Penumbra: This little ditty came out in Bite Magazine's May 2008 issue. ENJOY!

Bulate_69 vs Paborito


Online gaming is so popular in the Philippines, covering all forms of sport ever imagined – from realistic military operations, to surreal sci-fi settings, historic arena games, and the hugely popular fantasy genre. So, it wouldn’t be surprising if you’ll find gamers of every size and demographic, hunkering down and doodling away, creating their own versions of online gaming characters.

What’s exciting for these would-be character designers is Mojizu.com. Self-styled as a “contemporary character design community,” Mojizu.com is an online portal for artists and enthusiasts to see their original character creations posted online.
But it goes further than the simple posting of your character design art. The big difference between Mojizu.com and online sharing, and social networking sites, is that it is also an online community of artists, character designers and fans from around the world, who view, read up on character profiles, and vote on their choice of characters.

Relatively new, Mojizu.com’s objective is the development and nurturing of an online community of artists and art fans, where the former may showcase their character art globally. The site is very user-centric, and derives most of its traffic from artists and character art enthusiasts who visit the site to post, or vote, or view the regular Mojizu wars – a voting-based competition between uploaded original character designs. In Mojizu.com, the character that you design is called a Moji. It can human, animal – or a combination of both. It could also be mechanical, fantastic, or something only your mom would try to love and understand. You may design your Moji characters digitally, or by hand. In the meantime, the MojiWar feature is currently under development, but essentially, the most popular Moji character advances to the next level, until there is a grand winner. The grand winner receives special prizes and recognition on the home page of Mojizu.com.

To start, all you need to do is visit Mojizu.com. Registration is free; for added features, a special subscription package is offered that provides other benefits like unlimited Moji submissions, unlimited downloads of Moji art and ad-free surfing. Regular registered users may submit up to ten Moji character designs per month, while subscribers can upload an unlimited number of Moji’s. The site also offers financial benefits to its users through merchandise tie-ups.

A lot of artists from Cebu have joined the site and find it both refreshing and welcoming. Local graphic artist, Aji Mechilina (Moji profile name: bulate_69), whose interests range from air-brush, web, industrial and graphic design, says that Mojizu.com is a great way to showcase character art, and in particular, the talent and skill of graphic artists. “It’s not limiting at all,” says Mechilina. “Pwede kang gumawa ng maraming character at i-post sa site tapos i-rate ng mga online viewers ang MOJI mo or katong character mo, to see how people like your art. It’s fun and I’m happy na may nag rate sa character ko na si Demonyito.” Mechilina has also created two other characters, Angel and Purplegirl.

Will other budding online gamers, doodling away at paper napkins in coffeeshops, or at the comfort of their home office pc, take Mojizu.com as the next step? With enough experience points and HP, anything can happen.