Finally

It's a good 5 months here. It's actually longer than I thought ;)

However I decided to concentrate things on one blog. Two blogs is a bit too much for me now. There I would write about various things, and not only about games. I think.

I might come back here. When I get tired there. Meanwhile, if you're interested at all, I'm at http://www.meexia.com/blog.

Thanks for reading guys =D

The Drama of Animal Crossing

I played Animal Crossing yesterday (Note the date of the post). Finally. Before I can tell you any experience in playing it, I should tell you my experience of GETTING to play it.

1) I ordered both Freeloader and Animal Crossing (US version) from DVDBoxOffice

2) The Animal Crossing came, but the Freeloader didn't. They kept me waiting for about 3-4 weeks they're out of stock, before I finally gave up and cancelled the order.

3) I ordered the Freeloader from CodeJunkies, and somehow they DECLINED my credit card for whatever reason. I tried twice to no avail. (Nothing's wrong with my card btw, because it works fine somewhere else.)

4) I ordered the Freeloader from Lik-Sang, and waited for another 3 weeks. One day my friend said his order has come although he ordered it about 1-2 weeks AFTER me (and mine has NOT. They say it should come in about 1-2 weeks.)

5) I called the local post office and asked them whether they had a package there under my name. They said there was. So somehow the mailman didn't leave any notice for me to pick up the package when he couldn't fit it in my mailbox. I went there the same afternoon, caught the wrong tram, and got back an hour late from my lunch break.

6) When I got home, I tried the Freeloader with Animal Crossing, and I had to use the 3rd method to load the game in my GameCube (which is the rarest one that almost nobody has ever to use it).

7) I stupidly didn't know that I need the whole 59 blocks of memory card to play the game (I had my Windwaker save game there, which takes 12 blocks. How would I know? My PS2 memory card can fit so many save games I thought GameCube should at least have the similar amount of slots! One memory card for one game didn't cross my mind!) Anyway, I have to wait for another day until the weekend to go to the EBGames to buy a new memory card.

And after all that struggles and drama, I got bored after playing the game for 2 hours.

...

No, I lied :) I'll be crying myself to death if that happens.

I'm enjoying it ^-^. I'm dragging my boyfriend to play it too and ask him to send me some love letters when I'm not looking. (He hasn't. He's trying though. He's not a gamer. It'd take him quite a while to get the hang of it. ;)

Now That Is Fair

I forgot to tell you one more big thing happening here. We moved to the new office! It's so much closer to my house, bigger, and more like an office =9 (The old office was like an old house really..) And it's actually located in the big tall office buildings site, so we feel like one of the big coorporate now, with everyone else wears nice suites and stuff (even though we don't).

We have one male bathroom with 2 standing toilet and 1 sitting toilet for 60 guys, and one female bathroom with 2 cubicles for 3 girls. How is that for luxury? Yay! ;)

Updates Here And There

Hi :) *wave*

I've kinda neglected this blog for a while, coz there are many things going on outside:

- My shower has to be fixed for 3 days, and therefore I cannot stay at home

- I'm finishing my website

- I bought GameCube Zelda: The Windwaker last weekend. So yay! I have wanted long enough to play Zelda series and I finally got it!


Updates on other things:

- I have finished watching ALL SpongeBob series. ALL! From season 1 to season 2 to all bonus episodes (3 DVDs each). I'm starting on Timmy Turner now, but I don't think he can beat SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward =

- I tried to play DarkCloud 2 a little bit, and I think I like it a lot! I will play that as soon as I finish Zelda =9

- We're preparing our game for E3 here. So kind of busy. I wish to go there sometime.

That's it from me today. Be back soon ;>

I May Not Stay Here

I'm in the middle of creating my website, and with it comes along another blog. There I won't be anonymous. I would just be me.

I'm still thinking whether I should keep this one. Probably not. But whatever my decision later, I will post it here.

Memorable Games

What's the last game you played that really blows you away?

I probably say Final Fantasy VII. Interestingly I totally forget what it was like and what it felt like to play it. But it was the one that made me started to play RPG.

Then Suikoden.. Collection of 180 heroes, cooking competition, building castle..

Last one is Final Fantasy X. Gorgeous graphic. Amazing heart-throbing story. Strong characters. Great new fighting system.

Kingdom Hearts. Simply loveable :)
Come on. Your comrades are the funniest characters in cartoon history. Then befriend with Disney's heroes and kick the baddies' ass together. What else do you want?

Dreams Don't Die

The Fall of the House of Interplay

I once heard that dreams don’t die - We kill them. That is not true. Dreams do die and with them a little part of ourselves. Do I sound bitter? I am bitter and with good cause.

One Interplay product that I played was Fallout 2 (although I haven't finished it yet, but it's a really good game).

Talk about dead dreams always make me so sad...

He probably speaks for all of us in this industry:

I hated looking for work outside the game industry. I wanted that job creating fantastic works of fantasy and adventure.

One Box of Gifts

Today we got a box full of gifts: a giant soft toy, a giant inflatable bouncing ball, a inflatable chair, a small figurine, a picture frame, a clock, a pair of book holder, one wall hanger, and a roll of sticky wallpaper.

All SpongeBob! (and Patrick in a few things :)

Everyone got excited like little kids. Soon people were busy blowing the chair and giant ball, putting the things around the office, and so on.

I happened to get the small SpongeBob figurine on my desk hehee =D
He stretches his arm up holding a rainbow with words "I like you this much!"

*Update* Now I have the soft toy on my desk, leaning to the side of my monitor. The inflatable chair is just next to my chair (because I'm on the end of the room which has a bit of extra space). The guy next to me keeps the giant ball on his side. I think we have the right because we're 2 of the youngest people in the office. Also my desk is about the emptiest, so I need some stuff to cheer up the atmosphere ;>

We Love Sequels, No?

My mate told me his rant about game industry.

I think I would have to agree with him. Game is such a big business now that people just can't afford to risk it in something "too original".

In my opinion, Japanese in nature has more courage to make a breakthrough. Even if it's not an immediate success, but it opens door to many other opportunities. e.g. FF the movie, Nintendo DS.

Another example is Katamary Damacy from Namco, who won the 2004 Most Innovative Design.

As more of a console gamer, I love Japanese games much more than US (western) games. The ideas are often absurdly interesting and interestingly absurd.

Let me check my current collection: FFX-2 (mh.. sequel to a sequel), Suikoden 3, Tales of Destiny 2, Grandia 2, .Hack series, Legend of Mana (sequel of Secret of Mana), Wild Arms 3, Dark Cloud 2, Xenosaga (sequel of Xenogear), Monster Rancher 3, Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (sequel of Harvest Moon), Arc the Lad 2...

.................

mhh.. How did I get myself into this web of sequels... -_-

A Stupid Discussion

Today someone put a very cynical comment at one of my old post.

This is just stupid. I've worked on 3 published games and whole bunch of TV/films and in the end it's not your product, not your vision, not your baby. The only thing you have in this world is your execution of your idea - to be independent. Everything else is just design/production by committee.

Honestly it made me upset for a few hours. It's so annoying to think that some stranger could ruin your beautiful morning just because of his few sentences.

I started this blog with no intention of big audience at all. Perhaps just a bunch of friends and some others that may come here by accident. I am a newbie in this industry, still fresh with excitement about what I do and what can happen in the future. I so do not expect any veteran coming here being judgemental about a few words that I write.

I was thinking, have I made a big mistake, calling it "my game"? And so what, if I want to do so? Everyone knows a game is a collaboration work of so many people. I believe each one of us can call it "mine". The chief, sales, producer, project manager, tester, designer, lincensor, and any of the artists and programmers.

And yeah it's my baby. If my words are too strong for you, I can say at least some part of it is my baby. I take part in building it. I know I'm not alone in this. A lot of people here would say the same thing. I always think of these words as a sense of pride in what we do. After all, we are in the game industry. I don't know about you. You're probably some genious that found it too easy to get in and bored after a while. But I work hard to get here and take joy in every single moment.

Probably in the future I may get as tired as you. But the important thing is now that I'm not. I want to save my excitement and happiness as long as possible. You can say I'm stupid, naive, or whatever it is that you get from your vast experience. But I will get that along my own way. I don't need some cynical guy telling me how gloomy the world is.

Maybe after I get some experience I can go to newbie websites, telling them they're stupid and just puppet of a committee.

Put Some Time Aside

These days I'm trying to play game for at least 30 minutes every day. (Sound like an exercise..) Sometimes I can make it, sometimes I can't. *yawn*

How come it's so hard to spare even 30 minutes?

You've Got A Girl!

We got a new girl here as QA! But I just came back from Easter break and haven't got the time to talk to her yet. She's in the other part of the building, but at least there is another "she" now ^-^

Between Dream and Reality

Today we had a goodbye lunch for our Head of Office. I didn't know it was going to be that sad. He almost cried. We almost cried. Even I'm just here for a brief 4 months, and we had only a few small talk, I feel bad that he leaves.

I can only quote what one of my friend here said,

"It's so nice, and almost romantic to survive as an independent company. But soon or later we should put our feet back to the ground."

It was a dream. It still is. And always will be. It's his. It's everyone's.
But today reality strikes.

There's a Squall in My Office

You know how typical geeks look like right? Glasses.. kind of goofy looking.. not very athletic.. bad hair.. Well, we have a lot here in our office. Not much of any eye candy.

But there's one guy, looks like the replicate of Squall Leonhart (top left)! I shit you not!

I wish to take a picture of him and put it here so we can enjoy it together (girls.. guys too if you like :) But I would be invading privacy and may be called the crazy stalker girl. So I can only share the good news that yes, in this world there is a boy so pretty he looks like just jumping out of the world of video game. *drooling sigh* Not to mention he's a guru for almost everything. *more drooling sigh*