbed and all the songs have completely redone lyrics. Personally, I loved the voice cast from the Working Designs releases (as well as the original song lyrics), and it takes a lot out of the game for me as a fan of the originals. There's also a new playable opening that  focuses on the Four Heros. While this is fairly cool for a backstory aspect, I would have much rather seen an actual prequel with the Four Heroes instead (and let's just all pretend that Lunar: Dragon Song does not exist). The special abilites from the Gameboy Advance version have found their way onto this release as well, which is a nice added bonus.

In short, this is not the definitive version of Lunar. It's a fantastic release nonetheless and I highly suggest it if you're craving an oldschool RPG. However, if you have a PSX and really want to experience the magic of Lunar, I can't recommend Silver Star Story: Complete enough.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

I'm only 16 hours into the game so far, so giving an actual review is a little unfair at this point. What I've played up to this point has been fun. It's a pretty standard SMT game, with a few new additional things like the Demon Co-Op Attack System, Demon Sources, and the Analyze System. Personally I'm slightly disappointed in a few things being taken out (i.e. the Heretic Mansion is gone, no towns, no world map, and I really miss the Press-Turn battle system), but I think most of it was taken out at the sake of portability. I can't complain too much, at least it's not another Persona/Avatar Tuner game. I would have preferred the original Devil Summoner or Soul Hackers to get a US release instead.The story/gameplay feels like a biproduct of what would happen if you put Shin Megami Tensei, John Carpenter's The Thing and Metroid Fusion in a blender. I'm also waiting for Arthur to go HAL 9000 on me a la 2001: A Space Odyseey. 
Words of the wise: Save Often

Kämpfer

Let it be known, I don't watch a whole lot of anime. I picked up Kämpfer last week after a few people told me to check it out, and despite all the bad press it recieved, I loved it. It's a hybrid harem/magical girl/gender-bender anime (think Rosario + Vampire meets Ranma 1/2). There's nothing groundbreaking here, just lots of laugh-out-loud humor and a likeable cast of characters (minus Sakura, what a bitch). My favorite character hands down was Akane, close second being Shizuku... and you can't help but love the Entrails Animals. I really hope this show gets picked up for a second season, as this season was only 12 episodes, and it really felt like they were merely setting the stage for things to come. If you enjoy mildly perverted humor and mutilated stuffed animals, I say check it's worth Kämpfer out.

Foxy Shazam

Last Sunday Foxy Shazam came to San Antonio, and as usual they put on one hell of a live performance. I actually went to school with their keyboardist Sky White, so whenever they're in town they typically come by my place to hang out and stay the night. They have a new album coming out on April 13th. I have to be honest, I really don't like their new material every much. It's hard to believe that after experimental and spastic albums like The Flamingo Trigger and Introducing, they're following it all up with area rock that sounds like a modern-day Queen. It's not bad, but it certainly isn't the Foxy Shazam I've spent 5 years listening to. Their live show hasn't suffered one bit though. They still have several tour dates left, and if they're coming to your town it'll be a show you'll never forget.

Obligatory Plasma QQ Post?

Nah, just wanted to point something out I found utterly ironic. 

If any of you all have been keeping up with the lolplasma threads for the past 2-3 weeks, you'd know that Alcadeiass has been preaching about how this patch is a good thing (and agreeably it is), and how people need to learn how to make money properly.

Fastforward to today.

Pearz is officially calling it quits on SMT, so she's giving out all her old gears/consumables/random items left on her character and in her depository. She made a blog post about it with High Tier and Low Tier items, and at the tail end of the post, she stated:

O ya reward for first person seeing this post (IE, most frequent /lucky viewer, 1 high tier prize, respond first comment)

 And guess who the first vulture was:

I hope you realize you just rendered every argument you made over the past month completely invalid. Were the diamonds and rubies from Jiko & Friends not enough for you? You seemed to act like you made a fortune doing so; did something happen? I dare you to tell other players how to make money again, when your source of income = leeching off players and their accomplishments.

Way to look like a total hypocrite (^-^

Inb4 Alca starts playing again... 

STEALTH-EDITZ?

Destiny will  no longer be disbanding. 
I'll see you all on the 29th ;o

Strange Journey

Got my copy today, fuck you imagine!

/hiatus

Status Update

For those of you unaware of my current situation (or want to confirm the rumors), yes I am banned from Megaten.

As far as the specifics of everything, I'll divulge all that information in due time. For now all I will say is this, as a warning to every other clan in the game:

Be extremely careful of who you let in your clan.

Aeria is now allowing players to change their IGNs.

This has already proven to cause problems, and should not be allowed under any circumstances. Aeria is obviously blind to issues that something like this can cause. This also directly allows players to violate the Terms of Service:

(c) Impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, an AGE official, forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;

In turn, this allows any player to attain a new alias simply stating they have "account issues" allowing them to:

(j) "Stalk" or otherwise harass another;

I'm currently fighting for my account, so far I've managed to gain access to my account once again; I can log in the forums as well as log on other Aeria-hosted games (i.e. Grand Fantasia), but my access to Megaten is prohibited. I have 3 RTs (all with different issues) and a email to the Admin Team all going on 72 hours with no reply. I find it ironic that sending in an RT with a compliment or something positive takes less than 2 hours to reply to, but when it's something that requires actual attention it goes completely ignored. With each passing day I think Aeria runs less like a company, and more like the set where they're filming The Real World: Santa Clara.

Inb4 GMs read my blog before my RTs...

Beating a dead horse already but...

What eats babies all day long...
and is only level 48