A Brief History of PJ the MMO Player (mostly MMORPGs)

2003 until around 2005 - With the introduction of Ragnarok Online in the Philippines, my BF's group of friends becomes a fanatic online guild / playing group. Like many other Pinoy gamers, RO was my very first MMORPG experience. Taking note that 2003 was like the Stone Age of the Internet in this country, we soldiered on for a few years despite crap connections and the onerous burden of having to pay to play.

2005-2006 - After the group began to drift out of Rune Midgard, I began to try my hand at other online games. I still have fond memories of Gunbound and the shooting wars that reminded me so much of Scorched Earth. My major MMO title at this point changed to Silkroad Online. (Was rather into wuxia at the time and jumped at the chance to swing a glaive / guan dao around.) This was how I met some fellow online gamers and bloggers, including that rather memorable letter-to-the-writer that meant meeting the MMOtaku.

2006-ish - Brief flirtations with several MMO titles, including Pangya. Spent a rather long time trying to wrap my brain around my MMORPG of the time, Rappelz. Yes, I did the quests to get a pet; not much point in playing Rappelz if you're not going to be accompanied by a retinue.

2007-2008 - My LONGEST and most involved stay in an MMORPG title, as I became a dedicated player of Granado Espada. I achieved a small sort of online-games fame because of the blog Granado Espada: Dispatches from the New World. Writing as the NineMoons Family, I became very interested in blogging professionally, as well as in playing the hell out of the game.

Eventually, though, I drifted out of Granado Espada (local game management not up to scratch). The blog is still readable, but only as an archive; there is no more interaction (comments and chatbox all disabled).


This screenshot shows my current main character in Atlantica Online. She's on Macedon server. She's a level 7x axe user; I've just disabled the weapon display feature.

Late 2008-present - Crash course time: I'd never played any turn-based tactics-type games before. So I was totally unprepared to become a massive fan of my current MMORPG favorite, Atlantica Online. Where in Granado Espada a player could control up to three characters via the gameplay mechanics, the system in Atlantica Online will eventually *require* a player to control one main character PLUS his/her retinue of eight mercenary characters.

Having been forced on a temporary hiatus from the game because of work and a few sick days, I DESPERATELY miss playing. I must make some time to continue the quest line I'm on in the Hidden Machine Shrine - and I am VERY excited to see my character change to a new set of armor and weapons. (Although the in-game expenditure is going to HURT, knowing I've got to re-outfit the entire party of nine....)

What makes me love Atlantica Online so much? The storyline, the landscapes, the quests, and most importantly its grounding in the real world. Yes, it's a fantasy world, but you get to interact with people like William Tell, Stradivarius, Howard Carter, Joan of Arc, and many more. Almost every named NPC and mercenary has a Wikipedia entry, and that's not mentioning the fact that boss fights WILL include Dracula, Tiamat, Erzsébet Bathory, and even Al Capone!