October 18, 2011

Aion 3.0 – Instance, Player Housing, Mount, and PvP Details

Finally more details of Aion 3.0 for Aion fans! In this article, you can expect to see some information of player housing, mounts, PvP, etc. Check it out now.

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Aion 3.0 – Instance, Player Housing, Mount, and PvP Details

Finally more details of Aion 3.0 for Aion fans! In this article, you can expect to see some information of player housing, mounts, PvP, etc. Check it out now.

* Filed by vault1@mmosite.com at 2:27 am under vault1@mmosite.com  Tagged ,
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Aion 3.0 – Instance, Player Housing, Mount, and PvP Details

Finally more details of Aion 3.0 for Aion fans! In this article, you can expect to see some information of player housing, mounts, PvP, etc. Check it out now.

* Filed by vault1@mmosite.com at 2:27 am under vault1@mmosite.com  Tagged ,
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August 17, 2011

TERA at Gamescom 2011

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This year at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, both En Masse Entertainment and Frogster Interactive were showing TERA to the European public. In addition to featuring TERA's action combat, the main focus was on a few details surrounding the nature of the Argons and the cross-server invasion system.

During the press demo, Stefan Ramirez and Chris Hager described the cross-server invasion system as an end-game activity allowing players from separate servers to come together and fight amongst each other in a unique way. They stated that there will be both a PvE and PvP component and that more details will be announced later.

The press demo itself was an attack on an Argon stronghold called the "Necromancer's Cell". Prior to the demo, Argons were characterized as chaotic and mysterious "metallic monstrosities" who use a mixture of magic and technology. They reanimate fallen Valkyon Federation heroes, turning them into undead soldiers. In the scenario for the demo, a group of Argons under the leader Kaidu were plotting to attack Allemantheia and had to be stopped before damage could be done.

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Image of the creation of a Gamescom TERA play station, from Frogster's FrogCast facebook page.

Following the demo, a Curse colleague asked both Stefan and Chager a few questions on TERA Fan's behalf. Check out the interview below.

Curse: What's new and exciting at Gamescom?
Stefan Ramirez: We revealed the Argon race in some more detail. They will effect players in the end game. We also touched on future development, things like server invasions, that are coming and are on the road map for TERA's future.

Curse: During the E3 press presentation, the possibility of a jailing system as part of the political system was announced. Can you talk in more detail about that?
Chris Hager: This is a cool feature the dev team had always worked on, kind of like the extension of the power of influence of the Vanarch. They worked on it a lot and as of yet they have not been able to make a solution that is rewarding to both the jailer and the jailee. As a Vanarch I have the power to put someone in jail but as someone put in jail it needs to be engaging in some way as well. We can't let players punish other players without some form of retribution. As of yet the development team has not been able to find that balance. It is not in the game as of right now.

Curse: Is this a feature you're still confident is going to make it in and you just want to make sure it's right before implementing it?
Chris Hager: It's one of those things where we would like to put it in but we can't put it in until it's balanced correctly. If it hits the chopping block because we can't find a way to balance it then I would rather take the feature out than put an unbalanced feature in.

Curse: For both the North American and European regions there's a lot of Westernization being done. Aside from language, how do the regions differ in terms of localization?
Stefan Ramirez: It's hard to speak to the European side of things. Our [En Masse's] focus has been on North America so as far as North America goes we have a renowned team of writers who are working on the game and developing this story line with the BHS writers. It's a very Western story, it's deep, and rich, and fulfilling. From there, Europe gets the same story. The over-arching story doesn't change between NA and EU.

Curse: The Elin changes are a popular topic in the community. How are they coming along?
Chris Hager: The Elin race is made up essentially of timeless goddesses in the likeness of the goddess Elinu. When we looked at the models we didn't feel like they were timeless. It didn't feel like they were beings who had been around for thousands of years. We had a bunch of internal discussions and the resulting change is very small.

I will say it has been developed, we're just waiting to sign off on it. I think everybody will be really pleased with the changes, or lack of changes, I guess. I've seen them myself both in the client and in screenshots and if you had not known about the Elin before versus after, you would never be able to tell there was a change. I think even players who know about the Elin would be hard pressed to find the changes. I think overall everyone will be pretty happy with these minimal changes.

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Curse: The TERA Gamescom trailer features some massive dragons and a vengeful Mystic. What was the inspiration for this trailer?
Stefan Ramirez: It's basically the second part of a trilogy of videos, the first one being the one seen at E3 and it's kind of carried on with this heroine. The first one gives you the story of desperation. The second video adds hope as well. It's an emotional piece that was kind of showing you how big that threat is and the reason for banding together to form this federation.

Chris Hager: It also kind of beckons to our presentation on depth in terms of the story. Every player plays a game A) because it seems cool, but you play all the way through a game because it has a compelling story line that kind of sucks you in. It makes you feel like you're part of the action and part of the story and that you relate to the characters in the story. That's what we've tried to make here: an emotional piece where you can kind of put yourself in those shoes and where you can understand what it would feel like to face this field of enemies but then to have your crew and your friends at your back, knowing that you're fighting for the right cause. Getting that perspective we think helps tell a really good story of what TERA is.

Stefan Ramirez: We're very proud of the video itself. It's not CG, it's all made with the in-game engine. This is what you would see in the game.

Curse: Just a final question that Amira didn't ask, but in relation to the cross-server PvP: are there going to be any limitations to entry on that? Is it something that I can initiate myself and go do or do you have to have a guild or a certain number of people?
Chris Hager: Players should look at it as another element of TERA's end-game. The closer we get to launch the more we're going to start revealing details. We gotta hold a couple things back! But in revealing cross-server invasions we wanted to get players to see we're thinking of other things as well. It's still in the early developmental stages so there are still details we need to work out within the game as far as how this is going to function, what it is going to look like. We're going to release more details later.

* Filed by TERA Fans News at 11:35 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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January 19, 2011

Battlefield Testing to Begin in the Korean Open Beta

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Today brought news of TERA's Korean launch schedule, including the details of pre-subscription packages and a list of content to be added with the game's launch. Among the new content Korean TERA players will experience, battlefields are expected to be one of the most interesting features given that PvP in TERA has been largely untested.

However, poster FUBU on TERA-Online.com has discovered that battlefields will be tested in the Korean Open Beta before launch through a translation. Currently, the game is down for maintenance, but according to the translation, when it comes back up, players between levels 25 and 38 will be able to test the system, though at launch only level 50 players will be able to participate. Check out the full details of how to participate below and thanks very much to FUBU for sharing!

(Note that I have cleaned up the translation from it's original form a bit.)


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Battlefield Testing Schedule

KR Time
Jan 20(Thu) 10:00 ~ Jan 21(Fri) 02:00 (16Hrs)
Jan 21(Fri) 10:00 ~ Jan 22(Sat) 02:00 (16Hrs)
Jan 22(Sat) 10:00 ~ Jan 23(Sun) 02:00 (16Hrs)

US Time (EST)
Jan 19(Wed) 8PM ~ Jan 20(Thu) 12:01PM
Jan 20(Thu) 8PM ~ Jan 21(Fri) 12:01PM
Jan 21(Fri) 8PM ~ Jan 20(Sat) 12:01PM


Important Battlefield Information
  • There are 3 NPCs in Velika players can speak to enter battlefields. (Signified by the three circles in the screenshot above.)

  • LV Req is 25-38 [Will be changed in retail]

  • There are two types of battlefields:
    - 5v5: Players earn points by killing members of the opposite party. The first party to earn 1,000 points wins.

    - 10v10: Players earn points by capturing the flag (or breaking the statue). Points may still be earned by killing enemies but capturing the flag will give much more.

  • Parties earn "Valkyon Medals" by winning battlefields. Medals can be used to purchase PvP equipment. (Not implemented in test)

  • If you forcely terminate the game client/leave the game after game started, you will be banned from battlefields for 15mins.


Important Commands
/지휘관위임 Charname: promotes another character to party leader.
/알림 Text: Allows you to make announcements to the party.
/지휘 Text: Allows you to partychat.

* Filed by TERA Fans News at 10:09 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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September 25, 2010

Lancer Column: Lance and Board

Lance and board. Doesn’t quite sound right does it?

A little information to start what will hopefully be a series of successful Lancer columns. As I haven’t been lucky enough to be in any of the FGTs (big hint to anyone in a position of power who reads this ;D), these columns will be largely made up of pure speculation and my opinions on articles I’ve read or videos I’ve seen. Until I get to try the game out for myself, that is.

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---

What attracted me, personally, to the Lancer class were a few simple points. Heavy armour, fun gameplay mechanics, and a button for raising one’s shield. I realise the last point was more of a TERA mechanic as opposed to a Lancer mechanic, but it boils down to the one reason I always shied away from tank classes in previous MMOs I’ve played – interaction. I’ll use World of Warcraft as a basic example. In a nutshell, tanking in WoW consists mainly of standing still in front of the enemy with one eye on one’s health and one eye on one’s threat meter. With some exceptions, what the enemy itself is doing is largely unimportant so long as you keep oneself at the top of its threat list. The Lancer can’t do that. The Lancer needs to stand between the enemy and allies to use the shield to block attacks from reaching allies. The Lancer needs to actually press and hold a button to execute said block. The Lancer doesn’t stack a blocking stat and pray to the rng Gods that a portion of incoming damage is reduced.

Interaction. The one thing that tanking has lacked thus far in MMOs. The act of actually physically blocking attacks from reaching allies just gives that much more weight to the word “tank”. PvP is also a factor in my decision to play a Lancer in TERA when I mostly played as dps in other MMOs. It’s entirely possible, and sometimes the best thing to do, to just bypass a tank completely and ignore them until you’ve managed to beat down the squishies providing backup for the tank. With the collision detecting preventing enemies from running right through you, in theory it should be entirely possible for a Lancer and allies to command control of a choke point such as a bridge. With the lancer standing on the bridge or a mountain pass, shield raised, and said allies staying back a little to heal the Lancer and attack the enemies. With good coordination between the players, a choke point such as this could decide the outcome of the PvP encounter. A shield used for shielding.

This raises a very important question in my mind – race selection. Presumably the larger races such as Aman will have a larger hit box, resulting in an easier time in blocking attacks from reaching allies, or blocking enemies from passing the Lancer at a choke point. Not to say that the smaller races just won’t be able to do any of this. Will it be easier for larger races? Will the shield hit box be the same size for each character? This is highly unlikely, and it could possibly mean that for certain points in the game, a Lancer will have a restricted choice of race. Honestly, I can’t imagine a Popori Lancer having the same size shield hit box as an Aman Lancer.

Then we come to the Lancer’s role in parties. Up until now, I’ve only been talking as if Lancers were only viable as tanks. This is not necessarily true. With proper gearing and (very heavy on the assumptions here) speccing, Lancers might well be able to output some proper dps numbers. Mostly for PvP and solo content, of course, but with good enough reactions it could be possible for a Lancer to do extra dps in PvE by sacrificing some tank-like stats. This may strike some of you as an odd thing to do, but with TERA’s heavy emphasis on reacting to enemy attacks and raising your shield in time, or even moving out of the attack’s area of effect altogether, Lancers may end up as quite the dps boost to the party. Imagine this – you’re PvPing and you see a Lancer heading your way. Your party is occupied elsewhere, so is the Lancer’s. It’s common knowledge that tanks generally don’t do much damage, so you figure that you could prevent the Lancer’s advance for a while to give your party a chance to catch up to you for backup. The Lancer blocks one of your attacks which is followed by Riposte. Suddenly, Crash Gear then Shield Bash. You’re stunned and have reduced armour. The Lancer’s doing a lot more damage than you first anticipated. You try to run away to get some breathing room and think about what to do next. The Lancer charges. You try to run again? Noose.

Not only could play like this do quite a decent amount of damage, but coming from someone that’s supposed to be a tank? It may well leave a lot of players disorientated; damage and ferocity unexpected from a tank. Even with gearing for damage output, with good reactions and anticipation of what other people will do it such situations, a skilled Lancer could be a very formidable opponent.

This column feels a little too technical to me. I'll try to break up the next one if I can. Let me know what you think.

To me, this opportunity is as much a learning experience as it is about sharing my opinions and experiences with the community. Maybe I said something outrageous; maybe I said something completely wrong, any feedback is good feedback. The more feedback I receive then the more I can better myself and better my columns.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Peace out.

~x

* Filed by TERA Fans News at 2:40 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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July 30, 2010

Nerds Forced To Leave Comic Con After Playing TERA For Six Straight Hours

Good morning, TERA Fans! Official interviews are great for learning about TERA's core features, and a fanatic like me going on about how wonderful the game is leaves you wondering if there's a bias involved. However, if you want to know how the game really is who better to look to than two anonymous nerds?

Ripten.com did just that! After learning that two nerds had been playing at the TERA booth all day, Dave Oshry asked them for an interview about the game. Check it out here or at Ripten.com!

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That’s right, six hours with hardly a bathroom break. While hanging out with the guys at En Masse to talk about the latest news they had recently announced about their highly anticipated true-action MMO TERA, I was alerted to the fact that these two guys had been playing the game non-stop all day. As the convention was coming to a close, they refused to leave the terminal, so naturally, I interviewed them!!

From this point on, the guy in the blue shall be referred to as Nerd 1, and the guy in black as Nerd 2. While conducting this interview, these guys did not stop playing the game for one second, or even take their eyes off the screen . . . even the guy who wasn’t playing.

DO: Somone told me that there’s been two guys on this console all day, is that you!?

Nerd2: Haha well, we we’re playing together but they made me move so this kid could get on, so now I’m just watching him play.

Nerd1: But yah, we’ve been here since like 11am

DO: Wow, that’s hardcore . . . so what MMOs have you played before and why are you so into TERA right now?

Nerd1: Well, I played World of Warcraft for years, thats pretty much the only one, and I’m into TERA right now because for PvP and PvE it’s more skill based.

DO: So you mean its not just pressing buttons in a rotation and waiting for cooldowns?

Nerd1: Yah, in WoW I’m basically my friends personal healer. I heal by pressing a button and spinning in a pretty circle. Here, I actually have to aim my heals and dodge attacks and get into the battle.

DO: Interesting, How else is it better than WoW? I played WoW for almost five years, and only now is it starting to feel old

Nerd1: I still like WoW, but these graphics are amazing, the environment, all the races and classes too, its very well balanced

Nerd 2: Its beautiful, its perfectly rendered


Nerd1: I also like how the PvE monsters follow your every move. They actually will watch you jump, they try to encircle and flank you, the AI is no joke. Also, this game takes skill, you can almost solo a boss by yourself if your that good

DO: So the AI is actually proper? They don’t just path and go through the motions?

Nerd1: Exactly, TERA is skill based while WoW is all about gear and rotation and group comp. In TERA theres no need for a gearscore and having to get geared. There’s no way to get carrried by pressing 2 buttons here, you have to get involved and be skillful. You actually have to get in there, it feels real, your not just going through the motions

DO: Absolutely, I can see you’re really into it (I LoL to myself)

Nerd1: Hell yea, the collision detection is awesome, everything is just awesome, I can’t wait for it to come out

Awesome indeed. So awesome that I even filmed these guys playing TERA for a few minutes, enjoy.



So, do you agree? Is TERA the future of MMO’s while games like WoW are the past? Only time will tell, but no matter what you think, it looks like TERA is the real deal.

* Filed by TERA Fans News at 2:36 pm under Uncategorized  Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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July 14, 2010

OnlineWelten Talks to Jason "BrotherMagneto" Mical & A Sweet Curse Contest!

Good evening, TERA Fans! Earlier today, BrotherMagneto on the official forums posted a new interview he had with German gaming site OnlineWelten.com.

This particular interview features a comment from David Noonan about Popori females and little more discussion about PvP and Valkion Points than usual! Check it out below or head over to Online Welten!

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Onlinewelten: Hello Jason, thank you very much for your time. Could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a bit about your work, please?

Jason Mical: I’m Jason Mical, Community Director at En Masse Entertainment. In my position here, I work with the PR, Marketing, and Web directors to ensure that our strategies are all designed to work together toward a common vision, that the things we do in community fit in with all of the company's initiatives, and most importantly, that what we do is fun for you guys. If I had to summarize my job in one sentence it would be this: think about all the times I’ve been involved in communities and thought “holy crap, wouldn’t it be cool if they did this,” and then make this a reality here at En Masse for the TERA community.

Onlinewelten: We read that TERA is going to be a sandbox game. Could you explain that a bit further? What makes TERA a sandbox game?

Jason Mical: Players will be able to explore the world openly from the time they leave the Island of Dawn, our starting area, without being restricted by their character's experience level or which quests they have (or haven't) completed. Of course, they might find that some areas are extremely dangerous at low levels....

Onlinewelten: Will the races in TERA have a special race bonus?

Jason Mical: There are no racial bonuses to stats in TERA, although we’re exploring racial skills that will help differentiate races beyond the obvious aesthetic differences.

Onlinewelten: Most western players are not happy about the female Popori. Do you think about a re-design for the western version of TERA? Besides that, how do the Poporis reproduce themselves?

Jason Mical: [Guest reply by David Noonan, Lead Writer] What you’re seeing there is actually two different kinds of nature spirits. Most poporis have taken on the forms of woodland animals—fitting given their role as protectors of the world’s wild places. The female poporis are more like dryads or wood nymphs, and they’ve taken on the appearance of the original goddess of the wilderness in tribute to her. (There’s a whole mythology about that, which we gradually reveal in gameplay.) Finally, as nature spirits, neither sort of popori procreates in the traditional sense.


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Onlinewelten: The female armor design is too sexy for the most western players as well. Are you considering changing it?

Jason Mical: Nope.

Onlinewelten: What will be the main way to level up in TERA: Questing or killing mobs? Or will both, doing quests and grinding, be equally efficient?

Jason Mical: Our goal is to make every action involved in leveling up organic to the overall story and the individual player and group/guild goals. Quests are the primary method for gaining experience. We're constantly refining the pacing of the game and the process of leveling up by conducting focus group tests and ongoing beta tests. Our production team is working very closely with the development team in Korea to ensure that the game feels good to Western audiences.

Onlinewelten: Do you plan to implement an achievement system? If yes, could you give us a short description about the accomplishments, progression and rewards?

Jason Mical: Ah yes, achievements! We’ll talk more about those in the coming weeks.

Onlinewelten: Looking at the endgame: What do you offer high level players in TERA to keep them busy?

Jason Mical: TERA’s endgame will involve the full spectrum of things you expect from an MMO, including battling in dungeons with PvE instances; taking to the battlegrounds to fight for honor; working the economy by crafting, enchanting, and playing the market. Additionally, players will be able to influence the history of each server by participating in the in-game political system. We also understand the importance of alternate characters, so you will see some goodies for the altaholics in TERA as well!

Onlinewelten: And how does the endgame PvP look like? Open PvP, Battlegrounds and/or other PvP features?

Jason Mical: Open PvP is on a server-by-server basis. All servers will feature battlegrounds, duels, and other PvP features. Players who want to participate in PvP at the endgame will find they have plenty of options.

Onlinewelten: Will you reward PvP actions with special points - we heard something about valkyon points?

Jason Mical: Valkyon points are part of the political system, and yes they are associated with PvP as well. Political clout can be gained by defeating enemies—especially very skilled ones—or enemies with clout of their own.

Onlinewelten: Will the economy be a central aspect of TERA, or is it just a "nice to have" feature like in World of Warcraft and some other MMORPGs?

Jason Mical: The economic system plays an important role in TERA, and players will have a surprising degree of control over it.


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Onlinewelten: Will the strongest crafted weapons and armors be as good as any other kind of items we can loot in-game? Or are they even better?

Jason Mical: The current plan is to make the highest-end items exclusive to raid boss drops, but crafted items can come very close to these high-end items. We’ll talk more about the crafting and enchanting systems soon, and get more in-depth about what exactly that means.

Onlinewelten: How can we get resources for crafting? Do we gather them only or can we get some materials from mobs?

Jason Mical: You’ll get resources through a variety of ways: gathering, drops, trading, and so on.

Onlinewelten: Does TERA have voice-overs in-game? If yes, even in German and the other localized languages?

Jason Mical: There will be some voice-overs in TERA, and the plan is to translate and localize them into French and German as well.

Onlinewelten: Could you reveal your test plans? When are the next focus tests, closed and open beta phases?

Jason Mical: We’re still working out when the next testing phase will take place and what it will look like. When we’re ready to move forward, we’ll let the community know ASAP!

Onlinewelten: When will you publish a German website for TERA? Do you have a German Community Team already?

Jason Mical: We had plans to relaunch the website recently, which included a German translation, but we had to push back the launch date a bit. It should happen within the next couple of months, though. We don’t have any European-based community teams at the current time, no.

Onlinewelten: What are your plans for the gamescom in Cologne? Can the community look forward to a hands-on demo? If yes, how many demo stations will be there?

Jason Mical: We’re still finalizing our plans for Gamescom. Our plan is to give the community as much hands-on time with the game as we can!

Onlinewelten: Will you offer a TERA database where the players can see the characters, server statistics and so on?

Jason Mical: We will offer a database, but the extent to which information will be open and what exactly will be available are both under debate.


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Onlinewelten: Will there be an open API to get character data and so on to set up own databases?

Jason Mical: Yes, this is our current plan.

Onlinewelten: Last but not least: Is there anything else you want to tell us and our readers about TERA?

Jason Mical: If anyone is attending Comic-Con in San Diego later this month, be sure to come to our community event there. We’ll be revealing some never-before-seen stuff, which the community will then have free reign to share as they like! And good news my German friends: we’ll be doing the same in Cologne, as well. With all new information!



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Also, a bit of Curse news tonight! Curse is doing an iBUYPOWER sweepstakes!

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The Grand Prize being offered is...

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Grand Prize (1 Winner)

[1] Chimera 2-Q
Custom PC created by iBuyPower, given away to one lucky Curse user.
Chassis: Chimera Inferno 2
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 945 Quad-Core
Cooling: Liquid cooling
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5770 DirectX 11 Video Card
Hard Drive: 1TBGrand Prize: Liquid cooled Chimera 2-Q


Pretty awesome! Learn more and enter to win here!

* Filed by TERA Fans News at 5:28 am under Uncategorized  Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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June 30, 2010

Tera online Character Creation

Nothing to add unless my opinion about it: It’s nice on graphic side and quite well planned for party play so my thumbs up.

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May 11, 2010

TERA Online play ZAM@GDC 2010

TERA Online play ZAM@GDC 2010 All rights reserved to www.ZAM.com

* Filed by admin at 10:03 pm under tera online  Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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