My Opinons on the Wizard's Watchtower

Hey Gang,

For those of you who have access to the Test Realm (and even some of you who don't), you'd know that there are two new houses available at the Crowns Shop (10,000 a pop, or 100,000 gold). Well, one of these houses (my favorite of the two, actually) is called the Wizard's Watchtower (the other is called the Sunken Palace). Today I'm here with you to talk about my opinions of this new house (and maybe some other time I'll talk about the Sunken Palace. I'm going to start with some things I liked about the house, and then move on to the things that can be improved (Note: I've actually started decorating in the Test Realm because I'm pre-planning for a party I'm gonna have for Halloween, so your going to see some housing items):

1. Hallway on the Second Floor: I really like the look of this hallway on the second floor of the Wizard's Watchtower. It gives a really good castle feel, and the mosaics of the dragon only enhance the feel! The carpet blends in very well too, tying the whole room together without you having to even place a housing item! Good job KingsIsle!

2. Dragon Statue, Dragon Feet Columns, and the general Second Floor (Library-like Room): This is just ... wow. First (and most obvious), the dragon statue is great! I love the fire coming out of its mouth. And the fact it's standing on top of the main circular bookshelf just makes this preinstalled feature even more amazing. I also like the library feel of the second floor. Another well done KingsIsle :).

3. Observatory: The view is stunning in this room. And the size of the telescope is huge! The mosaics of the dragon are a nice pull together of the room, and I really like the wood floor and the preinstalled wallpaper. Very nice!

4. Opening Room: The opening room is stunning as you see the giant library pillar pulling the room together. Again, I really like the library feel and the dragon decor.

5. Staircase to the Dragon: Again, this part of the house gives me that "castle" feel that I absolutely love about a home. The rug is a nice touch, and I love the preinstalled torches and banners of dragons.

6. Dragon's Lair (Smog/Hobbit Reference): When I saw this, I literally laughed out loud. If you've ever read (or seen) The Hobbit, you'd know who Smog is, and you'd know how this scene was inspired. Bottom line: AWESOME!

tehehe, anyway, let's move on ...

7. Dragon Claw Lagoon: I really like this feature because it gives the house a location. It tells you, "Hey, your house isn't just on a random island. Your house is centered around a giant and probably ancient statue of a dragon claw". I like anything that gives my house a better definition. :)

8. Castle Entrance: This is just a really cool sight. Again, like the dragon claw statue, it gives your house a location: on the top of a waterfall. I really like the glowing orbs on the pedestals and the dragon keeping watch over the entrance of your house, as well as the observatory in the backround. Very pretty :).

Things That Could Change (This is where I can have some fun!):

1. The Dragon Claw Lagoon: When I first walked around in the house, I thought that little opening in the rope fence was telling me to venture into the whirlpool of a lagoon. When I found out it was just there for looks, I was pretty disappointed. We should be able to go into the whirpool. It could lead into a secret dungeon or cave full of water. Heck, it could lead into a half underwater zone of your house! I'll revisit this point later...

2. The Random Rope: I don't have much to say about this point, since it's pretty short and simple. I'm not sure if you can see it in the picture, but the lowest arch has a rope fence preventing you from going under this. I'd really just like to know why. There doesn't seem to be a reason for it (it looks big enough to travel under) and it really downgrades the look of the house.

3. The Dragon's Lair: This place is perfect as is, except for one small thing. I want to be able to place housing items in this area. As of the current moment, you cannot do so. I'm not sure if this is a current bug, but I have some housing items that would make this room cooler than it is now.

4. This Wall (in the entrance of the staircase): Now this isn't a mandatory change (just an idea suggestion), but why not move the spiral staircase behind this wall and make this room more like a side room instead of a tiny room with a huge spiral staircase in it. I'd also like the ability to place housing items in this room as well.

5. Another Wall (in a the hallway direct before the hallway filled with mosaic windows): Again, this is a great opportunity to add a secret room or hallway. Or better yet, make it another part of the house. It just seems like a loose end that could make the house a lot better than it is currently.

6. Series of Bookshelves: Another secret room suggestion. They could make this another spiral staircase to the dungeon or cave that the Dragon Claw Lagoon leads to. I personally think this a very good idea, but hey, we all have our opinions, right?

7. The Observatory: I'd like to make a side part of this room directly where the camera is pointed to be designated as a bedroom. There are only a few houses with designated bedrooms, and to me it kinda defeats the purpose of a home if your wizard doesn't have a place to sleep. Also, make a spiral staircase from the hallway to this room instead of teleporting me there (since we do see it as a tower from the outside).

Well, that's what I would change! Feel free to voice your opinions on what I thought or tell me what you like/ want to see changed! Until next time!

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.

Observing the Celestian Observatory

Hey Gang,

So I see my new intro is spreading a bit :) awesome!

Anyway, so Friday night's gaming night was awesome! I went to bed a little earlier than anticipated (about an hour xD) but I figure 3:00 in the morning wasn't so bad ;). Mycin, now after another few crafting sessions, has 2/2 Celestian Shields, 4/4 Celestian Sconces, 3/3 Celestian Tree Sprigs, 6/8 Star Chalices, and 0/7 Crystal Street Lamps. My next two items that I craft will be the last two Star Chalices, and then it's to the Street Lamps! I can't believe I'm almost done really. My next objective after completing this will be the Watchtower Hall. When I last looked at the recipe, the only thing I could do was this: "O. O".

Yeah, but I've definitely come a long way while collecting these reagents. I've grasped an understanding of how hard it is to craft an awesome item. It's really enlightened me, and I think I'm going to try to craft more things, such as the level 55 (or 60, I forget) decks that you can get from the Floating Lands. And I must thank Paige MoonShade; she had a post up on her blog that inspired me even more to craft this Celestian Observatory. She's really awesome.

Now, I would list some tips on collecting these reagents necessary for the Observatory, but I'm saving that for my next segment on the Ambrose 2 Zeke podcast! So stay tunned for when that's gonna release.

Ok, I really wish I could stay and jabber some more, but I gotta go do some house cleaning IRL. I'll see you guys!

P.D.