The police have arrested 74 people between May 1 and July 1 this year across Singapore because they are suspected to be involved in illegal soccer betting group (syndicate) activities.
Consequences of illegal betting
Under the Betting Act, Chapter 21, any person who bets with a gambler (bookmaker) can face these consequences:
fined up to $5,000.
jailed up to six months.
both of the above.
In addition, gamblers (*hyperlink/cut short* ) can be:
Fined up to $200,000
Jailed up to a maximum of 5 years
Seized possessions during the raid
The police seized:
More than $78,000 in cash
Electronic devices that assisted in (facilitated) the activities
Soga operation
The two-month long operation, labeled (dubbed) Soga (soccer gambling) IV, rounded up nearly 300 people across Asia countries (link) with Singapore’s arrests forming about a quarter of the total arrests.
Collaboration with Interpol
These arrests were coordinated by Interpol (link) to combat illegal soccer gambling in Asia linked to organized crime gangs.
Reason for these operations
Head of the organized crime branch of Interpol’s Drugs and Criminal Organizations unit Crusade Yau:
breaking up illegal gambling dens and the criminal networks behind them
The police would continue to cooperate with Interpol to combat the unlawful (illicit) activities.
Looks familiar? Yes, it is the game where most of you all had played or heard before sometime in your past time. Maplestory.
The purpose of this post is to recollect my past memories of this game and share it with you guys, as well as introduce this game to those that have little experience in this game. Like my other posts, the next section would be about some background information on the game. If you guys want to skip to the next section, simply go to “My gameplay experience”
Background Information
MapleStory is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), developed by the South Korean company Wizet.
Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and for Singapore, it is published by NEXON.
Like any other MMORPG, although the game is free-to-play, some character appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the “Cash Shop” using real money.
Maplestory is one of the most successful game ever made even when it is only a 2D MMORPG, and is earning a lot of revenue through support of players buying in-game cash items.
The reason why it is successful now is because of the frequent updates by the developer. In addition, it is a user-friendly interface for starters.
My gameplay experience
One of the favorite blogs that i visited during the time I am playing the game was Spadow’s blog.
Spadow’s blog includes lots of future updates that the Maplestory version in Korea is having. The blog is written in English thus it is easy to read and I know what to expect in the future patches of the game.
In one of his posts posted in June 2, 2011, Spadow described the skill sets of cannon shooter, a new job coupled with a video that is supposedly to come into maplesea ( the version Singapore is running ) only in May 2012. This shows how fast the Korean version of maplestory is advancing and I’m happy to get fast and reliable news from a blogger.
Another blog that I enjoy reading is Ayumi’s blog. In one of her posts, she posted a guide on how warriors go about doing the quests to get their skills. I was doing my 4th job quest at that point of time when I came into contact with the post. It helped me a lot as the steps are clear easy to follow, thus I began to frequent her blog as well.
Since Spadow had stopped posting since end of 2011, I began to look for alternative sources that update news from the Korean version of Maplestory. And thus, I came across the blog named Orange Mushroom’s Blog. As you can see from this post , the blogger posted it on 30 May, 2012 which was just recently. The news posted would be beneficial for all maplers out there who wants to know what’s happening in the future for MapleStory.
Free Market
Other than killing monsters and doing quests which most MMORPG offer, personally I like the trading system in Maplestory whereby it gives you an opportunity to be a mini entrepreneur by buying items at a low price and selling them for a profit.
This is a picture of the free market in maplestory. If you are playing maplestory without planning to spend any real cash on it, you can shout out in the market on what items you are buying or selling.
The drawback of this method is that the platform is used by many, thus it is hard for people to notice what you are actually typing at a glance.
The other method you can use is to buy a shop using real cash and set it up in the rooms of the free market. You can put up items in the shop and people who takes an interest to the item that you are selling may buy it on the spot.
The advantage of this method is that you do not need to be physically there to sell an item but rather you just need to update the contents in the shop regularly.
Most MMORPG has similiar trading system but I was first exposed to it in Maplestory. I found this system enjoyable and I could experience being a mini trader online.
Rating
Overall, I would rate this game 6/10 as in my opinion, the game is developing to the stage whereby players that spend more real life cash on it gets lots of benefits whereas those who don’t lose out. I would say this game is unlike GunZ in the previous post, whereby skills matter more than anything else.
However, it is still a favorite past time game of mine and I enjoyed doing quests and killing monsters with friends when the game first started.
One of my deepest memories of this game is that I organized a boss run with 30 party members to take down the boss Zakum in the early stages when Maplestory first came out. Although I didn’t take a video of it, it was a successful run and it was really an enjoyable experience.
Thank you guys for reading and if you guys want more posts from me, feel free to comment. See ya!
P.S. Don’t forget to look through the related blog rolls (:
🙂 Hey guys! Sorry for the late post, was drafting out the post so that you guys can read the final post easily.
Without further ado, I would share about one of my favorite past time game, GunZ The Duel.
This post aims to share with you guys the unique mechanism GunZ has, as well as my game play experience and personal opinions in it, coupled with posts from other bloggers. The next section would be a brief summary of what GunZ is. If you want to get into the gist of GunZ immediately, skip to the section called “Game Modes“.
Background Information
GunZ The Duel, also known as GunZ, is an online third-person shooting game created by a South Korean-based company called MAIET Entertainment.
GunZ was first managed on an international gaming portal by IJJI games and was recently managed by Aeria Games gaming portal in early 2012.
The game is free to play, and you could choose to purchase premium in-game items using real cash in order to get extra benefits like having better armors and weapons.
The main two weapons in this game consist of the melee weapons, the sword and the dagger, and a variety of ranged weapons.
The main reason why I enjoy this game is because it allows players to perform gravity-defying action moves, including wall running, stunning, tumbling, and blocking bullets with swords.
These are actions mostly depicted in action movies, and I really love this concept of being able to act them out in the virtual environment.
Game Modes
Deathmatch (DM) – A platform where every player could join anytime and defeat as many players inside the game.
Team Deathmatch (TDM) – Same concept as DM, just that you are tasked to work as a team to bring every member of the opposite team down. Auto balancing will be done to make each team have equal number of players each round.
Assassination – Same concept as TDM, just that there’s a VIP for each team. When the VIP of the opposing team is defeated, the team wins the round.
Gladiator – A replica of DM, only melee weapons are allowed.
Team Gladiator – A replica of TDM, only melee weapons are allowed.
Training – A mode to practice skills and chat with other players in a relax environment. Kill/death rate or experience would not be affected.
Quest – Team up with friends to take down goblins, skeletons, lizards. There would be challenging stages and bosses available too.
Duel – A platform where one player versus another player (1v1) takes place. If one wins a match, they will then face off against the next player in line. If they lose, they would go to the “end of the line” and wait for their turn again.
In naveen’s blogpost on Gunz, he mentioned that “Dueling in GunZ the Duel is by far the biggest and most challenging game mode. It is the place to show off your solo skills.”
I agree with his statement deeply and dueling is my most favorite mode in GunZ. Unlike team plays where it requires team work or death match whereby everyone just targets each other mindlessly, the duel mode requires intensive skill of an individual to pit against the opponent that you’re facing.
The health and armor points would reset after each round, thus players can just fight using their best ability after each round. It is a practice that no health kits, an item to replenish health or armor points, are allowed to be used in dueling as it is a foul if anyone is caught doing so. I like this concept as it depicts the scene whereby in a war, the best man survives during the moment of showdown.
Although premium items ( items that are bought using real life cash ) affect your survivability and damage output to the opponent, they are not as important as the skill set of an individual, which affects the outcome of the duel.
Hope you guys had enjoyed the videos 🙂
K-style
Some of you might have noticed the move-set used in the above videos. Most of players are using the Korean style move-set a.k.a K-style.
The reason why it is named as K-style is because Koreans first invented these moves.
K-style is a set of moves that make use of the animations executed in the game to do certain stunts. These stunts are used in combat to make your movements unpredictable and strategical.
The K-style moves are the main reason why people are attracted to this game as it makes the game fast paced and action packed.
Personally, I do know how to execute most of the K-style moves and I really enjoy using them in combat.
If you are interested in knowing more about them, this site is a good read. In addition, this is the GunZ forum that I always frequent. It has all of the information about GunZ that you can find there.
There are other styles out there but they are not that popular and are seldom used because in my opinion, K-style:
Is much more efficient in combat.
Is easier to learn compared to other styles.
Rating
Personally, I had rate this game 8/10 because it is a really unique game compared to most normal Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) or First Person Shooting (FPS) games. It is a one-of-a-kind game which requires more of one’s skill than any other factors.
However, I dislike the fact that despite the complexity of the game, leading is still needed when playing with far distance players. This is a video on leading.
As such, I have personally switched to a private server called DarkGunz which supports anti-leading. Although this game is not a hit now, I would play it occasionally during my free time as it never fails to bores me.
Here are some of the screenshots I had taken while playing the game.
Me taunting to the Mona Lisa picture in one of the maps in DarkGunZ.
A picture of me wall running against a wall.
A duel against a fellow player inside DarkGunZ
Won again and took the shot in another perspective.
If anyone is interested in this game, do comment below and I’ll answer any doubts of yours (: Thanks for reading!
P.S. Refer to the various relevant blog rolls for a better read up!
😀 Hello guys! Great that you are visiting this site! Without further ado, I would describe on my post of the day, which is on the latest hit game, Diablo III.
This post aims to share with you guys a brief description of this game ranging from the available jobs, stages as well as opinions from other bloggers!
First of all, I would cover a summary of what is Diablo and how it comes about in case people who had not heard of it before is wondering. If you had played or heard of Diablo before, skip to the “Launch Event” section onwards.
Background Information
Diablo is an action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment.
Since the release of Diablo in December 31, 1996, it attracted players due to its’ popular fantasy themes.
Building on the success of Diablo, Diablo II was released in June 29, 2000 and was one of the most popular games of 2000.
It has been a decade and the game wasn’t forgotten. Diablo III was officially announced on June 28,2010 and the game was launched on 15 May 2012, just 3 days ago.
Launch Event
The launch event of this game was held in Funan Digital Life mall. Although I didn’t go for the launch event, here’s a snapshot of the situation there.
Classes
There are five classes in Diablo III:
Witch Doctor. The Witch Doctor is a new class in this sequel. They can summon undead monsters and cast evil spells.
Barbarian. The barbarian isn’t a new class and it doesn’t have much variation from the previous sequel, except that it has the Leap ability. The Leap ability portrays an action whereby the barbarian jumps and slams on the prey from a degree of height.
Wizard. The Wizard is the main magic user in Diablo III, combining the brilliance of the Sorceress and the cunning Assassin in the last sequel.
Monk. The Monk is a class with fast melee attacks. He relies mainly on his fists for combat. In addition, he also possess abilities which allow for healing.
Demon Hunter. The Demon Hunter is a new class introduced in Diablo III. The Demon Hunter projects the image whereby it has both the assassin’s characteristics with its ability to throw grenades, and the Amazon’s characteristics in its usage of crossbows. These jobs are from the previous sequel.
In addition, here is a video on followers. Followers are sub-classes that follow your main job in your quest journey. However, only one follower is allowed per journey so choose the follower that best suits you!
Followers are only valid in combat when you are playing solo.
Hope you had enjoyed the videos 🙂
Acts
Inside Diablo III, there would be 5 Acts.
Acts refer to stages. Act 1-4 follows the storyline and Act 5 is a bonus stage.
After completing the stages in Normal Mode, you would be able to play the Nightmare mode, which proves more challenging. Subsequently, you would be unlocking the Hell mode and finally the Inferno mode, which shows great difficulty, even to experienced players.
You are also able to play online with other players or even friends to complete the Acts together.
Here are some interesting tips made by another blogger for players changing from playing the Nightmare mode to the Hell mode.
He mentioned that “This game can of course be done solo but each character has a weakness and as you go on through the game, enemies will exploit it. Find a group, use your synergies and progress. ”
In my opinion, this is a very important strategy as no characters are perfect. Working together with different characters of different play style would maximize the potential of the gameplay. There are different combinations of characters and each player has their own unique play style thus there is an endless possibility of fun that one could explore when playing together as a team.
Player vs Player
In addition, there is the PVP (Player VS Player) feature and you could test your skills with different players all over the world.
However, this feature is not ready at the moment but it would be integrated into the game sometime later. For more details on why the feature is not up, you can visit this site .
Furthermore, there is a post from another blogger, ohmaygod on the delay of the PVP feature. The post mentioned on how the game director of Diablo III, Wilson explains the delay of the PVP feature.
In my opinion, I feel that it is worth the wait as I would rather use the PVP feature smoothly at a later date then to use it earlier and face lots of bugs. Even though I feel that way, I still think that they should implement it as soon as possible so as to not keep the players waiting.
PC Requirements
Due to my busy schedule, I haven’t explore much into the game yet so I cannot give a clear review or rating on this game.However, if you guys are interested in the game, you could purchase the game at any local game stores and try it for yourself (:
To view the PC requirements, visit this site under ‘Minimum System Requirements’ for more information.
Thank you for reading! See ya next time!
P.S Visit the diablo 3 blogroll on the footer of this blog for guides, reviews and more information of diablo 3! Full blogs of the blog posts mentioned in this post would be included as well!
Cyber Leisure 