That Beckett Freelance Writing Gig

So you probably heard that I'm writing for Beckett now since I talked about it on a Ravenwood Radio podcast a month or so ago, but if you haven't: I'M WRITING FOR BECKETT'S MASSIVE ONLINE GAMER AND FUN ONLINE GAMES MAGAZINES NOW WOOTAGE! It's made me . . . busier-er. I've had to let a couple things slide as a result of it, but I'm very happy about it. SO happy that I've even decided to snap pictures of myself holding the magazine and plunk it on the Internet. (That's a scary thought.)

Here's me holding the Free-ing Wizard101 Article from the latest FOG.



I'm saying "whatchutalkinboutwillis?" in my mind. You can tell that by the lip.

It's been an interesting evolution for me and this magazine. Back when Wizard101 was first released I was quoted by Stephanie Morrow in her article "A Look at Wizard101: Gaming as a Family." I got pretty excited. Now that magazine is actually in a shadowbox above our family computer along with a signed picture of Malistaire.

Next I was interviewed for the magazine alongside Mythspent Youth and the Ravenwood Radio gang. We chatted about the community. It was awesome. I should probably shadowbox that magazine because being a part of the community is probably the most memorable thing to come out of this insane journey down Wizard101 land.

Finally I was contacted by the infamous Doug Kale. You may know him as Ironsplinter in game. Doug is over many many Beckett publications and is a player of Wizard101 himself. Doug asked me to freelance write a few articles on Wizard101 for them (props to those who recommended me, you know who you all are). I accepted!

And that is what has led me up to this point in life where I publish an embarrassing photo of me riding on a stuffed animal horse, showing my pride for this here Bella Sara article I wrote back to back with that Free-ing Wizard101 article up above.


PONY UP, Y'ALL! IT'S MANLY!

That was actually a very cool review to write on the Bella Sara site. My daughter's eyes jumping out of their sockets when I brought home a few packs of Bella Sara cards for the sake of research makes the sting of that embarrasing photo go away. :-)


Shout out to the PR peeps at Bella Sara. They were easy going when I contacted them. I wish them the best of luck. They've got a cool product full of positive vibes.

Yesterday we received our most recent MOG in the mail! WOOT!


It's a two-year anniversary Q&A with Leah Ruben . . . you know . . . Professor Falmea from those infamous producers letters? There's a really cool FULL PAGE picture of her that accompanies that article. Not many people will ever get a full page picture of themselves in a national magazine like that. It's well deserved. Congrats, Leah! Keep directing Wizard101 toward awesomeness!

I hope you guys are liking what you've been reading in Beckett's FOG and MOG. Of course, the big draw to those magazines for players isn't the words within, it's those free in-game item codes. ;-) Not to worry, within the pages of this most recent magazine you'll find a code for a Birthday Snack Pack! It's a pack of rank 8 and 9 snacks for your pet. YES!

Today I'm going to be talking to Ben, the PR guru for Kingsisle, about our next article. I have a feeling it's going to be one that you all will really enjoy reading!!

So thanks for putting up with my ugly mug today and as always . . .

Happy Dueling!

Thomas Lion"bolt" Will Be Famous Someday!

I don't know, but she seems pretty certain I'll be famous:



;-)

Thomas Lionbolt . . . representing for the *team friendly* guild on Free Realms.

Level 20 Brawler and now slowly working up the card duelist (level 7).

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Weekend + Rowan, Isaiah, and Moira enter Moo Shu!

You know, there's a certain ritual that happens around the office after a long weekend like this one. People will come into my office and eventually they'll ask the famous question, "So what did you do over the weekend?" They're mostly asking, not because they're curious as to how your weekend went, but because what they really want to do is blabber on about how awesome THEIR weekend was when I return the question. *smirk* Nah, they're good peeps for the most part. *hugs coworkers*

Anyway, as a gamer working with a majority of non-gamers it would be so foreign for me to tell "the full" truth. Here's how that conversation will probably go down:

"Oh yeah, well I got the lawn mowed, which it really needed, and I watched the kids on Friday while my wife worked. mm hmmm. Went to church. Got some awesome Mexican food. Made some killer Fish Tacos. You know, just kind of a regular weekend. Played some games. et cetera."

When in reality to another gamer, I would probably say something more like this:

"OH, yeah I totally hit 20th level in Free Realms on my Brawler and got my epic weapon, THE RUMBLER! IT'S AWESOME! AND, I hit 19th level in the EQ2 Extended Beta with my supa sweet Sorcerer character. Saturday night I finished off a good chunk of Final Fantasy 13 . . . I'm in Chapter 11 so I think I'm getting closer to the end (it's taken HOURS upon HOURS to get to this point). Sunday night my static group WASTED the Cerulean Hills in Dungeons and Dragons Online. The best part was this whole time my son kept dragging me off to Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 to help him out, and he ended up beating SMG1 for a second time! That kid is INSANELY AWESOME! And last but not least, my wife and I took three characters out of Marleybone and into Mooshu in Wizard101! WOOTSHU!"

I don't know. Maybe I'll try the second version with the office people this week and see how it goes over. ;-)

So, YES, this is the real meat of my message here, not office talk.

WE MADE IT TO MOOSHU Y'ALL!



That there is the crew that took Meowiarty down last night. Destiny Mistshard came to help us out with the win (check out that hybrid she's sporting . . . that's a baby from Mister Brandy right there *tear*). It was a good time for sure!

Many of you may not be familiar with Moira in that picture. My wife decided to give the death school a shot and started leveling Moira on the side to catch up with Rowan and Isaiah, our myth wizards. She did it, and now we have three characters steadily moving toward end game in preparation of Celestia. I don't know if we'll get these characters to 50th by the time Celestia is released, but we're trying!

If we're successful that will make a "grand total" of 10 Grandmaster wizards between all of our accounts. WOOTS! (1 ice, fire, storm, and balance wizard. 2 life, 2 myth, and 2 death wizards.)

I love this game.

Anyway, I hope you're having an equally awesome weekend out there! So what did YOU do this weekend, my gamer buddy readers?!

Happy Dueling!

It's not going to be Justin Bieber . . .

YO! So I was reading the producer's letter in the recent newsletter, and it's a good one, once again. You should definitely read that! Here's a quick cut and paste that I just wanted to point out:

We're looking forward to getting more information out about the upcoming updates soon. I know... no fair, but I have to give our team of marketing sorcerers the first crack at announcing the really cool stuff! So stay tuned... I’ll be able to say a lot more in next month's letter. We appreciate your patience while we take the time to make Celestia the coolest world yet. Things are coming together, plans are becoming reality... but there is much more to be done.

Before that, though... we have an amazing special guest visiting the Spiral! I can't tell you who it is yet, but we’re thrilled about her visit! Keep your eyes peeled for news and updates coming soon!

One word of interest in that last paragraph . . . "her." AFAIK, Justin Bieber isn't a her . . .

I'M 'JUS SAYIN'!

OH, here's another great cut and paste from that article with my comments interspersed:

1- "Last (but certainly not least), we're trying to incorporate fixes to legacy issues or those little 'thorn in your side' issues."

I LIKE FIXES, and I definitely don't like thorns in my side. Every time I get a thorn, in my side, it's like "ow! Thorn in my side!" . . . continue, Leah . . .

2-"Ever sold an item you spent a whole bunch of crowns on?"

Yes. Yes, I have. No. No, it was not fun.

3- "We're going to make sure there is a confirmation for that (and that it's defaulted to “No”)."

WOOTS! (My kids will still find a way to sell it, but that's cool.)

4- "Tired of your Life Minion healing itself when it doesn't need to?"

Not really . . . I'm more tired of my Life Minion casting imp and breaking my traps.

5- "We know that stinks, so Minions are getting some love."

Awesome . . . but, seriously . . . make them forget imp would ya?

6- "Are dye costs breaking your bank?"

Not really . . . but I can see where you're going with that given the wayfinder scheme and all . . .

7- "We're reviewing those, too."

Cool.

8- "Is selling and buying one reagent at a time getting you down?"

Well, I don't know if I'd call it "getting me down" per se . . .

9- "Us too... so we're fixing it."

I like the way you're thinkin!

10- "This is just a taste of what's in development for the next few updates!"

Tastes of stuff is GREAT! I love going to the ice cream place and sampling all the chocolate stuff and then ordering vanilla. Just kind of throws 'em. I'm crazy like that.

Thanks for the cool producer's letter!

Happy Dueling!

New quest coming later this month!

Wow . . . ok, I'm not going to put the entire press release below because
I'm sure you'll see it elsewhere . . .

INSTEAD, I'm just going to cut and paste the really good stuff out of the
Press Release! Check this out:

~~~~~~~~~

*snip 2 years of awesomeness information*

To promote the launch of the new world, later this month KingsIsle will
launch a quest featuring one of the hottest teen icons on the planet. The
quest, which will introduce players to new underwater environments and
preview features of the upcoming Celestia expansion, will be available to
all players in the game.

*snip the rest of the stuff that's all about KI being awesome as well*

~~~~~~~~~

I hope it's Justin Beiber! XD (I'm thinking it's probably Taylor Swift, what
do you think?)

Happy Dueling!

Go Claim Those Birthday Present Transformations Today!

When you log in today, you should check your gift icon down there in the lower left! (I always have a gift icon showing myself because I have a backlog of gifts from playing Wizardblox.) Anyway, what you'll find in there is a ninja pig and a treant transformation potion from Kingsisle.

Check out the Ambrose realm in the Commons this morning LOL.


I have to say that the presents this year are already getting more awesome! We never got cool birthday transformations last year! All we got was a hat! (I bet you we get another hat tomorrow! I BETCHA!)

Be sure to click over to the Wizard101 News page and read about the birthday fun as it unfolds this month! September is going to be awesome! WOOT!

Happy Dueling!

My Answer to Falmea's Question last Friday

If you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, every Friday Falmea will be asking us all a question over on the Wizard101 Facebook page. This all started three weeks ago with this question:

Which Ravenwood Staff Member would you like to duel?

I did not answer that question because I did not care to answer that question. I'm not much of a duelist outside of the racetrack anyway. (My choice of course would be Dworgyn, duh.)

This feedback Friday, however, there was a much more interesting question to me:

If you could transform into ANY creature in game, what would it be (friend/foe/pet/mount... anything)?

OH! People had the most ridiculous answers (pure ridiculousness!) and they were all over the map, from heckhound to Malistaire. (15 of you people gave a *close* answer with "unicorn") Props to Maxden Jewers for his answer of giant bunny though . . .

Anyway, I am here to provide you all with the voice of clarity . . . the one true transformation that should be put into this game, like yesterday, is this (must be spoken in a death metal voice):

DEATH UNICORN!



I'd even settle for Death riding on a Unicorn



(Snagged that one from shirt.woot . . . hmmm, a T-shirt of that would be most drool worthy)

RAISE THE ROOF WITH YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE DEATH UNICORN! YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYIN'!

Happy Dueling!