MapleSEA turns 1.

Had a most uninspiring morning at my dad’s company where I receive monetary award for my SPM results yesterday. The event was low-key, with several uninspiring speeches etc compared to last two years ago, and to think I sacrificed my sleep for this hugely boring function.

When I looked at any reflective devices, I saw a panda staring back at me.

Jon picked me up at about 12.30pm where we went to his house to await Siew Keat’s arrival to his Court 3 apartment. At about 1.15pm we left for APIIT, the location for the MapleSEA Carnival in celebration of its first anniversary since its birth last year. And the three of us, Jon, Siew Keat (ketiakman) and I, had been playing since Closed Beta. More accurately, we’ve been playing MapleStory (Global) since December 2004 when our beloved website Hidden Street was created.

The Technology Park Malaysia is one huge complex, and reminds me of the UiTM in Shah Alam where I once worked under Tiong Nam Logistics. In order to go from one building to another, you will have to drive if you dislike the inconvenience of walking the distance. Every building looked surreally futuristic, especially the smaller one-floor building which looked like it was made out of glass panels - according to Jon it was where graphic designers work at.

After completing our painlessly quick registration (since you have to register online and stuff) which involve checking your name/IC and filling in some coupons, a lady approached us and squealed, “Wah, Hidden Street, can I take a picture??” to which we obliged. Both Jon and I were wearing our HS T-shirts.

I thought one of our rabid fans recognised us, but after introducing ourselves, the quirkly lady turned out to be the assistant chief editor of iPLAY, the online games-related magazine I once wrote MS guides for which seemed to have stopped publication, Stephanie. And next to her was Kuan Lim (fatcatlim), who was my Publication Editor who handled my articles at one point.

So we talked a bit about the various online games, etc, and shook hands, took more pictures and left to our own ways. We were then allowed into the computer lab upstairs (which was, by the way, like a high-class cybercafe with the air-conditioner blasted at the maximum which made my hands shiver) where they announced participants are allowed in on a first-come-first-served basis only.

Jon posing by the computers we were about to use.

The three of us rubbed our hands in excitement and pounced on the three PCs nearby, logged on to our accounts and we were greeted with the all too-familiar message,

The Concurrent Users in This World Have Reached The Max. Please Try Again Later.

They had 2x exp at the exact same time as these real-life events were held, so yay we couldn’t login. Best part was they only gave us 30 minutes to enjoy the preview of the cybercafe-exclusive area Premium Road, which had us spending most of the time away on finger exercises trying to login into a server/world that’s bloody full - Aquila.

Jon and Siew Keat clicking in frustration.

After about 10-15 minutes of muttering various underlying curses onto Asiasoft and their inept planning skills, the screen displayed the various channels and we donned our characters’ suit immediately.

Premium Road was mediocre; while there was supposed to be 20% more experience and droprate, I probably won’t go to cybercafes just to spend my money away on MapleStory. It’s a ridiculous notion.

After taking various screenshots of the area, the SanDisk thumbdrive I brought along proved to be handy and I sneakily managed to cut-and-paste the screenshots I took for HS’ database update purposes.

We were then urged to logoff (I also had the foresight to trade in the Mouse item I obtained from various monsters for ‘points’ in the virtual cybercafe, since you probably can’t use the Mouse anymore in the near future), and went downstairs to the concourse or whatever you call it.

A look at the main stage at the concourse.

And the various cardboard-cutouts of the four main characters in the MMORPG.

I’m from the Magician class while Jon’s new character’s from the Thief.

Pretty lame “Item Shop” they had, manned not by Asiasoft staffs but an old Malay couple. Bought a Ramli burger they had for lunch.

The seats opposite the stage.

My former Publication Editor roaring (probably the best) in this “Roar like a dragon” contest, which measured not how realistic you sounded like, but the longest you roar. So you can imagine some of the contestants going “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” followed by someone screaming “SENG!” from the audience (yamseng, comprehendo?). Pretty lame stage competition.

They select contestants randomly from the lucky draw box, and on the second round Jon was selected. This is the “emulate the expressions (F1, F2, F3, etc) and try to make your opponents laugh” which ended up with two fellas getting booted only. The remaining six maintained their expressions appropriately.

This is the F2 emoticon.

This dude was trying to scare a little girl.

When no one could laugh being natural actors and all, they finally had this “emulate MapleStory monsters” contest where I missed snapping Jon’s hilarious rendition of a Lorang (a crab).

The little girl sportingly acting as a Mushroom when I thought she’d stand there quietly and cry.

And they select their winners based on how loud the audience clapped for a particular person. And I think this little girl deserved the cute ol’ Mini Kargo plushie although I so want to loot it from her.

Ultra cute Mini Kargo and Yeti plushies. T_T

The cute female staff standing at the stage manning the gifts whom I thought looked like Toh Mei Yee.

The cakes we didn’t get to taste.

There was a countdown, followed by the explosion of these confetti and a Happy Birthday and Congratulations song. Wheeee.

We had to go back early at about 4.30pm as Jon had to attend a dinner, but not before we stopped by at SS15 for the cendol. Overall there weren’t many people (which probably explained why they came up with the lame MaplePals thingy at the very last minute, 15 hours before the registration ended, to attract more people), the Premium Road preview was badly planned, the stage games were mediocre, the carnival games we didn’t participate since you need to pay RM2 for each try to win Black Sacks etc, and yeah it was a little disappointing considering that you have to pay 5000 A-Cash which translates to roughly about RM12. It was low-key at best, and the only thing(s) I probably enjoyed the most was meeting up with Stephanie and Kuan Lim and the background music from various MS places were blared loudly through the speakers.

The silly advertisement we spotted near my house.

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Yesterday night was a little bit chaotic in planning, when Ding picked me up to look for Esther’s house and it all ended up in me confusing the lanes leading to Jess’ house and Esther’s, but we finally met up at the guard house instead. When I boarded Ding’s car, I made a hurried phone call to “Kai Tzin” (“Hello Kai, wanna watch football at Shawn’s house later?”).

On the way back to my house, I received an SMS from Kai Shen asking details about the trip which surprised me but figured Ding must’ve told him about this little football-watching thingy. I saw KS online inside MS, and on realising my mistake, after asking him if I phoned him earlier which he answered no (which further confused me), I checked my recently dialled phone numbers and Kai Shen was on the list, not Kai Tzin (although I did SMS him).

(I don’t know if I make any sense at this point.)

I finally phoned Kai Tzin again and what made me realise my mistake was the caller ringtone I missed out when phoning Kai Shen earlier. Both Kais couldn’t come in the end.

So yeah, watched Germany vs Sweden where the World Cup hosts attained a triumphant win in the first half alone (4th and 12th minute goals both by Podolski, almost missed the second goal ‘cause I arrived late at Shawn’s house with Andy in my car). Was a little disappointed when Germany couldn’t score further especially in the second half, even when Sweden was down with 10 men, but hey whoopedoo they won and confirmed their place in the quarter-finals.

After the match ended at 1am, we hung around further at Shawn’s house and only went to Jess’ house at nearly 2am (after dropping off my car at my house) where we found her blurry-eyed as she slept after waiting too long for us. Chatted mostly about Jessica’s Seafield life and Shawn’s various curious incidents.

I had to go back at 3am when my mum repeatedly phoned me.. as much as I’d like to stop going out at insane hours so often, especially since my college had started, I probably just couldn’t -- not anytime soon.