Sunken City

Meet the War Oni, boss of Crimson Fields. I’ve been told Crimson Fields is the longest instance in Moo Shu, and so far it seems to be. Not like Sunken City or Kensington, though, it can be soloed… and for about two hours late one night, that’s what I did. I had no idea what I was getting in to! It’s not called Crimson Fields because it’s a field of lovely red flowers. The crimson is blood, and the fields are a battle field. The Warlord, once one of the Emperor’s closest advisors, betrayed Moo Shu and left a trail of death and destruction through Hametsu Village, Tatakai Outpost and the once peaceful dojo now come to be known by its bloody moniker. ...

Thought I’d never finish the thirty gathering missions necessary to get the “Guild Hall Constructor” title. I’d get bored, or find something else to do, or… pretty much anything else. But I did want to get the title before the event ends. After all, what better way to tell the world you’re an obsessive-compulsive whose probably going to try and sell you something? It would have been harder without Stargrace’s sage advice. She would grab a mission and head to Sunken City. Few people went there. If she couldn’t finish the mission there, the Graveyard was a short hop away, and it would have the stuff. ...

A friend was having trouble in the Sunken City and asked for some help. I was in a battle of my own and was low on potions, so I told him I’d be there in a few. Finished the battle, played a few rounds of my potion-filling minigames of choice, and the teleported to him. If you want to talk about innovative gameplay mechanics, you have to understand how being able to teleport to friends and instantly be part of the battle and also get the quest for the instance automatically changes the game. The parts you don’t need a group for, you can do yourself. When you need help, you look at your friends list, see whose free, and there’s no travel time – they’re right there. ...

What with open grouping and a broad kid appeal, Wizard 101 is a pretty friendly game. Jumping in to an instance to help a friend is just a click away. This is a GOOD thing. But the devs saw ’exploit’ with players repeating instances over and over (something explicitly encouraged in the very first instance on Unicorn Way, Rattlebones’ Tower), and so have sliced the experience you get by repeating certain tougher instances – the ones you would most appreciate the help of friends. ...

It is SO difficult to hook up with your friends in Wizard 101. Even once I figured out where to enter the “True Friend” code, it didn’t work. Meeting up with Gnewton and his wife in game took a frenzied batch of emails which ended with their “We are standing with Ambrose right now … 11:40” and my “omw”. Once we were each others’ friends, we could talk, and so we spent half an hour just talking … and fighting the filter. It was a lot of fun, meeting them, though naturally Ellie, Gnewt’s wife, was wearing the same outfit I was wearing. I guess at our level everyone is still wearing the clothing you get from the Olde Towne quests. ...