Filipino in WCG Asia DoA4 Semis

Filipino tech reporter Alex Villafania makes it to the semifinals for Dead or Alive 4 at the World Cyber Games Asian Championship.



Go Alex! Fight your way to victory, and inspire a wave of Filipina DoA cosplay!

Japanese Online Game Seeks Philippine Publisher

I'm an otaku, and proud of it. With the glut of Korean online games flooding the Philippines, I'm glad to see Japanese games making inroads. That's why I accepted an invitation from Truly Asian Partners' Chester Chi and Inq7's Joey Alarilla to have lunch with Misayo Kurata at the Dusit Hotel the other day.



Thanks to Misayo, I now have an account on Japan's biggest social network, mixi. Ain't she cute?

Misayo works with Japanese game developer GaiaX. Their online racing game Twinkle came out of beta in Japan that day, and she's introducing the game to Philippine publishers.



Only the Japanese could imagine a hoverboard with a face. Japanese game developers' courage to pour top talent into kooky concepts allows them to come up with such quality left-field hits as Katamari Damacy. Misayo herself likes Animal Crossing. Wonder if that kooky magic will work here, too. An alumnus of renowned anime producer J.C. Staff is on the project, so the game has a genuine Japanese anime feel.



I've mentioned the potential of gamer babes before, and GaiaX gets that. The female voices in Twinkle are not done by fan-disengaged actresses. GaiaX develops actual female gamer-bloggers to do the voices. They'll also line-dance for viral videos. No, I'm not kidding: Misayo herself will do the choreography.

More English info on Twinkle here. Filipina cosplayers get ready: Misayo envisions a set of Twinkle girls in the Philippines.

Giselle Sanchez Visits There

Sexy, smart Filipina comedienne Giselle Sanchez visited There Philippines the other night.



Check out this in-game video of her appearance. Smart girl that she is, Giselle takes to virtual reality like a fish takes to water. Since brains carry over to virtual worlds more than looks, she attracted an even bigger crowd than equally sexy but less experienced Filipina actress Andrea del Rosario, who also visited There recently. Virtual interaction makes one far less starstruck around celebs, so this online audience joked around with Giselle far more spontaneously than her live audiences ever could.



Groovenet's David Foote (black shirt) and Greg Kittelson (yellow shirt) watch Giselle deliver another zinger.



Oh, and after seeing my blog picture, she just had to get this shot. The girl knows a good meme when she sees it.

A Hundred Million Blogs? Easy!

Lee Hopkins agrees: One billion people use the Internet. Ten percent of them using blogs isn’t inconceivable.

If you can't deal with that, you're screwed.

YouTube Star Makes MySpace Clone to Prove Point on MySpace

Besides being an insightful political commentator, YouTube star Scott Fitzhugh is a brilliant viral marketer.



To clearly prove a valid point about MySpace, he gets you to sign up for his MySpace clone. Utterly brilliant.

Giselle Sanchez to Visit There

Sexy, smart Filipina comedienne Giselle Sanchez cracks me up.



That's why I look forward to seeing her tonight, for her in-game appearance in There Philippines.

Video: What is Web 2.0?

Mike Arrington asks Silicon Valley startup execs about Web 2.0 in this video.

Note the mention of offshore development as the cheap labor implementing these great ideas. Wonder when the Philippines will stop selling itself as a source of cheap labor, and start selling itself as a source of great ideas. After all, Filipinos clearly demonstrate a strong cultural affinity for the community collaboration ethos of Web 2.0.

Wablet Accepting Email Addys for Closed Alpha

After TechCrunch's Marshall Kirkpatrick got curious about Filipino Web IM startup Wablet, the upcoming service is now accepting email addresses for their closed alpha. I, for one, can't wait to try it.

FHM Philippines Drops Autoplay Annoyance

I like online rich media. Like many Filipinos, I love YouTube. I made Summit Media's first Flash screensaver way back in 2000. That's why I'm glad to see them understand that good online rich media marketing relies on permission, not interruption.



After I called them on it twice, Summit's FHM Philippines finally drops autoplay annoyance. Good work, guys. Now if you fix the preview pic, you'll get more voluntary plays from engaged viewers.

Now to remove that damn autoplay annoyance on Summit's other mag site, GamesMaster Philippines.

Globe Reaches Out to Bloggers

Philippine telecom giant Globe is reaching out to bloggers to talk about their wireless Internet services.

What's got me raising an eyebrow, is there's not much to talk about. Wireless Internet is a commodity -- it either works, or it doesn't.

Either way, reaching out to bloggers is a generally a step in the right direction. Congratulations to Globe on that. Just reach out with something worth talking about. When Globe finally gets an online game into their datacenter, local gaming bloggers might talk about that. When Globe finally pushes mobile YouTube uploads through their 3G service, local video bloggers might talk about that.

WWW 15th

Where were you on August 6, 1991? The World Wide Web turned fifteen yesterday.

Amazing what can happen after one geek shares a silly new thing for other geeks to play with.

First Filipino YouTube Celeb -- Not!

Will event manager Azrael Coladilla become the first Filipino YouTube celeb?



I sincerely doubt it, but he sure gets this whole social media niche marketing thing.

Asian Sirens: Sheree

Earlier, I blogged the site launch of sultry Filipina singer Sheree. A year later, I blogged the relaunch of sexy fansite Asian Sirens as a blog.



That's why I'm proud to feature Sheree in my first post on Asian Sirens.

Happy Birthday, Shel Holtz!

Happy birthday to one half of my favorite PR podcast, Shel Holtz.

(Via Lee Hopkins.)