First Things First

I logged on Wizard101 this morning and set to checking my character out, and the first thing that was glaringly obvious was that . . .



. . . yeah, I look really weird and why am I in Wysteria? I was wearing a mishmash of things that just showed no thought or consideration into what really matters . . . looks. duh! And Wysteria? Really? Oh yeah, that's right . . . I was looking at the rabbit guards in Wysteria one day at work after talking with the writers about where all the rabbits in the game come from. That's right!

Anyway, I decided to head back into my old death house where I had a mannequin stashed with some old familiar clothes on it. It was time . . . time to get the goth TFN look back!



Yup! You know the one! Santa boots and all! It's the one I talked about in this post before stitching was even possible.

Awesome.

I'm back in business for the moment, and totally ready to hit the Halloween quests with Uber Wife today. I took the day off of work to celebrate her birthday with her (please feel free to wish her a happy birthday!), and the first item of the day after getting the kids off to school is definitely hitting Aquila and checking out the new Halloween quest in Wizard101 with her.

I'm all set. :)

Happy Dueling!

A few selfish links and some explanations

Heya all! I know it may seem like I'm quite quiet here lately on my blog, and . . . ok, it doesn't "seem" that way . . . it "is" that way, but that's mostly because I've been actively blogging and talking other places. One of those places is the KingsIsle Blog.

Now, most people in the Wizard101 and Pirate101 communities are totally aware of this blog and follow it, and, while I'm sure no one would mind, I'd rather not reblog these posts over on TFN -- but I would like to link to them just so I have them cataloged here for myself. (Yup, I guess sometimes a blog is just for purely selfish reasons like that. LOL.)

Pirate101 Tips – Understanding Talents
Spotlight on Community Leaders 1
Spotlight on Community Leaders 2
Pirate101 Tips – Picking Your Perfect Pirate
Girl Power in Pirate101!
KingsIsle take a trip to the Library

You can also find a lot of tips and writing from me on the Pirate101 Newsletter.

. . . and of course the Update Notes page.

(I'm actually writing another blog post for the KingsIsle blog at the moment that talks about the amount of work that goes into these creations.)

I do wish I had more time to blog just for me and my readers, and I wish I had more inspiration about blogging in general for the Friendly Necromancer at the moment. Rest assured I am very much still playing Pirate101 and enjoying my time there! In addition, I'm playing a few other games . . . I fired up Guild Wars 2 the other day, and Uber Wife and I are playing a lot of DCUO. I've also played some Free Realms, Dragon's Prophet, and a bunch of other games as well, including things like Pikmin 3 and Mario Bros for the Wii U.

I don't know . . . Would you all be interested in hearing about these other games? I've done a couple of other (non-Wizard101) things too like these YouTube videos:





I do feel bad for letting this blog sit for a month without any updates, but to be honest, it can sometimes be difficult to talk about Pirate101 and Wizard101 on my free time in addition to the 9 hours or more a day I spend at the KingsIsle offices thinking and talking about these same games.

I'll keep thinking about how I can participate in the Wizard101 community again, but I really hope you understand where I'm coming from as well.

Talk!

Comment.

Let me know what you think!

Happy dueling!

I am not Glenn Smith on Facebook

There's a person impersonating me and this blog on Facebook.

Please report him to Facebook.

If you've come here to verify if "Glenn" is legit, he is not.

Do not give him any information and never share your account information over the Internet with anyone. ever. period.

. . . and then Summer Ended

It seems as though the Summer just began, but alas . . . all good things must come to an end. For me, today marks the last day I'll be able to have a noise-free morning with no dad responsibilities. Sigh, and what have I done with my awesome spare morning time?

Well, for one, I've played a lot of video games, paid bills, planned for the future, meditated, read, and basically enjoyed the silence. When it's time to go to work, it's a quick peck on the sleeping Uber Wife's lips, and I'm off to be One-Eyed Jack for the day!

Tomorrow, things will be much different around here. I'll be annoying the children awake, making breakfasts, inspiring "the putting on of the socks and the shoes," and basically doing all I can to kick people out of the house so they can make it to school on time. You know, dad stuff. It's cool. I'm totally up for it, and to be honest, I enjoy the annoying people awake . . . especially my middle son. Yes, I'm evil like that, but hey, someone has to be the destroyer of dreams and sleep . . . .

Of other news, TOTALLY FINISHED BEACHHEAD ON BAD PEDRO PACE YESTERDAY!!

That's right, I slogged my way past all the dungeon after dungeon after dungeon in Marleybone, and it looks like Rooke is going to be next on the agenda.

Pedro always runs with a bit of an unconventional crew, but I went semi-standard for my fight with Bishop . . . obviously steering away from the Witchdoctor companions, who are just death magnets when it comes to this encounter.

As you can see from that picture it was Gracie Conrad, El Toro, and Wu Ro (my horse crossbowman--I love his crit moves). When I took Thomas through this instance, he mainly just buffed, took down the adds, played healer, and placed a couple well-timed self-sacrificial mojo blade spells. Ahhh, Witch Hunter/retribution . . . it's awesome to see how forgotten those epics are and what a surprise it is when they suddenly become important in the game again. The Designers are evil like that, but hey, someone has to be the destroyer of dreams and sleep . . . sleepy gamers!

Pedro, of course, was played in much the same way . . . buffing, healing, and quite a few heavy artillery powers, sneak attacks, and mighty charges.

Good times.

Hope everyone is enjoying the Henchmen on the Test Realm!

Happy Dueling!

Ryan's Make a Wish Visit to KingsIsle

I wanted to make sure to catalog this video here on this blog because . . . well . . . at the end of the day, this is what it's all about.



You get to shortly see Ryan and me playing before lunch at the 5:00 minute mark. hehe. It was my honor to get to play a few rounds of Pirate101 with Ryan. We're both Witchdoctors! :) At the same time we were playing together, his brother and sister were hanging out in the same room while and we were all talking about the game with Blind Mew. Ryan's older brother plays the game with him and his sister had never played the game. She had a lot of questions, and who knows, maybe she'll pick up the game too! Ryan was playing in one of our conference rooms that has a HUGE TV mounted on the wall. (I seriously love playing Pirate101 on that screen--the game looks great on it).

At the 11:15 mark, Ryan and I go through the Internal servers and look around a bit. We mostly looked at the new player housing the week before it was released. :)

At the 12:13 mark we unveil his poster and Ryan's Yum-n-Ade stand while I drive the computer. Something that's not seen in this video is the amazing work behind the scenes that had to happen to tie Ryan's vocals to the stand and get it working in a stable build of the game in time for our big reveal of the Yum-n-Ade stand to Ryan. Kudos KingsIsle team from me!

Ryan and his family are great people, and it was my honor to meet them. It was a very special day that I will mark among the finest during my employment with KingsIsle. For the full story, please check out the KingsIsle blog.

Happy Dueling

2013 Birthday Fun Stuff!

Heya everyone, besides the really fun Twitter and Facebook messages that have been exploding my Timeline (and really nice emails as well), you gotta check out these extra special pictures and posts.

First up, one of Johnny's awesome trademark collages that everyone loves!

I'm a bird! Awesome! That's so me . . . hehe.

Next, FrostCaller broke out a really cool One-Eyed Jack Sig for me:

Dang! I just love his bold use of color--great talent there!

And Finally Paige Moonshade and a ton of other fansites gathered round good ol' One-Eyed Jack and gave me a birthday wish!

HAHA! Thank you thank you!

**EDIT** . . . and as I was posting this I got ANOTHER shoutout from Edward Lifegem. LOL! THANKS EDWARD! **EDIT**

Birthdays are great, but even better when a friendly community like ours gathers around you and makes you feel extra special.

Thanks everyone!

Happy Dueling!

Finished! (and started again)

YO! It's TFN with another boring post about how I finished the current content with my main character!

;)

I actually finished a week or so ago, but I just haven't said anything on my blog yet. I'm still processing the experience. The experience was very much like reading a good summertime book. What I mean by that is, it was kind of like when back in grade school when the book mobile would roll around our neighborhood, and I'd stroll in to find a book to read for the week.

Remember book mobiles?



no?

They're awesome little buses that were packed with a small selection of books. My book mobile stopped just a block away from my house. I'd choose two or three good candidates and then stroll back home with some new adventures in my hands. Some of my book choices were good, and some were just meh, but regardless of the quality of the book, you wanted to read it all the way through to the end by the time the book mobile came around the next week so you could load up on some new reading material. Sometimes you'd succeed, and some weeks you'd simply go to the Bookmobile to window shop your next book because you weren't done reading the other books yet.

So my summer book the past month or so would be titled "Friendly Thomas, the Friendly Witchdoctor, in the Marleybone and Aquila Capers!" I guess (I'm suddenly glad that I'm not in charge of writing titles for books.) Next up in the series is "Bad Pedro Pace, Privateer with Penanche, in the Marleybone and Aquila Escapades!" (again, my apologies). Bad Pedro is already level 51 and still getting ready for his new adventures in Marleybone (aka hanging out in Port Regal).

What I liked about Aquila was the lean towards the classic film Clash of the Titans. When the medusa battle came up, I was totally like . . . where's my reflective shield!



Well, being blindfolded and under the effects of a potion that gives me Daredevil like senses is cool too. :)



I loved the whole experience, and I loved seeing all those Myth school monsters come to life in Pirate101 as full fledged actors. Seeing things like that happen make an old Wizard101 fan happy. I can't stress enough how if you consider yourself a Wizard101 fan, you should play Pirate101. There are so many head nods and cross connects that sometimes the game itself feels completely new yet like a solemn tribute to Wizard101 fans.

I'm interested in hearing what you thought of Aquila! Frogfather is asking right now what something you would want to change about your experience, but I generally thought it was a good time, and I full heartedly accept my new found buddy HAWKULES (!!) into my crew. :)

Now I just need to grind out the last two levels of Friendly Thomas's Nautical experience and finish out a few essentials (like getting Zeena as a companion).

Happy Dueling