International eCulture Festival 2011

It's been quite a while since I wrote in the SSF Blog. I was thinking of the International eCulture Festival that Team Zeak will soon be going to compete in. They're flying to Korea this Thursday (the day we have the Halloween update!) so that's only 2 more days until we make history in the gaming world!

What is the International eCulture Festival (IEF) about?

Being a Festival, it's where people come to celebrate and have fun. Since it's in Yongin City, we can expect many more local residents to participate in it. But it does not mean only Koreans can go! If you are able to get a ticket to Yongin City, anyone can go to the festival and enjoy yourselves.

It's mainly about eCulture, which means IT, electronics, and games!! Special Force is honoured this year to be an official game for this cultural festival. Imagine how the IT world, users of IT and IT lovers all come together into one location. What do they get to spectate and enjoy while they are there? Special Force! Why is it even more important that it becomes a cultural game? Imagine in Singapore where reunion dinners is a culture, and a huge amount of food must always be bought, cooked and eaten. Now imagine Special Force is as traditional as reunion dinners!

And finally, it is international. This means the whole world is watching and participating and having fun with our beloved game! So while you scrim with close friends in Singapore, you make friends with people from across the globe and find that you have close ties with people everywhere you go. For travellers or people who love to travel around the world, this is probably one of the greatest events to go to!

This is how significant an international event is to our game, where we all know that Special Force is the global no.1 online FPS game. Team Zeak, we wish you all the best in this competition and may you bring pride and honour to Singapore!

(Of course, we are waiting for you to win the championship in the SFWC and the WCG too =3)

(everyone else, can I give Team Zeak the banpocalypse if they don't win at least 2nd place?)

Replica Alcad M4A1 For Sale?

Hahahaha, I heard from the DFI people who were at the LAN party today about the M4A1 replica gun that one of them brought.

It was painted to look like our Alcad M4A1, in real life!

Some of them were casually commenting that we could sell the replica Alcad M4A1 if anyone is interested, but we thought no one would be interested.

Surprisingly, someone really DID ask how much to buy it! ^.^

So now, we were thinking, should we touch up and finalise the painted replica gun and put it up for sale? It might take a little time to make sure it's in perfect condition, but if someone really wants it, we could pretty much do it.

It's our way of making Special Force more than just a game, I would say!

I'll get the pictures from the guys on Monday, stay tune to this blog post! Geez, I wonder how long have I not written anything here...

^Millais

Here is one picture of Karim holding the awesome Alcad M4A1!

Gotta love that smile, I thought he wouldn't let go of it and bring it home xD

The new guy in town.

Hi, i'm GM Atrocity from SSF and some of you might or might not know i'm new here.

Well I'm just posting this since GM Millais was just having a writers block.... that or he's just plain lazy. Either way I don't really care as long i get to shoot him in game =D.

Well since I got nothing much else to say here is a few motivational pictures from my personal collection to show you what kind of person i am, since a picture says a thousand words..... wait a picture can't say anything......





P.S.

The only free items I ever give out is bullets, so if you ever see me and ask for free items, you'll know what to expect ;)

International Channels Woes

Ever since we created the International Channels for non-SG and non-MY players to play in, there has been a lot of complaints from you guys. I really don't see where the problem is. Maybe I need another discussion session with all of you to try to explain what is happening and why.

For a short version of my rant, scroll all the way down until you see green words.

What is happening

We started with 2 channels renamed to International Brigade, and had non-SG and non-MY players restricted to them for playing SF.
We have complaints that it is laggy, and the Vietnamese are foul in their language, and there's not enough players in the SG Brigades.

Then, we changed to 3 channels, taking over Brigade-10.
We have complaints that it is laggy, and the Vietnamese are foul in their language, and there's not enough players in the SG Brigades. And there are complaints that Brigade-10 is the Clan War Brigade.

Recently, we made 6 of them into International Brigades.
We have complaints that it is laggy, and the Philippinos are foul in their language, and there's not enough players in the SG Brigades.


Why these are happening

Vietnam SF had to be closed due to the government's orders. I don't have the details, but you might want to search for it yourself.

Ever since VSF's closure, our numbers have increased, but most rooms have more VN players than SG players. In order to make this version of SF dedicated to Singapore, we created international channels and restricted all non-SG and non-MY players there. This means players from Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, etc, can play in SGSF, but only in the International Brigades. They have zero access to the SG Brigades.

Ever since this restriction, we see that there are about 200 players from Vietnam, and only 30 from SG. With more players in the International Brigades then SG Brigades, SG players are going to the International Brigades.

Brigade-10 is quite a unique issue for me. I know most of our players are loyal fans of the Special Force game, but to follow USF and use Brigade-10 for scrims only... This is Singapore SF, not America SF. If we are to follow exactly the same as USF and maintain Brigade-10 for scrims only, then how are we any different from USF? This is our own server, our own version of the game. Why not make it uniquely Singapore? This is why we made the effort to create an SOF, a PASKAL, we asked for Black Devil able permanently instead of event only, and we decided to update with some of KSF's latest updates instead of following the same small updates as USF. You don't need Brigade-10 to be scrim only. Make it Brigade-01, the first channel that you see. Make it the one channel for true players who scrim. Let Brigade-02 be the place for non-hardcore players. Who needs Brigade-10 and USF now that you have your own place and your own rules?

Recently, with PSF having some issues, they hav come to SGSF for some refuge. It's like when a country is at war, and the innocents want to run from it. We are giving them shelter. Some of them like SGSF, and if they want to stay, we do not want to reject them. Once again, we do restrict them to only the International Channels, because our Singaporean players should have their space.

Right now, you see that only 6 of the 12 Singapore channels are for Singaporeans only. This is only because we don't have enough Singaporean players yet. Imagine, if all 12 channels are filled with local players, do you think we will remove the International Brigades and make space for Singaporeans? HELL YES! We are waiting for more Singaporeans to come and play. We are preparing to create Singapore Server 2 for you. We only need to press a few keys, and SGSF can hold the entire populaiton of Singapore!

So where is the problem?

You do not need to go to International Brigades to play.
You can stay in the SG Brigades and avoid VN and PH players.
You can visit the Malaysia Brigades and avoid VN and PH players.

VN and PH players cannot visit SG Brigades.
If they cannot visit SG Brigades, they cannot lag your game.
If they cannot visit SG Brigades, they cannot speak an unknown language.
If they cannot visit SG Brigades, they cannot use foul language on you.

SG Brigades need more people.
Call your friends.
Call your school mates.
Call your neighbours.
Call your Facebook friends.
We are advertising, but the most powerful advertising is when a friend introduces another friend. If a stranger tells you, "This candy is good", will you take it? If your friend tells you, "This candy is good", will you take it? The same concept for SF applies.
We are not invincible. We need help, as do any and all companies in the world. Do you know that even your school needs advertising? They do it in that oversized, heavy book of a list of schools. They state the school name, their achievements, and why students should enrol in their school after PSLE. It's advertising!

So do think about the situation carefully.
If you don't want to play with Philippine players, don't go to International Brigades.
If SG Brigades do not have enough players, call your friends.
Simple?

The Short of It - Rant & Rave
Regarding Vietnam and Philippines players: You do not go to International Brigade.
Regarding empty SG channels: You call your friends to play.

I plan to use this link and copy and paste it to every and all comments in forum, Facebook, everywhere!

^Millais

DFI Recently

Wow, it's been a while I wrote anything for the SF Blog. Truth be told, if I didn't have insomniac right now, I'd be trying to get as much sleep as I can, so I can prepare for another busy week on Monday.

There's been a lot of changes happening in DFI lately. Some you can guess, others, I rather not explain. Just know that I've become busier already. I'm still your GM, don't fret over it if you're fretting at all, but I've been involved in a number of other things as well. I asked a friend recently about what my role should be called. He told me, "Semi-Manager Game Master Millais". xD Wut? He was trying to make me feel good, 'cause I was doing nearly as much work as a Manager guy now.

I'll be focusing mainly on any texts that need to be written for our website and articles, etc. This one, you'll see in oficial announcements.

I'll be needing to do a lot of planinng for our game's updates. Yes, that means what guns and armour you're gonna be having. Just note, though, that I don't have the final say yet, since my official title is Game Master.

I'll be needing to do a lot of planning for future events too. My Website guys and Artists are complaining a lot that we give them too much last minute work :P It's not that the work is a lot. It's just that I would often send a request for new artwork and ask for it to be done in 2 hours xDDD I know, I know! Anyone would bite my head off for doing that! That's why I'm thinking of planning events way ahead of time. Thankfully, I kept a list of some of the events you all want. Yet again, remember that I don't have the final say.

If possible, I'll be helping with answering emails sent to our Support Email. That's pretty much an official thing, so any queries sent there are gonna be prioritised. The big problem I'm having now is that Yahoo emails aren't receiving verification emails. The Yahoo Support team didn't reply me, and it's been a week arleady. Google Mail recently also aren't receiving verification emails. I hope I don't have to disable Gmail sign ups too!

So places like Facebook, Twitter and forums won't get to see much of me for a while. I'm suddenly wondering how I'm going to get involved in future community tournaments... Ok, how about this? You all send me a proposal for a community tournament, you all post up a notice, I'll create Referee accounts for you, and you can hold the tournament. If I have the time, I'll chip in as a referee so that the tournament can be as official as possible. But as I mentioned for my first community tournament, I can't guarantee any prizes. If we're going to have prizes, it'll need the boss's approval, and it's not easy to persuade the higher ups. Maybe I'll upload the template somewhere so you all can download and fill it up.

As for the blog itself, I probably won't be writing another one so soon, not unless I suffer another insomnia problem again. But it's a good thing most of the articles have some people reading them. Not all, but at least some of you. Hmm... I think I better write something about our international channels, since many of you are still angry about having foreigners. Lol, I thought I has settled the case for you all that night when we had that fiasco on Facebook. Maybe not...

Degtyarev, Players' Version

One Thing You Should Never Do

If there's something in life you shouldn't do, it is this:

Playing Prank

For God's sake, DON'T ever, ever, do it, especially when you guys get enlisted. If the ladies here decide to sign up, remember not to play this stupid prank also. If that guy is in the Singapore Armed Forces, he's having himself landed in the Detention Barracks for the next 2 years!