Ald Demo

I've lost track of how many times I've done the 1-20 grind, between the betas and Chinese Aion. It feels so good to finally have it count. Been busy trying to stay ahead of the leveling curve. The first few days were rough and trying to find mobs was challenging. After deciding on our server, we picked another one instead because we were worried about having members locked out.

Well it turned out we picked the most populated server somehow! We're on Triniel, which later we found out is also the server with more old FFXI BG people. Anyways, managed to get to 30 in the first week, but the next 20 levels will take much longer. As a huge Cowboy Bebop fan, i finally got the name i wanted in FFXI which was always taken.

Nochsana Training camp: 1st 6-man instance with fantastic exp but no drops for us.



Fire Temple: 2nd instance also with no drops for my groups.


Getting my Courageous Breastplate.


Level 30 CE wings

   Ah music, my first love. It's been almost 10 years since my failed attempt to get my band going, but i won't get into that. I have a very broad spectrum of influences, that sometimes clash with each other, but i think that's what makes me appreciate it all. I'll start off by saying i'm a die hard Maiden fan, 80's version of course, although i now forgive them for taking the entire 90's off. My tastes though go back to The Who, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin of the late 60's and into the 70's. We're talking mostly hard rock here which continued into the late 70's and early 80's with Rush, Iron maiden, and the rest of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands.

  At the same period of time you also had some of my favorite punk bands starting of course with The Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Damned, and The Police. The mid 80's ushered in my favorite Bay Area thrash bands such as Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, Anthrax(from NY), and Sepultura(from Brazil). During this time there were some fantastic punk bands like Bad Religion, Black Flag, The Descendents, and Husker Du. I cannot forget to Mention Operation Ivy, which only put out 1 album before they broke up, later forming half of Rancid.

  It's about this time that i got my first cassette tape, which happened to be a compilation of a few bands from Sub Pop records and SST. My best friend gave it to me as he was so into a few bands i never heard of, namely Soundgarden and Nirvana. Well the rest is history as you know. Unfortunately once those bands became huge, we stopped listening to them. We were against MTV, as i still am, and we hated what they turned into. For the record, i love Bleach, and still think it's their best album.

  Ahh the mid 90's and my first live show. It was 100 degrees and 100 teenagers, including yours truly, crammed into a small club in central Jersey to see a little known local band called The Bouncing Souls. They were from the same area as i was, they looked like me, and they blew me away. It's one of those weird things that some people don't understand. When you're there from the ground floor with your favorite band that you know and have spoken to, there's nothing like it and you're hooked for life. You can throw Face To Face, NOFX, And Bombshell Rocks into there also.

  There are a few bands that i love or find influential from the 90's that i haven't mentioned yet. These bands are a little hard on the ears if you don't know what to listen for. Carcass brought us Heartwork and Entombed brought us Wolverine Blues. Those 2 albums influenced every band today, even to the point of flat out ripping off riffs. I should also mention Iced Earth and Blind Guardian for reviving 80's metal.

  Wow long post is long. Any who here's 2 vids. Op Ivy vids are really poor quality as most were bootlegged, so a track vid will have to do.

My favorite album of 2009

     This had me dying in my chair. "You can't arrange your desktop by penis!"

  It's been 20 years since a few of my favorite 80's movies were released. All i can say is WHAT THE FUCK. I can't believe how time flies.

  The Wizard: A boy, his Nintendo, The power Glove, and Super Mario 3! Nothing like going over your friends house and seeing Nintendo for the first time. Growing up a Nintendo kid, nothing like it.

  Gleaming the Cube: What the fuck is cooler than having an underground bomb shelter as a bed room. I admit i was a skate fag at the time.

  Say Anything: "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that" I do kinda look like him i guess. One of my favorite scenes ever.

  Bill & Teds: Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K. Everything is different, but the same... things are more moderner than before... bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers... San Dimas High School football rules. What more do i have to say except, listen to this dude Rufus, he knows what he's talking about. I still tell myself there's no part 2.

Here's a couple LS pics i was working on before it ended. Meh, they look alright i guess, but i never bothered to finish them. I think i missed a bunch of people. Look how sexy Dolmen and Raye look and how dead Zelfire looks.

  Well less than 30 days til Aion goes live. I haven't touched FFXI in 2 months now. My account is sitting inactive and i really have no desire to fire it up. Even thinking about it puts me in a bad mood. I think it's because i don't like to put up with bitching and complaining. Tell me what job and where to go and i'm happy. I feel like i'm back to my laid back, sarcastic as fuck, old self.

  So far we have around 20 members for our legion from recent FFXI and oldschool FFXI of 3 years ago. Seems like a really nice group of people with no assholes, except for Bastilla. Just kidding, but not really! If you happen to be reading this and are interesting, hit me up on here or on BG and i'll direct you to our temp forum. Jack, stop playing WOW, we need more asians. Oh Katrisha, respond to your damn e-mail.

  It looks like Aion will be a game of numbers in the Abyss. Probably need 30+ to take over forts and open up the instances within. The instances themselves look like they're  mostly 6-man starting at lev 30. The thing that struck me first was that some legions have 80-100 members. I find that insane, probably due to the fact that i'm so used to FFXI's small numbers. I guess it makes sense, you can do the instances with a few of your close friends, then go ransack the fortresses with a huge group. Should be fun.

  If you don't get it, then you're too young and I'm too old and grumpy to explain.

I finally gave in and decided to kill some time on the Chinese servers. Setting up and account was ridiculously simple and paying for it is really cheap. I think i bought like 50 hours for $4, which is cheaper than a sub would be, considering i'm not really playing that much. Oh and the game client is free to download, which surprised me. With the English patch and so many NA and EU players on my server, it feels a lot like FFXI. Although doing some of the group quests has been a bit of an adventure with zero communication. Anyways, i turned up my setting on my pc so i could take some pics. Unfortunately i can't play with these setting as my FPS goes to shit.

Doing some quests in Eiron Desert. I went afk for about 10 seconds to get a drink and was destroyed by some Asmo's that wandered through a nearby rift.


Talking to my friendly tree NPC in Manduri Forrest. An Asmo tried to kill me shortly after, but we outnumbered him and set him home.


Farming for my lev 22 stigma stone Stunning Strike in Theobomos. I gave up after 3 hours and just bought it off the AH with the money i got from the mobs!


We ended up chasing some Asmo's through the desert and into Grave of Sataloca. So much fun. Well, until high level Asmo's attack and we have no chance. Damn movement speed boots!

Level 25 is the cap this time and i have to say, 20-25 is a lot more fun than 1-20. I'm sure it's because i'm a Templar and we pretty much suck without some important stigmas and abilities we get later on. Right now the ranged damage dealer classes have whooped my butt and i don't see that changing til the mid 30's, when i get another ability. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect because i'm not really a PVP person, but the more i try out the game, the better it gets. There's so much to do PVE wise and so many quests, gathering, and crafting, that i can only see it getting better. It's just plain fun. Not having to base your play time around mob respawns doesn't hurt >.>!

Testing out my pull stigma that i get at 22 called Stunning Strike.


Elyos side of the Abyss. It's a huge PVP zone where 2 factions and a 3rd NPC faction duke it out.



Cutscenes in the Abyss explaining factions, fortresses, and basically the story.


Doing some quests on the first Abyss island. Forgot to take pics of me getting owned by some Asmodians shortly after. I was busy running.

Due to constant bitching and complaining from everyone's favorite french Canadian that i don't talk about him enough on here, i went and dug up some old pics from 2005. Some of these are shitty quality and clearly not as many as i'd wish i could find. I blame you and everyone else for not taking many pics of what you and almost everyone considers the golden era of the game. Some of these are Bast's accomplishments and some are DarkLegacy's.

I've been reading forums a lot lately while waiting on the next beta weekend for Aion. I came across this one post full of idiots that used to be on Shiva a few years back. Seems they're on Gilgamesh now, being the same idiots they were then. I realized what i don't miss at all about FFXI. I also understand that kids will be kids and that they need attention, but man Shiva turned into a shit hole after them.

I often was asked why my linkshell never spoke in /say. If you read that idiotic thread then you'll understand. Having to put up with that crap for years i think just made me thick skinned. I assume anyone talking to me on a game is a 15 year old pisswad, and i hate 15 year old pisswads.

That's not to say that we didn't have some utterly moronic and extremely idiotic nights on our Vent. Probably the most fun i've had on FFXI. I couldn't imagine playing without Vent. Which reminds me, Khalil fix Vent damnit. Oh and Khalil, i saw a Dominos delivery car again today :p Or how about the snowball story? I have enough stories for 2 life times. So many fun moments i can't remember them all, but here goes some.

• Khalil refusing to use push to talk and us hearing everything.

• Khalil's mom coming to visit him and yelling at him on vent.

• Jon afking to get a soda out of the freezer and then getting a call 30 min later saying he's at Taco Bell.

• Katrisha never answering a question directly.

• Jack not knowing what DP stood for and thinking it was "doggy pounce".

• Retrace wars.

• Bastilla interviewing a new applicant on vent while Jack and i are trying to fuck with him in party chat.

• "Wait who's on chainspell stun? Fuck it just go, someone will stun".

• Jack exping drunk and explaining "squirting 101".

With another Aion beta being over till next week, i've been fucking around on Cabal again. Managed level 75 and my badass looking Osmium suit and sword. Only 95 fucking levels to go. Aion cannot come fast enough because i'm bored.

Cap was raised to 20 this time so we got to have some fun for 5 days. All i can say is that i'm having fun so far and i can only see it getting better once more friends start playing upon release. Hit a wall at level 17 for a bit as we ran out of quests that we could do without a healer, so we just grinded a bit. Once the game is finally released, i think they fixed the exp for those quests a bit. Templar is slow at low levels, as to be expected, so grab an Assassin or Gladiator friend and go to town. Provoke is ridiculous hate btw. Took some screenshots - keep in mind my PC stinks so these are the lowest setting possible.