Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Crafted Wands - Moonlight Ponies - Triple A game from Kingsisle?

Heya! I have few things I want to chat about today.

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Edward sent me a link over to Central where one of the topics at hand is crafted wands. It's an interesting idea for how someone would go about custom crafting a wand of their own.

Personally I think the first order of action really should be the ability to stitch your wands, but this is all stuff we've talked about before.

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I've had a couple questions about Moonlight Ponies crop up here and there. Basically the promotion to get a moonlight pony is now over. It involved subscribing to Beckett's Online Gamer Magazine during a certain promotional period. Most people read about it on Facebook or in their e-mail.

Hope you got yours!

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This last thing I have to share with you today is an interesting find on KingsIsle's website. If you take a look at their career's page, you'll see some of these longstanding jobs have a bit of a cosmetic wording change to them. (WHAT? You mean you guys don't haunt the career's page at KingsIsle's website? I guess I'm the only nerd out there who does that. *grin*)

To quote: "KingsIsle Entertainment is currently looking for a" (insert job title) "to work on an exciting new family-focused AAA MMO video game."

So, Triple A is an interesting video game term that's a bit esoteric in its meaning, but I gotta say that a Triple A game out of the door from KingsIsle would be amazing. It's a pretty bold statement that I can't wait to see come to fruition.

To me, Triple A from the get go like this means slick graphics, killer game play, huge budget, and high expectations from everyone (and the hardware to back it up). It seems like Wizard101 wasn't really meant to be the Triple A game it became. Wizard101 is Triple A now because it went BOOM!

If you've never read the Wizard101 Post-Mortem article, now would be a good time to catch up on it. Case in point, modular world building isn't building a Triple A game out the door. It's definitely part of the reason why Dragonspyre, Grizzleheim, and Celestia look so much better than the other worlds.

To add to all that, it's interesting to see that they are seeking a new producer with some heavy background experience. Those just don't come a dime a dozen. I'm interested to see who they add to their team (that availability has been up there for a couple months now btw).

So it's my belief that Wizard101 is going to be starting work on a new game (perhaps a third game?) where all the post-mortem issues of Wizard101 are addressed and perhaps they have a few new tricks up their sleeves with some new talent. I'd love to see a really visually stunning game from KingsIsle with moderately high graphics requirements. If I was to also draw an assumption, it would be that perhaps the second game is drawing closer? What do you think?

Either way, it looks like good things are just getting underway at KingsIsle!

Happy Dueling!

8 comments:

Victoria Spiritblossom said...

Actually I do look at their careers page really often. But seeing as I'm only fourteen, it just taunts me.

Travis emeraldspear said...

I actually did stare at the career jobs and hoping to work there someday :). OH and did you see an Ice Dragon on the slideshow?

Anonymous said...

is the moonlight pony permanent
what does it look like
does it look like the starlight pony
can we win it temporarily from bosses in game
in the future will there be a sunlight pony?

Fatal Exception said...

Thomas, no matter what, you'll always be "the most important person KingsIsle never hired."

How do you quantify "inspiration" on a resume?

Liam said...

I HAUNT THE CAREER PAGE
i used to look every day
now i only look once a week

Anonymous said...

It doesn't make any sense for KI to create a game with high graphics requirements as that would potentially take out a large cut of their players (not hardcore gamers with serious gaming rigs). Based on that, I expect to see the same level of graphics as Wizard101, perhaps tweaked a little bit.

potroast42 said...

I would be extremely excited to see a AAA MMO come from KingsIsle. Ideally, it would have extremely rich graphics that would take a pretty darn good system to run at maximum settings - not like RIFT's settings - as those are pushing it, but still far superior quality than wizard101 - basically I want to actually use my system more than 5% as I currently do (i7 920+GTX 570), and with the option of a low-quality renderer that would be similar to the current wizard101 load on a player's system. Kingsisle definitely has the proper momentum behind it to develop and launch a top-of-the-line MMO. They're catering to a very neglected audience and anything they do is sure to attract some players.

KingsIsle is the kind of place that I would love to work. Their focus on the family is absolutely amazing compared to the countless other developers that I have seen out there.

I'm not going to be leaving the KingsIsle-sphere any time soon. As much as the community has changed over the past years, the community of the game is like no other. I have branched off into other games recently and have been shocked by the insanely unfriendly communities. Yes, the games are amazing, but Wizard101 - and future KingsIsle games is a community that I find enjoyable and proud to be a part of. I don't see how a future "AAA" MMO from KingsIsle can be anything, but successful.

Stingite said...

@Victoria: haha! yeah. Maybe someday though, right?

@Travis: Yeah, they've got some cool original Wizard101 artwork there, right?

@anon: Moonlight pony is permanent. See next post in the blog for a picture. I'm not sure if you can get a rental of it or not. Yup there's a "sunshine" pony from what I understand.

@autumnaldusk: Aww! Thanks! It's been fun messing around with the prospect for sure.

@Liam: haha! IKR?!

@anonx2: I see what you're saying and I agree to an extent. I know they kind of pride themselves on how Wizard101 is lean enough to run on machines you wouldn't think could run it. It's a good point.

@Matthew: Good to see you again. Excellent reply. I agree that KI has something special that they should continue with for sure!