The Life of a Snowcone.
On August 6th, AuditionSEA announced on Facebook that they will close down the game after 12 years of service. August 31st was the last day the server went live.
I decided to write down my decade long experience about AuditionSEA because it was a huge part of my adolescent and my online gaming life. Despite the ups and downs, I cherish the all the moments I had in the game (welp, I sound like I had no life).
I decided to write down my decade long experience about AuditionSEA because it was a huge part of my adolescent and my online gaming life. Despite the ups and downs, I cherish the all the moments I had in the game (welp, I sound like I had no life).
It
is important to note that I was a teenager in most of the years of me
playing AuditionSEA. Many things I said and done were less mature and
most like very embarrassing. If you're not down to cringe at my trip
down to memory lane, or if you're not a gamer and think gaming is a
waste of time, please turn away and save ourselves the trouble.
I
will rely on my memory as I obviously do not remember the exact dates
or how exactly an event happen. I won't talk about events in a
chronological order, and won't go too deep on all events. Players
included in my post will only be referred by their Audi IGN, not real
names.
Without further delay, I present to you the story of Snowcone.
When I first heard of AuditionSEA, I wasn't interested in playing the online music game. I was less than 12, and was insanely loyal to the first online game I played, O2Jam.
The
first time I got to play Audition was at my cousin's house. I remember
disliking gameplay because it was very different from O2Jam (clearly, I was not open minded at all). I wasn't
aware of Beat Up mode at that time unfortunately, and nothing could
really convince the younger Joon to give this game a chance.
Sadly,
O2Jam closed down when I was 12 and I wasn't left with many choices. I
felt like I couldn't blend in with the Chinese crowd in SDO, so I
played AuditionSEA instead. I believe my friends' convincing played an
important part as well.
The birth of a snowcone
My very first account actually had the IGN cjljune, but I quickly created another account with the name xSnowCone to match with another friend of mine, xSnowFlake.
My
secondary school friends were really good Normal mode players, however I
was attracted to the Beat Up mode as it was more similar to O2Jam. I also
tried other game modes like 1 2 Party and Club, thanks to my
schoolmates. I'm really grateful for that because in the long run, it
made me a well-rounded player.
I
became a usual face in the Beat Up community and made friends with
other players. I still played with my secondary school friends and it
was always enjoyable to chat and spend time in AuditionSEA, even though I
wasn't a great player.
The Beat Up journey
In BU, I started out as a one-handed player, because that was what made sense to me (two hands, what are you crazy?). There wasn't a lot of difficult songs at that time, maybe just Hands Up!!! (my favourite Audi song), so it wasn't necessary to use both hands to play BU.
With
my lousy frames and cheap keyboard, I was just an average player scoring
600+ perfects in 3254 Techno Party. I guess for non BU players, that was
pretty good. For a girl as well somehow, because I was accused for
faking my gender. (???)
I've
only started improving when I met Kridz and Syu_z. They're amazing and
very patient teachers and I owe them for my BU skills.
Kridz
was the one who taught and guided me to the ways of using two hands. He
patiently played slow songs with me when I was getting used to the
method, and helped me improved my frame rate. He wasn't a man of many
words.
Syu_z, under many IGNs, was the one who taught me how to master BU. I had the basics of
playing two hands, but even then I had trouble hitting complicated
notes. He taught me different hand and finger positions, and would break
down different parts of the song to conquer it. I think my greatest
achievement while I was under his guidance was getting full combo for Hands
Up!!!. I'm still very proud of that.
I have a lot of friends from the Beat Up community. I would say I played with ~ICEx3~, -helloBUNNY~, ICYCOLD and ~CCDX~ the most in the start of my BU journey. Now I'm getting worried if I missed out any players I played with a lot.
Fun fact: I was invited to be IMPERFECTION, but I quitted shortly after! Oops. (IMPERFECT is the best BU FAM in AuditionSEA, lead by ~EdwinZ~)
-Very Smexy/Shuai People-
The first FAM I joined was -VSP-Club, also created by my secondary school friends. It was first led by -EMO-KAIWEN, and I had a lot of good memories just messing around with my friends.
I
stayed in VSP for a long time, and at some point Mesha became the
master. I became a JR and was responsible for recruiting BU players, but
we didn't really attract many of them. Our FAM didn't specialize in any
mode, and that was what I liked about it.
Unfortunately,
I had a fallout with my secondary school friends and left VSP. It was
my first and longest FAM I stayed in and I basically watch it grew. I'm
very proud of what we managed to achieve as a FAM, getting quite known
in AuditionSEA and having a not bad ranking, despite having our FAM
points stolen for at least once. Hmm.
It was also in VSP that I met MIKEE, or more commonly known as Snowwolf.
It was also in VSP that I met MIKEE, or more commonly known as Snowwolf.
Virtual coupling a snowcone
My first couple was NoObOi. He was also a Beat Up player, but I broke up with him to couple and get married with IKiNgI. (Joon, you're great)
I was pretty much pressured to couple with IKiNgI. Our ring got to Saffron. However, I broke with him when I wanted to couple with xSnowDrop. I remember writing an email to him, apologizing and thanking him. (Once again, great couple you are Joon)
With xSnowDrop, I achieved my first MAX ring (It was only Edelweiss then). I also improved my Normal mode skills as xSnowDrop was a Normal player. I also learned how to chance and play 8K when I was with this couple.
However, xSnowDrop lied about her gender all the while she was with me. There were more lies than just that. I felt betrayed so I broke our ring. Sure, it felt shitty to get cheated, but at least my Normal skills are better now. Not to mention the dens from gardening.
My last couple is Fuyukaze, who was also xSnowBreeze. I remember our encounter in a Guitar room, when he got only 4 misses playing Bang! Lv 4. We coupled soon after that and got ourselves our ring.
Being with Fuyukaze meant playing hardcore Guitar songs with no flame outs. And he was very nice to record Guitar songs in the Korean Audi server, just to let me see the notes. I remember him introducing me lots of Guitar songs.
He was my last couple and we lasted till the end of AuditionSEA, achieving Marigold. I was solo-gardening for most parts, and I don't expect myself to hit MAX ring, but I'm very proud of that ring which is almost six years old.
Hatsuyuki, the first snow
After leaving VSP, I
didn't really belonged anywhere after leaving and hopped from FAMs to FAMs after
that. I believe it was around this time that I changed my IGN to
Hatsuyuki to match with my couple who changed to Fuyukaze. Maybe because I was done with my past with VSP, maybe I didn't like how our IGNs didn't match.
However, a lot of people still know me as Snow or Snowcone. Even after I changed to Hatsuyuki, my older friends would still call me Snow. Basically, only new people called me Hatsuyuki.
I changed back to Snowcone without the 'x' and with a lower case 'c' after a while. I still like Snowcone a lot and felt more sense of identity with it. I removed the 'x' because I didn't want to cling on to the past, and that type of IGN was getting outdated.
I was still Snowcone till the end of AuditionSEA and I plan to stick to the same IGN, even in Audition Next Level.
Participating arenas and competitions
I have no idea what FAM I was in.. those were dark times.
When Guitar mode and Guitar arena was introduced, it was a pretty big deal. It was a very unique mode and the arena could hold more players than other arenas.
It took me a while to understand the mode but eventually me and my FAM, VSP would participate the arena almost everyday. We weren't that good but we tried our best everyday.
I remember seeing familiar faces but not talking to anyone while in the arena. I regret not talking to them earlier because they became my friends later and we would talk about our arena experience, but we weren't friends yet.
Beat Up arena was the last arena to be introduced much to my annoyance. When it was released the BU community was delighted. It was only until the 4th day when a true SEA player, Syu (probably Rimzi at the time) took a medal home and made us all proud.
I've never got myself a medal. Reaching into finals isn't impossible for me but my best results in arena was 3rd in Guitar and 2nd in BU.
I was also active in participating in online competitions, not really limiting myself to just Guitar and BU. Of course, I never won any major competitions, but I did get a lot of avatars from entering the more casual events.
Thanks to Guitar arena, I met some really crazy but fun people including MEESHELL, ANURSE and IRISS. (They're crazy in real life too)
Block Beat and Plankton
Just like BU and Guitar, I spent a lot of time practising and mastering the mode. I switched from one hand to two hands, practised waves and spammed hardcore songs with friends.
It was at this point R3N0 (Syu) and I created Plankton, a FAM mainly for BB players, although that wasn't really our main intention. We just happened to play more BB and attracted BB players.
Fun fact: Purankuton actually was created first in PVS.
I stayed in Plankton for a long time, the second FAM that I could call home. I made many friends thanks to Plankton, and we played other games together outside AuditionSEA. It was here I met some people who are still my close friends till today.
However, I left Plankton after it went inactive. I wouldn't say my relationship with everyone in the FAM was all well too. But I'm thankful for the memories in Plankton.
D-d-drama
Spending almost a decade in this online game, I had my experience with some drama. However, my experience is little compared to the Normal players crowd. They stir shit up everyday. Just wait a bit in Free-1 lobby for a while and voilà , get ready to grab some popcorn.Besides falling out with my VSP friends and got betrayed by my third couple, I also saw dramas unfold in the BB and Guitar community.
I don't think I was involved in any drama directly, and I don't think I was the main cause of anything but I guess I am in.. some. Not really proud(?).
One good advice I received from xSnowFlake was to stay away from drama, and don't try to stir up trouble. But it doesn't keep you away from drama all the time, especially if you're always playing competitively in such a small community. Sometimes, dramas are internal as well.
The end of AuditionSEA
Shoutout to SQuishySQuidSQuad, the official fanclub for ngshiqian.
When they announced that they were closing the SEA servers, I wasn't really that surprised. There were rumours floating around about the closing of the game, and there are other servers and games where they tried to move the players to (World in Audi and Audition Next Level).
Yes, I was sad, but I thought that the game was dying anyway. Yes, I'm mad that I spent a lot of time and money on the game, but I thought every cent was worth it because it kept me entertained for a decade. MYFAKKINGRINGTHO.
I can't deny that AuditionSEA has a special place in heart. I met so many people and made so many friends thanks to the game. In fact, most of my online friends played AuditionSEA as well. It's not uncommon to introduce friends to each other and say, 'Oh, he/she plays Audi too.'
It's not like I can't play Audition anymore. There's still PVS where I can play hardcore songs and ANL if I don't want to be confused by Thai words, but the SEA server was where Snowcone came from, and I feel a little sad about it now that it's gone.
I actually created an account under a different IGN for ANL, but after writing this post, I realized how much I love my identity as Snowcone. I immediately created another account with my old IGN, ha.
I guess all things have to come to an end. AuditionSEA lasted longer than anyone could have imagined. I'm very grateful for the developers, the team and the GMs that worked hard to keep this game alive for so long.
Thank you to all the people that I've met. Friends, strangers and not-really-friends that were a part of my journey. You guys made my experience unforgettable.
bYE AuditionSEA!
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Can't believe I wrote 36 posts related to AuditionSEA in my blog.. And I probably won't use the label anymore unless something interesting happens in the other servers.
If you want to read more cringey AuditionSEA posts, you can check out this post, I guess.
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