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Why Ragnarok Online?

August 9th, 2004. Published under Games. 2 Comments.

A colleague asked me on the way home why I got attracted to Ragnarok Online that much. Well, in my previous blog, I mentioned that since July 28th, Ragnarok Online Indonesia set up a new server, Fenrir, for free. What’s the deal? There are many free games out there. It’s true that RO is not the best game ever. But there were several reasons why I played it in the first place, despite the free price . First, being an online game, it allows me to play with other players anytime as long as I am connected to the net. It is fun to play with real humans instead of with mere computer generated characters on offline games. It adds emotional depth a lot. When emotion gets a role in a game, well, you can’t never stop. Then why RO? Aren’t there other online games. Of course there are. The renowned EverQuest and Final Fantasy XI, as well as the incoming World of Warcraft are probably the best games in this business. However, they cost a lot of zeny oups money to play. More than 10 bucks per week. And you must buy your very own legal copies of the games which have high price tag. RO can be downloaded for free or you can just copy from your friends freely. To play, RO used to cost about 60,000 rupiahs per month but currently is free at the Fenrir server. You see, money does matter.

Beside its international version, RO is localized in some countries and languages: Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, and some other countries including Indonesia. This is where I live. Every local version has its own servers and of course players. So you can speak your own language with others from your own country. This is what makes RO so popular in Indonesia, especially. Using Indonesian language instead of English encourages younger players to play. I’ve seen many players who are still in elementary school. Lyto, the RO license holder in Indonesia, also performs aggresive promotions. They tries hard to make RO available for playing in almost every Internet Cafe or Multiplayer Game Center in Indonesia. Local server also means faster Internet connection. In other word, less lagging gameplay. In Indonesia, a connection to the net is generally very costly and unreliable. So you will definitely want to connect to the geographically closer server to play smoothly.

Have I assured you? Hahaha, that’s a bullshit. Although the above statements may have deceived many people to be highly addicted and so they can’t stop playing, which means playing 60,000 rupiahs per month plus the Internet connection, the true thing that really drags me to this thing is a girl. Tehehe. A cute little girl who lately became addicted to RO. Well, I’ve been known as a gamer. But I haven’t even played the game where little girls like her can play, then what kind of gamer am I? So, I took the chance, when Lyto offered the free server, and started playing. Of course she didn’t know yet. I don’t want her or my other friends see me as a novice in RO. Absolutely not. First I must build up my characters to a highly respectable level before introduce them to her. I don’t want my friends look down at me or my characters in anyway :D.

I started as a novice, like any other starters in RO. I raised up the character, whom I called Rett (a.k.a. Rett Buttler, the great swordsman in the Rebirth manga), to a decent level as a swordsman. Currently he’s around level 30. Like any other true RPG players, I can’t live all my RO career as a swordsman. Yes, swordsman is generally the toughest character you can get. But beside holding a mighty sword or spear, and being equipped with decent armors, all that a swordsman do is slashing enemies, resting, slashing enemies, resting, repeat. How boring. So I built up another character as a magician. I called him Meguro. Nothing special, because it sounds similar to magician. Actually I prefered Merlin of the King Arthur’s legend but the name was already taken. Meguro just took the test to become a mage that is making a certain solution. The bad news is the ingredients must be gotten from a place that is far like hell. Well, I’d better be patient. When he is ready, the real game will be begun.

Does Sharing Hurt?

August 6th, 2004. Published under Daily Journal, Games, Sports. No Comments.

So dizzy so sleepy. I didn’t sleep enough last night. The Ninja game kept me awake all night. Worse, I was scheduled for the first shift on Friday. I got to get up early to get to the office on time. Well I made it. Luckily, Vebby offered me a breakfast, Nasi Kuning. It really helped.

After another lunch at Jula-Juli, there was a knowledge sharing about colors and their psychologies. Yenny, who happened to study visual communication design at UK Petra, shared her knowledge nicely. Unfortunately she couldn’t answer a question from Jonathan. He asked why did we use the CMYK coloring technique when printing instead of the RGB one. Well, as usual, when posed to this very kind of situation, I spontaneously joinned and tell them my opinion. As I predicted, I saw some people looked sarcastically at me. Maybe they thought that I was showing off but I did know the answer and I just wanted to make everything clear. It supposed to be a knowledge sharing anyway, right? This happened almost every time but I couldn’t help it. If something went wrong, I automatically tried to correct it. It’s natural.

Because of this, when I was in the high school, my friends called me Mr. Know-it-all, Walking-dictionary, Computer-brain, what-so-ever. Honestly, I don’t know things better or more than anybody else. Maybe the only difference is that I shared my knowledge more than them. I always enjoy sharing my knowledge because I also learned something when sharing mine. The more I share the more I get. Well, in Yenny’s case, fortunately she has a humble heart. I my self could never imagine if I was at her place. Having someone taken over my place like that is like he’s throwing the mud on my very face. That’s why I tried not to ask any question to her during her session. I didn’t want to humiliate someone with that humble heart.

Friend of the day: Vebby

Today my work was appraised by my boss. Productivity, quality, discipline, initiative, and teamwork got the very usual values. When it came to teaching and learning, I didn’t get that high value because I gave no tutorial or training last month. To boost the value, I mentioned that a few days ago I did share my knowledge about the Microsoft .NET with the division heads. My boss then told me I should share the knowledge with everyone, not just them, to get a point. Wow, I didn’t know there was such a rule. Well, because I had not read the rules thoroughly anyway, I didn’t argue. It wouldn’t go to the teamwork either because it had nothing to do with my job.

My boss then advised me to write and post articles to get more points for teaching and learning. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to write. The things I learned were mostly so technical that I didn’t see the chance anybody would understand. I believed that noone would be interested either. I didn’t mean that everyone in the office is idiot. But my job was so different with theirs. They had nothing to do with my job as well as any knowledge about it. Actually, there was only one person sharing the same job with me. But I believed it wasn’t efficient to post something in a public forum that would be read only by one person. Anyway, I’ll give it a try one day. Maybe they will need the knowledge later. You’ll never know.

After the appraisal, Vebby, who sat next to me, asked whether I had mentioned the .NET thing. When I explained the situation she looked a bit upset. She even inquired Jonathan, one of the heads, whether he had written my name on his teamwork list. He said yes but he didn’t know about the other heads. She didn’t feel quite satisfied with the answer and continued discussing this problem. I knew she’s such a caring person but I was affraid she would go too far so I stopped her and told her that I didn’t mind. Anyway, my average appraisal values was quite pleasing. Well, thank you Pei, what you did really meant a lot to me.

From badminton to Ragnarok Online

Today I should have a badminton practice with my friends. I was just arrived at the gym in Barata Jaya when I got an sms from Yosep telling that there’s no practice today because somebody just passed away and the gym was used to place the body. Okay, no badminton game, but I could just play another game, Ragnarok Online :D. My swordsman character finally reached the 30th level. Still much more to go. The maximum level is 99. Can’t wait until it reached the 50th level when I can change the job to “knight”. It really needs a lot of time. Surprisingly many people have reached the higher levels. Yeah they used bots to play the game for them automatically. Cheating, huh. When you’re cheating on a game, it ain’t fun anymore. You better not play it at the first place.

Disturbed…

August 2nd, 2004. Published under Daily Journal, Games. 1 Comment.

Monday, after the fun weekend we’ll come to it eventually. Yeah, get back on my seat and start the crazy coding again. Speaking the language that only fellow programmers and the dumb computers can understand :p. Okay they ain’t dumb. Actually they are super dumb x(. Can you believe it. I only forgot to place a damn single semi colon at the end of a sentence and the stupid computer refused to do what I told it and it took me almost two hours just to figure it out :O. Gosh, if only they were a bit smarter. Oups, I didn’t mean it. Remember the Matrix. When the machines get smarter, then it just a matter of time before they replace every single human in the world.

Sigh, nothing special happened today. It’s really boring :(. My cell phone rang a few times but I didn’t know who called me. The number didn’t show up, you know, an IM3 feature. I didn’t like it though. It’s annoying. People always use it to disturb others. So I kept my phone silent all day. The mysterious phone call stopped when Veve answered the call for me. Nobody answered she said. I’m right ain’t I? They just wanted to disturb me.

About 17.00, a friend called me and asked me to go out with him to Tunjungan Plasa. I haven’t seen him for at least a year. Practically after he graduated last year I never saw him anymore. You know what, before his graduation, he came to my house almost every week and we met each other everyday. Just before his final college test, he slept in my house almost everyday. His house is in Kendangsari and mine in Tropodo, Waru. Pretty far I guess. But he did came to my house :D. Yes, he was forced to do it because he couldn’t do his final project alone. He needed my help so he came all the way to see me. When he finished with me then he left just like that. Haha, that’s what I call a friend. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

I just don’t understand but it seems that I always have that kind of friends from my childhood. Maybe that’s why I become a bit individualist. My recent psychology test showed me that I was anti-social as well, hehehe. Recently, all of sudden he tried to contact me often. I didn’t know what was his purpose. Maybe he didn’t have any, but who knows. But I did know that he’s gonna take his girlfriend today to Tunjungan Plasa. I heard her voice on the phone. What the heck would I do there with him and his girlfriend? And you know what, I refused his invitation and played Ragnarok Online instead :D. Am I wrong?