Exciting News!

Hey Gang,

So I know; I haven't posted in a while. I'm not gonna say, "I'm sorry I haven't posted!", because chances are, you probably don't mind that I haven't posted in a decently long time. Plus, no offense and in all politeness, my readers aren't my boss, and my blog isn't a job (because you know what they say if it is, right? ;D ). Anyway, sorry, that was a bit rude of me. I just felt that needed to be said. Anyway, so I'll probably spend this post talking about some new exciting events that have been happening around the Spiral! So, since I recently posted, I leveled my Life alt, Diana GoldHorn, to level 60! W00t! :D I REALLY like Forest Lord; great job KingsIsle for adding it to the game *two thumbs up*! I really like it, and I named mine Chewy; NOT after Chewbacca (I think that's the right spelling), but after the granola bar brand! :) Idk, he seems like a little critter that likes granola bars, don't ya think?

I think so :).

In other related news, I tried PvPing with Diana and I epically failed! I used to be great (specifically before the Celestian update), but so many new styles of PvP have come into play, that I've kinda lost connection with the PvP world. Soo ... yes, I'm not the greatest at PvP atm, haha :). Ask Alric RavenSinger how bad I was if you don't believe me. However, I am looking to start a perfect catch PvP team. Kevin BattleBlood has inspired me to take on many a task; one of which is to make a PvP team! I have a Legendary in every school except for Balance and Death, so let me know if you have any ideas (I'm looking to use Noah, my Myth Wizard).

On another note, Gilroy SkullFlame, my Necromancer, is currently questing in the Science Center at level 56, and let me tell you, that is my least favorite area as far as questing goes. The grinding is brutal, and none of the enemies wanna give up anything -_-. At any rate, he's moving along, and I hope to have him at Legendary within the next few weeks so I can get started on my last wizard, Patrick FrostHorn (who, surprisingly enough, is actually my second wizard, but my last to get to 60! Haha!)!

Mycin StarGem, my Storm Wizard, completed the Celestian Observatory! Now let me tell you, those last Crystal Street Lamps were a hull! It kinda reminded me of when Frodo and Sam finally make it to Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings; when they have only a few more feet, they are weakest.

I had only 2 more Crystal Lamps to craft for a while, however I had great difficulty gathering the Sunstone (In my own opinion, KingsIsle should restore Sunstone drops back to Hydro-Mechs/Aqua-bots). Eventually, however, I conquered the mountain and I now posses a Celestian Observatory! I'm loving the house, and I plan to decorate it at sometime in the close future. *Another thumbs up to KingsIsle for adding this awesome house*.

My last bit of in-game news deals with Valdus GoldHorn, my Ice Legendary Wizard. As I've stated before, he bought the Island Getaway so as to experiment with the house. At first, I had a little somethin'-somethin' up and ready to go, but then, I had some people view it and ... well ... they thought it wasnt too well done. Now, I'm not sure about anyone else, but there' something in this house that just makes me see great, great, great potential with it. So I've been trying to redesign that. One thing that I like that I'm trying to keep is the idea of a Rain Forest.

That's really all the news about my wizards. In the Spiral, as many, many of you know, there's a timer that counts down to around 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning (CST) on April Fools day. People have been guessing at this for around a week now, and we've been getting everything from Level 58 pets to a new high-level tower to even things WinterTusk in the Test Realm (which, has, by the way, been denied by Lydia Greyrose). So I'm really excited to see what comes out of that!

I'm also thinking of starting a vlog! I got the idea from Kevin BattleBlood (I know, not original; sorry!). I think it's a really good idea, and it'd let me get some ITS time while updating my blog and the Spiral about my personal adventures and current events. So be sure to look out for that! I also might be getting my own web adress! Yes, that's right, this site might soon become www.thepyromancersdigest.com! :D woot!

Lastly, I might have a contest going soon! There are a plethora of contests happening with other bloggers pertaining to mounts. Some are simple, some are hard, and I suggest you try them ALL out! :D. My contest idea had to do with WinterTusk! I need prizes though, so I asked KingsIsle to sponsor me, so we'll wait and see what happens :). I'm hoping it's approved!

Ok, I have to get going! Ravenwood Radio's playing! I'll see ya soon!

P.D.

Wintertusk Announced! Theory-Crafters, We NEED You!

Hey Gang,

So yesterday, the amazing Ditto has given us ASTOUNDING news! KingsIsle has announced their next world; WinterTusk (otherwise known as Jotungaard or WT)!! Now, if you wanna see what it's all about, go check it out on Ditto's blog. I really just wanna post my ideas on what's going on. So, here it is - my thoughts and theories for the next world: Now, when being introduced to a new world, there's a huge question that comes to mind: Will this world be a side quest world, or will it be a main world? This world, by all means, looks to me like a side quest world, due to the major fact that they never released info on a level cap increase (however, this could happen within the next couple weeks). So don't get your hopes up yet. HOWEVER, take a look at this!:

Try to focus on that thing she has her hand around. That's right folks; it's a horn! Now, I'm pretty sure there's a folk tale lurking in the Spiral about a horn belonging to Grandmother Raven, sister of Bartleby. I can't remember at the moment, but I'll be sure to get back to you! I actually putting together a research group to investigate the matter! It is called the Order of the Horn, and if you would like to join the hunt, be sure to comment and/or request to join the group on DoaW ConnectX.

But yes, I think that Horn that GrandMother Raven is holding is Morganthe's next target. My theory is, due to Morganthe's prophecy ("...the horn will call..."), she would like to steal this horn from Granny Raven, causing something terrible to happen to the Spiral! Specifically, she wishes to awaken the Titans with the Horn, causing a second Titan War! How terrible would that be?! But imagine seeing this as well; what if there was a raid at the end of this story arch? Not exactly a raid in the fact that it might take a week to complete it. I'm talking more about 8-people battle circles, a ton of puzzles and task, and possibley even taking down some Titans! The dungeon would probably take a long time though; I'm thinking somewhere between 3-5 hours. Also, in case you can only play, say, two hours a night, they wont clear your progress for a few days (possibly weekly).

So it all leads back to that one question: Will this be a continuation of a side world only, OR will it ALSO tie a side world to the main story line? Again; our only clue that it may be a main quest world is that horn. Also, as I said, I need some research to back me up, so I'm gathering researchers from the group to go on an expidition through the Spiral and search for clues. I will be leading this expidition along with three other wizards. Everytime we find something that may be of importance, we'll pose it to some theorists and decide how exactly we want to use it. It's going to be a LOT of fun! Also, there will soon be another expidition (we still need a leader for this one, as I am not up to the task) to find runes and possible references hidden in quests to Jotungaard or anything else that may include Mother Raven or Morganthe's prophecy.

By the way, while we are on the matter ... what exactly is Morganthe's prophecy? "The Mirror will break, the Horn will call! From the shadows I stike, and the skies will fall!". Geesh, sounds ominous. So as I've said a billion times, I believe this horn she talks about is GrandMother Raven's Horn. But what exactly is the mirror? I have a theory that I don't whole-heartitly agree with. What if GrandMother Raven is the mirror? When the mirror breaks (meaning GrandMother Raven dies), Morganthe can sound her horn for the Titans? Sounds plausible. But what would the next three worlds be about? Well, there ARE three different types of titans: The Triton Titan(s), the Dragon Titan(s), and the Giant Titan(s). Now, we dont exactly know how many there are left, but we certainly know that there is still at least one Dragon Titan and one Triton Titan. Heck, we could witness Morganthe awaken a Frost Giant Titan at the end of Jotungaard.

But then another question arises; we've already been to DragonSpyre. We've already been to GrizzleHiem (and soon to be WinterTusk). We've already been to Celestia. How are they going to reinvent these characters into the story without making us go back to worlds we've already been to? Well, the way I see it, after WinterTusk, there will be three worlds left open for this arch. Instead of us traveling to the Titans, have the Titans travel to us! For example, the Triton Titan can travel to a world such as the Mayan world I purposed. He causes bad things to happen there, and we put him back to sleep somehow. See what I'm saying?

I also think that there's another part to Morganthe's prophecy that she's not telling us. The part, that is, that talks about us saving the Spiral. And wouldn't it be cool if, for the Dragon Titan, we were brought into a Utopia, kinda like how DragonSpyre was before the Dragon Titan got there? But this time, we could actually save it! It'd be sweet! :D

As to the skies falling part of the prophecy, maybe we'll meet the Celestians again at an observatory in the Spiral, and their doom will repeat itself.

Ok, I gotta get going. I'll see ya!

P.D.

Pi Day

Hey Gang, So I have nothing better to talk about. This weekend was fun. I kicked it off with The Return of the King movie by Peter Jackson (otherwise known as awesomesauce packed into a three hour movie). Does anyone else remember when movies were 2-3 hours long, rather than 1-2 hours long as they are today? Now people consider 2 hours a REALLY long movie. Well, 5-7 years ago, if a movie was 2 hours long, it was considered kinda short. Anyway, enough of my jabbering on. The movie is awesome. If you've never watched the whole triology, go get 'em, wake up at 8 next Saturday, and spend your day watching them (trust me; you'll need all day). My favorite is particularly the last one. The rest of my weekend wasnt really exciting. I went to Borders, as I do weekly. I had an awesome time, as usual. I then proceeded to stay up till 4:00 A.M. Sunday morning, which I regret this morning. For people that understand Halo, I got to Captain Rank 3, which was an accomplishment I guess. I'm trying to get to Luitenet Colenel so I can get a black visor to match my forest green and black armor. I got to see my grandparents yesterday, which was cool. I showed them some stuff I was working on for Engineering. I played some Lord of the Rings: The 3rd Age, which was a good time, until I reached an impossible boss fight, which you know, was kinda depressing and stuff. I didn't play Wizard101 at all. The game just seems not that fun at the moment. I also made cookies for a friend yesterday, which was a lot of fun :). So ... Pi Day ... a day for math nerds everywhere. Walk around in a cicrle today, or eat some pie, or something circular. Pie is more ceremonial, due not only to the shape, but cause the name. Pie. Pi. See what I mean? Ok, I'm gonna go now. I'll see ya guys, P.D.

I'm Turning Into Atlas!

Hey Gang,

So I've been extremely busy lately! I mean, don't get me wrong, the business is all good stuff, it's just kinda tiring, ya know? Anyway, how was your weekend? On Friday, I went to a cafe at my local Borders store and hung out with some friends. I spent Saturday cleaning my house for my mom's boyfriends's extended family. We were having them over for dinner. It was a good time; they didn't know I was a vegetarian though, so they slapped the biggest piece of chicken on my plate that they found in the pile and was all like, "DIG IN!" Haha! I was all like, "Um ... see ... I'm kinda a vegetarian ..." There was this really long awkward moment of silence, but then they all started yelling at each other for presenting me with the piece of chicken. Tehehehe, it was actually kinda funny.

During that dinner as well, there was some tortellini and chicken mixed with peppers and Alfredo sauce. I ate the tortellini, but it was kinda hard to make out whether the piece of food was chicken or tortellini, since it was covered in Alfredo sauce. Also, since I was in mid-conversation, I just kinda shoved a piece of chicken into my mouth without realizing it. I started chewing it, and thankfully, before I swallowed, I noticed it was chicken! I had to spit it out. It was bad ...

On an unrelated note to the dinner that took place on Saturday, I had a friend sleep over that night as well. We played a bit of Xbox 360 (which I hopefully will be able to play just for a tiny bit tonight), more specifically, Halo Reach (I'm almost a Captain! :D). After Reach, we watched some Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I personally got half-way through the movie, and then I fell asleep, haha! I get tired easily! My friend continued to watch the movie, until he accidentally pressed the wrong button, and the TV screen turned blue. He tried waking me up to fix the TV, but supposedly I refused to! I told him I was probably sleep talking (which I tend to do a lot), but he said my eyes were wide open and everything! So that was really weird!

On Sunday, my friend and I finished watching the Fellowship and moved on to the Two Towers (Tomorrow I'm going to post my top favorite things about the Lord of the Rings as my post; irrelevant, but entertaining :) ). I absolutely love these movies; they certainly made my childhood. We got about 2/3rds of the way into the movie when we went to Border's cafe again for a few hours. There I bought The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I've always wanted to read these books when I was younger, but they seemed too challenging, what with all the crazy pronunciations. Anyways, I started that Hobbit, and am currently on Chapter IV, where they are just leaving Rivendell (an Elfish city) to travel into the Misty Mountains. It's really good! I recommend to everyone who hasn't read it!

I've also been trying to make my life healthier such as:

-Eating less portions.

-Eating a lot more fruits and vegetables rather than junk food.

-Exercising daily (this includes a 15-25 minute run and a 20-30 minute walk).

-I've been trying to be mentally healthy by doing my homework sooner and paying attention. also reading more literary work (including my new English novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).

I hope life's been good to everyone! Should I talk some W101? Or leave us off with a irrelevant post about what I've been doing? Eh ... I guess maybe I'll introduce a topic, and I'll make it a "What Do YOU Think?" discussion:

So recently, I asked a question that appeared on Ravenwood Radio: "What are some of your ideas to incorporate more events into the community, such as double experience weekends for PvP or Pet Derby, Special events where you could get different gifts for going, etc?" (By the way, thanks so much Stephen and Fallon for answering my question!) Stephen and Fallon came up with two really cool ideas, such as holiday events where you could get a badge for attending and completing the quests that exist during the time.

So, what would you like to see? Would you like to see double experience weekends with the PvP systems? Would you like to see double arena tickets weekends? Would you like to go to special events (where only a certain amount of people get in) where you can get a certain item that represents you attending that event? Do you want special badges or items for completing holiday tasks? Or do you have another idea for an event?

Maybe we'll make a contest out of this? Maybe I'll send a code out there and enter the commenters in a random draw for a few wizardblox codes? I dunno; we'll see!

I need to go! I'll see you guys later!

P.D.

Moving to a Different Game

Hey Gang, So recently, I've found that I might be able to maintain a WoW (World of Warcraft) membership! So, I might blog about that here and there! I actually played WoW before W101 even existed; about 4-5 years ago. I rolled a Gnome Frost Mage; ah, how I love the Gnomes. This story, believe it or not, actually connects to W101. But, that's a story for another day (specifically, June 15th). No, I am not quitting W101. No, I am not stopping the blog. I just really needs me some WoW. In fact, a friend said sometyhing to me that I very much agree with; 'If an MMO gamer isn't playing WoW, it's only because something's holding them back." This is very true, and I very much agree. If you consider yourself a legitimate MMO gamer, and you aren't playing WoW, it's probably because you have issues IRL, such as financial, parental, or other issues. If you consider yourself an avid MMO gamer but haven't ever played WoW before, or if you think WoW is a bad game, yeah ... I have bad news for you. For me, it was a combonation of a few factors. First off, I couldn't afford to pay for the game. I'm not very great subscriptions. They're kinda like my secret enemy of MMO's. I also had a serious addiction problems with it. At 6th grade, I wasn't going to bed until 11 P.M. or 12 A.M. EST, and then I'd wake up to play it again at 5:00 A.M. EST. It was bad. Now, though, that I have an understanding of MMO's, and that I can afford it, I wanna try playing it again. I think, since I'm older, I'll be able to handle the addiction part. If you wanna be considered an avid MMO player, and you can have WoW (and also be able to handle it; addiction-wise, that is), than you should really try it out. Basically; try it if you have the opportunity. Most MMO players wont consider you an MMO player until you've played at least some of it. I probably wont be able to get my sub until about a month or two. Ok, I gotta run. Me and a few friends are headed to a cafe in a bit. Hope you have an awesome Friday evening! P.D.

New Things I'm Interested in on The Live Realm? Member Recruiting Advice?

Hey Gang,

So I know, the title isn't too catchy. Anyway, if you've been reading this blog for quite some time, you'd know that I don't really post patch notes. Sure, sometimes I'll have a link set up, or sometimes I'll talk about an addition or two; but I never really copy and paste the notes onto a blog post. Why? For two reasons: One, I feel it's an excuse for a blog post. Many people who copy and paste the notes don't write anything else, or their reflections on it. Two, because chance are some odd twenty people have probably already posted them, so what's the point in being 21st?

Anyway, so you can find the patch notes here.

It's funny; I first heard these updates were out right after I had put up a blog post on Monday, haha. I missed my chance to talk about it then. So, I'm coming to you now about what I think of some of the items:

1. Celestian Observatory: This house is a little small; the only reason I could think to craft it is because of either a) You like the surroundings, or b) You want the PvP circle. Now, the items to get this aren't too hard to craft ... my only issue is the SunStone. The only place I am able to get this rare stone is in the Chancel or the Trial of the Spheres (right now we aren't counting the Bazaar). And even then, only the bosses will drop it. So, you have two choices to get some SunStone in your pockets: either a) You farm the bosses until you get bored from exhaustion, or b) you spend all the money you're trying to save up to buy some recipes on the SunStone in the Bazaar. I'm starting to question why they took SunStone away from the Aqua Bots and stuff. Besides them, no one really drops it. In fact, I'd even be ok if the Aqua Bots only dropped SandStone; it still makes my life a bit easier. Anyway, off the topic of SandStone and SunStone, Mycin's been doing pretty well. He's almost there; he only needs 5 more Crystal Street Lamps (and he also just needs to buy the stinking recipe, so that means a lot of Chancel runs; hey, I'm always open to guests that can handle the dungeon). My overall opinion on this house? They way I see it, they could make three changes to this to make it better (listed from some-what possible to least possible): a) Make the reagents easier to find or have the recipes call for less of them, b) Lessen the number of items needed to craft the house, or c) Make the house a bit bigger.

Celestian Tropical Island Getaway: This is a nice little homey house. Now, if it were not for the floating rug glitch, in all honesty, I probably wouldn't have bought it on Valdus; I probably would have went with the Dragon's Fjord. The house seems really small to me, with the exception of the house rug trick, from, what I can see, extends pretty far back. I must say though; I REALLY love the Indiana Jones reference. That stone in the house is quite honestly amazing. One thing I've come to find with both the new houses is that they're kinda tough to decorate. With such little room (even though both hold 250 items inside and outside), it's hard to fit all my junk :P

No Caps Update: Now, this didn't effect me at all, cause i have open chat. So, honestly, I can't post my opinion on this, because quite frankly I don't have one. I can't have one, because of my lack of experience with the patch. Do I think it's right? Not necessarily. For grammar sticklers like me, this is very annoying. Do I think it's the correct way to solve the cursing problem? No, not exactly. People can still say all those words that sound similar to curse words; they just can't make it as obvious that they're cursing. You know what I think is the best way to solve the cursing? The report button! Remember readers; as Jester from Central says, "The report button is your friend," (Yeah, I don't like him too much, but that quote is so true). If you see someone cursing or using inappropriate language around the filter, report them. If you see harassment, report them. Now, I'm not saying report everyone for everything. I'm just saying that, if you see someone breaking the rules, privately report them (make sure you have the correct reason too! Also, you might wanna make sure your reason for reporting is legitimate). Also, another decent fix to making players' curses not so obvious is to only caps certain letters; for example, I's and/or the first letter of every sentence. Again, I don't think it's the best way to fix it, but still; if that's how they want it to be done, that's their choice.

I haven't really been doing much else really. I've had a ton of school work, and I'm also trying to get three friends to try the game out. I've got one hooked, but he's a mac user, and you have to buy the mac conversion form of the game. I've got another that's undecided, but is leaning towards no, which is kinda sad. I haven't even tried the last one yet, but I wanna wait and see if I can get the support of the first two before I try him for his money.

Also, I've been preforming an experiment for people who want their friends to join, but wont (people like me). The toughest people to recruit are people that are around 14-18. This is because, most of us kids that play MMO's around this age wanna see some blood, gore, and other things that rated T or even M. A lot of us want fast action. We don't really have the patience or time to try a game that's based on complete and udder strategy. Also, Wizard101, in the beginning of the game, is aimed towards younger children, which is also a turn off for teenage kids. It's only later in the game that they start targeting more hardcore gamers; worlds like DragonSpyre, Celestia, and even tiny bits of MarleyBone and Mooshu.

So, I decided to try an experiment. A while back (about two months ago), when I originally introduced Subject A to the game, I decided to play along side him to hopefully help him out a bit; because I know I was VERY confused with the game play. After I had Subject A finish his Spiral Session, he seemed OK, and he thought it was decent, but later he described it as "boring". So, since now (two months later) I have another two friends I wanna get involved (Subjects B and C), I decided to test something.

WARNING: I am going to go all Kevin Battlebloodish on you now, ahaha! No offense to Kevin; just a warning that it's gonna get a bit scientific.

Hypothesis: New players that join the game in isolation have a greater yet not completely successful chance of playing. Vice versa, new players that join the game accompanied by a current player have a lesser chance of eventually joining and enjoying the game.

*NOTE: If you observed, I left out people who try playing it in groups of new players. I'm not trying this until after the isolation step of the recruiting process. I would not guarantee, however, the success of this tactic. I'm making an educated guess that isolation is the best way to get someone into the game.*

Observations: While Subject B tried the game for a first time, I tried talking to him throughout his Spiral session, and I showed him some higher level spells. I also showed him some housing, which he seemed to like. However, he always had satirical comments to make about the game, such as how it's aimed for younger gamers. He didn't seem too attracted.

Now, Subject A (trying the game a second time) seemed to like the game better this time. At first, I wasn't totally under the impression that he was intrigued in the game, and I thought the experiment had taken a wrong turn for the worse. I tried my best not to play with him too much, only answering questions. This was also assisted by the fact that I was busy talking to Subject B. However, when we finished the session, he said that he LOVED it. He explained his bored looking face as being "too zoned in to concentrate on his facial expressions,".

Conclusion: So, if Subject A is not lying to make me feel better (I pressed him pretty hard, so I semi-believe it), my hypothesis was correct; the method of isolation has a better chance of manifesting a love for the game inside the new player. So, I'm going to try this attempt on Subject B and see how that goes. If this experiment doesn't work with Subject B, it will prove that this method does not work 100% of the time.

How was that? Haha! I tried my best with the experiment; Subject C still hasn't been introduced to the game yet. My method with Subject C is another method of recruiting; popularity. I know that even extreme amounts of initial isolation wouldn't help him. Therefore, I'm aiming to try and hook both Subjects A and B. Once that happens, I'm going to have them press him to join us. This is also another method of recruiting, however, I do not have feedback yet on this type, so I would not take this as a definite yes. However, it is definitely a good method if you are trying to get three or four other people to join, and you only have one or two others remaining. As someone once said, 'There's strength in numbers."

So I'll be sure to update you on that experiment! I have to go right now; I've been spending a fair amount of hours on this post ;) I'll see ya,

P.D.