Fixed Image From Previous Post!

Man, those turnovers just destroyed the Steelers. I don't know about you guys, but I thought it was a fun game to watch. Hope you all had a great Superbowl Sunday!

The Sunday Night Game team had a great time in DDO as well last night. We won Sentinels of Stormreach expansion in overtime. ;-)

Happy Dueling!

WOOT My first pixie!

Yay! I was so happy to see my new friend this morning. :-)



I was also happy to see that all of my nearby prickly bears picked up a "like" from it as well. Nice!

Now if I could just get that insect tablet . . .

*SMACKS HEAD* Here's something funny, after farming Manu Nirini long enough to get four fire salamanders, I decided to look up this insect tablet again. haha! Yup, I was farming for the Krok Insect Plaque instead of the Krok Insect Tablet, 'doh!!

Well, at least those fire salamanders I farmed had a few unknown talents in their petnome. *looks for silver lining* :)

sigh.

TO THE EMPEROR'S RETREAT!

Happy Dueling!

Psyched for the Game Today!

No no no . . . not this game where the Steelers destroy the Green Bay Packers.


(You might want to click that to enlarge it to truly witness the destruction there.)

But, YES! THIS GAME: Dungeons and Dragons Online! For us it's appropriately named, "The Sunday night game." Us? Yup, you may or may not have known this about me, but on and off for the past ten years or so, every Sunday night I play a game with some buddies of mine. Here's a quick summation of the past 10 years: Diablo, DiabloII, Dungeon Seige I and II, Guildwars and all its expansions, Neverwinter Nights 2, and now DDO, and check it out, we finished off a dungeon last week where we got to school a bunch of undead pirates and took out the necromancer's apprentice!


BOOM! He must be the Friendly Necromancer's apprentice since he uses ellipses . . . almost . . . as much as . . . I . . . do . . . .

After taking him down, we got to rush into a room full of gold where we could loot, loot, and loot some more!


It's like I'm Dirk the Daring in the final scene of Dragon's Lair.

Seriously, I love quests that have you ending up in a giant room full of gold. That's the best! I feel like Mr. Krabs in Atlantis Squarepantis where he sings about wishing he had sewed more pockets on to his pants when he woke up in the morning.

We're doing the Sentinels of Stormreach expansion over the next couple of weeks.


I mean, in a world where it's hard to choose between zombies and pirates, why not take the hybrid model? eh?

Speaking of hybrid models, take a look at this beauty I get to play alongside every Sunday night:



*whistles* Yeah, that's my friend Tony . . . .

If you're interested in reading more about our adventures, many of the recent ones are catalogued over on Tipa's blog under the DDO tag.

Happy Dueling!

Happy Birthday Amber Deathsong!

Just a quick note that it's Amber's real life birthday today!

YAY!

We're headed to a puppet show with a car load of kids. Puppet shows rock!



No time for a post this morning, but be sure to check out Feedback Friday and would someone PLEASE POST ON THAT THREAD THAT WE WANT A DEATH UNICORN ALREADY?!?!?!

What do I have to do to get a death unicorn in the game, KingsIsle? HUH?!?!

Happy Dueling!

Dating in Wizard101?

Hoooooboy,

This question from a reader has controversy written all over it:

So, I have a question. Recently I’ve seen a ton of “daters” on the game. And my friend who had an “online girlfriend” got reported and muted for about 2 days. So is it reportable to date on Wizzy101?

Ok . . . so listen . . . yeah, people do freaky things on Wizard101 sometimes, and when I hear about it, I just want to plug my ears and sing, "LALALALALALALALALALALA!!!" at the top of my lungs.

You all remember the reasons why someone would get muted/banned, right? No? Let's review . . . . From the terms of use:

" . . .any defamatory, indecent, obscene, harassing, violent or otherwise objectionable material . . ."

and

". . . solicit, provide or exchange any personal information, including but not limited to user names or passwords; (12) “stalk,” abuse or harass another user, or attempt to do any of the foregoing; or (13) engage in any other conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone’s use or enjoyment of the Site, or which, as determined by the Company, may harm the Company or users of the Site or expose them to liability. Without limiting any of the foregoing, you also agree to abide by any code of conduct applicable to the Site or any service available on the Site."

From the FAQ:

" . . . creative profanity (swearing around the filters), solicitation of usernames/passwords, predatory threats, racist comments and other such actions . . ."

So, to answer your question directly, No, you can't get banned for dating, but dang, this ain't a dating site, yo. I get that it's human nature, but by the nature of "dating," you're most likely going to exchange personal information, right? So, yeah . . . my recommendation is don't date over Wizard101. AND, you never really know who that creep might be on the other end of the cute and fun avatar. You are online, remember. Be safe. (Ditto had some good rules today.)

Just be friends and hang out with people here . . . must be why KingsIsle calls it Friendship Festival around Valentine's Day.

As for your friend . . . read between the lines . . . something else must be the reason why your friend was muted, and I'm guessing exchange of personal information would be the reason.

Yikes.

Happy Dueling!

Out with the Old Vines, in with the New Cactus!

Here's what my final haul for my Silver Trumpet Vine Garden looked like:


Not bad . . . not bad.

And now I think I'll try my hand at some Prickly Bear Cactus. :) PLANT OF THE DAY!!!


Let's see if I can get some of those mega snacks! I've put a Gnome and a "pile of sand" down by them since I know they like those. I also found out that I need to find a Krok Insect Tablet as well to add to the growth speed. KROK INSECT TABLET HOUSING ITEM OF THE DAY!! ;-)

So guess what? It's time for me to put Manu Narini in the Throne Room of Fire on farm status! I guess that also means a Fire Salamander pet or two in my future as well. ;-)


Looks like there are still a few talents to find on him over on Petnome as well. PET OF THE DAY!!!

Happy Dueling . . . OF THE DAY!!!!! ;-)

Celestia Housing Test Realm Redux

YO,

So there has been a lot of information sharing going on across the Wizard101 information super-highway, and I just want to point out a few of those and maybe discuss them a smidge.

First up is Kevin Battleblood's well written blog post. Kevin talks about the changes in the test realm that he finds pertinent: Floating pots and plants, petnomes, stun block, and gardening towers.

In particular I feel for Kevin (and all of us) in regards to the bugged petnome numbers. It's confusing enough to try and analyze pet abilities through a community site like Petnome, but a broken (or bugged) counting system really messes up trying to track these things . . . especially when already dealing with different generations of pets. I really hope that gets fixed.

Although I really liked the idea of gardening towers and getting more bang for your energy globe out of building your garden up instead of out, I personally never had a garden tower, so I won't miss this. *comfort* to those who will. :/

I liked Pyromancer Jonathon's review of the new Celestia crafted house. Although Jonathan mentions this is now the second house to have a dueling circle, he doesn't mention that this is the first house to have a dueling circle that doesn't require the purchase of crowns! Uber wife tells me that one of our characters already has everything she needs to craft one! Awesome.


If you're looking for a good list of ingredients that you'll need for this, I again refer you over to Battleblood's place. (Uber wife was all psyched that she could help Kevin out with a small error on the list. *giggle*)

For me, I just can't get over how much I really REALLY wanted an underwater house for Celestia ala Calypso's sunken ship. It's what I was hoping for. Dangit.

Of additional note: Stellarium got dumbed down. My video here, is no longer applicable, and I may take it down soon. Don't worry, all the other cheating bosses in the game are still there and cheating.

There have been a number of interesting posts over on Wizard101 Central about the new changes.

- Fierce Hounds have different appearances. (click!)
- Polar Cat gift card only gives one dragonblade now. (click!)
- Efreet is now a charm-class debuff instead of a damage-class debuff. (click!)
- Guide to the bosses in the Hand of Doom pack. (click!)
- Orthrus animation has changed. (click!)
- Can't use Gargantuan on Efreet. (click!)
- The let down on the new side quest in Grizzleheim. (click!)

For me, it's all about the Hand of Doom pack this time around. I love the new boss minions. It's just SUCH a cool new addition to be able to summon up one of these to help you out. I'm not all together thrilled that I get five or six junk cards with each pack I buy, but I do like where these minion cards are headed.

You know what I liked about casting the Lord Nightshade minion? He started with three power pips and crit on his vampire spell. A minion with a chance to crit is awesome.


Thumbs up KI for this addition! Just . . . PLEASE, I don't want any more junk cards. If you lowered the cost and gave me one minion card and no junk cards, I'd be happy. If you upped the cost and give me seven minion cards and no junk cards, I'd be happy. I just think this current method of giving me one or two good cards and junk that I have to sell off feels . . . old school . . . and if you're going old school, then I need a stick of gum with each purchase. ;-)

AND FINALLY, one last note before I let you go . . . the Indiana-Jones-esque Boulder rolling trick with the new small Celestia house? Epic! Just make the boulder roll more often or upon cue! (Like when I trip a switch or something) :-)


Happy Dueling!