What is the defintion of Solicit?

Sigh . . . I got a letter from a reader who is also an unsatisfied customer of Wizard101, and I hesitate to share it since I'm mostly upbeat and happy around here, but I'm going to only provide the first paragraph because I need to let you guys know AGAIN that it's a really bad idea to share your passwords:

Dear Friendly Necromancer,
Recently my sister had her Wizard 101 account banned based on supposed violation of the Solicitation of Personal Information clause in Wizard 101's Terms of Use. When my father requested proof of her supposed solicitation, Mr. Lincoln responded only with statements showing that my sister provided (NOT solicited) information to another player. Since my sister did nothing to violate the Terms of Use, she should not have been banned, but they just won't listen to anybody or what we say, and their almost acting like little kids right now. They were voted the best family MMO of 2009? It made sense at first, but not anymore.

Since this really never asked a question for me, I'm going to ask it for them . . . what is the legal definition of "solicit" as it applies here? Because that's really what's going on here with this complaint. I tried to warn you guys last week, do NOT give out your passwords, it's a really bad idea because they will ban you. Now you've seen the truth of the matter through this family's experience.

It's very sad. I think that this family probably had a really good time playing this game together and now one of the players is not on the same page as everyone else, and they would have to start over at level 1. All the time invested in building a character and playing through this storyline is now lost. The joy is now killed. What does that do to a family? Well, it makes them mad!

I bet that daughter feels pretty bad about leaking her password and the rest of the family wants to jump to her defense, but really is solicit merely a synonym for "ask" or is it something more? Well, I looked up a few legal things and the legal definition of solicit is as thus: "Urgent request, plea, or entreaty; enticing, asking. The criminal offense of urging someone to commit an unlawful act."

Where I get stuck here is "enticing" and "urging someone to commit." This is why I think their interpretation of solicit is solid and why they ban both parties. If you say to someone "my password is XXXXXXXXXX right?" (as the daughter of the family did) Then are you enticing someone to commit the act of logging into an account that is not theirs?

I think in this world of identity theft, you all should get in the habit of protecting your information.

Now, I know that this is not the terms of use, but every time you log in there is also a very blatant warning on the patcher:



That there does NOT say "solicit" or even "ask" . . . that says "give."

SO TO THE REST OF YOU . . . PLEASE THINK TWICE ABOUT KILLING THE GAME FOR YOUR FAMILY BY GIVING OUT YOUR PASSWORD!

Despite this, the rest of the story is that Kingsisle refunded them $60 for that account (which they had only recently renewed).

What do my readers think? Does giving your password to someone fulfil the legal definition of "solicit"? Or is it a stretch? Is the warning in the patcher legally binding and how do you think Kingsisle should have reacted in this situation?

Finally, Kingsisle finishes their terms of use by saying, "We may suspend or terminate your account for any failure to comply with these Terms of Use, any terms related to any service offered through the Site or for any reason whatsoever, or for no reason."

If it was me, I'd approach them in a more humbled manner . . . something where I tell Kingsisle that I've taken discipline of my daughter into my own hands and explain that this is a game my family plays together and perhaps show a bit of action on my part to teach my daughter that information sharing is against the rules . . . you know, instead of trying to educate Kingsisle on the meaning of their own terms of use. I don't know how they would react (it may not change a thing), but I'm going to believe that it would be better received.

/shrug

Let me give you an example from my life. When I was a stupid teenager, I got caught by the police throwing water balloons over a bridge onto oncoming traffic with a bunch of kids that I didn't normally hang out with, and I ended up having to go to court on a charge of littering. My mother stood by my side and told the judge that she was going to be working me overtime at home, that I would be paying the large fine, and that she wasn't going to let me hang around those kids ever again. And she meant it. The judge had some mercy and didn't make me do any community service time, and I think that happened largely because my mother showed some action on her part. The other kids didn't have a cool mom who knew how to talk to the judge and tell him what he wanted to hear. Yeah, that was a really sucky summer for me, but at least I didn't have to wear orange and pick up garbage with the juvies. Had she tried to argue to the judge about the definition of littering, well maybe the judge would have argued the defintion of attempted manslaughter since you know, a balloon exploding on a car window could cause someone to overcorrect their car, crash, and die.

Think about it. Your words and actions are powerful.

Happy Dueling!

Tower of War?

Question from Silverheart! I haven't had a question from Silverheart in a while:

HI friendly I have 2 questions
1 my main Alyssa just got to the Tower of war her minion is useless at this point she has over 2200 health over 300 mana a deck split half and half between damage and heal what i want to know is what should i exspect and can I solo this in under an hour?
2 I am duoing the game with my best friend we are both level 6 i'm balance and she is life I want to do myth for the earthquake but she is thinking storm I disagree because it would take the pips off of my storm atacks once I get hydra and spectral blast what school should she do to benfit us most through the spiral?

Tower of War, eh? I should warn you I'm not feeling that smart today (might be needing more sleep or something).

Well I decided to go run this duo with Kyle and Amber to reacquaint myself with this tower. The Tower of War is the tower where you'll find Helina Warhawk in the Plaza of Conquests in Dragonspyre. We all have our heads on straight where this tower is now, right?


I had to research where this tower even was again because it's been so long. /shrug

Ok so the Tower of War is a seven layer dip of a tower. Man I love seven layer dip.

level 1 - Helina herself is here
level 2 - Fire mobs with around 1000 health
level 3 - Death mobs (banshees and stuff) with around 900 health
level 4 - Fire mobs (lavamen) with around 1000 health
level 5 - Balance mobs (silver sentinels methinks) with circa 1300 health
level 6 - Death mobbies (scarecrows) with around 1150 health
level 7 - Book!


This took the Amber and Kyle team a little under 20 minutes to complete and Tempest was used heavily.

We all acquainted with the Tower of War now my friends?


Solo? Yeah I'd look at finishing that in 40 minutes . . . maybe less depending on how well timed your heals and kills are. Shouldn't be too bad for you.

ok, time for your second question.

Let me get this straight: you have a life primary and a balance primary. You need to know secondaries, and you want to know if I agree with you on going myth for your secondary.

I imagine the balance wizard is going to be doing most of the damage in the fights, and the life wizard is going to play more of a support role for you two by keeping you guys alive. Therefore, I'm going to suggest your life friend go with death as a secondary up to feint and then wherever she wants from there. That spell is going to help a lot with killing stuff since you're both a little on the light side as damage goes. I'm also going to suggest you not go myth, but instead go one of the elemental routes since you're doing most of the damage. Maybe storm up to the blade, fire up to the trap, and ice up to the tower shield. You'll have a ton of shields in your spell book too if you do that and can be a shielding MONSTER (at which point the life wizard won't have to worry about heals as much and can help with damage.)

. . . unless you guys are building a pvp team . . . then yes, at least one of you should go myth for earthquake. Otherwise, I just don't see a big need for that spell.

/shrug

Or just do what feels natural and fun, you know? There really is no magic formula there's just a few key spells that make the game easier (like feint)


I better just stop now. ;p

Happy Dueling!

Skeleton Jumpers!

Did you all get a chance to log on the test realm and try to break it the past few days?

I logged on the first day and it was a riot. I was surfing Central and found this video from Blake, and I'm in a few of the shots with me and the evil twin. :-)



A lot of cool wizards dropped by that realm: Olivia, Jester, Tara from West Karana, Cassandra G., Blaze Mistshard, Blake, Fallon from Diary of a Wizard, etc. etc. (sorry if I missed ya)

So yeah, I spent the first part of the party rocking the santa suit with a headdress and then shifted to gobbler form. LOL. Then the jumping started. I love this picture because it looks like we're forming a gobbler cheerleader formation.


After that we transformed into skeletons and our evil plot unfolded.



Yes, we were jumping from area to area gathering our skeleton jumper army with Cassandra G as our evil ring master. Blaze Mistshard did excellent with gathering the forces of skeleton jumpers around us!


So fun, until I got really tired of pressing the spacebar. BUT SERIOUSLY, I've never really held a Friendly Necromancer party, but when I do . . . skeleton jumping will be a part of it for sure now. :-)

My wife hopped on the test realm the next day for the party and although there was less of the skeleton jumping, she was collecting the CODE for free GOLD in the real realm.


I'll bet you a virtual hug that you just thought about going to try that code now on the website. ;-)

/hug

Thanks for the fun all!

Happy Dueling!

Level 50 rings, graphic glitches, Tumok, and Marek Thistlethorn?

Plethora of a questions from Ms. Beth:

hey friendly i have several questions for you i hope you can answer them all

1. i have a grandmaster life and balance and i was wondering where you can get other lvl 50 rings besides the gurtok i have seen someone wearing one

2. i saw a guy in the plaza of conquests that was helping me i saw he was wearing a very differant wand i couldnt figure out what it was and when i went to look on his stats their was nothing equiped as a wand so i asked him where did you get that staff and this was his reply "it is a glitch i got it from one of the npcs here is ds" and i ask whitch one and "replyed idk i forget" so i went to every npc in ds and the one it resembles most to is milos's in the antheum. is their a wand like that?

3.i was wondering if the boss in malistaire's lair really droped the earthwalker pet his name is tomuk gravelbeard in dragons maw?

4. what is the npc in the other side by the ice gurtok his name is marek idk what he is for?

and that is all exuse me for my spelling i just woke up :P

Whew.

Ok . . . *cracks knuckles* . . . let's DO THIS THING!

1- Ok, The Gurtok rings are awesome. But, yes, you do have a couple options besides the Gurtok rings available to you. First, I don't know if you've ever check Ironhawk's dragonspyre boss guide on Central for rings, but the rings he chose to include in his "best" list concentrate on hitpoints and mana being the best stats available.

So, for your Life wizard deep within the Labyrinth there is a boss called the Property Master. She has a ring called The Seal of the Steward that has 240 hitpoints and 180 mana (this beats the 227 hitpoints and 170 mana of the gurtok ring, but you sacrifice the +10 powerpip chance) What? No powerpip? Well, some are under the belief that if you play with a balance wizard who casts powerplay, then there really is no need to build powerpip chance and therefore you should steer away from powerpip chance because it's not needed. Personally, I like the gurtok rings because I like being self reliant.

For your balance wizard, The Hoarder drops a ring that is 240 health and 180 mana (which beats the 226 health and 170 mana of the gurtok ring, sacrificing the +10 powerpip chance once again).

Besides these rings, you also have the new rings from Briskbreeze tower. Be sure to check the guide here and scroll down to the rewards for finishing the tower.

For your life wizard, that would give you a ring with +237 hitpoints, +10 powerpip, and +5 damage. (In comparison to the Gurtok ring: you lose the mana, but gain the damage). The same for your balance wizard . . . lose the mana, gain the damage.

Since most level 50 players have huge amounts of mana anyway, most don't see this as a bad alternative to the gurtok rings.

2- There's a horribly dismissive and yet funny saying in the gaming world. It was coined originally by people who would say their guild had defeated a raid boss and then not supply a picture of said defeating on their guild website. This phrase is, "screenshot or it didn't happen." People started using this phrase for everything. It kind of became a joke. So . . . um . . . screenshot or it didn't happen, Beth. :p

So it looked a bit like this, eh?


Hmmm, I don't know if I've ever seen a staff quite like that. I'll leave this one up to the readers of my blog. Please post if you've seen a staff like that on someone in game.

3- Tumok Gravelbeard is an interesting boss. Nice call on pointing him out. Tumok has a bizarre loot table where he's said to drop high level items from any number of Dragonspyre bosses. He's kind of like a second chance chest for all of the bosses that people farm for hats and boots (like my pal Yeva Spiderkeeper). I tried to ask Greyrose about this one for you, but I think I expended my golden loot question ticket for yesterday's question about Crown Clothes . . . KI just isn't going to go poking into the guts of the game for us about every little thing.

SO, I'm going to say that the rumor is probably right. There probably is a chance to get that pet from Tumok, but verifying that rumor without KI poking into the guts of the game is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Since Tumok's loot table is so large, your chances of getting a rare pet are diminished even more than what they normally would be. If you do happen to get an earthwalker pet from Tumok, you are one lucky sucker. I'd screenshot it, or it didn't happen. :p

4- Marek Thistlethorn! I remember first noticing him when the hard version of Malistaire was in place. I was thinking at the time that perhaps he was associated with crafting or maybe he was a key component for defeating the hard version of Malistaire . . . especially since he was surrounded by lava lilies. Wikia says that Marek is inactive. Central says he's inactive (but people are trying to unravel the mystery). I have no idea.

He's holding one of those staffs like Milos, isn't he?


It kind of reminds me of Sir Reginald Baxby, the zebra. I've talked about him before. Maybe this is kind of the same thing.

Whew . . . thanks for all the hard questions, Beth. That was intimidating.

Happy Dueling!

Do original crown gear clothes still drop?

I have a question here from Luke Fireblade:

I know you have a lot of questions to answer so ill make mine quick. I am a level 50 pyromancer and I've been looking for the original crown gear....
is there anyway to get it???? i know that for each level before grandmaster they give out other new crown gear pieces is there anyway to get that again?????
You rock!!!!! and maybe one day we can meet on wizard101!
thanks so much for tacking the time to read this email! Happy New Year!!!

Well, I want you to know that I went above and beyond for you Luke. Well, ok, the people at Kingsisle went above and beyond for you. Sometimes you get lucky and today is your day. They double checked the guts of the game for all those who really want to know if original crown gear drops anymore (that is definitely not something that they would commonly do). AND THE ANSWER IS . . . no.

Sorry. :/ Here's your official quote from Kingsisle, "The retired Crowns gear is just that: retired. It is not available as a drop from any creature in the Spiral, and while you may see a few Wizards with those older items, they are no longer available to be won or purchased."

So, anyone who says that it does still drop in the game is mistaken. They don't drop anymore. period. The *new* crown gear however *DOES* drop in the game. I know that for a fact as I have had the crown shoes with tower shield (warded footwear) drop for me before.

Speaking of old crown gear . . . doooood . . . I'm so stoked to have my wife's characters hit level 35. They are all just one or two levels away from getting the uber awesome old crown gear that you speak of. I pulled all that old stuff off of my old characters and put it in the shared bank for her. GO WIFE! Her balance character is going to rock the hydra from the original crown clothes gear . . . can't wait!

Best of luck and thanks for the question!

Happy Dueling!

Activate Goldenbeak Code!

I got my Beckett Massive Online Gamer Mag in the mail yesterday, and I was disappointed to see yet another "Game that Shall Not Be Named" cover picture. GASP! On the inside, however, were two articles by the awesomesauce of Stephanie Morrow. The first is a Deck Building Guide and the second is a run down of the new school housing.

I was also overjoyed to see that there was yet again an exclusive Wizard101 in-game Item, The Goldenbeak Sword.


I had some trouble at first getting this sword as the code was actually redeeming for the amaranthine staff (which I already owned); however, I contacted Greyrose and she got the ball rolling to fix the bugs. By the end of the day, I had my sword! Um, or should I say my wife's newbie Myth wizard had her sword.


From what Greyrose told me, I was only one of the four people who received the wrong item. So, that also means I was one of the first four to redeem my code! woot for the US Mail for making me speedy! Usually I'm one of the last to get this stuff because of them, but not this time!

Just as a side note, the sword does in fact make you jump out of your circle and into battle like all the other swords.


This pink sword is the new pink, so run out and buy your Beckett's today! (*insert sales pitch cliche'*)

:-)

Happy Dueling!

Log on to the Test Realm and Join the Party!

This just came across The Facebook Fan page about 30 minutes ago

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We've opened the Test Realm for just a couple of days, and we're asking you the players to test the limits! We want to see how many players can be in one area at a time, and the best way we can do that is to ask you to join us for a party at the Stormdrain tower! To learn how subscribers can log in to the test realm,... visit our Test Realm page at https://www.wizard101.com/game/testrealm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's no time on the party, but I'm logging on now for a few minutes (6:00 P.M. MST 12 January). Look for Thomas Lionblood!

Happy Dueling!