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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Celestia Sneak Peek Part 2

image courtesy of Ravenwood radio
Scoop by Cody Skyrider (we just might start calling him "Scoop" for short)

Ravenwood Radio and Massively got an interview with King Isle. You can read more here: massively.com and http://www.ravenwoodradio.com/

The next big bad guy *ahem* girl... in the game is Morganthe. One can see a Arthurian reference in there.  She has a history with Ambrose that will be revealed as time passes.

Three new schools of magic will be made available.  They will be more subltle than damage related.  Here I'll have to cut to my self-interview from a few days back and answer my question once and for all:

**
Vale, so will the new schools be unique or add schools? 
"Well, Vale, they will be self contained schools like new elements so where you had storm, ice, fire etc these are other 'elements' which have their own spells."
**

It looks like our very first request on Valerian's School is being addressed!  Bigger friend lists!  WOOT!

Petnome.com

Some buddies have created a site to track unlocked pet talents.  http://petnome.com/

I noticed something the other day after having to grow my colossus up over and over again.  No matter what games I played and what I fed him he ended up learning 2% ice accuracy.  Hmmm...

Can anyone else confirm that the skills you teach them don't affect what they learn?

Valerian Nightbringer

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Chain stun fix is up in test realm

The day we've all waited for has arrived.  (can you tell I'm excited?)

Stun Lord, Stun Giant and more importantly the various stun alls are now throwing 4 stun shields!  The small downside is that they come off with quake BUT, I'll take anything over what it was!

I dearly hope that addition appears in regular realm soon!

A bummer is that pet hatching in test is limited to one a day.  That's probably fine in regular realm but a bummer in test because you want to hatch and check mixes before the test gets reset.  I mixed a magma colossus and a earthwalker (61 and 58 pedigree) and got a magma colossus that seems identical in all ways other than it's talents are lower than it's parent colossus and it's pet derby skills are maybe 1 epic talent better.  It's pedigree however is only 58.  So far it seems a clone of it's dad :(  I'll have to get lucky in the mix next time i'm hoping.  I'd dearly love to test multiple hatches of the same mix to see what can happen.

Valerian

Prequests But Not Celestia, Boss Tips

So my hopes were dashed upon completion of the Celestia pre-quests. 

I hoped that perhaps the GH guy's quest would shed some light on the subject.  But after doing his "quests" there was the sound of nothing.  The only thing I have to say about that is 'If a person starts a useless quest, is it actually ever finished?'

Celestia Pre Quests:

1) Talk to Balestrom first
2) When you look for bosses in each place (quest helper doesn't work for them) look near to the entrance. Open your map and you'll find they're close by.  Hang a left in the Dejeserit tomb to find the first guy, Hang a right on the Village of Sorrow, hang a right on the in the Crucible to find the boss near-ish the entrance.  And in Marley when you're facing the museum entrance I think the warehouse is off to the right just a little way. (watch for the crowds... won't be hard to spot)
3) Fighting in the tower
What was kind of fun was the boss tower at the end of the GH quests.  There are some important tips that help with that.  You need to nuke the minions as close to in order as you can, starting with the one on the key.  They get REALLY testy if you hit them and don't kill them.  From the middle boss you can expect to get quaked almost immediately so hold on to your blades for a turn.  You'll also get hit with a storm lord and a frosty for sure so pack a chance of lightening and snow.

For the last boss killing the minions again in order starting from Key (immediately to right of boss) and moving to the right seems to help.  Also super awesomely fun was beguiling the boss.  His minions nuked him multiple times with various spells including dragon and we had time to buff and clean up.  I hear you shouldn't trap but who knows, some of the info on central did not pan out and I didn't try to trap but just bladed and kept hitting.  In any case if you're going through with death or ice you're probably golden.  Storm should be fine if you buff very very very quickly.  Myth probably needs a strong team to go in with.

Arena Chaining
Another sadness was discovering the arena fix is not yet implemented.  A storm wizard quickly informed me that double-single lords are still working so too are the fire stun alls.  I did a quick one vs one with him and tested ice stun and fire stun on him.  Sure enough only one stun shield appeared and went away again with the second stun. 

Pet Hatching
Pets are still DANG expensive to hatch.  100K plus gold for a high pedigree pet.  Fortunately they gave everyone tons of virtual crowns to buy gold with.  However, another frustating development was that after hatching one pet I could not hatch another to save my life.  No expanation was given only exiting the hatching booth without seeing the little success notice about the egg.  Sure enough a quick check of my gold showed that it hadn't been used.  Bank was empty of new eggs.  :(  I even tried trading my egg to my noob and tried again with no luck.  I still have another 11 hours to wait to see if maybe the first egg hatching was preventing me from hatching another.  I'd hoped to hatch a second before some reset blows away all that work.

On an High Note
The crafted GH house ROCKS!!! Woot!
I'll post pics of it tomorrow but you can get a sneak peak from the crafting guy and do a tour of it by clicking the Preview button.

Log in, check out the funness and post your warehouse tower stories.

Valerian Nightbringer

Monday, June 28, 2010

Test Realm is out!!!! (Thanks Cody Skyrider for the ultimate scoup)

Check out the test realm for *royal trumpet chorus* Celestia!  Go see Mr Balestrom!

*double royal trumpet chorus* Chain stun fix! (when stunned you will get 4 stun shields) TAKE THAT CHAINERS!  Some wizards will have to relearn how to pvp and re-earn their ranks.  I LOVE IT!  SEE YOU IN ARENA!

Crafters will be able to get recipe for GH house!

You can now kick people out of your house! (fun fun!)

Grand pets will again be given power pip talent at some point in their growing up.

DS has been made way wimpier in many respects.  Which i guess makes it faster to get to Celestia but those of us old time wiz earned our stripes the hard way.

New "beast master" clothing to increase pet energy.

Pets will like their school snacks more regularly.  Tomato (sorry you are not a fruit atm).

Death minions get new spells!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Wizard101 Ideas

I had two ideas I wanted to pass on.

1) What if Wizards could build their own tower in part of their home staffed with bosses of their choosing and equivalent drops to the rank of the boss as to what they'd get elsewhere.  So every home could potentially be a unique farming experience and you'd have the fun of inviting others over to enjoy a round of fun at your place.

2) What if there was an iphone app that would let you connect with chat on the game as if you were logged in.  You could chat with your buddies on the game even when you were traveling as if you were on the game.  The app could use the web service for friend list and chat.  This would extend the game into the social networking arena, transcending normal mmorpg.

My 2 cents,

Valerian Nightbringer

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Wizard101 versus other MMORPGs

If you've been a regular reader on my blog you'll know that I've given KingIsle a fair amount of grief over certain game issues mostly surrounding arena and percieved means of cheating.  We lobbied for no more bolting and lobbied for no more chain stunning (which I hear is being reconsidered even now and may be fixed soon).  We were also the ones who blew the lid on the pvp rank cheat etc.  So I've been kinda tough on them for a lot of things.  We did have some good ideas that went from this blog and it's readers right into the game like the pets running around in your home and the blocking of teleporting so you could host plays or simply have peace and quiet for a bit.  All these things we kinda pushed for and were a little noisy about but are super grateful that KingIsle is open to ideas.

So I am finally going to do something that maybe is in my small way thanking KingIsle for building an awesome game despite my continual change requests.  I'm going to compare it to other MMORPGs in general and detail what makes Wizard101 stand out.


Top 10 reasons why Wizard101 is better than other MMORPGs

1) The inventory and chat dialogs are simple and clean with little clutter.
I can only really describe the virtues of Wizard101 by pointing out the vices in other games so pardon the bashing of other games I've tried. (and I've tried a lot)  All of the MMORPGs that I've played have had a cluttered and difficult to navigate UI.  I'm not saying that you can't figure them out or work them, just that they generally are very similar with a lot of large dialog boxes with multiple buttons, lots of fine print.  Most notable are the inventory dialogs which differ only slightly from game to game.  Inventory dialogs typically are packed with row after row of icons with tiny signs of indicators.  Chat windows are large but typically presenting a small font making it difficult to read quickly while concentrating on killing monsters.

Contrast with that the clean obvious fonts of the Wizard101 interface.  Inventory is simple to navigate through. Takes no learning curve whatsoever and scrolling options are obvious and accessible.  Names are provided which makes it easy to differentiate rather than peering a small icons and a simple mouse hover indicates the inventory item versus what you have equipped.  Private messages appear visually different and pop their own window on the screen versus showing in line on a cluttered chat window.  Wizard101 chats are small and twitter-like.  This presents a slight difficulty in getting a long point across but encourages one to be a) brief and b) to not spam comments.  The chat window shows your friend private chat versus open chatter.  Group chat is simple, intuitive after you've tried it once.  Chat bubbles are a nice way to talk to other players and are visible when people are nearby.  These give the game an air of friendliness that is dramatically lacking in most other MMORPGs.

2) Camera angle and presentation
One cannot underestimate the overall effect of proper versus bad camera position and camera follow mode.   Most MMORPGs like to offer their players the ability to adjust their camera angle on the fly.  This is probably the most frustrating aspect of MMORPG play.  It's a small detail but a good camera placement that doesn't stick by accident in some weird angle while you're fighting monsters is a make-or-break detail.  Also annoying to many western players is the high dramatic camera angle of many of the Asian designed games.  This is probably a cultural preference or artistic preference but it has a huge correlation to the immersion factor in the game itself.

3) Clean quest lines and impressive NPC characters
Other than a few notable hiccups quest lines are well tested and complete.  Many other MMORPGs NPC quest masters refuse to give you credit for basic early quest lines.  NPC characters communicate via quest windows with only a Next button versus many other MMORPGs with mysterious buttons, unused buttons that confuse the reader or at very least a back and next which Wizard101 wisely did without.  If you care to go back and reexamine your quest instructions you can review it in full in the quest section of your magic book.

4) It's easy to keep track of your quests
Your quests accumulate in you magic book so you can easily review and resume them and even have dozens going at the same time without fear of losing track.

5) The Wizard101 quest helper makes the game perfectly suited to kids
Wizard101 built in a quest direction tracker which shows you where you can resume your quest no matter where you are.  No more pouring over maps, following vague hunches or running though thousands of miles of barren wasteland only to find you're headed in the wrong direction.

6) Teleporting makes it all worthwhile
Many MMORPGs allow you to travel by walking, by riding a beast of some sort, or by limited teleport ability.  Wizard101 includes all of these and makes them ultra easy to access and use.  The plethora of teleportation methods lets you focus on the doing rather than the finding.

7) Interface Interface Interface
Easy to navigate book-like control for all inventory, equipping, and preparation.  Tabs and simple icons make navigating the setup of your character's gear and cards easy and intuitive even for kids.

8) Something other than blob shooting
99% of other MMORPGs have you immediately killing some kind of silly plant or other thing that's running wild around the fake NPC town.  The plot is generally you desperately trying to gain a more powerful sword or magic spell to wildly throw in the direction of your mouse cursor.
Wizard101 forgoes this tired blob shooting, or stabbing as the case might be, altogether.  In Wizard101 you match wits with, and play a game of skill and chance with the monsters using card-based spells.  Your future really is in the cards.  Certainly you strive to learn new spells and gain new powers and resistances and get better gear but you don't have to be wildly driving your player with the mouse while pushing numbered keys to lash out in different directions.  In Wizard101 you chose to confront a monster when you want to, and you are immediately transported into a battle circle with rules of engagement.  This setting takes on a life of its own with an absolute rather than hap-hazard strategy to win.  This mode also provides a feeling of safety and lower stress than other games which kids find comforting and reassuring.

9) A polished social aspect
While other MMORPGs encourage you to gather a mob of like minded soldiers to attack a creature or other players, Wizard101 encourages coordinated teamwork and thinking rather than furious mouse clicking and number pushing to win.  I acknowledge that other games have their strategy and teamwork elements however Wizard breaks away from the shooter genre and puts people together in turn based battle situation where chatting is free and easy between spell casting.  Wizard101 keeps it clean too with filtered chat for the young players, and the nasties filtered out even for those with open chat.  Wizard encourages it's players to keep the talk kid-friendly.  Wizard also makes it possible to indicate which friends are close list and which are not.  It goes further and allows you to connect with real world or trusted friends using friend codes for a special indicator and more free chatting ability.

10) Kid friendly visual appearance
The visual appearance of Wizard101 has two factors that endear it to families and kids.
a) It's a bright and safe world where even the "scary" things don't seem scary.
b) It keeps players outfits and abilities to a family friendly minimum.  In a gaming genre where other games are speeding toward PG13 or even R rated outfits and R rated character actions, Wizard keeps things basic, simple and friendly.  While everyone looks cute or handsome as the case might be, the clothing is modest but still cool and provides a lot of style and individuality.

So that's it.  That's my 2 cents on the current state of MMORPG. Props to KingIsle for a well polished game with lots of fun to be had for all ages.  I think other vendors will be incredibly hard pressed to compete against a game that's so friendly in it's design and feel.

Valerian Nightbringer

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

TEN MILLION WIZARDS JOIN FORCES TO SAVE THE SPIRAL

TEN MILLION WIZARDS JOIN FORCES TO SAVE THE SPIRAL

IN WIZARD101
PLANO, TEXAS (June 22, 2010) – KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. today announced that since its launch in September 2008, more than 10 million Wizards have registered to play Wizard101. Today, the Wizard101 player base continues to grow at an accelerating rate and KingsIsle expects rapid growth to continue for the foreseeable future.
“Over the last twenty months our domestic launch has taken us from an unheard of company with an unknown product to running one of the most successful properties in the family entertainment space,” said Elie Akilian, chairman and CEO of KingsIsle Entertainment. “I am profoundly grateful to the millions of extraordinary people who call Wizard City home and the talented writers, artists, designers, producers and engineers who have come together to create this magical world.”
While the technical and creative design requirements to create a virtual, safe and compelling online universe such as Wizard101 are enormous, it is the active and enthusiastic community of players that truly makes Wizard101 come alive.
“We are overwhelmed and honored by this huge achievement,” said J. Todd Coleman, VP and Creative Director of KingsIsle Entertainment. “We will continue our work to add exciting new content and features to Wizard101 through the launch of our next world, Celestia, and well beyond.”
As a small gesture of thanks to the wonderful denizens of Wizard City, KingsIsle Entertainment is offering every Wizard a complementary “Party Pack” and encouraging them to throw a grand celebration welcoming Wizard #10,000,001 to the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. Each Party Pack will contain a decorative banner, balloons, a festive party hat and a celebratory cake.
To receive this FREE item set, simply go to www.wizard101.com/promo and enter the word PARTYPACK.
In Wizard101, kids and families enter the magical world of Wizard City as student Wizards setting out to hone their Wizard skills, cast spells and summon powerful creatures to fight evil forces. The characters and worlds of Wizard101 are influenced by literature, history and pop culture, giving the game a depth and quality appreciated by families and players of all ages.
Wizard101 can be downloaded at www.Wizard101.com. Players seeking access to premium areas and items may purchase pre-paid cards in participating stores or purchase a subscription or Crowns online. New worlds, activities, pets and Wizard clothing are periodically added to the game, creating an ever-changing world with new things to see and do.


About KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc.

KingsIsle Entertainment is a developer and publisher that specializes in creating high-quality massively multiplayer online games which provide entertainment for the entire family. Wizard101, KingsIsle’s flagship property, has received the Parent Tested Parent Approved Media Seal of Approval in 2009 and has been recognized by the National Parenting Publications Awards. Wizard101 was named the #1 Best Family/All Age Game by Beckett Massive Gamer Magazine, and the #1 Best Family Game by MMORPG.com for 2009. The company’s experienced and creative team is raising the bar in online entertainment by offering products with rich storylines, friendly navigation, top-quality art and fully-voiced characters. KingsIsle is headquartered in Plano, Texas, and has a development studio in Austin, Texas. For more information, please visit www.kingsisle.com.



KingsIsle and Wizard101 are trademarks or registered trademarks of KingsIsle Entertainment Inc.

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If you want to join the game you can sign up using my friend code by clicking the following link: Sign up to Join Wizard101

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Celestia leaks



A Central member posted about a Beckett magazine article that explains the story line behind Celestia and how we are to get there and a lot of blogs have re-buzzed that same post. I know, I know :( you want to read about the cool new stuff here. In my defense I sent an interview proposal to KingIsle asking them virtually all of the same questions and the interview was not granted. Perhaps because they were simultaneously releasing to Beckett and wanted to do that first or perhaps because they don't want just anyone asking questions and spoiling the secrets of the game. Either way it seems we're stuck with speculation and trolling the net for clues.

After a number of people quoted from the post on Central which posted about the Beckett article I didn't want to very well copy what they had done so I'll refer you to the original post for that.

Here's my original interview for KingIsle I hoped would be answered on your behalf. Next time I promise I'll make a cardboard sign that says: "Will work for answers" and I'll stand on the street corner until someone stops and answers my questions. (Hopefully the scrubbing and lawn mowing will be minimal.)

So I'm going to go ahead and answer my own questions... via an interview with myself.

Interview:

So, Vale. Thanks for taking the time to interview with us at Valerian's School.

"Np, dude. I always do my best to make my fans happy. Life with unanswered questions is like an oreo without the creamy filling and I don't want you to have to go wandering the spiral all by yourself looking for the answers to life the universe and everything."

So what is the answer to life the universe and everything?
"42 of course. You should know that! Maybe you'd better ask me specifics about Celestia since that's what everyone wants to know."

Do you have to be done GH to get to Celestia?
"Well, I'd like to answer that but then people might actually finish GH and it's a rite of passage for all wizards to start but not finish it I think. You have to have at least one of your wizards in the Vigrid Roughlands or you're not with the in-crowd. But farming the ravens is fun and profitable so maybe you should think about finishing it some day."

Hmm. Vale, Will Celestia prep quests include all worlds like the obscidian chest quest did?
(Will Brisk Breeze tower or Knowledge Keepers tower be part of the required quests?)

"What a good question Vale. Hmm, from what I've read in Beckett, the source of all good scoups on Wizard Info... (no I don't get paid for saying that) Signs point to yes but it sounds like mostly the wonderful world of Marleybone, you know, everyone's favorite. Personally, I'm still having nightmares about Kensington but that's beside the point."

Valerian, will those that have done GH already miss out on XP from GH versus those who have yet to complete GH after the level cap is raised?
"'Undoubtedly', wait, let me shake the 8ball again. 'The answer is unclear, try again'. Shaking... 'Not likely'. Clear enough? Let's move on. Next question."

Will Grand Masters be given credit in the form of a stat (accuracy, training point, spell to use power pip with other school spell) or title to indicate their age in wizard years?
"Another excellent question Vale. I'm quite sure we didn't think of that yet in the context in which you are thinking of it. Let me be perfectly clear... when I set out to answer this question I wanted to to be clear with the people. You have to know what you are about to do and set your mind to it and just do what's right. That's what I set out to do, that's what the people expect and that's what I'm going to do. And we intend to put some reasonable regulations around that problem and solve it once and for all with a solution everyone is happy with and at a time when it makes the most sense to do so. So be expecting something to happen at a time that's appropriate with a solution that solves the basic issues that lead to this problem in a way that is fair and equitable for all involved even if it's not everything you want, or conversely maybe more than what you're looking for. If you look at what we're working with you'll be pleased with the outcome."

Wow, ok...? I forsee a political career in your future.

Moving on... Vale, is the list of possible pet attributes inherited randomly in a mix, if not, is there a way to nudge the outcome toward one species/attribute or another?

"Thanks for posing an easier question. That's for me to know and for you to find out. Nuff said..."

Ooooo K?
Is there anything you can do to nudge your pet toward unlocking an ultra-rare talent?

"Another great question. It would seem that way, but you'll have to do more testing and find out yourself after using up all your carefully farmed and purchased pet snacks. Why are you trying to get me to give you answers to things that you could figure out for yourself by playing in the pet pavilion another 500 hours? Wow, you're a lazy one aren't you?"

Well, yes, actually, but... anyway, let's get on with the interview:
Can you give our readers an idea of what the Astral schools will offer?
Are they fully independent lines of spell schools or are they suplimentary to the existing schools?

"42"

But our readers want to know something more specific than that...
"Buy a magazine about Pokemon for more info on Wizard101.  If you build it, they will come.  Exterminate, exterminate... When in doubt use fire elf.  Darmock and Gilaad at Tenagra. If I'm not back in 5 minutes, just wait longer. I reject your reality and substitute my own. Wax on wax off..."

I'll skip the next question on my list which was: "Are you totally insane," and move on to the next one.
Are there any undiscovered instances or towers that you think nobody knows about yet that are live on the system? If there is you don't need to give away the secret of where but inquiring minds want to know!

"Well many people don't know about the knowledge keepers tower. But seriously, what kind of question is that? After you have finished every quest and tried every doorway after raising every flag, tipping over all milk bottles and otherwise doing everything humanly possible to offend every possible boss in the spiral then I'll answer your question."

Well Valerian, thanks for the interview... I guess.
"No problem Vale. Always happy to give curious minds of Valerian's School some teaser info to chew on."


LOL. Did you get as much out of that as I did? :D
To help you get a little more here's the post on central detailing the article in Beckett mag. post on central
Come back soon. Hopefully we'll learn something eventually.

Vale

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Minor Game Bugs

I've noticed lately that some spells that used to work or never worked have some issues. They're not show stoppers but I just want to pass along a fix request on behalf of my readers.

Elemental trap no longer picks up when you convert to fire from ice.

The cloak spell enhancement produces a spell that appears to cast but does nothing but sit there and look mysterious. (doesn't seem to matter which item, blade or shield)

Crafted balance blades etc, no longer work.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

School's In Session



In honor of summer school at Valerian's School we are holding a contest. Post your ideas for Wizard101. Each week we'll post the top ideas and let you vote on them.

The prizes are to be determined but I think we can find something interesting to give away. The ideas will be forwarded to Wizard101. Who knows maybe your idea will be the next one to make it into the game.

I'd like to propose two of my ideas which are not part of the contest...

1) A death school spell that a death wizard casts on themselves. It could be called "the black spot". For the next round if anyone on the opposing team kills you, they die instead, no matter how much health or shielding they have.

2) An ice school spell that freezes a player like the opening part of the frost bite spell and places a ice trap on them. They stay frozen for one turn. If a hard hitting ice spell is used while they're frozen it cracks any shields they have and does full damage.

Anyway these are just some ideas to get you started on your own.

Enjoy!
Valerian Nighbringer

p.s. If you hate getting chain stunned in arena please comment on our Arena 4v4 post below.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

KingIsle has addressed the missing items issue

Thank you for your patience. We have researched last weekend’s operational issues and gone to great lengths to resolve them.

We have identified all characters that were affected and will soon be initiating a reimbursement process for all lost items. We believe this will resolve all outstanding character issues, and in the case that we are not able to exactly match any data that was lost, we will err on the side of caution and offer Crowns as compensation to both paying customers and to our Free to Play users who were affected.

We hope and trust you will find this to be a satisfactory resolution, and will continue to play and enjoy Wizard101.

On behalf of KingsIsle, please accept our sincere apology for this service interruption and know that we are doing everything we can to ensure that it never happens again. We value your time and continued support of our game, and hope that you and your family will continue to be a part of the growing Wizard101 community.

Thank you,
J. Todd Coleman
Director, Wizard101
KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Arena 4v4

The other day my friends and I played some 4v4 in arena. Or let me rephrase that, our opponents played and we watched. Let me know if you've experienced this...


Look at all those pips that can never be used :(

Note the first two on the other team have no pips because of double stunning every pass.


And for the finish the opposing team had their other characters watching from the sidelines to rub it in. Note the "GG Suckers" comment. Well, that's what we were I guess. Six matches and six chain stuns. One would have to be a sucker to lose 48 points in a night and keep trying. We even tried preparing for chain stunning by carrying 6 stun blocks each one out of the 6 attempts we got first cast and were able to stun block two people but with the double stun each pass there was nothing to be done.

How many of you have experienced this in 4v4 and 3v3? In 2v2 and 1v1 it's less problematic and more is based on skill, like a chess match.

I am hoping you will help me with a "Chain Letter" to let King Isle know that you would like a change from chain stunning in arena.

If you are willing to help, simply post your comment to this post and I will include it, after a couple days of accumulated posts to King Isle and we'll get some signatures and comments from other bloggers to add to the letter.

The beginning of the letter will be as follows:

"We the players of Wizard101 pvp respectfully request a new feature for pvp that will eliminate the ability or provide compensation for chain stunning. We believe despite the existence of stun shields, that there is no possible means of defending against chain stunning against teams with two or three stun-all-capable players particularly with second cast. Even with first cast there's scant opportunity to employ double stun shields. We would like to request a feature to prevent this behavior entirely. We believe the ability to stun players fully turn after turn does not represent skill nor the spirit of fair play.

We propose the following possibilities that could address this issue.

1) A team that chain stuns will forfeit all their points and all tickets for the round to the stunned team.

or

2) A stun block that is reflective and after the first stun stuns the other team if they cast a second stun on top of the stun block

or

3) Make stun-alls cost more pips

or

4) Reduce accuracy on stun-all

or

5) Make stun-all cost health

or

6) Make stun-all only able to be cast one time

or

7) Make it so chain stunning makes you wait 5 minutes before returning to arena

or

8) Make chain stunning a reportable and eventually ban-able offense

The former ideas are simply ideas and may not encompass every means of addressing the epidemic of chain stunning.

Those of us who have added our comments below do applaud you for the amazing experience that is arena and thank you for the great enjoyment we get from being able to match wits with our fellow players. We do hope you will find a way to make arena even more fun and allow us a turn or two at least in which to employ our spells in a duel.

Sincerely,

Your loyal Wizard 101 fans."


Monday, June 7, 2010

Great Gobbler Giveaway Winners and Prizes


The following users have won the Great Gobbler Giveaway

Jared Frostbreeze
- For having WAY more posts than anyone else

Heather Raven
- Good tip

Adi
- Good tip

Kestrel Shadowthistle
- Good tip

Michael
- New subscriber

Consolation prizes (codes for miscellaneous things) are being awarded to:
Jordan L
- Good tip

Macaroni Man
- best follower profile picture

Winners: Please post a comment including your email address. I will intercept the posts and verify your username and email you your codes.

p.s. I had originally intended to have our readers vote on the best tip however we ended up having enough gobblers for most of the good tips that came in and and we were running behind schedule on settling the winners so I took the top prolific tippers and made the executive decision. Jared had the most overall tip submissions and most posts so he covered his bases! :) Good work Jared!

An honorary Gobbler pet is being awarded to Megan who noted in her friend interview from a long time ago noted that she hoped pets would be able to run around in our homes. Well, sometimes awesome ideas do come true! Be the next person to get your idea into the game by posting a comment or thought. If KingIsle puts your idea into the game I'll personally request a special reward for you! Keep up the good work readers. :)

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Great Gobbler Giveaway

Winners of Wizard101's Great Gobbler Giveaway are being decided tonight!

Check back Monday to see who won!

Valerian Nightbringer

Friday, June 4, 2010

Celestia Build up and Snack Pack Update Delayed

Rumors have been building around the spiral that Celestia pre quests will be released later this month. So keep your eye out for new quests over the next few weeks!

Here's a sneak peek at another character you may bump into in Celestia.


With such a long maintenance window the other day some of us were expecting some additional game features to come out. Hopefully they were taking a snapshot of the wizard database for test realm :)

Wizard101 is releasing a healthy snack food update for pets that will give them a mega boost up to 50 XP per snack! The new snack pack costs crowns and will give 7 snacks out of the possible set of 15.

We will keep you posted on when the next update is coming,
Valerian

P.S.
Don't forget Valerian's School for Wayward Wizards Great Gobbler Giveaway is ending tonight at Midnight (Mountain Standard Time). There are 3 ways to win:
Sign up to follow the blog, post the best tip or post the most posts and see if you can land one of these unique pets!

Here is another Wizard 101 code for the first person that tries it. It won't work for anyone but the first wiz. Go to No comments:

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Mystery Update Tonight

A long Wizard101 update is taking place tonight to add new SUPER pet snacks and new crown gear.

Cody Skyrider is predicting (and he was right last time) that the Celestia Pre-quests will come out in the huge update tonight. I hope he's right. If so, my expectations are that they will have us do Brisk Breeze tower, maybe knowledge keepers, probably finish GH.

See you on tomorrow morning :)

Valerian

Great Gobbler codes Giveaway ends tomorrow night at midnight Mountain time. So get your last tips and most prolific poster entries and sign up to officially follow the blog. Your last chance to win is Friday so make it count!