Hrin Gets Her Hands On The V2.0 Client!

Just like all of you GE fans, I’ve been suffering from GE withdrawals symptoms ever since CBT ended. My nights have been so cold and lonely without GE… until TODAY!

Woot! I just got my hands on GE’s V2.0 client! I was excitedly going through the tutorial and realized how much has changed in V2.0. Remember V1.8.23 during CBT when all of us start out on the immigration ship?

Well… this doesn’t change in V2.0. After all, we are all explorers from the Old World of Vespanola, here to explore the new continent known as Granado Espada. However, what is different in V2.0 is that your ship actually reaches Granado Espada! The second part of the tutorial has you arriving at the Port of Coimbra.

The green arrows guide you up the stairs to meet this dude:

Any guesses who he might be?

Leave your comments here!

Save ‘The Last Dance’ For Me!

Some of the GE players organized 'The Last Dance' event on 18 March 2007, Sunday night as a closure to CBT. It was a really entertaining dance competition held at the City Of Auch stage, which cleverly made use of hot keying and quick spamming of various poses in GE.

I was truly impressed at the creativity of these dance contestants as each team brought to the table a totally different genre of dance. There were the classical ballet types, the typical boy band types and even some hawt and sexy ‘Pussycat Dolls’ numbers! Woot! Gee… if I ever form a GE girl band, it will be made up of 'Catherine The Summoner' characters and I am so going to call it ‘CatHrin Dolls’. ROFL! ;)

Amidst the wolf whistles and wild cheers from the audience who came by to witness the event, one of the players managed to capture part of the Dance Competition on video. Enjoy!



So what do you guys think? ;)

The One Where Hrin Role Plays Mum

I know, I know... it does seem rather daunting and confusing as to what this whole ‘Babysit the children!’ quest is about. So I’ve written up on my past experience there so that you have a rough idea about what this is all about.

A good friend of mine is a teacher at Katong Special School (for kids with special needs) and when she asked if I was free to help out, I was more than happy to. Basically, it was an outing to Bedok Interchange to teach the kids how to do the usual, mundane stuff that we take for granted - things like taking a bus, buying a fast-food meal, borrowing library books. Gee I'll never look at mundane everyday events the same way again man.

Anyway, the game plan was simple:

1)Each kid to get a partner
2)Teacher or volunteer to accompany each team
3)Take bus 32
4)Go to Bedok interchange
5)Buy a meal at Burger King
6)Go to the library
















"Hrin, I will assign Sarah and Sofiya to you ok?" Miss Tina, the form teacher says to me.

"Oh ok," I say as I look around for the two kids. My eyes light up the minute I see them. Two adorable little girls. I grin at them as they look curiously at me.

"Hi Sofiya and Sarah! Today you'll be my two little 'Hrin Juniors' ok?" I say to them sweetly. They look at me blankly, smiling back in that angelic, cutesy way that just makes me want to squeeeeeeze them so hard.
















So anyway, we teach them how to cross roads safely, use the EZ-Link card to take Bus 32 and then we go to Burger King to have lunch.
















And then... off to the library!
















"Hrin, later at the library, bring the girls to get some girly books and read it to them," Tina tells me.

I stare at her blankly. Girly books? I was considering introducing them to the world of Granado Espada. Shucks. Guess I need to shelf my plans temporarily until OBT. Girly books girly books... let me see... Oooo!! I see Vogue and Cleo magazines. Girls read that kind of stuff right? But the girls don't seem interested as I point excitedly to the magazines that I am dying to flip through myself. Sarah picks up a book entitled something like 'I am Velvety Rabbit.'

So I sit my two lovelies on my lap and start reading a story about how Velvety rabbit had some misadventures. Gosh… I have more exciting stories to tell about my GE characters. Nevertheless, the story seems exciting enough for the two girls. And this outing is about their enjoyment. Not mine.

The kids are rather well-behaved today and Tina rewards them by bringing them for ice-cream at Ronald Macdonald's Bedok Princess Villa.
















I burst out laughing when I caught sight of Sarah. Her mouth and cheeks were full of ice-cream! I smiled as I endearingly wiped all the ice-cream off her face.
















The day drew to an end as we walked over to the 32 bus stand at Bedok interchange. So we take the bus together and Tina takes some pictures of me and the girls.
















As the girls and I were posing for the camera and laughing together, something that Tina had said to me earlier came to mind. She had told me that some of these kids were thoroughly neglected or abandoned by their parents who were busy with their own lives. I felt a stab of pain and grief in my heart as I held these girls in my arms. And a new sense of determination grew in my heart.

It will be my lifelong quest to champion the weak and defend the innocent. After all, I am Hrin. Hear me rawr! ;)

Hrin's Updates: Let's Get This Party Started!

Hellooo GE fans!

1. CBT Finale Party: Let’s Get This Party Started!

Gosh! I can’t express how excited I feel about this upcoming CBT finale party! I just can’t wait to finally meet you guys in real life! The face behind the GE character so to speak. So anyway, the CBT Finale parties will be held across the region in Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore as mentioned here.

There will also be an official CBT in-game event – Stupendous Race, which will be held on that same day, 17 March at 1530 (GMT+8). Read here for more details!

Being Singaporean and all, I will obviously be down at the Singapore party. What to expect at the Singapore party? Goodie bag giveaways! Lucky draws! I managed to get a sneak peek at the luck draw rewards and they include lots of valuable prizes (such as printers, Bluetooth sets etc), including certain *cough* ‘golden tickets’ into a certain exclusive preview for a certain POBT *cough*. Gee I really should be more subtle when it comes to dropping hints about stuff I ain’t allowed to reveal.

The best part is we can even take RL (Real Life) screenshots together, a term otherwise known as ‘photographs’ in the real world, striking all kinds of Poses…. And no! I will absolutely not do the ‘Head Thrusting’ pose! (Or basically any other poses that will attempt to make me look unglam which will lead to evil GE players auctioning off my unglam photos on the forums you know who you are ;p)

2. CBT Player-Organized Events: 18 March, 2007, 7pm (GMT+8)

To mark the end of CBT, some of the GE players have organized an in-game event called ‘The Last Dance’. It will be the clubbing event of the (CBT) year with a dance competition as well. They will also be video recording the event live! So come down and dance for me baby! ;)

For the non-clubbing gamers, there will be a summoning monsters event following that major in-game clubbing event. Expect to see more than 400 monsters ranging from level 1-100 being spawned. And hey, it is the last night before CBT ends… so well, knock yourselves out at that event by spawning your own mobs as well! Let’s have a no-holds barred, wild night together! Ok… that sounded so wrong on so many levels… ;p

3. More ‘Golden Tickets’ To Exclusive Preview Of POBT

CBT is approaching its final countdown on 19^th March 2007, 12pm (GMT+8). I’ve been hearing a lot of woes and cries of “What are we going to do during this time without GE?!”

Don’t fret people! There’ll be tons of activities going on during these 2 months both in real life (for Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore) as well as other ongoing online contests during this period. Want to try to win that elusive ‘golden ticket’ into the Exclusive 2-Day Preview to POBT? More contests will be coming your way so do constantly check back at this website, even after CBT ends ya?

A Day In The Life Of Hrin’s Inbox: The Sweetest Thing

Indeed. The tides have turned! After that last Dettol-Inducing ‘Lost In Translation’ email, here’s the sweetest email I received that plastered a moronic grin on my face all day…

Perhaps Hrin shall appear in my dreams tonight.
And my eyes would behold a most wondrous sight
A maiden fair, and full of grace
And a wit to match a beautiful face.

Her words of kindness ring soft through the wind
Emanating this frail heart from within
Could this be a pure soulmate true?
Igniting a flame that I never knew

The days crawl by so painfully slow
Oh please, I pray, for a sooner Tomorrow
For Time to converge in the blink of an eye
To narrow the gap between her and I

Till then I'll sit in silent reflection
Thinking of this in fond endearment
And if Fate decrees that our worlds collide
Then finally, Hrin, I shall be by your side.

Fare thee well, sweet Hrin of Vespanola, thought of my days and hope of my nights…

Well, well, well… Helloooo stranger. Where have you been all my GE life? ;)

Hrin's Updates: CBT Finale LAN Party – 17th March 2007

Hi guys!

More updates in today’s news.

1) GE Timeline

Just to let you guys know, there has been a shift in the timeline of our GE schedule. Tentatively, here is the summarized version of the new schedule:

19^th March 2007: End of Closed Beta Testing (CBT), CBT accounts and all characters will be wiped.

Late March/April 2007: Registration for Pre-Open Beta Testing (POBT) begins at this website.

2 days before POBT: Exclusive preview for contest winners and special guests, Characters will NOT be wiped.

Late May 2007: Pre-Open Beta Testing (POBT), Open to everyone, Characters will NOT be wiped.

June/July 2007: Open Beta Testing (OBT), Open to everyone, Characters will NOT be wiped.

2) V2.0 Client Download For POBT

We have plans to have BOTH a new client for V2.0 for new gamers to download as well as a 500+MB patch for the current 1.8.23 version. Tentatively, this patch will be split up into a few parts for download

3) Hrin’s ‘Industrial Attachment’ Plans

The CBT period has been an absolutely divine time for me. I’ve really enjoyed my time with you guys so far: from squadding with some of you random GE players that I’ve met during my grinding sessions, to participating in some of the events that you have organized, right down to old school ‘IRC’ style of just having a casual chat with you guys about where you come from and the person who you are behind the GE face.

One of the GE players was very kind to invite me to join his faction during the CBT period. While I have been enjoying my time with them, I would also love to spend time with the other factions as well so as to get to know all of you on a much deeper level! I do realize CBT is coming to an end, but this is the time to start making plans for Pre-OBT dudes! So do drop me an email inviting me to join the faction which you plan to open up in POBT. I will be spending time with each faction (first-come-first-serve basis) for a few weeks before being attached to the next faction and so on. ;)

3) Player-Organized Events

I’ve been noticing a lot of player-organized events that have been going on recently. Keep up the great work guys! I’m really proud of you. :)

In the meantime, do turn up for these events in order to show support and appreciation for your fellow GE gamers who have taken so much effort to organize them for your entertainment. Some of the upcoming events are things like ‘Hide and Seek’, ‘Shopping List’ and ‘Who wants to be a vis-illionaire?’ More details on these upcoming events can be found at the forums here. For the players who are organizing events, please feel welcome to approach me either in-game or via emails. I would really love to get involved with what you guys are planning. :)

4) CBT Finale LAN Party – 17^th March 2007

Yes! To end CBT off with a bang, we will be having a CBT Finale LAN party on 17^th March 2007! There will be some special in-game events being held on that day as well. Think XP boosts! Think never-seen-before items raining on the ground! Think ‘GE Gone Wild’! That's just a little teaser of what is to come. I will be giving out more details of this LAN party over the next few days once I get wind of more details.

5) Hrin’s GE Blog Skin Contest

I’ve set up my GE Blog over here: http://blogs.iahgames.com/hrin

I’ll be blogging ever so often about my mama-drama life at IAH, my adventures with you guys in GE, the hilarious emails I’ve been getting and so on. From what I’ve seen in the forums, I daresay there are a quite a few creative GE gamers out there. Thus, I will be hosting a GE Blog Skin Contest for you lovely GE fans to design my GE Blog skin for my GE Blog. I will be giving out more details of the blog skin contest on my blog over the next few days.

The One About Sun Tzu's Art Of PVP War

We all know how God-like Sun Tzu is in his art of war. But Sun Tzu obviously never played GE if not he would have learnt a thing or two about PvP war from the boys in Yakisoba Faction. As you guys know, I’m on an ‘Industrial Attachment’ program and Yakisoba Faction was the first faction who had invited me to join them during the CBT period. I must say there has never been a dull moment in the mama-drama ‘Days of our Faction Lives’! These boys are go-getting, hardcore players out on a rampage of death and destruction! Still, it has been extremely entertaining and faction chat is never-ending.

So anyway, it was the night before CBT ended and the leader of the [Scarlet Rose Faction], Lestat, broadcast a message across the world, inviting everyone to join in a mass PVP war. As we were all making our way down to the PVP officer at City of Auch, faction chat went something like that:

Yakisoba Faction Boy 1: Eh Hrin! Hrin! You must take part in the 15v15 PVP tourney!
Hrin: Yeah sure :) What's the strategy guys? My MCC combination is Wiz/Scout/Elementalist. I have master level in...
Yakisoba Faction Boy 2: Oh don't worry your pretty head with that! We just need you to be our mascot!
Hrin: -.-" Right... And what exactly am I supposed to do?
Yakisoba Faction Boy 1: Just stand at the side to distract the enemy! Make sure you wear your French maid costume! And don't forget to levitate so that the enemy can get a GREAT view from below!
Yakisoba Faction Boy 2: Yeah! Your levitation combined with French maid costume will OWN both Retardi and Sandman!

I stare at them in amused incredulity as they go into a blow-by-blow account of all the various ways they could use me as a 'pleasant distraction' to the enemy. GE players trying to pimp out their CM (Community Manager)?! Alas! What has the World of Granado Espada come to? I should pen a letter to the Queen of Vespanola voicing my grievances about this. I can almost see the headlines in tomorrow's 'Vespanolan Times' newspaper...

* * *

Vespanolan Times: Queen Banishes Yakisoba Faction Boys To Al Quelt Moreza!

The Queen of Vespanola has issued a decree to banish the Yakisoba Faction boys to a lifetime of hard grinding in the dungeons of Al Quelt Moreza (AQM). Apparently, these boys were found guilty of attempting to pimp out the Queen's delegate, Hrin, in the new continent of Granado Espada.

They will also serve a lifetime of slavery to AQM's resident evil, Dilos Lantemn. No power leveling! No rare item drops!

* * *

Grievances aside, Lestat suggested that we have a pure fistfight, meaning no weapons and no skills usage, which turned out to be pretty hilarious!















It felt more like a mild catfight since no one was doing any real damage and everyone was just laughing and having lots of fun. Yet at the same time, it brought us all 'back to our roots' when CBT had just begun - how we were all Level 1 noobs, dealing minimal damage to Mandradoras and to one another during duels.

I can hardly wait for POBT to begin! 55 days and counting down...