Why Did I Even Bother..?

Hey Gang,

I was going to try to be cheery today. I really was. I was in the middle of an amazing break. Spring break started, and hanging with my friends and learning in school was a real blast. I get on the bus with a newly received Air Head from my friend Melissa (thanks Melissa!) and I was talking to someone who I'm not really friends with but was really nice! I'm on my iPhone, checking my emails when I see this from Professor Greyrose:

"For your site to be listed on our official fansites list, you must provide something to the community that is currently not being covered by other sites. Be unique in what you offer and your site will have a better chance of appearing in the list.

Please read the following requirements before you submit your site:

1. It is important that your site mainly contain content about Wizard101.
2. Your site needs to be updated weekly at a minimum and your updates must be dated.
3. Your site cannot contain content, advertising or links to content that violate the Wizard101 Terms of Use.
4. Fansite owners must be over the age of 18, or have permission from their parent or guardian.
5. Fansite owners must be currently active Members of Wizard101.
6. Fansite submissions received after 31 December 2009 that have a free hosting platform such as blogspot.com, wordpress.com, webs.com,pbworks.com, etc will be rejected without review. If a community member wants to have an official fansite, we ask they show the commitment to the community by purchasing a domain and hosting service.
7. Facebook Fan pages will not be considered for inclusion. The only official Wizard101 Facebook page is located at http://www.facebook.com/wizard101

Since your fansite does not meet the qualifications above (specifically #5 and #6), we cannot list it in our Fansites and Blogs section of the Wizard101.com website.

You may want to send your website to The Friendly Necromancer's MMO Blogger's Club at http://thefriendlynecromancer.blogspot.com/

Inclusion of your fansite on our list is entirely at our discretion. Submissions for the same website will only be reviewed once every 30 days and repeated submissions within that period will not be reviewed or responded to by us.

~Professor Greyrose"

Do you have any idea how mad I was when I saw this? Or not even mad as much as disappointed and upset.

RANT TIME STARTS NOW:

Well, this is what I ultimately sent them back:

"Dear GreyRose,

I'm very thankful that you have looked over my blog, but there were a few things that you got wrong and that I'm confused about:

1. I did pay for my own domain name. I bought it off of blogger, and if you type in www.thepyromancersdigest.com, you will see that it's a purchased site.

2. Are you saying that I have to have a subscription to Wizard101 to be an official fansite? If so, that's not completely far, as I still pay money for the game like subscribers do (I have actually been trying to pay for crowns, but my American express gift card isn't working on the site and billing support decided not to answer my email that was sent back to them). If you want me to subscribe, then I'll try my best, but I still think that as long as I pay the money it shouldn't matter.

3. My site offers many of my own creative ideas, which I find to be unique about it. I'm constantly thinking of my own ideas, and I encourage my readers to talk about their ideas and their opinions of my own. I'm sure many of the wizards in the community would stand by me in saying that it offers something unique.

I appreciate you looking I've this and I would be thankful if you responded soon. I don't mean to sound mean or rude, but I feel like you're not giving me a fair shot. Thanks again,

Luke GoldHorn"

I just don't get why they turned it down.

First off, let me start off by saying that I totally misinterrpreted the "Member of Wizard101" part, if by member they mean subscriber. They really should clear that up. And even still, to make it so that subscribers can only make fansites is just totally unfair. I mean, I could see not letting people who don't pay money for Wizard101 make an official fan site, but to not let Crowns player make fan sites? I still pay money for the game; is my money not good enough? I can live with longer timers and less room in my FL and Bag, but to deprive me of not being an Official Fan Site? That's just ... wrong.

And it's not like I'm not trying to buy crowns. I've had these useless AmEx Gift Cards lying around my desk that haven't been working. When I first contacted support about it, they were really nice and progressive about it; heck, they gave me 2,500 Crowns for putting up with the problem. But at one point, they just never replied back to me. That made me really upset. It also took this a while to go through as well. I had to send a problem ticket in just to get it reviewed. Then to be denied when one qualification that they listed wasn't met was? That's pure insanity.

And yes, I understand that KingsIsle has lots of customers to serve besides me. But they've just angered me lately because of all this cuts they've been pulling off on me. And if they want to limit the number of fansites on their listing, by all means; do it (however, it's not a wise move). But at least post on the fansite page saying that they're not accepting any more at the moment.

And then the whole "not creative enough" part really got under my skin. As you saw in my reply email, I'm fairly certain that other member of the community, big and small, would say that my blog is unique and interesting. In fact, I think almost every blog is unique and interesting. Sure, me and Johnny Smith both may post about our ideas on what KI could add to the game, but if we both doing so in our own manner and write about different original ideas, then it's still unique in my eyes.

I've just lost hope in everything KingsIsle at the moment. Hopefully I'll feel better soon. Happy Easter Break!

P.D.

Sadly Disappointed

Hello Everyone,

So, I recently wrote a very angered letter to KingsIsle Entertainment. I know, I know, I'm breaking my promise of not blogging, but I thought this deserved some reckonzition (sorry, spelling) on my blog, because it's pretty good if you ask me:

"Greetings KingsIsle Entertainment,

My Username is (censored) on Wizard101, and I am also known as Luke GoldHorn. I'd like to submit my opinion about your Crowns Versus Membership payment, as the way you have been changing and altering it is truly upsetting. First, I'd like to go back to the past; particularly about a year or two ago. Things were simpler; and to be honest, a lot more enjoyable and fair. The only real benefit the Membership players had over the Crowns players was the PvP Arena and the Open Chat, however Crowns players could access the Arena via Crowns. This was one feature that I REALLY liked about this game, due to the fact that I cannot afford to pay a subscription every month. This option of payment allowed people, for example people like me, to play the game at a slower, more enjoyable pace; however at a more expensive form of paying. Some people can only make payments at certain times in certain bulks of money, which also makes this option very interesting. The game was a lot simpler back then, making the game a lot more fun. Now, let's zoom to present day. You dealt with this whole Open Chat issue, which, by the way, I had no problem with. I actually scorned the people who complained, telling them it wasn't that big of a deal. When you gave back the Open Chat to certain players, I was impressed, and thought the game was improving back to its original enjoyable state. Then today you go and update the Test Realm, which I happened to see was open. Now, I realize that you, KingsIsle Entertainment, don't really like people in the Test Realm without a subscription, or without having payed anything within a month. However, when an individual has spent a lot of money on a single game, possibly the same or even more money than subscription players, that becomes an extremely troubling situation for that individual. I would, with the reply email, like to see exactly how much I've paid for this game, if that's not too much trouble. I believe I've payed around $300 - $500; however, feel free to prove me wrong. Back to the point, I've calculated the numbers, and if someone were to pay $10 a month for as long as Wizard101 has been running, you would have paid around $300, and that's over-estimating, due to the fact Wizard101 has been running for exactly a two years and five months. So, answer me KingsIsle; why should a crowns player, who has paid $400, not get the benefits of someone who has paid $300? I was one of the first people to realize the Test Realm had opened, yet, I couldn't even log in, because my last payment was in December. That's outrageous in my opinion, as well as many others with a normal mind set. I'd wish to purpose a principle, which, in my opinion, is well planned out; Why don't you give Crowns players, who have kept up with the monthly payment course the member benefits (so, for example, if you are a crowns player who has paid $300+, you would be effected by this). Or, better yet, you could go by the six month or even a year payments, that way the price isn't too high that players wont even try to keep up with it every month (In fact, if you want exact numbers, the six month total is around $250 [ Since this is the original message I sent, I'm not going to edit it entirely, but after checking my math, I found I was actually more than $25 off], and the year subscription total is around $240. Please also keep in mind that the six month total and the year total are both overestimated, especially the year total). Now, from a business prospective, this has both benefits and downfalls. For example, a benefit would be an increase of new players, due to this new revolutionary payment method that is so unique to Wizard101. However, a downfall could be a decrease in expected payments, due to the fact that some subscribers might change to Crowns. My point, however, is this; I, like millions of other Crowns players, want something done about the way KingsIsle Entertainment is treating it's Crowns players, because your company is slowly making this attractive payment method into something not so beneficial. Now I'm sure you've heard this millions and millions of times, however, I feel the need to bring it up. If you don't change the way you treat your Crowns players, then I will quit, which I'm sure isn't that big of a deal to a company; one player quitting? No big deal, right? Well when millions of more Crowns players become angered at how they are treated, and when they quit, it will effect the game greatly. Also, your company constantly says they "listen" to the players, yet the community email never replies whenever I try to contact them. Please consider my ideas, and please don't send me a pre-typed message back. Thanks for your patience and understanding,

(Censored)"

Read that if you want. I'm not going to force you; I know it's a lot of reading to do. And again; I'm usually not one for complaining. But I feel different about this topic of Crowns Players V.S. Subscription; I feel that Crowns Players wind up getting the short end of the stick. So, feel free to tell me I'm so wrong in the comments box. See ya round.

P.D.

Sythomps Of Wizard101 Addiction

Hey Everyone,

So, if you're on Twitter, you'd know I have announced that I'm taking a break from blogging and W101, however, I'm still logging in to check up on my plants. I figure, since I check up every once in a while on W101, why not do some house cleaning on my blog every few weeks. That way, everyone doesnt totally forget me when I come back in a few months. I'll probably be back before my Wizaversary (June 16th, I believe), so expect to see me back around April-May.

Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about why I'm taking a break from the game. I kinda caught a disease, you could say. I was addicted to W101. I remember, back when Noah or Mycin or even Patrick were even thoughts, and I was meekly going around Wizard City amazed at the Spiral before me. Back in my first month of playing, I had a one month membership that I wasn't allowed to renew. I enjoyed as much of it as I possibly could have. When it was up, I was level 31. I had to quit, because, well, there was nothing for me to do, and because I couldn't get another membership.

Then my friend who I know irl, Wolf IceHunter, suggested an idea. Crowns. What if we bought every area in the Spiral with crowns; that way, we wouldn't have to rush through anything, and we'd have them forever. I thought the idea was incredibly moronic, because, well, that's expensive. But we tried it. Around Thanksgiving, 2009, I started playing through content again, getting from MarleyBone to DragonSpyre by, well, this time of year last year. I remember jumping on the computer from 3 in the afternoon when I came home till 10:30 at night. I got in trouble from my mom a lot, but I became a GrandMaster. I was amazed at the fact that I had aqquired my first GrandMaster.

I then journeyed from there, straying from the Fire School to the Schools of Balance and Storm. Mycin StarGem and Patrick FrostHorn were created and played through. I remember both being insanely challanging, due to my lack of inexperience. It was also around the time of my becoming GrandMaster that I heard my first ever broadcast of Ravenwood Radio. It was the best time of my W101 life. I started reading The Friendly Necromancer. I started posting helping threads on Central, and eventually making a Central Blog with the help of MLHagan. Later on, around May-ish, I started my blog on Blogspot. I also got Patrick and Mycin to GrandMaster. Haha, I remember doing a victory dance when Patrick became GrandMaster. It was because of my horrible handing with my first characters. If you ask me, Valdus, Diana, Gilroy, and Noah were all more succesful than Luke, Mycin, and Patrick combined. They were easier to deal with; I actually knew where all the quests were, and I had a bit of experience under my belt. I also tried throwing a Wizaversary, but no one really knew who I was, so no one showed. I was kinda upset.

Around June, I planned a team with three of my friends, I would play Noah GoldHorn as a Myth wizard. I never planned to level a Myth character; I've never had much of an attraction to Myth. Wolf IceHunter planned to get his second GrandMaster on a Death Wizard known as Shelby DeathHammer. Wolf's brother, Blaine StormMender, was planning to roll a Life wizard named Edward LifeCaller (? I forget his last name xD). And lastly, a newer friend of mine who I met in DragonSpyre, a girl known as Paige Whisper, who is actually a Beta player, was also planning to roll a Death character named Kiley DuskCloud (? I also forget the last name of her too xD!). This was where it started to become a bit stressful. This took place all through July, and when people actually started to recognize me as an active role in the community.

After that group reach GrandMaster, dramatically reducing my "time" so to speak that it took me to get to GrandMaster, Paige and I decided to try the ultimate test. We wanted to see how fast it took us to get to GrandMaster, and try to become faster. So, I stepped into Diana GoldHorn's shoes, and she rolled a Storm Wizard know as Ryan RainCaller (and yes, this was a girl character). We were GrandMaster in two weeks. Now, keep in mind, we barley moved from our computers, woke up at 7 in the morning, and didnt got to bed until, like, 3 at night, haha. It was awesome. We had fun.

Then I kinda went solo again. I decided to level Gilroy SkullFlame. It was also around this time that I realized that I was on my last character, so I made a new account so I could make more Wizards. Valdus GoldHorn, my Ice Wizard, was thus born, and I leveled them together at a slower pace, since I was exhausted from speed-leveling. My goal was to get them to GrandMaster before Celestia came out, and so I did. Then Celestia came out, and I wanted to do it with my friend Paige, but she was taking a break, and she wanted me to wait to level up Luke, Patrick, Noah, and Diana, due to the fact that we had partnered up our characters. So I decided to go through with Noah, and eventually Noah and Valdus became a team, and all three reached Legendary. I started working on Luke to become Legendary, but it soon got tiring. I kinda took a break from Celestia, and decided to try gardening.

And now here we are. I am almost a Rank 9 Gardener, and there is almost nothing that intrests me in-game anymore, because, well, I've done most of it. I've gotten a pet to Epic. I'm a GrandMaster Crafter on Mycin. I have a house on each of my characters. All of my characters have at least they're Grand gear, with exception of Noah, Valdus, and Mycin having thier Legendary Gear. The game just doesn't seem as fun at the moment, since there isn't much to do other than complet the Celestian content 3 and 1/8ths over again (that fraction is an estimate ;) but point being, Luke is almost done).

So I want to warn you, so you wont wind up being in the same spot as me one day. Don't overwhelm yourself liek I did. Take your time. Enjoy the Spiral! A good example of this would be Ditto. He just takes his time getting through the game exploring the Spiral. This post wound up kinda being an "About Me" post, but it was neccessary to showe you how I've gone too fast. I would say more, but time is up for me. I'll see you in the Spiral soon!

P.D.

ALKNKLSDNKLJDHKJSNDLKJ

Hey Everyone,

So the title says it all. That's how I feel like now. This whole council thing turned out to be a wreck on ice. Let me explain to you what happened:

So, last night, me and Mary were talking about the council thing. It all seemed pretty good. We thought maybe of assembling on Sunday or possibly Saturday; I mean, who knows, maybe things could have been resolved by then. Also, that time period would have been a decent amount of time to let everyone cool down and take a chill pill.

But what happens after I come home from walking Puppymancer?

Cassandra LifeCaster is online Skype, she all of a sudden sees herself as this almighty judge figure, and she is trying to judge the case. This didn't bother me so much at first (however, Mary and I thought that the Rogue Sorcerer should have been the judge figure, cause he's the eldest of us Skype wizards). So, I am over-loaded with work here; I got Wolf IceHunter (who, I must say, I volunteered to help) asking for help with Celestia, I got a girl trying to get together a date for tomorrow, I have my sister who is just coming home from retreat and wants to spend some time with me, and now I got this?! This is exactly why I wanted to wait longer into the weekend.

ANYWHO, so Cassandra is trying to talk to me about this while I have 50 million other things going on, and she is trying to interview me, so I say this: " I am busy doing so many things" and I kinda wanted to talk about later. And so, Cass says, "Fine okay. Can you tell me in your own words what happened in the following chat and call on that day and time. Solidly Swear to state the truth and nothing but the truth!" So I simply tell her the direct quote what Nick said, and said I had to go (cause I did) and that I would like to discuss this matter another time when I am available. She says she understands, and I go to help Wolf IceHunter ITS. Very simple, right?

So, I'm about to leave to go pick up my sister from the retreat, and Cassandra says in a group chat that her and Amber came to a decision on Nick's punishment (I don't like saying the word punishment; it sounds too controlling. I prefer the word consequence. By the way, the punishment was that he would be muted on all social networks of W101 for 48 hours). At first, I didn't think this was enough. But then again, they didn't let me voice my opinion anyway.

Which is what I stated. How could this be a fair trial if I didn't even get to tell my opinion? Cassandra explained it as me not being able to be available, so I don't get a voice. Do you know how many things are wrong with that statement? My fellow readers, if there is ever a situation between real life and the Spiral, please, CHOOSE REAL LIFE! Real life responsibilities come before Spiral responsibilities. Second, this is MY trial. MY conference call to the council. Isn't kind of ironic that my voice is the only one left unheard?

BUT, no matter how much I said those things, Cassandra wouldn't take no for an answer. All she kept saying was, "Our decision is final Luke." Trust me, in this, I have nothing really against Amber. She wasn't the one fighting back. I mean, the nerve ... See, we weren't even sure if we were even gonna invite her or Amber. But no, Cassandra took things into her own hands, and now look what has happened.

So yeah, me and Cassandra got in this big back and forth bickering fight while Mary was trying to keep the peace, and Cassandra decided to "quit" because I was complaining how my voice wasn't heard in my own conference of the council. By "quit", I mean I have abesolutely no idea what she means... I'm not sure if she quit her blog, quit the community, quit using Skype, quit Wizard101 ... no idea.

I mean, I feel like a jerk. I do. The feeling of making someone quit is an awful feeling. But I mean, in my opinion, and in several other's opinions, I was right. Not that that's what it's all about. But still; I had a right to be angry and to defend myself. It wasn't fair that I couldn't voice my opinion. Like, seriously? And believe it or not, I purposed not even muting him, and just giving him one last chance not to be a disturbance to the community, THEN if he does, something real serious happens. I mean, I don't know. I kinda wanna quit now too. *gasp*... Then again, I'm probably only saying that cause I'm so down ...

/sigh

Would you mind if I told you about some real life stuff real quick? Don't worry, it's not too personal. I just feel like I need to share with someone, and I have no other way of doing it.

So, this morning, for the bus- well, the past week, for my bus, the bus driver has been saying to come to the stop five minutes late, right? So, this morning for the bus, I leave five minutes late (mind you this is all because he has a new stop before mine), and I'm crossing the street of my bus stop, and I see a bus coming. And I'm just thinking to myself, "Watch that be my bus." So I see it go by, and I chase after it. Why? No idea. Just out of pure instinct. Mind you, I am holding a (around) 20 pound book bag and a gym bag full of gym clothes. When I reach my stop, I find it was my bus, and it is starting to leave the stop. So I go on this epic chase after the bus to try and get on. Let's just say I thank the government for street lights...

And then my sister has been away on a retreat for 3 days, and she came home today. Her one word to describe it: Awful. I mean, who wouldn't want to sit there and bunk with a whole bunch of crying girls connecting with each other after their parents tell them how much they loved them? I'm sure I wouldn't. /shudder. Anywho, so they had a mass (service) at the church when we got back, and all the girls were still crying cause they went through so much and because they missed home. All very dramatic. I have to admit though, some of the things the students said took guts to say in front of 200-300 people. Yeah, so it was some what touching.

But yeah, can you see why I'm such a scatter-brain? Do you see why I never have time for things, and why I'm always upset? I mean, THE BUS DRIVER SAW ME! He couldn't pick me up there? Ugh. I mean, just .... I don't even know what to say...

P.D.

*Thanks for reading this post, it was super boring and uneventful :P*

A Day With the Gobblers

Hey Everyone,

So thanks for the um ... well, thanks xD for my previous blog post on Sunday. Glad to hear people like my opinion (for once, tehehe :) ).

Sorry by the way for not being able to post yesterday; I had to go shopping with her to help her find a Semi Formal dress. Of course, two days after I get rejected to go to Semi. *sigh*. I did get some Halloween stuff out of it though :D.

Anyway, so you caught me on a bad day. I found myself hating people today. They're so rude, ya know? Stealing people's chairs in lunch, stealing people's desks in Math class, constantly trying to be funny while really making fools out of themselves, making hallway blockades just to make 80 people late for class .... . Someday ... *shakes fist while fire glares in eyes*. Huh, maybe I should have been a Necromancer ... o. o

The point is, if you could take one lesson or one tip from me today, let it be this: Don't be one of those people, or what I like to call Gobblers! Those nasty little Gobblers always getting on people's nerves! *shakes fist again*. Anywho, I'm going to give ya some tips on how to avoid being one of those Gobblers (hey, look, it's not very W101 related, but I think basic manners are always good to know :) . Plus, I got two huge assignments I gotta get started on.) :

• Alway, Always, Always, Always Think About Others: Sure, you may have the right to freedom of speech/expression, and sure, you may feel the need to get in people's faces, but consider the other person. You don't know everything. That person could be having problems at home or at school. Why would you want to make it worse for them? Sure, it may make you feel better by making fun of them, but have you ever though, "Hey, maybe instead of making fun of Bob (no, that's not my real name ;) ), I could make fun of why blueberries are blue (look, I know that was really corny right there, but hey, you get the point, don't you? Basically, if you feel the need to make fun of someone, make fun of someTHING instead. Objects don't have feeling; humans do, and why would you want to hurt a person's feelings?)."
• Be Considerate: Be polite. Say excuse me, thank you, pardon me, sorry, please, etc. Those are good words that people like to hear :). I love it when someone says to me, "Oh, did I just hit you with my backpack? I'm so sorry; it was an accident." I don't mind that at all. What I can't stand is, "Yo man, get out of my way!", served with a brutal push and a bruise. So yeah, remember your "kind" words :)
• Never, Ever Touch Someone You Don't Know: This kinda goes along to being considerate to others, but I feel it is necessary to make this it's own subject. Look, it's like this: don't touch people you don't know. Is it that complicated to understand? I absolutely hate when people are pushing and shoving their way through the hallways. Like, if you touch someone by accident, back away and say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I was _____" <------ Insert there (examples would be pushed, kicked, shoved, etc.). And this even goes for doing stupid pranks on people trying to hurt them. Plus, you never know, they could have germs on them.
• Don't Take Things That Don't Belong To You: All day today, people were stealing chairs and desks that of which belonged to me (well, obviously I don't own chairs and desks in my school, but you get what I mean; the chairs and desk where I should have been). Please don't do this, for this is highly aggravating, especially in cases such as a) the person says sorry, however doesn't give it back, or even b) when you have to tell the person to get out of your seat a trillion times for them to actually get what you are telling them.

That's pretty much all I got for trying to avoid being a Gobbler. And look, I'm not trying to lecture you on who you should be or anything, just keep those manners in mind. Plus, you could apply at least 75% of those to the Spiral.

Well, in other news, the poll on the best 58 spell has ended (it has a few hours left, but I'm pretty sure all my readers have voted already), and here are the results:

1st Place: Leviathan with eight votes!!!

2nd Place: Ra and Skeletal Dragon both with six votes!!!!!!!!!!!

3rd Place: Medusa with four votes!!!!

In 4th place tied all the others; Snow Angel, Forest Lord, and Efreet. Anyways, this does a good job at displaying what spells players like and dislike. Thanks for voting readers! Now I gotta get going; I'll see you in the Spiral!

P.D.