Hey everyone! Just like last year, I’d like to share with you my personal picks for the top posts of 2008 for Waukster Online. Just click the post titles to view those posts (they’re linked). For this year, it’s a mix of varied topics. A little of cosplay, cars, and a lot about the online gaming industry. I’d like to wish everyone happy holdiays! May the best of 2008 be our worst for 2009!

8.) Sexy No Jutsu! Kakashi
We start off with one of my more popular posts for 2008. This single blog post has garnered more than 40,000 page views this year – making it the third most viewed post in Waukster Online. You can also judge from the comments of the readers that they really liked the picture I posted. Lol. It’s a bit controversial though if the cosplayer in question is actually really a girl. I’ve yet to do my research on that, hahaha!

Top 7-1 posts after the jump!

7.) Honda City vs Toyota VIOS
Here’s another popular post. I made this when I was trying to decide on which car to buy. I was left with two choices – the Toyota VIOS and the Honda CITY. It was a really long decision making process, which even reached 2 months. I test drove both vehicles and considered everything from the initial cost to the maintenance fees. Function wise, the VIOS is a bit ahead of the CITY. However, I’ve been a HONDA user for the past decade and that pretty much sealed the deal for me. Personally, nothing beats driving a HONDA – well maybe save for luxury cars, hehe.

6.) Philippines to Host RWC 2008
Definitely one of the biggest announcements for 2008! The Ragnarok World Championships 2008 ended up to be a monumental and unforgettable experience for everyone. Depsite our loss against Indonesia for third place, I still feel that mounting the event and hosting it in itself was a huge honor and achievement not just for Level Up, but for the Philippines.

5.) Hackenslash Article on Level Up and e-Games
2008 was also the year when Level Up was challenged again and again by our competitors. It was really a PR war with people throwing around money so they could claim they were number 1. In this post, I quoted a particular article on Inquirer.Net’s Hackenslash talking about how the Adboard ruled against a print ad of one of our competitors claiming that they were the number 1 online gaming publisher in the Philippines.

4.) Level Up Counters Competitor’s Claims
And the PR War continues! Here’s an official statement by our CEO, Jane Walker, on the position of Level Up in the local online gaming market. Basically one of our competitors sent out a press release claiming they beat Level Up in revenues for 2007. This was quickly debunked when our CEO stated that the revenues our competitors were pointing at was just a portion of our business and it doesn’t include everything else in our portfolio.

3.) Level Up Brings Grand Chase to the Philippines!
Grand Chase is now one of the most played games in the Philippines. We launched it late this year and it really has the makings of a hit game. People all over the country are giving it good reviews because the game is all about fun and PVP. Despite being a casual game, the fighting nature of the game gives it a very MMORPG twist – making it the perfect game for both casual and hardcore gamers alike.

2.) Level Up Live 2008 Summary
For almost the entire month of October, I was posting about Level Up Live 2008 and the Ragnarok World Championships. I made this post which summarizes all of my posts with links. It makes it easier for everyone to browse through all of the entries I made on the biggest online gaming event in the country.

1.) Reflection on LIVE 2008: It’s Not a Variety Show
This, for me, is the top post of the year. It talks about our biggest event and how it represents the difference between Level Up and our competitors.

I would like to end this post by thanking everyone for their support and patience. 2008 was a year that’s very close to my heart but that’s for another post. I’ll be making a top 10 moments post which is more about myself than this blog or the games that we publish.

Again, maraming salamat sa inyong lahat! Onwards to a rocking 2009!