Hi guys!

Newly Revamped Video Page

Our video page has been newly revamped! Granado Espada videos can now be downloaded or streamed via our website over here. We will continue to update this page with new videos whenever there are new versioning updates for Granado Espada!

Discuss this here.

Scam and Hack Cases

There have been an increase in scam cases and hacking of user accounts. We advise the community to choose good passwords that are hard to crack. At the same time, please refrain from downloading third party software that may have keylogger programs. Please change your passwords on a regular basis and do not share your account with anyone else. Do note that IAHGames staff will never ask you for your password.

Discuss this here.

Upcoming Events In September

September is a month that I am really looking forward to. There are just so many activities and events in the lineup!

6^th September 2007-13^th September 2007: Ladies Fashion Week

Andre Janzur is launching his latest fashion line for some of his favorite women during Ladies Fashion Week and hey, he has even decided to be generous and is giving us a 20% discount for his Autumn 2007 Collection. Fantazzzies FTW!

8^th September 2007, Saturday: In-Game Event

There is going to be an in-game event next Saturday, which is a sequel from the previous Dark Lord Returns event. This time, 3 sisters will be leading the community into battle. More details coming your way this weekend!

14^th September 2007-16^th September 2007: Malaysia Official Granado Espada Launch Party

SMM, our Malaysian distributors, will be hosting their Official Launch Party over 3 days in Cineleisure Damansara, Kuala Lumpur. What I have heard is that they have even invited celebrities Rynn and Jin Sha down to perform the Granado Espada Official MTV, ’Fu Huo’! So you can only imagine how exciting that event would be! They are also looking into planning a range of various tournaments like boss RAIDs, leveling competitions and PvP tournaments.

15^th September 2007, Saturday: Philippines Official Granado Espada Launch Party

IP-Interactive will be launching their mega launch party over at One Esplanade in Pasay City. It will be very much like our RAID party with offline quests, box set sales and of course, PvP tournaments with pre-made characters!

Discuss this here.

An Extension Of Cinderella’s Midnight?

We are going into our commercial phase at the stroke of midnight! So all you Cinderella ella ella ey eys out there … make sure you get your characters to Level 20 to enjoy 90 free days of gameplay! Hold that thought. Level 100 Boss has just informed me that due to overwhelming response, he has decided to follow suit in Andre Janzur’s generosity and extend the midnight offer all the way till 10am tomorrow instead. Therefore, as long as you get at least ONE Level 20 character in your family by 30 August 2007, Thursday, 1000hrs (GMT+8), you get to keep your glass slipper reward of 90 days free gameplay.

Discuss this here.

The One About Enhancement Boosters

Someone emailed me asking me what are the statistics and success ratings for enhancement boosters. This data doesn't come officially from IMC or from IAHGames, but just some tinkering and testing done on my own in the test server.

Enhancement boosters have a maximum cap for the various AR/DR of equipment, meaning to say that the enhancement NPC will only accept up to a maximum number of enhancement boosters for the different base AR/DR of equipment. The table below shows this relationship:

Base AR / DR of equipment	Max amount of Boosters required
1 ~ 8	1
9 ~ 13	2
14 ~ 17	3
18 ~ 20	4
21	9
22	11
23	13
24	15
25	17
26 +	20

Then there is the enhancement level success rate, which I'm sure all of you are much more interested in knowing! Ok, the important point to note is that ONLY when you use the maximum number of boosters allowed for that particular equipment, do your chances of success double. So say, I wanna enhance a +10 weapon, the chances are like... 1.56%. If I use 20 enhancement boosters, which is the maximum allowed, my chances are doubled. If I use less than the maximum number of boosters allowed, my chances increases slightly, but do not double. (Gee, I hope I am making sense here.)

1.56% X 2 = 3.13%

Enhancement Level	Success Rate	When max amount of boosters are used
1	100%	Unable to use boosters
2	100%	Unable to use boosters
3	100%	Unable to use boosters
4	100%	Unable to use boosters
5	50%	100%
6	25%	50%
7	12.50%	25%
8	6.25%	12.50%
9	3.13%	6.25%
10	1.56%	3.13%

Yep, hope this is of use to you folks out there.

Oh wait, before I end, thanks for answering all those previous comments on my behalf, Leonson. I couldn't have said it any better myself. I've said it before and I'll say it again - You're my blog hero! (:

I was feeling a lil' philosophical on my way home earlier and it just occurred to me that buying a virtual item is akin to buying shares on a volatile stocks exchange market. You never know when the index will go up or down. It is a risk we all take and alas, it is something that we have no control over.

I was having a chat with one of the IMC guys, Sam about Emilia The Sage and he was telling me that the reason was Emilia The Sage was immediately taken out off the cash shop RNPC listing in kGE merely a few weeks after she was released was because once she reached veteran and was able to increase her INT, she was undefeatable. 3 Emilia The Sages levitating during colony war, 3 Emilia The Sages taking turns healing and reviving one another, 3 Emilia The Sages Proton Splashing Together. One hit K.O. No one could even get near them. Melee classes were totally useless against them. No saving throws whatsoever for the enemy. kGE gamers were outraged and raised such a huge outcry that she was immediately removed.

Never underestimate the power of a proton splash.

Did you know that a proton splash has around the same damage as Elemental Strife (Lord Of Elements Stance)? Not to mention proton splash has a longer range and shorter cooldown: 7 seconds as compared to Elemental Strife's 60 seconds!

I'm closing the chapter of Emilia The Sage after this entry. After all, we all have to move on. Yes, me and my 5 Emilia The Sages will get by just fine... :)

The One About Emila The Sage

So lil' Sage Emilia is a little less intelligent now.

Despite that, she still pwns... big time. I've been using her lately and I am totally enchanted with her. In fact, in every server, I intend to own an Emilia the Sage.

She can levitate and she can heal. This statement in itself has so much deeper meaning to it. Some people have commented that with an INT of 7, she is equivalent to that of an ordinary wizard. But she has a higher DEX of 1, which improves her accuracy - thus improving your minimum damage and improves your chances of critical hits.

That aside, the most important thing about her, in my opinion, is that she can substitute the scout role at lower levels and resume her wizarding roles at higher levels. At lower levels, pots (healing potions) are expensive since the amount of vis you can potentially earn is lower. But at higher levels, pots are comparably cheaper in relation to how much you 'earn' as you train. For this reason, once you hit higher levels you would prefer not to use a scout anymore and just rely on potions for your healing/buffs especially since they are a lot faster than heal/buff spells.

Enter Emilia The Sage. Welcome to the Sage's world where you don't have a wasted character slot in your MCC team of 3. Lower levels she plays Lil' Miss Florence Nightingale with her nursing (healing) ability and at higher levels, just equip her with a rod/staff and voila, welcome offensive levitating wizard with proton splashes of high crits.

From this day forth, I shall never own a scout ever again. ;)

The One About V2.1.18 Commercial

Here's the V2.1.18 commercial! Feel free to download it, share it around and put it up at your blogs etc. The new RAID boss you see in the commercial is Hellbreaker. Check out his Godlike stats!




Games GE TVC *New*">IAHGames GE TVC *New*

On that same note, I'm currently faction visiting Godlike Faction in Carracci. Sorry I haven't logged in for the past 2 days (before the server went down for patching). I've been really busy with work. Catch up with you guys when IMC and Hanbitsoft flies back and things are more settled. ;)

The One About Baron Items

Well, IMC and HBS (Hanbitsoft) peeps are in town now to help us patch our servers to V2.1.18 and things have been hectic busy around here! Hopefully I will get a chance to blog more about them when things are less hectic, but for now, thought I'd give a quick update before I leave the office for home on some of the baron items. I'll try to answer some of the questions asked about the business model in my entry tomorrow.

Calculation of baron points? Easy. The level of the person you PK-ed minus 1. In mathematical formula terms: Victim Level - 1

E.g I PK-ed a Level 100 dude. I get 100-1 = 99 baron points

Here is the baron table which relates the baron points to the baron level:

Baron Level	Required Baron Points
1	1
2	2,500
3	5,000
4	10,000
5	20,000

At various baron levels, you get to wear certain back costumes that can be obtained through the baron quests. From baron level 2 onwards, the baron items have statistics:

Baron Level	Baron Items	Stats on Item
1	Grave Stone	No effect
2	Casket	Defensive power -5
3	Cross of Death	Defensive power -10
4	Revenant	Defensive power -15, HP increase 800
5	Wheel of Destiny	Defensive power -20, HP increase 800, ATK rating +1, DEF rating -1

At various baron levels, you even get baron buffs! But it's a double edged sword since your defensive power is drained to increase your attack power in the same proportion...

Baron Level	Baron buff
1	+5% attack power, -5 defensive power
2	+10% attack power, -10 defensive power
3	+15% attack power, -15 defensive power
4	+20% attack power, -20 defensive power
5	+25% attack power, -25 defensive power

Aight. Here's some baron eye candy:
























Baron Level 1: Gravestone
























Baron Level 2: Casket

Baron Level 5: Wheel Of Destiny





















Baron Level 4: Revenant

The One About The Long-Awaited Business Model Announcement

Hi guys,

We arrived at our business model after hearing the views from gamers on the forum over the past few months.

I must say it is a very fair system that advocates to the 3 different schools of thought: a) Item Mall Advocates, b) B2P Advocates, c) P2P Advocates

School Of Thought #1: Item Mall Advocates

First of all, there were several problems in the F2P model which required tweaking. Two gamers, nightbloom and WarForge said it best on the forums:

i) Bots and Farmers

“There is a downside to f2p with item mall, especially in an international game. Bots and gold farmers are the majority of the population and even sporadic mass banning does nothing to stem the tide. There is no real loss for gold farmers or players who bot chars up to max level as the pay items in the item mall can be bought with either credit card fraud or not at all.

F2P DOES mean more people, but it doesn’t mean more players.”

- nightbloom

ii) Freeloaders leeching off supporters game play

iii) Overcrowding of servers by freeloaders

iv) Freeloaders leeching off paying supporters’ customer support

v) Troublemakers who can keep returning since there is no cost involved

“F2P is good to some extent, however if you think about it in a logical point of view it doesn't all fit in. Sure it may be free, and you are free loading... however, think who you are freeloading off? I know in most F2P games, the ratio between supporters to freeloaders are big... there might be a ratio of 3:5 or even less than 1:5. Does it not bother you that a supporter is giving out their money just to support 15-xx freeloading amount of people? - and most of those freeloaders are going to be nuisance makers ( eg: botters, flamers etc)

But hey, what can you do? When everything is free who cares about it, because you won't be the one to supporting the game and when the F2P market runs dry and the F2P supporting the server unexpectedly leaves, guess what's going to happen? There will be a progressive path leading to denial of service.”

- WarForge

These were good points made by the gamers on our forum and are problems that are already being faced in our open beta phase when we conducted a mock trial of the F2P scenario. Ultimately, we would like to have responsible gamers who are truly supportive of the game and are willing to support the game through contributions.

Thus, in order to cater to this group of supporters – we came up with a hybrid system, where you have two options:

1) Free game time whenever you purchase G-points to buy items from the item mall.

Code Types for GVC/Box	G-points Provided with Game Time	(USD)
1 day Unlimited Play GVC	200	USD 0.50
5 days Unlimited Play GVC	650	USD 1.00
10 days Unlimited Play GVC	1600	USD 2.00
30 days Unlimited Play GVC	5000	USD 5.60
90 days Unlimited Play GVC	15000	USD 15.00
180 days Unlimited Play GVC	30000	USD 27.00
1 year Unlimited Play GVC	60000	USD 40.00

Or if you already have tons of game time, you can simply just purchase:

2) More G-points without any game time.

Code Types for GVC/Box	G-points Only (W/O Game time)	(USD)
1 day Unlimited Play GVC	230	USD 0.50
5 days Unlimited Play GVC	750	USD 1.00
10 days Unlimited Play GVC	1800	USD 2.00
30 days Unlimited Play GVC	5800	USD 5.60
90 days Unlimited Play GVC	18000	USD 15.00
180 days Unlimited Play GVC	35000	USD 27.00
1 year Unlimited Play GVC	70000	USD 40.00

We are also planning future schemes whereby if you have purchased an overkill of game time (e.g. 10 years of game time), you can actually covert your game time into G-points.

School Of Thought #2: B2P Advocates

For B2P (Buy To Play) advocates, there will be Granado Espada box sets being released in the near future which are bundled with extensive free game play time and hey, you even get your money’s worth of G-points as well! The following chart is indicative of what is potentially found in the box set:

School Of Thought #3: P2P Advocates

Well, P2P advocates, I’m happy to tell you that this is one of the cheapest P2P games around.

Most other P2P games charge an average of USD15 per month. Granado Espada charges only USD5.60 per month! On top of that, you even get 5000 G-points to go on a shopping spree in the item mall! If you REALLY want your money’s worth, purchase the 1 year plan instead and it will only cost you USD3.40 per month and woot! 60,000 G-points comes along with it as well!

Code Types for GVC/Box	G-points Provided with Game Time	(USD)
1 year Unlimited Play GVC	60000	USD 40.00

IAHGames Thanks The Open Beta Testers: 90 Days Free Gameplay For All

We will be going into our commercial phase on 30^th August 2007, 0000hrs (GMT+8).

In order to show our deep appreciation for the open beta testers who have supported us all this while, we will be rewarding ALL open beta gamers who have at least one Level 20 character with 90 days of free game play. This means to say, anyone who signs up for Granado Espada from the start of POBT till 29^th August 2007, 2359hrs (GMT+8) AND has at least one Level 20 character, will get to enjoy 90 days of free game play after the commercialization date on 30^th August 2007.

P/S: I heard that these 90 days of free game play may be extendable, but this is very much dependent on community enthusiasm and response. ;)

The One About Granado Espada's School Uniforms

I've been exploring the new features and items on V2.1.18 and I must say the school uniforms look especially hawt. I think the main reason of its appeal is that it is the only fashion line that has a standard theme across all the stock classes. They all manage to retain their own fashion sense of individuality pertaining to their own class and yet when they stand together, despite being different classes, they look so alike since the style is the same:


























Individuality in uniformity.

And yes, the pun was intended. ;)

Hi guys!

For Singaporeans out there, Happy National Day!

1. Shopping Mall Catalogue

The last episode of the ‘Days of our speculative lives’ a.k.a the business model announcement will be out tomorrow! One thing’s for sure though. There will be an item merchant within the game itself and she is one hawt babe! Meet my new best friend who I've been spending a lot of time with lately getting to know her (or rather her catalogue) better:

And hey, since it’s national day and all, I have convinced her to let you have a sneak preview of her goods. You can check them out over here.

Discuss this here.

2. September: Ladies Week & School Uniform Week

Well, Granado Espada ladies, not to fret. The item mall may have a limited number of femme wear now but we’ll be having a Ladies Week next month with more female costumes to be made available then! With September comes the end of school holidays for some. School uniform week boasts school uniforms for all the stock classes ��" Fighter, Elementalist, Scout, Musketeer and Wizard! You can look forward to various events and promotions for the month of September!

Discuss this here.

3. Forum Quests

Weekly forum quests are still ongoing:

Forum Quest #2: Selwyn’s Challenge

Inspired by our weekly Granado Espada in-house comics, Malaysia’s Community Manager, Selwyn, challenges you to create your very own comic! His challenge ends on 14^th August 2007. More details can be found here.

Forum Quest #3: Veya’s Challenge

Philippines Community Manager, Veya, wants you to showcase your aspects of love and challenges you to do so through a Granado Espada signature creation with the theme of love. Take part in her challenge over here.

The prize for each of these quests will be the event-exclusive Angel Wings.

4. Reminder: Download V2.1.18 Patch

Do remember to download the 200MB V2.1.18 patch as soon as possible. There are two options of downloads for you over here - the full game client of V2.1.18 or the manual patch of V2.1.18. Just a quick reminder though, it has been password protected because the server side V2.1.18 patch has not yet been installed. Any attempts to install the patch to your current client will result in game client corruption and your current Granado Espada client will be unable to run. We will release the password on 16^th August 2007, after we patch the servers during server maintenance. V2.1.18 of Granado Espada will only be playable after 16^th August 2007, when server maintenance is over. From that time on, V2.0.9 (the current version) will no longer be usable.

Discuss this topic here.

The One About Granado Espada... Trading Card Game?

So. The new mercenary contract V2.1.18 feature update of being able to convert your character into a character card was not all that popular with some members of the community, largely due to botting and RMT issues. When we brought this concern up during our weekly teleconference with Hakkyu Kim and the IMC team, what we learnt from them was that after the implementation of this feature in kGE and jGE, it actually helped in reducing such RMT issues.

Firstly, IMC told us that the RMT traders actually do not use the mercenary card feature in part of their RMT schemes as this makes it easier for the in-game system to track them down.

Secondly, you are now giving gamers other options rather than real life money to get other characters - they can trade their own character cards, they can use in-game vis, they can trade their equipment and various in-game items to get other character cards. With all gamers being able to trade and exchange their characters in-game, supply goes up and when supply goes up, price decreases, which forces RMT traders to lower their prices so much to the extent that it is no longer profitable.

Characters have now become objectified to be seen as an in-game item rather than a character. I mean, if you think about it, ask yourself - why is it that I have no problem trading my in-game items which I have taken a long and tough time to acquire and not my characters?

Which leads me to the next point. The other reason why some people object to this system is the hard work being put into training a character up to Level 100, only to have someone who did not put in as much time and effort getting the same character. The thing is, when Hakkyu Kim first created this game, this 'trading characters' function was what he had in mind from the very start. In light of this, this is why there are so many RNPCs to collect and this is the reason why getting to level 100 takes merely a few weeks in comparison to other games that take many months even, years to max out a character.

Unlike the conventional type of MMORPG, the focus of Granado Espada has never been about the pride of grinding a high level character - but rather the collection and showcasing of many characters. It focuses on quantity and the mastery of how you manage this quantity. This is a different concept that needs getting used to, and a certain sense of open-mindedness is required to move away from the mindset of traditional MMORPGs and appreciate such a system of objectifying the character.

Not sure if any of you have ever play TCGs, but this reminds me of a Trading Card Game (TCG) - the building of different types of decks, which in the context of GE, your MCC team of 3 actually constitutes of your 'deck' where you pit your 'deck' against monsters or against other players.

Or you can look at it like Pokemon. You defeat the Pokemon (RNPCs) you meet along the way, you capture them in a Pokeball (RNPCs join your family), you challenge other Pokemon trainers (PvP), you fight against Team Rocket (PvE) and you trade Pokemon (converting your characters into cards) with fellow Pokemon trainers (fellow GE players).

And the tagline never changes.

Gotta collect 'em all! ;)

[Sidenote: I was looking through an old diary of mine and found this entry. Thought I would share it with you guys to further encourage the community service efforts. (: ]

The One About Their World Through The Lens

A picture paints a thousand words.

I've always believed in the power of a camera. What super powers does a camera have? It grants an insight into someone's mind. When I want to know more about a person, I casually give them my camera and ask them to take as many photos as they like. The way a person takes a photograph says a lot about a person. It takes you deeper into their minds, their subconcious even. The subjects they choose to photograph, the angle, the moments they choose to press that trigger. All these are decisions. And in every decision we make, even the most minor and seemingly insignificant ones, like that of taking a photograph - it reflects a part of our personality.

A close friend of mine was dating this guy recently and so I was absolutely dying with curiosity to meet this guy since I had never seen her glowing and so alive ever since she started dating him. But he was a rather quiet guy so it was not easy to get a good feel about what he was really like, despite my bubbly attempts to dig information about him. Oh well. I guess not everyone is like me who will tell their life stories to people they have met for the first time...

So when the night droned on and I still couldn't get a feel of what he was like, I decided that time was running out and it was time for drastic measures. So I innocently gave him my camera and asked him to take some photos. And when he gave me back my camera and I scrolled to the first photo he took (first photo is most important since it reflects the most importance. Or so I say.), I immediately shuddered with goosebumps.

The photo he took was of the woman he was crazy about. The angle and moment he chose to take the picture was when she was not aware of it. To me, that photo reflected his quiet affections for her, his quiet observation of her as she laughed and talked with the people around her. It reminded me of the strong, silent type of romance novel hero who watched over his woman from afar.







* * *
One of those days when I was on leave and playing teacher at Katong Special School.

And I look at this kids and wonder to myself, What is the world like inside their minds?

Yet, regretfully, I do not have that enlightened state of mind to understand them or communicate with them on such an artistic level as theirs. Which leaves me with only one option. To attempt, in my own way, to see through their eyes... via the lens of my camera. So during recess time, I give some of them my camera and teach them how to take photos. And I am proud to present their world, through their eyes:







These 2 photos are my all-time favourites. There is something just so artistic and fetching about them:





I felt a little emotional after scrolling through those photos. Suddenly, it made me feel ashamed and immature. To even think that I could decipher their psychology by looking through their eyes in those brief moments. What I saw was beauty without aesthetics. Beauty in its most innocent, naive and pure form. Aesthetics is but a man-made concept, the 1/3 'rules' and conventions we abide by that a picture may look complete. We make use of certain guidelines and principles to get that perfect shot. Yet in those aesthetically 'beautiful' photos we take, lacks a certain sense of genuinity and sincerity.

I switched off my camera and smiled to myself. Perhaps there are some things in this world that are not meant to be analyzed and concluded. Because that would be trivializing it down to a simple scientific experiment. There are some things in this world that are meant to be admired from afar, respecting its distance, just as it is, without any agenda.

And this is one of them.