Pirate101

Here we go again. The top 38 MMOs in the last 30 days in the USA, as reported by Google Trends.

Gold! Well, here’s a code you won’t have to jump through hoops to use. If you redeem the code PirateGold at Pirate101.com, you’ll win up to 5000 gold. Up to – I got 3000, but hey, free gold. Can buy a couple new fittings for that ship you just got with that gold. You can use the Wizard101 code WizardGold on Wizard101.com to get up to 5000 gold to use in Wizard101. So, it’s not guaranteed to get 5000 gold, but it’s free. You can use the codes once per account. ...

Do any of these wild buffaloons have skins? Every MMO has points where they actively appear to be driving players away. Pirate101 had the buffaloon scandal. Buffaloons are hybrid buffalo/balloon creatures who float peacefully about just off the skyways in Cool Ranch. Their hides are used for all sorts of useful items, but the roosters, chickens and toads of Cool Ranch have a problem: They are entirely unable to hunt buffaloons for themselves, and are entirely dependent upon player pirates to fill their workshops with raw materials. ...

The clockwork city of Valencia I dunno if Pirate101 has any Decemberist nods in the world of Valencia, but they’d be missing a bet if they didn’t. I haven’t even seen any orange trees. But then I just got here. So, level 16, and I’m in the third world already. Still feeling just a little overwhelmed in some fights, and that’s a good thing. I have never actually LOST a fight, though, and they may not be such a good thing, but probably is. What I would like to be able to say is that I have never been boarded by an enemy, but unfortunately, that happens all too often. I’ve been trying to keep my nautical level up, but it’s a chore, and I feel lucky to have gotten it up to level 10. ...

But only three! This week, KingsIsle sent a mysterious map to all of its US-based Wizard101 players for whom they had valid mailing addresses. Those maps had a puzzle that revealed a code for a ninja pig companion (swashbuckler) that could be used four times – but only once per account. Well, I used my code, got my pig, and now I have three codes left. And I’m going to give them away. ...

The Map to El Dorado So I picked up my mail – paper mail that comes in a box you open with a key in real life – yesterday, and was surprised to find a folded up bit of cardboard from KingsIsle that popped up into a map torn into seven parts and painstakingly re-assembled. Given that I’m looking for pieces of the map, this same map, in game right now was a nice bit of synergy. It was a map of the Spiral, with worlds known and unknown on it, and some of them had numbers and letters next to them. ...

Weed Whacking Two weeks in to Pirate101’s launch, my character is level 15 (swashbuckler) and has completed the Skull Island Skyway, the Flotsam Skyway, most of the Tradewinds Skyway and most of the Tierra Primata Skyway. The Skyways are the individual zones of Pirate101. Along the way, we’ve attracted the notice of the pirate hierarchy, downed many other pirates, helped along the administration of the monkey colony in Puerto Mico (which has a different governor each time you visit), been to the monkey homeland and saved the royalty-in-exile, and started investigating El Dorado, the City of Gold, hidden somewhere on the Spiral. The Spiral we’ve seen firsthand for the first time, with the Wizard101 worlds of Krokotopia, Dragonspyre and others just tantalizingly out of reach of our sky-ships. ...

Who built those mysterious ruins, anyway? From the moment I first saw them, I’ve been blown away by Pirate101’s cinematics. These aren’t 3D rendered with lots of dramatic camera angles and explosions. They’re little puppet shows. HILARIOUS puppet shows, as in this one, where the monkey prelate Bishop Hidalgo is telling the story of how the gorilla Gortez went all Lord Jim/Heart of Darkness in these mysterious ruins and is now using a giant golden statue as his seat of power. ...

In the cellar of any tavern It took a long time, too long, before it all connected: there was a reason Bonnie Anne kept wanting to meet me in the cellars of any tavern. I’d noticed before that its patrons were all companions, of course; what I didn’t realize until after I’d recruited Rat Commander Ratbeard that they were all of MY companions. So there ya go. If you want to see your companions outside of battle, head down to the cellar of any tavern. Also, on your companions screen, look for an exclamation mark on their portrait. This means that they have a promotion quest available. Bonnie Anne got hers at level 8; Ratbeard was recruited with his already active at level 10. I haven’t gotten to promotion level on any of the others, but in a random group, I heard that once Subodai, the horse barbarian, is promoted, he is pretty powerful. ...

Armada I met up with Friendly Thomas and Eccentric Austin Ornsley last night for a little soiree on the decks of Austin’s galleon. On the POOP deck, mind you. Just needed for you all to know that. Poop deck. Well, we’d cracked open a new barrel of yum (with my head) (it was an accident, I swear), and before long, the companions were all muttering to themselves about the sorry state of their pirate masters, and somebody, not sure who, said we should go out and hunt us some cutthroats. ...