Friday, May 15, 2009

Housing Item of the Day--Fire Bush

Well I was hoping for the fire cat statue from alicane, but instead all I got was this plant.



Alicane has given me a plant before when I was playing on the test realm. But, this is just a little firey red bush, which I've now placed near the entrance to my ankle-deep pool.



These don't appear to be a "limit 1" item, so you could go ahead and plant 150 of these in your home if you'd like.

Happy Dueling!

Player vs Player Preview Season Announced!

This little note came across the wire yesterday:

To preview the upcoming Official Player vs Player Season beginning later this year, we're giving our players a sneak peek of what PvP Seasons are all about! To find out more visit our new Player vs Player Preview Season Page

So that little note is actually a very HUGE deal. You need to visit that link.

They are going to keep track of our ranked pvp activity and then spotlight people who are doing well. HECK, they are even going to dole out exclusive in game badges based on your performance in that pvp tournament.

so GOOD LUCK ALL!

Happy dueling!

Shard Tail Dragon

Hey I just noticed this note when I went to log on to Wizard101 today.

RAVENWOOD NEWS

Inroducing the Shard Tail Dragon!
Wizard101 and Beckett have teamed up to bring players an exclusive item: The Shard Tail Dragon! To find out more, go to Wizard101.com/Beckett.


I'll definitely have to check the mail today to see if my copy of Beckett arrived!



That graphic looks like a silvery version of the summer dragon. hmmm.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Housing Item of the Day--Purple Painted Column

As The Evil Twin and Isiah Taleslinger progress through krokotopia, I'm getting to see more items that are rewarded from those quests and bosses.

This column dropped from the Nirini Champion in the Chamber of fire.



And, yes, I feel all the elegance of the King of France as it is displayed proudly in Isaiah's room.



MORE COLUMNS! Like this one and that one and this one.

Happy Dueling!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Dealing with feeling like YOU are the problem

Yeah, you know, most of the kids that drop by this page are young. VERY YOUNG. So, seriously, it’s ok if a seemingly troll-like post like this hits the comments. I mean, if you guys seriously have nowhere else to turn, then great, I’ll try to address things like this. Just know up front that I’m nowhere near being a qualified therapist. All I can give you is my opinion, and all people that comment on this thread can give you are their opinions. Right? So if your intuition tells you that this advice is bunk, then go get some advice somewhere like this.

Here’s the message I got:

Stingite, all other bloggers and readers out there, i really want to say something. i will remain anonymous until further notice. i really want your opinion on how to help fix my life. i mean, all of my families problems seem to revolve around me! like, the very fact i was concieved! if that did not happen, my mother's husband wouldnt have left her, and my mom and real dad would still be in arizona with their succsesful vending machine buisness. and i am perhaps the most power wasting person in this family. i am always on the computer, which can waste power and money! and my family isnt exactly made of money. and my whole sleeping pattern is messed up! you know what time i woke up? 6 pm sunday! its 7 in the morning on monday now! sorry stingite/friendly/thomas, i know this is your blog but to alll of those who reads the wizard of many names blog, comment on ways i can fix my life . . .


Here’s the deal from my point of view:

1- You did everything right. Your job when being born was to fight to live. Congrats.

2- You are not to blame for your parents’ actions. You weren’t there to suggest that maybe they should think more about the consequences of having a kid.

3- You are not to blame for your parents’ ill fortune. They are to blame because, once again, you weren’t there to suggest they think more about the consequences of bringing you into the world. Not your fault.

4- Someone is making you feel guilty; either it’s yourself or your parents or someone else. The next question you have to answer is, “why?” Why are they/he/she/I making me feel guilty? Now that’s the real question. You need to figure that out. I think you need to look deeper at that and meditate on it.

5- When you feel guilt, it really means you need to find repentance. Now I’m not talking biblical repentance here, but it’s close. I’m talking about feeling remorse, making amends, and finding true forgiveness. It’s a solid path to erasing guilt and replacing it with something far better: action.

So, I say, what the heck . . . go ahead, feel remorse about feeling powerless about your situation. That’s fine and in fact needed. You gotta really feel that pain. But here’s the key, you also need to follow up with action. Follow up with making amends.

Who do you make amends to? Most likely YOURSELF! You need to change your mind about feeling powerless and own your life. THIS IS YOUR LIFE NOT YOUR PARENTS' MISTAKE. NEVER NEVER NEVER FEEL LIKE YOUR LIFE IS THE PROBLEM! Your life, my friend, is full of potential. Make it beautiful. Make it full of wonder and intrigue. Make it your own. There’s so much out there to experience in this world. There’s such a need for good in this world. And I have faith you can help if you just stop feeling powerless.

Then this is the hard part . . . you need to forgive yourself. This probably won’t come quickly, but when you change your mind that you are going to own your life and live the way you know you should live, then you need to forgive yourself for ever feeling that way, and forget it. Put it behind you and believe in who you really are to become.

Here’s an idea, draw your life’s success story on a piece of paper. Then everyday for a couple months, crack that bad boy out and say to yourself, “I am committed to my success story.” It may sound cheesy, but when you’re committed and when you have a vision of what you want to become, then you’re more likely to make that happen. Do it and increase your odds for success. Next, share it. Get feedback. Get ideas. Get fearless. I'd much rather hear about you losing sleep because you're excited about the future, than hear that guilt and worry are keeping you awake. You know?

Listen, if you feel you are wasting power and money on the computer, then ACT. The power button is just a finger push away. You are not powerless.

If you feel you should be making money, then ACT. Get a paper route or ask if you can help a neighbor by mowing their lawn for money. Look to examples like Ashley Qualls . . . she made 4 million dollars off of her website and she's only 17. If your parents don’t allow it, then, once again, you are not responsible at that point.

If you feel like you are the cause of your mom’s miserable life, then ACT. I highly doubt the purpose of your life was to sit and wallow in guilt about being born. It sounds silly, doesn’t it? yup. And to be honest, it's probably not that miserable at all. Have you talked about this with her?

If you can stop feeling powerless at this age . . . if you stop the cycle of telling yourself that you’re more trouble than you’re worth, you’ll be far far ahead of most of the adults out there in the world who are miserable and more self-defeating than you.

You are the author of your success story. THINK BIG.

Also, if these games like Wizard101 are distracting you from your success story, put them away. If anyone lets entertainment get in the way of finding out who you really are, then they’ve failed. On the other hand, this game we all play is a great way to blow off steam. I don't think you should feel guily about this relatively cheap form of somewhat social entertainment. It costs a lot more to take the family to the movies and out to eat every weekend . . . believe me.

Finally, best of luck from me. I appreciate that you reached out. There's really no need to expose who you are. Remain anon. It's all good.

Happy Dueling.

Housing Item of the Day--Tall Ladder

Today's item of the day is nestled over in a lonely corner of the inner chamber in the chamber of fire in Krokotopia.



The evil twin and Isiah Taleslinger discovered it the other day while questing. The evil twin used it to collect all the evil dustballs off of the rafters in his dorm room. You may expect these dustballs to be put into your drinks, in your hair, on your pillow, and basically anywhere. It shall be the evil twin's dustball curse laid upon thee. BEWARE THE DUSTBALL OF THE EVIL TWIN!



Happy dueling!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

PvP's dirty laundry list

So, there are problems in Wizard101's PvP.

Alex asks posters to stop talking about chain stunning anymore because there's way too many threads about it already: click

Blake talks about chain shielding with minions and catches tons of anger for it: click

Wild Bolt with high accuracy applied to them is talked about yet again: click

Picantel reports a six hour long duel and the suggestion is made to have a truce button within that thread. People are also hoping they limit the number of reshuffles allowed: click

And as I predicted wayyyyy back when pvp was announced, people are not happy with the smack talk, especially when people find ways to circumvent the chat filter to swear at them . . . olivia calls for an ignore button: click

So I believe those are all the major gripes about pvp right now, and I can see why they'd be irritating to people.

Chain stunning: if all you do is stun the other opponents consequetively while a teammate rakes the other team over the coals with aoe blasts and traps, it's frustrating. smart. But definitely frustrating for the other team. I've been on the end of a chain stunning battle and it was frustrating. agreed. You can't do anything. And if both teams have a stunner? The first to start their chain cycle wins.

Chain shielding with or without minions: Listen, if your build includes nothing but shield afer shield after shield with one or two really weak damage cards or a minion that casts really weak damage cards, you're building a long battle. If you're building a long battle, the question I ask is . . . which is worse? chain stunning to get the battle over with quickly, or chain shielding to make the battle last forever in the hopes the other team will flee.

Wild both with high accuracy cards applied to them: I've lost to this strategy. You would not believe the damage wild bolt can put out . . . even through a 50% shielding. It's insane. The only reason I think we don't hear more about this strategy is that some of the nicer accuracy cards are harder to come by, and I believe it's really only a "problem" in 1v1 battles.

treasure deck full of reshuffles: haha. Combine a treasure deck full of reshuffles with chain shielding and you're in for a long long fight.

Long battles: So it's natural that battles are going to take longer the more people that are involved, right? 1v1 won't last as long as 2v2 and 3v3 won't last as long as 4v4. But, I believe the level 48 healing spell, and the fact that it can be made into a treasure card, is really stretching things out in all duels greater than 1v1. Who in their right mind wants to spend three to six hours in the same duel. That's insane. That's just like raiding in old Everquest: tons of grind for little reward. And as we all know, people will crash out on an unstable internet connection and then . . . boom . . . one of the teams is down a player. That's just not fair anymore.

As for the truce button suggestion and the ignore button suggestion: TWO THUMBS UP! As long as the button can't be used as a way to spam me with messages, I'm in total agreement.

And that's the PvP dirty laundry list as I see it on 13 May 2009.