Gamers: Pamela Jemimah “PJ” Punla

The first of our Gamer Interview Sessions has gone live and we’ve got a female gamer first on the list. Waittaminute. A female gamer, you ask? Well I got news for you folks, Gaming isn’t necessarily the exclusive domain of the male side of the species. We asked PJ about her gaming experiences, her favorite games as well as her funniest moments playing online. Read on for what PJ has to say.

Are you a Gamer? Want to be featured on Gamer Interview Sessions ? Email us with your name email address, location and your favorite online game at gamers at gamemagazine.ph.

Game!: Hello! introduce yourself to our readers?
PJ: My name is PJ [short for Pamela Jemimah] Punla. People have a tendency to mispronounce my names so I go by the quick initials. It means I get mistaken for a guy a lot, particularly in some online forums. Pseudonyms? Haha. When I play online games, my characters’ names depend on whatever it is I’m fangirling at that time. For a long while I was going by several permutations of the name ‘Jade Fox’ in both English and Japanese, the name of the thief and ‘bad guy’ from ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. More recently, though, I’ve been taking my character names from the Wheel of Time book series by Robert Jordan - in particular, from my favorite character, Tuon - formerly Daughter of the Nine Moons, new wife of Matrim Cauthon, currently Empress ascendant of the Seanchan Empire.

In Silkroad my main character’s name was ‘tuon_cauthon’; in my brief try at Rappelz, my character name was ‘NineMoons’; in Granado Espada, ‘NineMoons’ was my family name, and the characters’ first names were Tuon, Radhanon, and Furyk. [the explanation for those names is here, in the last portion.]

I have one other pseudonym, which I use during in-game chats: ‘Paige’. When annoying people ask me if I really am a girl or not, and usually ask for my name in the process, that’s what I say.

Game!: Where are you located?
PJ: Currently in Tungkong Mangga, City of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

Game!: Still at school or already working?
PJ: Working on my thesis at UP-Diliman. Haha, 8th year; BA Creative Writing

Game!: When did you start playing online games?
PJ: Sometime around 2003-2004. You’ll probably be able to guess what the game is. And that would be Ragnarok Online. I started on the Loki server, and then when I joined my guild, switched to Iris [because that was where they wanted to play /shrug] Looking back, yeah I had so much fun with pRO, never mind the fact that it cost me a lot of money and caused me a lot of frustration. I started when the phone lines were still somewhat buggy and DSL was still very expensive - so we called our game ‘Lagnarok’ and all that. But the real high point, for me, was knowing I was playing within a large community - it might have been laggy but it was very Pinoy and full of our kind of fun.

Game!: What made you to play online games?
PJ: Partly because my boyfriend and his friends were doing it. Partly because I was already playing tabletop RPGs by then. And partly because I like working and playing with computers.

Game!: What should a online game have to appeal to you? (like graphics, sounds, f2p etc)
PJ: Eye-catching, but not eye-straining, visuals. A good soundtrack that makes me want to keep on playing. So much the better if it makes me want to dance. An engrossing story - that includes interesting characters, quests that advance the story and are not just ‘kill X monsters for Y experience’, and especially a properly-researched background/myth/lore/history.
Strong characters. I prefer games in which the jobs are shared by the genders, ex. male and female swordie in RO, male and female glaive-wielders in SRO, male and female fighters in GE. [I’m not much into, say, RAN, because it’s impossible to have a male archer or female swordie in it.] If the game is f2p then it should still play with high standards. If the game is p2p, then the fees should be reasonable, and I should definitely get my money’s worth.

Game!: What is your gaming experience like?
PJ: Sorry, no dates - can’t really remember any more.
Philippine Ragnarok Online - played Mage, Sage, Knight, Archer. Was in a boss-hunting guild. Never got to level 100.
Gunbound Online - only briefly. I played it mostly during pRO server downtimes, and for the nostalgia factor [I played Scorched Earth in high school]. Didn’t really get anywhere.
PangYa! - again, only briefly. Never got past novice status.

Silkroad Online - played a Glaiver. Made it to around level 30 [before quitting in favor of GE].
Granado Espada - Closed Beta Tester. Played a fighter/wizard/scout family. Made it to level 40’s before CBT was closed.

Game!: Which games, both online and offline, would you classify as your favorites?
PJ: Offline? Neverwinter Nights 1. I finished it and I was already a fan of D&D when I started playing it.
Final Fantasy X-2. Even if I haven’t even finished the first chapter.

Online? Silkroad. Again, see my ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ trip, up top. Granado Espada. Definitely my current favorite.

Why? NWN - I loved it because I could play my own adventure and pretty much do whatever I wanted as long as I followed my chosen alignment. The character-creation system was fantastic. I also really liked the part where I was able to pick up the God-items and -weapons for my character class. Fantastic drops ftw.
FFX-2 - the graphics! The dresspheres! The all-girl team! The happy ending [if you were smart enough to get 100% completion]! What’s not to like?
Silkroad - I think that swinging a glaive around was the best part of the tale for me. And the cute little gray wolf pet [who was, however, taking far too long to level]. And the historical slant of the game.
Granado Espada - all the reasons why I like the game are at my GE blog ^^

Playing Online

Game!: Try to imagine that you’re trying to convince someone to play your favorite online game. How would you do it? What would you say?
PJ: Granado Espada is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game set during the Age of Exploration. In this game, one player can control up to three characters at the same time, so you can effectively build your own adventuring party. The AI allows you to automate your party’s actions, so you don’t have to get lost or confused. It has a deep story, fantastic visuals, and a great soundtrack, and the characters look AWESOME. You can even customize the way they look!

Game!: Did you have an experience playing a online game that didn’t appeal to you?
PJ: Briefly, yes. That was when I played Rapplez, and I was only there for, what, two or three days.

Game!: What aspects of the game turned you off?
PJ: The graphics were HARD to understand and tended to give me headaches. The quests were all wrong - they’d tell you to go to this place, but the mobs you needed to hunt were in the adjacent map, for example. The interface was beyond confusing, and the game controls were hard to deal with. Rappelz was supposed to be my bridge to GE - the game I played while waiting for GE to come out - but in the end I just found the game frustrating.

Game!: Put yourself in the shoes of a game developer, what game would you like to develop and why? Which systems from the current online games would you incorporate?
PJ: My kind of game would involve feudal Japan, because that’s one of my favorite parts of history.
Character classes would be ashigaru, samurai, ronin, yamabushi, geisha, that kind of thing.
I’d have players go through storyline quests that allow them to level up high enough to be able to unlock the next areas of the game.

I would love to be able to incorporate the MCC and XAI of GE to make it more interesting for the players.
There would be provisions for crafting items.

If possible, I think I would like my game to have some ‘fun’ in it - the non-serious stuff in World of Warcraft would be the perfect example. Imagine how funny it would look to have your samurai character dance, or your geisha make faces.
Customizable clothes and armor, of course. And I would make sure that even low-level characters would be able to look fantastic.

Relationships Online

Game!: Do you have an in-game best friend/s?
PJ: Not really. I tend to do a lot of playing by myself now.

Game!: Are you part of a guild?
PJ: I was, once.

Game!: What game is this guild located and can you give us a short info about the guild?
PJ: That would be the Vikings on the Iris server of pRO. Originally, our purpose was to become the top boss-hunters on the server. We were going to use the God-drops for eventual participation in the guild vs. guild fights, but then we discovered how LONG farming the bosses was going to take. We had so much competition for the kills, and the drops we wanted were only the rarest ones, so a lot of hunting [and time, and money] was required.
We’re still a casual barkada at present.

Game!: If you can remember, how did you guys meet? What guild activities do you usually do?
PJ: I met the Vikings through my boyfriend. He’d been in the same batch at university with some of the members, and knew the others through association. One or two of the guildsmen owned an Internet shop at the time, and that was where he brought me to meet the group and start playing. The guild used to go on boss hunts every weekend. Then, when we all quit pRO, the guys switched to playing DoTA. We’d go out for dinner and beers every now and then. Everyone’s busy now, though - two of the guildsmen are married, at least four have relationships, there are two boyfriend-girlfriend pairs within the guild, our GM’s in Europe! - so we haven’t met up recently.

Game!: Funniest Moment while playing pRO
PJ: This isn’t exactly an in-game thing. Some of us guild members went to the launch of the War of Emperium feature of pRO - this was at Glorietta, in the central atrium. My God, the number of people crowding the place was staggering! And that was only the Manila players! Anyway, in the weeks leading up to the WoE implementation, the servers were subject to frequent crashes. And if the servers weren’t crashing, the lag - when we could get in - was horrifyingly bad. We’d watch our characters freeze on a mob-heavy map, and next thing we knew, we were all dead.
So there were frustrated players at the launch, and then a group of them began an impromptu parade. They were holding up large boards on which they had written messages, and they were holding them over their heads, in the style of the player-chatrooms in pRO. The messages were something like this:
‘AFK LAG’
‘FRIENDSTER MODE LAGGGGG’
I think there were even some obscene ones, but I can’t remember them now.
And then when an official of Level Up! got on stage to make a speech, the first thing he said was something like:
‘I know you’re all frustrated and some of you are even angry at the current state of the game. I know your feelings aren’t exactly good right now. So come on, boo me.’
That’s right, he ASKED us to vent at him.A solid minute or two of curses, boos, hisses, and obscene gestures followed his words.
Smart guy, that Level Up! person - since his audience was able to vent, he was able to make his speech to attentive ears.

Game!: Saddest Moment while playing pRO
PJ: Hmm. I’m not really sure if there was one.

Game!: Do you believe in finding love in online games?
PJ: It hasn’t happened to me, but who knows? I know that in other countries people have found their soul mates through playing online.

Game!: With so much role playing on online games, do you believe that maybe, just maybe, one of those you just pWn3d is Mr/Ms perfect?
PJ: Maybe that’s possible, but I don’t have high hopes. Besides, there are too many guys out there who are masquerading as female in their online games. Why else would we have the homegrown term ‘chiksilog’? If every one of those guys set out to look for Miss Perfect via their online games - they might be disappointed to find that the player of the female avatar was male too.

In Closing

Game!: What can you say about online gaming in the Philippines right now? There are a lot of new games coming out to compete with those currently in service…
PJ: I like the fact that non-fighting online games - Dance Battle Audition, PangYa!, O2 Jam - have actually been accepted into the market. It gives the kids some choice, and their parents some relief that they aren’t being exposed to hack-’n'-slash all the time. It also means more girls can play online, because not all girls like fighting games.
I’m excited for the ‘localized’ commercial releases of some big games - I mean the proposed Southeast Asian server for World of Warcraft, and the Philippine server of Granado Espada. It means Filipinos can finally have the chance to play these exciting games without having to worry about paying in foreign currencies.
And I really like the current f2p trend - it means everyone can play and worry only about their PC time, no cards or load balances to keep track of [aside from their Internet cards, maybe].

Game!: What advice can you give to individuals seeking to jump into the fascinating world of online gaming?
PJ: Find a game that suits you. Don’t play a particular game just because your friends do, if you’re not sure that you’re going to enjoy it from the start.
Do your research beforehand. Try to learn something about the game before you sign up for an account - that way, when you start playing, you might already know some of the basics, and won’t need to ask questions that other players might find annoying.
Try to speak and type properly in-game, with correct spelling and all. There are a lot of free MMORPGs on international servers and they usually enforce an English-speaking rule so everyone can understand each other. Do your best to abide by those rules, and by the rest of the game’s etiquette.
Try to avoid ‘txt tlk’ at all costs.
Be friendly and open. Don’t be argumentative. And especially, don’t be rude.
Above all, HAVE FUN. Play the game; don’t let it play you.

Game!: Any shout outs and greetings?
PJ: - To the Vikings: miss ko na kayo! Labas naman tayo!
- To UP GRAIL: When is karaoke night?
- To the Pinoy Browncoats: keep misbehaving, shiny ones.
- To the CBT community of sGE, and especially to the lovely Community Manager Hrin: can’t wait to see you all again in POBT!
- To my honorary sisters: cuppa tea sometime?
- To my boyfriend, who got me into MMORPGs in the first place.

Game!: Your message to our dear readers.
PJ: Hope you all enjoy the games you’re playing! And for the Granado Espada fans and players: please come to my GE fandom blog at http://geninemoons.blogspot.com, where I’ll do my best to keep you supplied with GE info and fun!

Are you a Gamer? Want to be featured on Gamer Interview Sessions ? Email us with your name email address, location and your favorite online game at gamers at gamemagazine.ph.