Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Test realm - Where it's cool to be a wizard.

For any grandmaster who wasn't able to get on the test realm, I got a bit of news for you about all the new updates coming to the spiral (besides the obvious addition of the quest line leading to Celestia).

  • New stuff in the crown shop - A Grizzleheim themed house (FINALLY!) and a beastmaster outfit which does nothing but increase your pet's training points, so unless you don't care about your wizard's stats, it's pretty useless.
  • New crafting recipes - Torald Wayfinder in Northguard can sell you a recipe for another Grizzleheim house. Gotta admit, after taking a tour of both of them, the outside of the crowns one is prettier, but all around the crafted one is better and costs 40,000 less gold. Only problem is you have to finish all other crafting quests before you can make it D:
  • New pet vendor - Marleybone now sells some pretty interesting pets in the pub where Croaky hangs out.
  • New friend options - You can now make it so that only your friends (and not their friends) can come to your house. Also, you can kick them out when you want >:D
  • New pet changes - Prices for pet hatching has gone down. They also made it so pets who have spellcards DANCE when you use the spell! :D
  • New Dragonspyre - Questing is easier in DS for a few reasons. The health of enemies is a bit lower, and towers have less levels on them. Also, you find quest items faster. Which is awesome for my necromancer since she just got there lol
  • New other stuff - You can read about it on the update notes HERE.
A lot of people mistook the major update to be the release of Celestia, but really it's going to be quite a while before they open it up. In fact, the release of just these updates won't be till around the end of summer (sometime in August), so Celestia will be even later than that. I already can tell KI will be getting a lot of angry comments because anyone who went through the warehouse (which is very similar to Briskbreeze) was not too happy to find out they couldn't get into Celestia yet. The best advice I have for everyone is to be patient. It takes a lot of time and effort to create a whole world! Also, the more time they take to perfect it, the better our gaming experience will be. They want to make it worth our money, ya know.

Anyways, that's pretty much it. I'm off to the test realm to splurge with my fake crowns XD

Safe journeys everyone!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Oh. My. Bartleby.

Holy heckhound, the TEST REALM HAS OPENED!

Celestia, here I come!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

That's Life! Episode 2 - "Just Deserts"

 The much anticipated second part of the series has come, now longer, funnier, and more... deserty. Enjoy!

Friday, June 18, 2010

That's Life! - Filming Info!

Since not many people read my blog I don't see any quandaries with posting this here even though I have a number limit for filming :P But I think it's important that people in the Wiz101 blogosphere have a chance to join in :3

I left updates on the original video thread but its not guaranteed that everyone will look at it so I decided to post here. This is what you'll need to know to be in it.

The info for filming is as follows:

- Date: Tuesday Jun. 22nd
- Time: 1pm to whenever (not sure how long the segment will take, but should be NO LONGER than an hour
- Place: Life school in Ravenwood (meaning IN the building, not in front)
- Server: Wu (may change during filming depending on how crowded it gets, but Wu is where we will be meeting up for sure)
- Who: Anyone. No level requirements, no school requirements. During filming we will be in our beginners robes, no wands or pets.
-Again, I have to stress that there can't be more than 30 people in the scene, not because I don't want that many but because of lag issues and cooperation issues. I can't imagine any more than that being able to follow directions as I say them.
- We can have a cast party afterward in Life tower, and anyone is invited! But that's if everyone would like to do that


If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to reply to this post or message me on wiz101central (username: throughthespiralgate). Also,  it would be a really big help for me if you could reply with the name of the character you will be using that day so that I know the difference between RSVPers and extras, and so I can credit you on the finished project. Either way, hope to see you there!

Safe journeys, everyone!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Autumn Runs an Errand - A Wizard 101 Short

Just a filler between episodes. Hope you enjoy :D

Saturday, June 12, 2010

That's Life! - A Wizard 101 series

You know that project I was talking about? Well, after several strenuous hours of editing and re-editing (and subtitling - not an easy feat), the first of many is complete!

That's Life! Episode 1: Under Controll

Friday, June 11, 2010

No life - A quick way to level up!

Remember that death wizard I have, the one I started and kind of abandoned as soon as I hit Marleybone? (I really strongly dislike questing in Marleybone >_>) Well, 3 cans of Coke, 14 hours and 2 tired eyes later I have gotten her out of Marleybone once and for all and have now started her on MooShu :D I am well aware of how insane this makes me sound and I embrace that. Because after half a day of running errands for lovelorn St. Bernards and snooty debutantes, I pretty much AM crazy.

Don't know if I have the same will power to finish up Mooshu in a day. But I know now I won't be in as much of a hurry because Mooshu actually has sidewalks, and less running back and forth. And oh glory, there are more teleport stones! Quests are easier, too. "Oh, go over into that rock garden and let me know when you're ready for more experience points."

In other news, I am going to be working on a special Wizard 101 project that I think will be uber cool. I've got it all outlined, now I just need to make it, which will take a bit of resources. But it will be worth it when it's complete, methinks. I will post about it when it's complete :D

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Too foggy in the brain to write more.

Safe journeys everyone!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Wizard 101 - The Worst (and Best) Year I've Ever Spent

Seeing as how it's coming up on the anniversary of when I started playing Wizard 101, I decided I would write a review (or rather, a warning to potential newcomers) about the game. After all, it is very important to keep the influence of addictive drugs out of family life.

I've got to say, it's been a difficult year for me. Between being a straight C college student and lazing around the house, it's hard to find time for anything, especially video games. But the moment I saw the commercial for Wizard 101 on Cartoon Network, it was all over for me. There was nothing else that mattered more in my life. From then on it was Wizard 101 all day every day for the rest of my summer break. I thought I could quit anytime I wanted. In fact, I even tried a few times. I was a crowns player (crowns is the in-game currency for buying certain items that cannot be bought with gold), so the way it workedwas I would have 10,000 crowns with which to buy certain areas of the game (and they would go fast, believe me). It would be smooth sailing for a while, but then the dreaded would happen: I would run out. I would try so hard to wait until I had money for more, but the withdrawls would drive me crazy. Finally I would get my hands on some more crowns, and the cycle would begin again. You may be thinking, "Who could do such a thing to our youth?" Well, it's all the fault of one company.

KingsIsle is a notably small video game developer company in Austin, Texas. But don't let their size and seemingly innocuous location fool you. Behind their facade lie devious minds, conspiring their dastardly plans against humanity. And the fact that they have won numerous awards -- including the bronze on a list of top 10 MMO's since WoW and a NAPPA award from Parenthood -- is a testimony to how hard they will work to hook you on their product.

And it makes sense that so many people would get so hooked on it. It's an incredible fantasy world; one in which even a simple kid from a small, unknown world can become a master warlord across the fictional universe called "the Spiral". This game takes you on an amazing journey to distinct worlds that span all of culture and history, from the pyramid-laden deserts of Krokotopia to the steampunk era rooftops of Marleybone. The frightening thing about it is that, when you're caught in the grind of menial quests and finally getting tired of playing, you're sucked in once more by the beauty and unique qualities of the next world in the Spiral. It truly keeps the players coming back for more.

This purple mountain's majesty is centered in a world of deceit, addiction, and a nifty dinosaur.

Not to mention everyone's journey is different. Aside from the typical avatar customization, you can also choose how your wizard functions and grows. So far there are seven different schools for wizards, with seven different types of magic that have different effects on the enemies that players battle throughout the Spiral. Players can choose secondary schools for their wizards as well, or they can mix and match the spells to bring out the strongest potential of their own school's magic. It truly gives players free range to customize their characters to their full extent.

 Warning: when playing this game you will get a sense of euphoria and invincibility. Do not drive or operate machinery while under the influence.

While the main plot of the game is typical (young wizard must conquer the evil villain to restore order to the universe), the branching story lines for each world in the spiral are all unique and very well thought-out. Players are sent on multitudes of small quests that slowly reveal the back story from before things went into chaos, defeating the bottom blocks of the pyramid of bad guys along the way. And as the story becomes more complex, the quests become more difficult, presenting the players with a constant challenge that satisfies their desires to become stronger wizards. Even when questing becomes scarce and the level cap is reached, farming and frequently added developments keep old players coming back to re-experience the feelings of discovery that new players have in spades.


That looks a lot like another kind of crystal, doesn't it?

Aside from all those things being very alluring, the most influential thing about the drug that is Wizard 101 is the fact that the dealers -- I mean, developers -- really listen to the player's suggestions on how to make the product better. They perform regular maintenance to eliminate bugs and add new little features here and there to make the gaming experience better. They truly work hard for the money they get. When players decide to make the leap from the free zone to the paying, they're getting more than just excellent graphics, a killer soundtrack and a well-written story line. They're getting the collaborative effort of very hard-working and talented people... and it's really worth every cent.


It's all fun and games till a magical talking tree loses its eye.

And so fellow players, potential players, and everyone at KingsIsle: I want you to know that I have spent 12 months, many sleepless nights, and around $200 on Wizard 101. And I don't want any of it back :)

Safe journeys, everyone!