December 2014 KILive!

Gotta love that Ugly Christmas Sweater!



Happy Dueling!

November 2014 KI Live!

Leala, Julia, and I had a great time broadcasting yesterday! Thanks everyone who attended!

Harvest Hannah!!! (oh yeah, and new dungeons)

You know her . . . you love her . . . Ladies and Gentleman . . .

HARVEST HANNAH!

Girl gonna sell you some turkey hats!

In somewhat less exciting news ;p four new dungeons and a whole bunch of new features. Enjoy and read all about it in the Update Notes!!!

. . . I gotta get to level 100!!!

Happy Dueling

Out of the Shadows -- Shadow Magic!

Hey!

Things have been pretty quiet around here at TFN. I've been here though, just lurking in the shadows -- it's kind of what necromancers do. ;)

I've been sitting at level 94-95 in Wizard101 for what feels like a year. (Hold that thought *goes to check on how long it's been since writing about leveling in Wizard101*) Looks like the last I wrote about Thomas Lionblood dinging 93 in Wizard101 was back in June. WOW! Time flies.

I just wanted to let you know I was here and playing lately. In fact, I just dinged 96 this morning and got my hands on some new shadow magic.

Yup, just four more levels to go!

So, enough about me, let's talk KingsIsle! Everything you want to know about the upcoming updates to the game can be found here on the Test Realm notes page.

In a nutshell, you've got four new dungeons coming out, equipment sets, member benefits, combat idle, a ton of fixes and improvements and . . . the main reason I want to get to level 100 . . . Shadow-enhanced spells!



WOOT! (Special thanks to Leala for filming that spells video.)

As long as I'm sharing videos, you should also know there were two new bundles that hit the scene in Walmart and GameStop.

First up, the Mystic Fishing Bundle



Next, the Evergreen Bundle:



The Bundle videos were written, filmed and produced by yours truly. Big hand goes to Damon, our Video Guru for piecing it all together and putting on the polish, and also to TJ for getting the perfect voice over artists for the job.

Of course, the real applause needs to go to the staff that creates these awesome items, houses, pets, and all that.  The Wizard101 team did a really great job on all those, don't you think?

Anyway, every day there's something new going on at KingsIsle and we have a lot of fun stuff in the works for the fans.  December is ALWAYS a cool (as in frosty cold and awesome) month for our games.

I'll be slipping back into the shadows now. :)

I'll let you know if I ding again and get those Shadow-enhanced spells once they make their way to the live game.  That Castle Darkmoor looks tough and fun!!

Happy Dueling.

What the heck is going on?! A Friendly Rambling . . .

HEY!

It's been a while since I've written here on this wonderful blog, and I thought I'd just catch you all up on the life and times of The Friendly Necromancer while taking a look at what's going on in Wizard101 as well . . . STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS STYLE!  Rambling is the best, and I'm in kind of a rambling mood . . . so read on fellow rambling people!

Cool? Cool.

So, Wizard101.  You all know that game, right? Of course you do. You're a big time fan and all that jazz. This also means that you know all about the limited-time Five B.O.X.E.S. event that's going on. It's super hip right now.



We've been reading about all your thoughts at KingsIsle. We've seen your posts on Central. We've seen your tweets and your mind dumps on Facebook. We've got emails. BLOGPOSTS! We've seen your posts on our Message Boards, and we've even heard you talking about it in game.

Yup.

You know what was fun for us? Preparing for it to launch and kicking it off in game!  That was great! Leala and I prepared and schemed and thought about how it would be received in the Community, and y'all didn't disappoint us. :)

You know what else? Hallowe'en or Halloweenfest or whateveryouwanttocallitthistime . . . is also underway!  There are these new fish you can catch. YEAH. First time you've seen that at Halloween time, right?  You know it is!! . . . And all the standards are back too . . . Nosferabbit and the towers and all that . . . .

Yup.

You know what else else? We've got a new friend working with us at KingsIsle . . . a brand new employee!

Yup.

We'll have to save introductions for later, but you might have seen that "Social Media Coordinator" position that was on our job listings suddenly disappear from the list.  That's our new friend. :)

Yup Yup!

Do you know what new friends mean?  New newbie characters that you can play with your new friends.  To those ends, I'd love to introduce you all to Fred Trollfinder.

He's finding Trolls.  That's what Community Managers do. :) (Beware impersonators . . . if you see a Fred Trollfinder in game and think it's me, ask to see the KingsIsle Support badge.) I'm Level 7 and saving Firecat Alley yo.

Awesome.

I'll have to do another mind ramble like this for Pirate101 a little later. For now, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still alive and kicking and doing well. There's always TONS going on in the back channels of KingsIsle, and it doesn't always allow for me to speak as freely as I'd like to about upcoming features, but I really do hope you're all enjoying The Spiral lately and loving all things KingsIsle.

In the infamous words of Howard Jones, Things can only get better.

Happy dueling!

5 Things about me

I got tagged by Stephen Spiritcaller, Chrissy the Blesser, and Sheldon over Twitter for the 5 things meme.

1- Back in 2006? 2007? I got tagged in a meme that asked you to share 100 things about you. I typed up 75 or so things and gave up for two reasons. 1- dang it's hard to type out 100 things about yourself. 2- I read something somewhere that warned against doing the meme because you have the potential to give away important information about who you are -- Sure enough, I have protected my password plenty of times with little things that were on that list. I'm kind of glad I never published it.

2- I used to want to be a rockstar. Seriously. I self-published and made mass quantities of two tapes and one CD of music between 1990-1996 and wrote several unfinished/finished songs. The whole collection of music can be found on a series of 10 or so 90-minute tapes. I need to archive it all digitally some day, but the project seems daunting to me. I still write music from time to time.

3- I used to want to be a poet. I have a binder somewhere with several poems I wrote, but most of my poetry was better heard than read. Back around 1996 to sometime in the 2000's I started attending slams at a local book store and started winning free gift certificates at the slams. The most money I ever made as a poet was winning a college level poetry slam for a whopping $100. I rarely write poetry anymore, but someday I hope I can get back into it.

4- I was a Toastmaster for a year. If you ever want to get into public speaking, join this group. It will give you a lot of opportunities to listen to people speak and get you in front of other people. They ring a bell every time you say "um." They give you great advice. They give awards for doing a good job.  It's also pretty cheesy. I'm glad I did it, but I don't think I would want to go back and join the club a second time. The main reason I even joined was because an old acquaintance of my father talked me into it. My dad had so much respect for him, and the guy was pretty awesome. Both he and my father are passed away now. Both rocked the mic. Both were great story tellers.

5- I memorized the patterns for beating Pacman from the inside sleeve of the record "Pacman Fever" as a kid and used to be pretty awesome at the game because of it. Most of my friends seemed to die out before they even hit the apple level. I was able to get up to the ninth key level -- after you get to a point in Pacman, the game just starts giving you keys. I've forgotten all the patterns and I probably couldn't recreate the magic, but it was something as a kid that made me feel both nerdy and awesome at the same time.

I'm not going to nominate anyone because I'm pretty sure they've all been nominated! ;) Sorry it took so long for me to write this up.

Happy Dueling

My Ice Bucket Challenge

Hello all!

I posted my Ice Bucket challenge video on Twitter last week, but I'm going to put this here as well (as requested by my new co-worker ;)).

So, I was quite young when she died, but my grandmother actually died of ALS. As my sister describes her, "A beautiful redhead with blue eyes, she was a fun loving, hardworking, positive thinker from Hayworth, Yorkshire, England."

If I had the money, I'd donate as well, but I'm a broke friendly necromancer, and so I'm showing my support however I can. Thanks for the challenge, Alric, and thanks to all for the increased awareness.

Happy Dueling!

Where's the Nefarious Friendly?

Heya all! I just wanted to put up a quick note to everyone letting you know . . . I'm still here!  I've been ultra busy at work lately getting prepared for the Pirate101 Test Realm and assuming some new Wizard101 duties.  It's been an interesting past couple of months, and I'm gaining a lot of perspective from it all.

I'm hoping everyone is doing well and is excited about all the new stuff going on in the Pirate101 Test Realm. You get to scratch off a few more feature requests this release (Like Flag Stitching, Return to Boss, Team Up, other accessories than just eyepatches, and a ton of bug fixes) and there's the new mega tower that's just insane. hehe. It's definitely tuned to a 4-player group for the Nefarious Five encounter.  Bring friends or use Team Up.

Anyway, I'll be watching and listening wherever y'all talk. There's a lot going on every day right now in Wizard101 and Pirate101 . . . between sales events, Test Realm, parties, and everything. Whew.  It's busy times for Friendly at work.  Thanks for all the passion for KingsIsle games.

Happy Dueling

Bear Acuda and a Todd Pole *check*

Hey all!

Just a quick update.  I finished up the fishing quests earlier today in Grizzleheim.

At first I was kind of miffed at Haarek Silverscale for giving me his backside when we were talkin'.

But then I realized that a fisherman never breaks his gaze from the water.  You might miss that spacebar moment when you see your magic orb pop underneath the water! Although, to be honest I had already had my fill of bear snout in my face. Eek!

Them there be some teeth on that thing!  I can't believe I'm swimming in the same water that thing is in! Looks bitey.

I think for me personally (I know everyone has their own horror story about an extremely hard fish to catch) the hardest fish was that fish sandwich back in Cyclops Lane.

Someone somewhere said that the Fish Sandwich fish was making them crave an actual fish sandwich.  I agree.  Nom.

Probably the surprise catch for me was this pet egg in a treasure chest!

Now what kind of person puts an egg in a chest along with 1450 gold and some mistwood and throws it into the water? eh? (Actually, I can see putting the mistwood in a box and chucking it away.) In the past, I'd blame aliens, but . . . Ha! You know, it would be a funny quest to have Pirates in Pirate101 put things into treasure chests and throw them into the rivers of Grizzleheim.  Aliens? No . . . Pirates are the only explanation for crazy stuff like this sometimes! *nods*

I think the big takeaway lesson I learned from my fishing experience is how to target those little guys in the water.

What I do is imagine I have a big X on the back of my head. (Being a Community Manager, that's usually the case anyway . . . .) 

That's about the spot where the lure will end up every time I cast it out.  If the fish will be near that spot in 2 seconds, I cast out my line.

Word.

Anyway, fishing was a fun distraction, but I think it's time to get back to my adventures in Khyrsalis.

Happy Dueling!

Fishing Arrives in Wizard101!

That's right . . . the servers came back online around 5:00am US Central, and the joys of fishing in Wizard101 were opened to the world today. I took a quick look this morning, and it was pretty awesome to see a strange shift in the Commons! Instead of everyone standing or sitting around on their mounts, there was a frenzy of activity around and in the lake--catchin' up whoppers! How awesome is that?

I joined in the fun and caught my first icecuda fish. :)

. . . and promptly put him in my house.

Awwww! First fish cuteness! He'll love hanging out by my Krokotopian sacrifice table and sarcophagus collection!

Anyway, I'm glad to have been a very small part in the process of bringing you fishing, and I really hope you enjoy it. I've been tuning in to Twitter, Facebook, Central, and our own message boards, and I'm excited to hear more of your feedback now that fishing has gone live. :)

Happy Dueling!

Fishing! Wizard101's Test Realm is LIVE!

The official announcements have been made on Facebook and Twitter!

Click for Facebook Post
Click for Twitter Post

And here's the official Test Realm update notes!

I'm on a lunch break here at KingsIsle, and I'm hanging out in the Test Realm for a moment (oh man, I should have loaded the Test Realm for Wizard101 earlier . . . now I'm just waiting for game assets to finish downloading).  Just thought I'd give a shout out to the Wizard101 team and give them a big congratulations on beginning this new season of sport in Wizard101!

Now the real question . . . do I wish Pirate101 would have gotten a Fishing system before Wizard101?

No response. ;)

Looks to be a lot of fun from everything I've seen and heard!

Happy Dueling (and happy fish collecting)

Throwback Thursday -- Dragonspyre test server post Day 1

Heya all!

It's Thursday, so I thought I'd dig through the archives to see if I could find something interesting, and I came upon an interesting post back on January 10th, 2009 . . . it was when Dragonspyre was released on the Test Realm, and I had jumped in to get all the inside info!

Here's the original post. And here's a copy and paste:

~~

Post Title: Fell Asleep, but here's what I got (SPOILER)

~~

Ok,

I fell asleep while formatting this video of Dragonspyre. It's just freshly uploaded to youtube, so I hope it comes through. It's a spoiler, so don't watch it if you don't want to see me running around Dragonspyre on the test server. HAHA!

!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!

Don't watch this if you don't want to see Dragonspyre on the test server. I video taped and screenshot what I could for you all, my fantastic readers.



Peace.

Happy Dueling!

Now stop watching that and go have fun on the test server yourself! :-)

Ding 93 and the groaniest groan ever.

Hello readers of TFN!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and all is well. Leave me a note, tell me what you did in the wonderful world of The Spiral!

Me? I dinged 93 in Wizard101.

Yup, there I am hanging with Sidra So. . . . (head in the way) . . . Knife. OHHHH, yeah, it's Sidra Soaringknife from purple land, otherwise known as Tyrian Gorge.

But I believe all you Pirates call it Devilfish Hollow. yarr!

Hard to tell though until you spin it 180 and put a bunch of green and brown instead of purple and blue, but the similarities as you're wandering around in there is uncanny as far as I'm concerned!

That's magic for you! They look and enter completely different, but once you're inside you can't help but feel like you've seen this place before.  It's a special feeling that only people who play Wizard101 and Pirate101 BOTH get.  I call it fan-juju.  Ok, not really, but that word just came to my mind.  I GOTZ FAN-JUJU!

Anyway, I'm enjoying my time in Khrysalis! I like that so far it's focused less on "cheating bosses" and more on "unfair fights," meaning 3 vs. 1 or 4 vs. 1.  I'm absolutely sure I'm soon going to run into a harder fight, but quite honestly, Death wizards are built for soloing, and I've been doing that pretty good (no deaths yet).  I did run into a kind stranger though between level 92 and 93 and had a nice time questing with her until I went AFK and she zoomed ahead.  No worries though--that's just what happens.

So, who all groaned when they saw this awful play on words in the game?

If not, here you go, Brighteyes, enjoy:

OH MAN THAT WAS AWFUL!

Until next time . . . I hope this post brought you much fan-juju.

Happy Dueling, Brighteyes! 

Ding 92 and more feedback!

This happened!

Ding 92!

I really like the urgency in Khrysalis so far!  The chase scene in Last Wood with Poul BrokenSword and the urgency brought about by Dyvim being stung . . . those were really cool story enhancers that worked wonders with the pace for me.

Also got another comment, this time from good ol' taliesinharps, "I never depend on crit, but and I cant stress this enough resist and block are your best friends and a pet with any may cast heal. The crafted gear for death isnt great but some crowns gear might be useful, the preference is Hades gear but Water Works is good too (my storm is using that set)"

Nice! How are you doing these days, taliesinharps? I can see you're of the defensive mindset when it comes to this content.  Thanks!  I'll keep that in mind.  I'd call my current set up and deck . . . balanced? I keep hoping that I'll run into an upgraded piece of gear along my path here, but I know how it really works. hehe. The big bang items are with the bosses and they're usually not that easy to get . . . welcome to MMOs, eh?

Of course, you know me, I'd rather not even think about gear. ;)

Now if I was a heavy PvP'er . . .

Happy Dueling

Khrysalis continued and a string of band jokes

Hey!  I got a couple comments yesterday:

1. Chrissy The Blesser said, "I am back and playing again too but you got me beat already. My highest (Chrissy Lionrider) is only lvl 86. Perhaps I'll catch up. :D

Happy bug hunting. :D"

Oh nice! I have no doubt you'll overtake my levels as I march onward to 100, but it sounds like the gauntlet has been thrown! (I wish I had more time to play this game at work rather than simply think and talk about it.) Funny, when you said bug hunting, my first thought was not about insects...

Speaking of which, anybody else seen this disappearing bug act?

2. Alric Ravensinger said, "Put down the Wand and get ye tail back to Flotsam, sir. Jk, lol.

My only tip(s). Play with a friend, and maybe carry a May cast Fairy pet. But since you can heal/attack may not be as bad. Might wanna invest in some Crit [gear] and/or Resist [on the pet]."

Hehe, you know my heart is in Flotsam. :) Although I was dismayed to see Kan Po betraying me yesterday.

As far as gear and pets and whatnot . . . Well I actually do have that going for me, My Ninja Pig pet is a healing dynamo with good resists and I've got both Jade gear and Waterworks gear--I believe I'm wearing a strange combination of the two with a prepaid card piece thrown in for flavor. I found a deck I had set up that's working well enough, but from what I can tell Khrysalis 1 doesn't seem to be too difficult so far, which ain't a bad thing necessarily?

I've been doing a lot of this:

And this:

And this:

like riding an evil bicycle of death magic . . . and it's been pretty fun!

Aside from that . . . Oh writers . . . Look at you go . . .

Nice . . .

Happy Dueling!

Kicking up Khrysalis Again, Friends!

Hi!

How's everyone today?

I just wanted to leave a note to tell you all that I've started playing a bit of Wizard101 again, and Thomas Lionblood is now level 91 and climbing.

Don't you just hate that little sliver of red life left? 

Anyway, this is just a quick note that I'm back at it and happy to be playing some W I Z A R D 1 oh  1!

Feel free to leave any quick tips an tricks in a message on this post.  I'd love to hear from you all.

Happy Dueling

TFN's Throwback Thursday -- Trouble on Triton Avenue

Hello readers of TFN!

I just wanted to do a "Throwback Thursday" offering TFN style today.  Yesterday I was going through some old things on my blog and rediscovered a Fan Fiction I had been messing around with, and so I wanted to share it again with you all.

I think it's in need of a bit of editing, and honestly I know I wrote a couple more chapters to this, but I simply can't find them right now (. . . how I hate digging through old files on poorly labeled CDs--I'm my own worst enemy sometimes.)

Trouble on Triton Avenue is an unfinished story about one Thomas Lionblood who is thrown into a much greater plot thanks to a torn card in his deck.  I had about 10-11 chapters outlined at one time, but never finished the remaining parts of the story due to time constraints and other things.

From May 15th, 2010:

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

I've had a few requests to revisit my fan fiction from waaaaaay back. :-) Ok, I'll give you the next chapter. From what I have planned there will probably be four or five more chapters after this one, and then it'll be done. Thanks for making me revisit this story! It's been a long time in the making.

If you'd like to do some back reading on this story:

Chapter 1 - Ripped from the light
Chapter 2 - Leaves of Healing
Chapter 3 - Lexicons for Lionblood
Chapter 4 - On the Heels of Akilles

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

Chapter Five – Intimidation Tactics

Thomas pushed open the palatial door of Sgt. Akilles retreat and held the door open for Merle. The air in the room grew instantly stiff as the low rumble of Cyclops voices died in a breath. Sgt. Akilles looked quickly to his men and dismissed them all but one, who would remain by his side . . . It was obvious that Akilles knew two eyes were better than one when dealing with Merle.

Akilles’s titan sized hands clenched around his large mallet that he stomped in his hand from habit. He spit to the side and grumbled lowly. “So, I see the young wizard is back and you still have him on your leash. How’s that feel dog?”

Before Thomas could defend himself, which he was perfectly willing and able to do, Merle had tapped his staff onto the floor and spun it toward Akilles. A long, leathery strand of light snaked out from the tip of his staff and securely fastened itself around Akilles’ throat. Sparks flew and died in a moment to reveal that Merle had put a leash around Akilles’s neck. Merle took the end of the leash and handed it to a stunned Thomas. “You tell him how it feels, Private Akilles,” said Merle, extending the sting of the word “Private.”

Akilles appeared as completely stunned as Thomas at the old man’s bold actions.

Merle moved towards Akilles more briskly than anticipated, “Another taunt like that to the protector of Wizard City, and I’ll have you eating dog food next.” Akilles dropped his mallet and put his hand over his lips to guard his mouth. Akilles’s guard dropped his mallet and covered his mouth too, mimicking the actions of his leader.

Merle pulled up a chair to the table covered in fine fruit in front of Akilles, set his cane aside, and grabbed the nearest apple and took a bite. “Now that the intimidation part of this visit is over, let’s talk business.” Merle snapped his fingers and the leash and collar disappeared. “Pull up a chair, Akilles and Thomas.” Merle took another loud bite. “You know, they say that if you elongated the tone your mouth creates when you bite an apple for a period of 30 seconds, you’d completely lose your hearing.”

Both Thomas and Akilles lowered themselves slowly to their chairs around the table, still stunned and cautious.

“Yes,” continued Merle, “But there’s a kind of magic between the jaw and the ear that actually turns off the harshness of the sound when you bite so you don’t go deaf from your own eating. Now THAT’s magic my friends. That’s magic that every common beast has.” Merle pointed his mouth in the direction of Akilles’s guard and took another bite of the apple, and this time really crunched into it. A brisk wind picked up from the sound, and Akilles’ guard was blown back against the wall and knocked out.

“Did you really come here to talk about apples, Merle?” grunted Akilles. “Or did you . . .” Merle cut off Akilles sentence with another gracious bite of apple. Akilles looked even more humiliated for a moment.

“No, I didn’t, “slopped Merle as he twirled the apple in his hand. “I came to talk about magic and to ask your advice.”

Akilles laughed. “After humiliating me time and time again, you think I’m going to give you advice?” Merle laughed along with Akilles. Thomas laughed nervously too. The air in the room was so uncomfortable that it felt like being elevated above a pit of scorpions.

Merle suddenly stopped laughing and said, “yes, and I think you’ll see why you will.” Merle pointed over to Thomas, “show him the card, Thomas.”

Thomas pulled out the broken card and turned its back toward Akillies. “Harold Argelston noted that your symbol is on the back of this damaged card of mine, which he also said appeared to be pre-titans work.”

Akillies pushed himself quickly from the table. “Oh no!” said Akillies, “It’s Tumok Gravelbeard!” Akilles grabbed his jaw as if trying to hold it up from falling on the ground. “Tumok has returned . . . Tumok has returned . . .” he whimpered in disbelief.

“Get a hold of yourself, please, Akilles,” demanded Thomas. “Who is Tumok?”

“Tumok is the keyholder of the Great Spyre,” backed Akillies, unable to contain his outward expression of fear.

“The Great Spyre?” asked Thomas. Merle put a finger to Thomas’s mouth. Akilles was starting to give them the information they needed, and Merle knew he could explain the location to Thomas later.

“Tumok is the punisher of all myth magic,” further backed Akillies “ . . . and Tumok was enslaved by Malistaire himself”

Merle stared at the staggering Cyclops and dropped the core of his apple to the table. “Tumok,” whispered Merle to Thomas. “I knew Malistaire was in trouble with his emotions, but this could mean the end of Wizard City for us all. We must take action.”

Thomas raised himself from the table and nodded at Merle. Merle blinked his eyes, and they were quickly teleported from Akilles’s sanctum.

Reckless Frenzy in Wizard101?

From Seth, "Hello Friendly.

I asked this on Twitter a few weeks back but you probably didn't see it due to being so busy, so I might as well ask again while you still have time to answer it.

A while back I made some spell cards for Wizard101 based on the Pirate101 power card called Reckless Frenzy (allows the user to keep attacking the same target over and over again until they miss at the cost of 5% of their health). These are just some rough drafts that I whipped up, but I would like to know what you think of them and what might possibly happen in terms of advantages and disadvantages should they ever make their way into the actual game.

Thanks in advance."

Interesting idea, Seth! It would definitely require some balance from a Designer so that it wasn't overpowering for a 5 pip spell, but with the potential to do more than your average 5 pip spell, right? It's like a luck-based spell where you could alter your chances of being lucky with stacked buffs. 

That balance would probably include a set damage number since that isn't listed (unless this is an aura or a sun magic card?). Personally I'd like to see the starting chance to hit a little higher to begin with since I'll be losing 5% accuracy per cast, but that'd all have to be fleshed out in the balance of the spell. Might be cool to see the damage get higher and higher with each strike to make it so if you're lucky, you're really lucky and also so you don't have to blade 6 times to get full effectiveness. Then again, that is part of the problem with Myth class . . . you feel like you always have to double blade everything, which tends to get annoying.  Would players stack 6 or 7 blades on themselves with this?

Hmm.  It also would most likely increase the value of loading up personal class shields in your deck, as you'd probably want to stack those on yourself before casting. In a way it kind of sounds like a more metered wild bolt or insane bolt with guaranteed damage on both sides.

It definitely would be a sticky spell that would take players time to master, and I do like that you're trying to bring a Pirate101 mechanic to Wizard101! Very creative!

Happy Dueling

Why not your voice?

Anonymous asks, "Ok, a serious question. Why didn't pirate101 use your voice for One-eyed Jack, or at least gave us a "team Friendly" option so we could pick who's voice we'd hear?
Yes i know they hired professional voice actors and yes they did a great job. But that is the only thing i would change on the game because i think it's missing and it would not destroy the magic of the game (the illusion, the setting, or whatever you want to call it), it would be an improvement. A tongue-in-cheek moment that only we would get maybe, but it would be really great."

I actually pitched really hard to our sound team to please let me be the voice of Salty Ned, who gives away One-Eyed Jack's ruse.  I just thought it would have been exactly what you're talking about there -- a tongue-in-cheek moment that only people who knew me would get. Unfortunately they already had a guy, and he had a great pirate voice for the part. The check was cut, the voice had been approved, and the deal was done, so I was out of luck.

I have auditioned for voice parts in the past, but it just hasn't happened for me yet. YET! I'm on a mission to make that happen. hehe. :)

I do appreciate the support!  Thanks for cheering on Team Friendly!

Happy Dueling

Why is a watermelon green on the outside?

Anonymous asks, "Hi Friendly! I have a question that's bugging me for a while now: why are watermelons green on the outside?"

Um . . . Chlorophylls on the outside, flavanoids on the inside? I pirated that guess of a pigmented answer from here.

I did study botany for a year back in my collage days, but that stuff is just a really really distant memory now. Probably a better question for the people at whataboutwatermelon.com. ;)


(Why am I remembering something crazy I once said about watermelons on a Ravenwood Radio podcast? What was that?)

Happy Dueling

Friendly's Favorite Worlds?

Bailey asks, "What's your favorite W101/P101 world, and why?"

Hmm.  Well, the cop out answer is "whichever one I'm currently playing in!" I really do think I give a different answer every time I'm asked this question, but for today? Today I'm really feeling both of the Marleybone worlds!

In Wizard101 I've spent a ton of time running around Regent's Square exploring, and I always liked roaming the rooftops.  I like the rides on the Balloon Ships with Mr. Personality.  I totally love chasing down Meowiarty, and I'm intrigued by his entanglement with Malistaire.  I like the night time sky and the funky bobbies. . . . It's kind of funny because I fully understand that Marleybone is the most hated Wizard101 world there is, but strangely I really like it!

In Pirate101 players really DIG Marleybone (ruff ruff), you finally get to down two major Armada leaders, there are fireworks in the skyways, and the town environments are just really beautifully done (makes me pine for a remake of the Wizard101 Marleybone world looks -- although I doubt that'll ever happen). There's some really awesome plot points in the story that are tragic and well thought out . . . it's just a great world that I know Blind Mew the developer is proud of.  He should be!



And in both worlds of both games I just really like the steampunk vibe--that ALONE would escalate them to my favorite worlds. Steampunk is awesome.

How about you?  What are your favorite worlds and why?

Happy Dueling!

Favors?

Anonymous asks, "How many favors do I owe you?"

If you could just help me get this carrot out of my teeth, I think we'd be even!

Happy Dueling!

Gobbler Differences?

D.S. Devereaux asks, "What do you suppose would be the difference between the citizens of Gobblerton and the Gobblers of Colossus Boulevard? I suppose they'd send the fatter, more powerful gobblers to scope things out, but they could want leaner adventurer-types to claim the new kingdom. 

(Just in case, I'm not attempting/implying to abuse #1 of the off-list. Just awfully curious on what you think of the topic.)"

Hmmmm. You know, it does appear that perhaps as a Gobbler grows in size he also becomes part of the upper echelon of Gobblerdom, as demonstrated by the extreme size of the Gobbler King.

He's awesome, isn't he?  I love that Jeff Toney took him on as his avatar at KingsIsle.

I really have no idea about the back lore of the Gobblers, but I'm sure it all resides somewhere in someone's head as a vague memory from seven years ago . . . that's usually how all original Wizard City lore goes. With that said, I think your theorizing is probably spot on!

The raiding Gobblers on the street that are a bit leaner and stinkier.

And then there's the Prince who's as big as a Buffaloon.

I'm sure the citizens of Gobblerton come in all shapes and sizes and have their own backward fun.  In my mind I'm imagining a school like Wysteria, only made of Gobbler schools . . . School of Gaseous Cloud . . . School of Skeletal Food Remains . . . School of Taco Throwing . . .

It's certainly something that lends itself to Fan Fiction!

Happy Dueling

Game Focus For Friendly?

Duncan StormThief writes, "Hello Friendly, very kind of you to let us ask you questions. OK, I can only imagine how much time were you spending in wizard101 while you were blogging, and only blogging about it. Now when you work for KI do you have any time at all for wizard101, did you defeat the Morganthe? I am only asking this, bcs since I got "hooked" on pirates I don't spend time on wizard101 like I used to. I was constantly farming for something, mostly pets, have a huge first gen pet collection. But know when I embraced my my pirate side, I am spending way less time on there. Also now that pirates introduced the adv pet, I am way more occupied with pirate101 then wizard101. Now, I was wondering, how is this all impacting you? Not only that you play pirate101, you are working for pirate101 team. Do you still have time for wizard101, or maybe you barley have the time for both games? Do tell. Sry for long text, I am looking forward hearing from you :) "

~~

Oh yeah, definitely when you work at the company that makes the games you love, things change a bit.  When you see the inner workings daily and watch the team creating content and know all the internal struggles and victories that go into making new stuff, it changes things. When you come home from a hard day of thinking about Pirate101 and Wizard101,it can be harder to turn on a game of Pirate101 or Wizard101 to relax and unwind; although, it is possible, and I've successfully done it before plenty of times! :) But, I for sure want you to know that I definitely still love these games, and I'm still playing them -- whether on Internal servers or in the Live Game. I think deeply about them each day, and I'm very excited for everybody to see all the cool things coming next.

As for Wizard101, I was doing pretty good keeping up with expansions until Khyrsalis hit, and then I started to fall behind. Actually, if Uber Wife was playing more Wizard101 right now, it would be even MORE motivation to play.  (Having family members to play beside is always nicer. Not that I'm blaming Uber Wife mind you . . .) So to answer your question, I have yet to beat Morganthe in her final manifestation. It sounds like fun though, and it's on my list of things to do.

As to your worries of bouncing back and forth between Wizard101 and Pirate101, I think our hearts tend to gravitate more to one game at a time. What do you think?  A lot of that seems to involve the people that are hanging out there waiting for you to log on as well. You know . . . FRIENDS! Either way, I'm psyched that KingsIsle games are your games of choice. Awesome.

Have fun with those pet collections!

Thanks for understanding, and I appreciate the note.

Happy Dueling

Soloing Belloq in Zafaria as a Fire Wizard?

Colin asks, "What's the best way to solo Beloq Zafaria as a fire?"

Well, I decided to try it out for you tonight using Uber Wife's character.  Granted she's Level 90ish, but this was the deck I used, which was full of many non-90ish level spells.  In fact, the whole thing was link, sun magic enchants, tower shield, heckhound, fire minion, satyr, pixie, and fire elf spamming.

She's also wearing a pet that casts fire blades and uses Spritely and I think is still sporting Waterworks gear.

I took out Belloq first . . .

. . . and then his minion.

. . . ze readers may have some additional insights in the comments below!

Happy Dueling

ToonTown Rewritten?

Zero Knight asks, "Will you be joining Toontown Rewritten, or have joined it? :D Thats all ^-^ "

Ohhhhhh Yeah . . . Kiersten Samwell sent me a link to that just yesterday.  hmm . . . OK, Lemme go see about that . . .

HEY! Looks fun enough, I sure remember playing the original.  I'll go ahead and register now . . .

...

...

Happy Dueling

Walk in Darkness with Assassin's Strike?

Anon asks: "Is Walk in Darkness supposed to multiply damage even if the next attack is a damage-multiplying power, such as Assassin's Strike? I've heard people say they do this, but it's never worked for me, so I'm wondering if it's a bug."

Ratty, as in Ratbeard the developer, talked about this once . . . check this link. Others have noted recently the way it works seems strange as well and he promised to check it out.

Personally though . . . I think as long as you look awesome, it don't matta none.

OH YEAH, dig the name on my Level 4 Swashbuckler there (sorry, it's the one class I just really haven't played much of).

Happy Dueling!

Dress like a Wizard?

From Scarlet Frogslinger: "Would you ever dress up to look like your Wizard? What about the rest of the family?"

~~

. . . Uh . . . what kind of freak do you think I am, Scarlet?  OF COURSE I WOULD!

We do that from birth around here . . . it's like, I come home from work and instead of putting on my relaxing shoes like Mr. Rogers, I throw on the wizard shoes.

I actually have a great picture of Uber Wife dressed up as Morganthe that I'm having a hard time finding right now, but . . . it was awesome, trust me.  Definitely something she could throw on at a convention to get her cosplay going (although, seriously, it would take some talkin' to make that happen outside of Halloween).

Happy Dueling

Open for Business!

HEY crazy Wizard101 and Pirate101 people!  I'm open for business again!

Ask your questions, and I'll see if I have an answer.  I probably won't spend hours upon hours doing so like in the past, but I will try to at least make it entertaining. ;)

So . . . ask a question in the comments below, and I'll see if I can answer.

Things that are off the list:

1- When is X coming to Pirate101 or Wizard101, where X=anything that isn't in the game yet. If you do ask me one of those questions, I will most likely respond with a giant yellow question mark.

2- My X didn't redeem properly, my X isn't working properly, this X is a bug that needs to be fixed. where X=your personal game/computer issues. I do this far too much while at work . . . and on my personal blog, I just don't want to always have to say . . . hey! Email Support! Because, really, it is your best course of action.

3- Can I have an X, where X= some new staff or banner or code for Crowns.  If I'm going to give away stuff, I'll do it with a raffle or a contest.

4- X Hot Topic in the community that's ugly right now . . . like someone hacking, exploiting, or starting a rumor about a ghost girl. Cripes PEOPLE!  Just please check the drama at the door on the TFN blog. Sorry, I know it's important to you, but this is my off time, and I really just want to talk about Drama-free Wizard101 and Pirate101 here on TFN. :)

5- I'll come back and modify this list if there's something that should be added later. ;)

So . . . ask a question, and let's see if I can come up with an answer.  As a warning, I may just answer you with a funny picture or a one-liner.  Let's see if we can have fun with this!

Happy Dueling

The Awesome Art of Clint Young

At KingsIsle we work in what's known as a pit. Basically our desks are lined together side-by-side and back-to-back, and Artists of all flavors are mixed with Designers, Quality, Marketing, and yours truly. In essence, you're always working an arm's length away from some incredibly creative people. I do sometimes pine for my old office with a window, but other days I'm glad this forced conglomeration of people are all smushed together -- especially early in the morning when work is just setting in for the day. There's a group of us near each other that come in a bit earlier than our other counterparts and sometimes the humor hits the perfect keynote to start the day.

One of these early morning warriors is Clint Young. YES, please click that link, peruse his pictures, and comment on his blog (he has a beautiful new site that's awesome in every way). I think you'll find one section of his portfolio particularly interesting: KingsIsle Art. His work is stunning and he captured so much of that Marleybone essence that Pirate101 players are so fond of.

When we were launching Marleybone and Aqulia, one of my many tasks was pouring through concept art and finding a few certain pieces that really stood out for news agencies. The piece above was just one of those.

I have to say one of my favorite things about Clint is how much he loves drawing for his daughter. I totally get that. I've watched hours of cartoons I normally wouldn't because my kids were into them, and ended up enjoying them as well--My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is just one of them Clint and I share in common, and it's something the early morning crew in the art pit of KingsIsle has had a lot of fun teasing our resident Brony about. To those ends, do not miss this blog post. Fluttershy Fan Art by the talented Clint Young is awesome. ;)

Thanks for taking a minute to check out Clint's site! I'm sure you'll enjoy the art you see there. Again, I'm sure he'd appreciate a comment or two, so don't be shy KingsIsle fans!

Happy dueling

Awesome Thing #46 -- Marleybone Cops

For some reason this old video of mine popped in my head today.



Gotta give it up for the Marleybone Cops . . . they're awesome.

Happy Dueling

Vote for Pirate101 on MMOBomb

Heya Readers of TFN!

I'd love for you to take a second and vote for Pirate101 if you haven't already:



It'd definitely be great to make it through round 1 with the combined efforts of our fans!

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #45 -- Glowy Eyes

I was recently doing the Lost Pages event with Uber Wife. Basically this event happens every few months and only lasts a week or two. Some regular mobs in the world get replaced with "Spellwrit" mobs, and you have to defeat 10 of them to gain access to a short boss tower. It's no big task downing Spellwrit Screamers on Triton Avenue, but it takes a bit to chew through the 6,000+ hitpoints of the Spellwrit Wingtooths in Azteca. O.O

Anyway . . . all of that is great, but . . . GLOWY EYES!


Each of the possessed students of the Lost Pages event has GLOWY EYES, and I really want a pair for my wizard. :) We have them in Pirate101 as well . . . like on Cadmus here:

And because glowy eyes are super cool--they make my awesome things list. :)

Happy Dueling