A new survey! [Archived]

A lighthearted blog post this time! SURVEY A - AVAILABLE : Sure! B - BIRTHDAY : October 12 C- CRUSHING ON : A girl who cannot be named here. lol (Ask me in private and maybe I will tell you.) D - DRINK YOU LAST HAD : Root Beer E - EASIEST PERSON TO TALK TO : There are only a handful of people. lol F - FAVORITE SONG AT THE MOMENT : Various. G - GUY/GIRL: I'm a guy. H - HOMETOWN : Highland I - IN LOVE WITH : No one, yet. (?) J - JUGGLE : Yep! K - KILLED SOMEONE : Not people. L - LONGEST CAR RIDE: I think Arizona or San Francisco. M- MILKSHAKE FLAVOR : Chocolate! N - NUMBER OF SIBLINGS : 1 O - ONE WISH: That people could be more honest with one another. P - PERSON YOU CALLED LAST : Dad? I only call one person and let two people call me. lol Q - QUIET PERSON: I am a VERY quiet person. R- REASON TO SMILE : Because life is pretty awesome. :) S - SONG YOU LAST HEARD : You Spin Me Round (Literal Version) T - TIME YOU WOKE UP: 10AM U - UNDERWEAR COLOR : Not your information! V - VEGETABLE(S) : Vegetables are awesome! W - WORST HABIT : I have a lot of habits: Stuttering, Skimming, Biting Nails, being overly nervous... X - X-RAYS YOU'VE HAD MOST RECENTLY: I've forgotten, it's been a while. Y - YOYOS ARE : Interesting. XD Z - ZODIAC SIGN : Libra RANDOM QUESTIONS ABOUT YOU Spell your name without vowels : Grvr Your favorite numbers : 1, 3, 5, 9, 13. What color(s) do you wear most : Black, Gray, White, Blue. Least favorite color : Red Are you happy with your life right now : I am very happy with life, it can only get better. Who is your best friend : I'd have to say Neil knows me best out of all my friends. Are you outgoing? : I'm very introverted and awkward. Favorite pair of shoes : Anything that doesn't hurt my feet. Can you dance : I've never been to a dance, I can't tell you. Can you tie a cherry stem with your mouth : Nope. Can you whistle : Yep. Write with both hands : Sorta! Cross your eyes : Yep. Walk with your toes curled : Nope. Do you believe there is life on other planets : Not in our solar system, but perhaps on others. Do you believe in miracles : People can create miracles for other people, if everything wasn't so streamlined and people actually had a heart. It's hard to notice that nowadays. Do you believe in magic : Nope. Love at first sight: Love takes time to build in my opinion. How are you going to love someone after a first glance? Take the time to know the person. Do you believe in Satan : No. Do you believe in Santa : Yes. That's the parent's job. ;) Do you know how to swim : Yep. Do you like roller coasters : Not the looping ones! Do you think you could handle the stuff they eat on those reality shows: ? Fear Factor has been long cancelled. lol Have you ever been on a plane : Nope. Have you ever been to the ocean : Yep. What is the temperature outside : Too hot. What radio station do you listen to : 92.3, 93.1, 95.5, 99.9, 100.3, 101.1 Sirius: 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 33. What was the last restaurant you ate at: Thai House Restaurant :D What was the last thing you bought : A Root Bear Float! What was the last thing on TV you watched : The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Who was the last person you IM'd: Shadoe, I think. Who was the last person you took a picture of : Don't remember. Who was the last person you said I love you to : N/A HAPPY SECTION Are you a happy person: I am a very happy person. :) What is your current hair color: Black IN A BOY/GIRL Favorite eye color : Doesn't matter. Short or long hair : Doesn't matter. Different people go better with different hairstyles. Height : Doesn't matter! Miscellaneous Been in jail : no Laughed so hard, you cried : Yep. Cried in school : Nope. Thrown up in a store : Nope. Wanted to be a model: Nope. Seen a dead body : Yep. Been on drugs : Nope. THIS OR THAT McDonalds or Burger King : Burger King Single or Group Dates : Single Dates. lol Chocolate or Vanilla : Choc/Vanilla Swirl! Meat or Veggies : Vegetables TV or Movie : TV Guitar or Drums : Drums Adidas or Nike: Nike

A different blog entry [Archived]

I normally do not post details about my personal relationships online for all to see, but perhaps this deserves special merit. 

I also want to be discreet about who this person is. I really don't want to ruin existing cirumstances with this person and ruin a friendship because of it.

Anyways!

A couple of weeks ago I posted a blog on what attracts me to someone. What I listed more than anything else: Personality, looks, or even similar interests is mutual respect. This person actually takes the time to genuinely listen to what I have to say (and vice versa) and I really respect her for that, and in a ways, that gave me a serious crush on this person. This person in question is very caring and understanding, and I think that's what draws me to her. Okay, not think, I know. lol

While I do not believe in "leagues" so to say, I do know that this person is interested in someone else. I do not see myself being too upset about it (as it was well expected). But, if it's one thing that hurts, it's the issue of the unrequited affection behind it. That alone can tear even the toughest person to shreds.

Now someone may be reading this and wonder: "Why the hell is he posting this?" No person is exactly perfect and everyone has their flaws. In the case of myself, it's pretty much pointless to try and pursue anything out of it from existing circumstances and it is best to keep things where they are. The more complaining or yearning one may do may not get the results one desires.

/end rant

Dear, Square-Enix: My rant on FINAL FANTASY XIV [Archived]

Updated: 8/26:

Once again, we would like to thank you all for your participation and support during the Closed Beta. We will continue to take your valuable feedback into consideration as we develop the game during Open Beta and even beyond the official release.

Now I would like to take a moment to respond to the many questions and opinions regarding the manner in and rates at which experience and skill points are obtained in Beta 3.

Firstly, the concept for FINAL FANTASY XIV was to design a system of character progression that offers meaningful advancement for those with limited time to dedicate to playing. We did not want to create a game that forced people to play for hours on end to see their efforts rewarded. To that end, in addition to the Guardian's Aspect and guildleve systems, we introduced a means of apportioning swifter advancement to shorter periods of play.

In order to achieve this balance, we calculated a value for the amount of skill or experience points that could be earned in a one-hour period. This theoretical value represents an hour spent engaged solely in combat, levequests, or any other activities that earn skill or experience points, and sets a threshold delimiting how many of these points can be earned in a period of play.

Based on this, we have implemented a “threshold value” concept. These thresholds are regulated by a one-week timer that begins counting down the instant you earn skill/experience points. After a week has passed, the thresholds will reset, and the moment skill/experience points are earned again, the timer begins counting down anew.

For the first eight thresholds during this week-long period, players will receive skill/experience points at the maximum rate possible. The actual amount of time spent reaching these thresholds is not significant. That is to say, a player who exceeds eight hours of gameplay will still be rewarded the maximum amount of skill/experience points, so long as the total amount earned is below the eighth threshold value. For the subsequent seven thresholds, players will earn skill/experience points at a gradually decreasing rate, eventually reaching a rate of zero.

It is worth noting, however, that the reduced rate will also gradually recover while players are engaged in activities that do not yield skill/experience points. In this manner, it is possible for the threshold value to reset completely, even before the completion of the one-week timer.

Any skill points earned in excess of the threshold maximum—that is, at a rate of zero—will be stored as "bonus skill points." These are specific to each class, so players limited to earning bonus skill points still have the freedom to change classes and begin earning skill points again at the maximum rate, allowing their reduced skill rates to recover in the meantime.

The experience point threshold, however, is unrelated to class, and switching classes will have no effect on the decreasing rate of earnable experience.

This is how the progression system currently works.

This system was not introduced in Beta 3, but has been in place since the beginning of beta testing. There are several reasons why many people believe that these features were only recently implemented:

- Leading into Beta 3, operation hours were extended, making it possible to play more often during the span of a week.
- To encourage players to form guidleve parties in Beta 3, skill and experience point rewards for guildleves were significantly increased.
- The process that reduced the amount of skill/experience points awarded for weak enemies attacking in groups was unintentionally removed at the start of Beta 3. (This issue has been addressed.)

That last reason in particular was the biggest cause for players running up against the threshold penalty, with characters earning far more skill/experience points than we anticipated. We also faced an issue where we were simultaneously unable to adjust the amount earned for guildleves as well as the effects of crossing each threshold.

We sincerely apologize for the lack of explanation and our failure to make the necessary adjustments in the game.

The threshold values are being reexamined, and we plan to further adjust the different rates of earnable points based on feedback from our testers. One of the top issues we are looking at right now is fixing the excessively rapid drop after crossing the eighth threshold. We also plan to improve experience point reduction rates, even more so than for skill points, considering the threshold is unaffected when changing class.

At the very least, we can promise that players won't be running into the threshold penalty in the same short time span as they did in the beginning of Beta 3.

We would like to take this opportunity to also explain the following issues.

The diminishing results experienced during gathering are a function related to that class alone, and have no connection to this progression system. We are in the process of adjusting this system, and plan to make changes based on tester feedback.

We are currently in the process of considering the means in which bonus skill points can be used. There have been suggestions for various types of incentives, but as encouraging people to play with that in mind defeats the purpose of this threshold system, we will be examining this issue very carefully.

These are not the only adjustments we have planned for Open Beta. As mentioned previously, we are looking into increasing the amount of skill points earned when fighting in a party, and we look forward to seeing your input on these changes.

Last of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in releasing a developer's comment due to my recent attendance to Gamescom. The article based on my interview during that trip, coupled with conjecture, outdated information, and some misunderstandings on overseas websites, only added to the confusion. In the future, I hope to avoid similar problems by responding directly through official developer's comments as often as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

See you in the Open Beta Testing!

FINAL FANTASY XIV Director
Nobuaki Komoto
Updated: 8/25:
Square-Enix and Hiromichi Tanaka have recently responded to the worldwide outrage at this system that was introduced and they posted on their JP site explaining what the Surplus system is: This is what I got out of it. (Beware: Translation errors may cause this information to be misrepresented)

For the first eight hours of levelling a week, you get a bonus 100% (or double) the experience you get from killing a monster. After eight hours, the bonus drops to 0% over the course of seven hours after that leaving you with 100% of your base experience. The counter is reset if you change classes encouraging (but not forcing) players to explore and level other classes. So basically it's a free EXP ring from XI but it happens automatically.

Original Blog Post:

As you all know, I've been tweeting, posting, endorsing this game to every last breath, I really want this game to succeed. It has one of the most breathtaking FF atmosphere since probably IX.

Just check out the TGS/E3 trailers if you don't believe me.












I am very passionate about this game and I'd defend it to no end. But Square-Enix is going down the COMPLETE wrong path with development on this game.

I've played Final Fantasy XI for seven years and incurred over 779 days of playtime. I was very hardcore gamer in my earlier years, and when I heard this next Final Fantasy themed MMO was going to be much more casual, I jumped in joy. I don't have as much time to dedicate to this game as I used to. Despite me being a video game design student at a university, I don't have much time to actually play games during the week. I look forward to the weekend to play games and kick back.

But Square-Enix is coming up with this SILLY idea that is going to ruin the game before it even launches.

This idea is universally hated and I can't think of any sane person that likes it. People are cancelling pre-orders over it and Square-Enix doesn't seem to be doing a damn thing about it.

The issue:

At around level 15-20 if you continue levelling the same class, you get what is known as "surplus points" after defeating a monster. (Aka, while grinding, so to say.) And eventually the surplus points start taking a percentage of your EXP until you don't get any at all. The surplus goes away after you change classes and EXP on different monsters. (Or change to a crafting class)

Beta testers have been saying that this is a deal breaker. Not only does the surplus not wear off for an EXTREMELY long time, it almost forces you to level other classes. That's very unfair. If I feel like levelling a Gladiator for a weekend, I should be able to get significant progress without being hindered or slowed down because the game feels that I should be doing something I don't like doing.

Now I love this game, I played the beta and I am really looking forward to it, I want my friends to play as well. But what am I going to tell them if Square-Enix keeps this crap up? This isn't encouraging casual play, this is encouraging torturous, mind-numbing, class-changing nonsense! If I want to level other classes and abilities, I should do it when I damn well please.

Square-Enix, I really hope you're reading this. I tagged this blog post on my Twitter account and I really hope someone gets their head out of their ass and removes/edits this Surplus system to encourage rewarding the casual player rather than punishing the hardcore player. Please, do something.

I'm not threatening to cancel my pre-order of XIV, I'm not cancelling any subscription. But for a game I really hope succeeds in the harsh WoW-dominated MMO market, what you are doing to try and sustain a sufficient amount of subscribers is not going to fare well with the shyt you're pulling.

Sincerely,

Grover Eyeveen
FFXIV - Kefka Server

What is Dojo Adventure? : Inspirations behind it. [Archived]

I get asked this question a lot. Well, more than I would want to be asked at least. A lot of people are curious and ask me all kinds of questions about it. What kind of game is it? When will it be done? What's with the weird names?

Well, Dojo Adventure is a Puzzle Role-Playing Game. At least I'd like to consider it one. It's the first real video game project that I really wanted to design. I came up with many storyboards and characters when I was in middle school due to my reclusive nature. (Yay, bullying! We'll save that for another blog post.) Anyway, I compiled all of my character and story creations and mixed them into one huge game. Well, the one's that fit the continuity of my vision.

Story Progression

Dojo is only a slang term of sorts. That's what the people in the game call the "dungeon" or "puzzle" that the Sealbearer "trains" or "resides" in. The concept of Dojos were largely inspired by two specific games.

1) The Puzzles in the Lufia series for Super Nintendo.

Dojo Adventure New Class: Magician! [Archived]

I received some feedback from people who have been playing my game project lately and I've gotten a wide variety of responses. One of the most prominent areas that I was told needed some adjustments was the period between Dojo #2 and Dojo #4. The cap of the amount of people you can have in a party at that time is two people, and it is really limited on what you can have for that second slot. Because of the rigidly defined roles of mercenaries, one can either go all out damage, all out magical damage, or all out healing with no in-between room.

To combat this, I have added a new class that only mercenaries can be. This is the "Magician" class. While the player has access to the "Tamer" class which a mercenary cannot access, the same is with "Magician" for the player. Because of the wide variety of spells a "Magician" can learn, it defeats the purpose of levelling it for the player to experience the seven existing classes.

The Magician is the master of learning single target spells that take from both the "Elementalist" and "Paramedic" discipline. However, Magician cannot learn area spells.

Magician (Mercenary Only)

LV 5 - Fire 1
Lv 6 - Earth 1
LV 7 - Ice 1
LV 8 - Wind 1
LV 9 - Bolt 1
LV 10 - Heal 1
LV 11 - Water 1
LV 15 - Fire 2
LV 16 - Earth 2
LV 17 - Ice 2
LV 18 - Wind 2
LV 19 - Bolt 2
LV 20 - Poispur 1
LV 21 - Water 2
LV 22 - Sleepur 1
LV 24 - Safe 1
LV 25 - Heal 2
LV 26 - MagSafe 1
LV 30 - Mute 1
LV 32 - Sleep 1
LV 34 - Paralyze 1
LV 35 - Heal 3
LV 36 - Slow 1
LV 38 - Sharp 1
LV 45 - Fire 3
LV 46 - Earth 3
LV 47 - Ice 3
LV 48 - Wind 3
LV 49 - Bolt 3
LV 51 - Water 3

Magician will be available when the new version of the game goes live on September 8th.

Relationship Thesis: Respect [Archived]

I have been trying to work on a lot of my relationship theses over the past few months and one of my friends over the past couple of weeks pretty much smashed all of them. So this blog entry will be pretty much centered around more of my opinions and experiences rather than trying to set a standard for people to adhere to, because apparently that does not work. Anyway, I do not consider myself to have fairly strict standards when it comes to having meaningful relationships with other people. Well, I take that back, other people consider me to be unnecessarily strict with what attracts me, and I don't understand. But anyway, people who have liked me in the past have encompassed many different social classes, if you will. But I seem to miss the message because apparently I never understood they liked me. Probably arising from one central standpoint: I was not attracted to them. I was not attracted to them because they didn't seem to respect me. I would talk and talk and they just were the of people who never listened and just replied with "nice" or "cool". Now I find those words to be insulting, and I RARELY ever use them by themselves unless I am very angry. I would say "That's pretty nice/cool! I [insert whatever input I have that's meaningful to the conversation]." I value honesty and sincerity. I'd honestly rather have someone tell me straight up they do not care what I am saying rather than act like they give a damn. I find that to be more attractive.* *(See below) Now, my definition of attractiveness may vary from the common interpretation of attractive. In fact, it is rare nowadays when I say that a woman is attractive or beautiful. The thing that attracts me to someone, more than personality, looks, or even common interests is respect. If there is mutual respect between a girl and a guy that likes each other, that is going to bring itself much farther than looks (which disappear with age) or personality (which tends to bore the people involved after a time.) I have a staunch belief that a relationship of two people who may have the best looks and the best personality will not last long if they don't have a sense of decency and respect for one another. Now, I'm not downplaying that looks and personality aren't important, and they are. (Not necessarily in that order) You can be the nicest person in the universe, but if you are nice in the sense of acting like you're listening instead of actually taking time to listen and understand your partner, there's a loss of a connection. A sense of respect is gone because you only are self-centered and egotistical. Looks can be nice too, but if you're a guy with a million abs and supreme muscles or a woman with gigantic breasts to the point where your back is about to break, how fickle are you that you feel you show off these "assets" if you will and throw away your personality and be a complete asshole to people you consider to be "beneath you". In turn people like that tend to lose my respect as well. I just wish people can have a sense of being themselves. I'm not a believer in saying "he/she is out of your league". Personally, if you like someone, and you want their attention, the best thing you can do is just be yourself. With all of the fake people in the world today trying to be someone they aren't, it's always refreshing to find someone who is themselves, and it shows they have a degree of creativity and originality rather than some boring mindless person that just follows everyone's trends. I probably come off conceited posting all of this. But lately it has been seriously bothering me watching people throw away their dignity and sense of pride in order to get a girl's or guy's attention. Harassing a guy or girl you like until the wee hours of the morning because he or she will not go on a date with you is seriously a form of disrespect. If you can't even respect the privacy and reasons the guy or girl who explained to you why they are not interested is enough, how are you going to respect them in a full blown relationship. Anyway, I just needed to vent. /end blog entry.

One thing that particularly saddens me. [Archived]

One thing that particularly saddens me is when a friend is sad and there's really nothing you can do to help them out. It happens to a lot of my friends, and I feel really bad because I can't do anything about it. One of my friends has parents that are really "out there" so much that he's going to harbor ill will towards them. While I have been helping him throughout the years, I am worried that because of this, he will end up never maintaining a good relationship with them in the future. Another one of my friends is having issues with a person they like who is not sure if the person they like, likes them back. Actually, this is more than one friend. A lot of my friends are having this problem, and I wish we as a society could be more open with those we have feelings for. But everyone is so afraid of rejection and that blow to their self esteem that they can't bring themselves to do it. Myself included. In due time, one of two things will happen. One, you end up looking back at what could have been. Or two, they tell you they like you way after the fact and you or they already have a new boy or girlfriend and it's too late to do anything about it. In any case, I wish we as humans were more open with each other, but our inhibitions and our worries prevent us from doing so. It's a shame, really. There would be much greater potential for happiness in the world. Until next time, blog readers!

New videos coming up. Stay tuned! [Archived]

Happy August, blog readers! I'm still here, need not worry. I've been busy with some real life projects and that has taken up some time. I'd like to point out that there will be some new videos by the FFS Entertainment team coming soon. The names of the videos are: "Pokemon in a Nutshell" and "Secret Agent Yachiru". They should be posted in the near future, so keep an eye open on YouTube! I'll probably favorite them on my YouTube profile. I make an appearance in the later as my evil alter ego, "Mocha Man". And it's absurd-stupidly funny, so hopefully if you're reading you'll check it out! As for twitter, I guess it's safe to say I'm a dedicated twit. So follow me! Rawr.