Wizard101

Back in July of 2008, I downloaded a new MMO, played for several hours, and barely managed to tear myself away long enough to write about this still-in-beta Wizard101: It’s not the “perfect” MMO, but it’s definitely different enough to make it worth a look. Deck-building, strategic card-playing, turn-based combat? Check. Automatic grouping? Check. An absolutely INSANE amount of character customization? Check. A Toon Town-ish gameplay style that lets kids and adults play safely together? Check. Friggin’ baby dragon pets? Oh dear, yes, check! ...

(Shhh! Hello Kitty Online’s closed beta started yesterday! Expect a HKO First Look once I’ve found my way around). Massively reports that EVE Online’s next expansion, Dominion, has just been announced. Dominion brings a new focus on planets, undoubtedly setting the scene for EVE’s planetbound companion FPS MMO, Dust 514. EVE is also adding social media functionality to the game, and I have no idea what that means. Tweet every mission? No clue. Lastly, the walking around in stations expansion is given a name, Incarna, so I guess we’re stuck in our pods for at least another few months. ...

Started on the second tier of Grizzleheim last night. The Virgil Roughlands (level 25+) are a pretty significant step up from Svarstaad Pass. Even two boxing, I had to choose my cards with a lot more care than almost any challenge in recently-completed Krokotopia. At levels 27 and 32, my two-box team is as closely matched as they have ever been. Thankfully, Marissa now has the (yucky) Humongofrog to match up with Allison’s Sandstorm for mass monstery death. ...

Having heard about the EVE Fitting Tool from a helpful commentator, I spent a lot of time last night working some Battle Clinic builds into viable builds for me. VERY happy. Later on, the corps went on an impromptu trip through a wormhole, where we were relentlessly shadowed by the corp (Bones) who had staked it out. They allowed us to take on a Sleeper cell before we left. We got some T3 loot, but since we’d all brought expendable ships (that’s my Exequoror “The Liberator” hovering outside the wormhole), we weren’t up for taking out the second wave, which included a battleship. (Drew at Wizard of Duke Street has a little more about wormholing). ...

There were so many people at the Second “Back to School” Meet-and-Greet thrown by the bloggers at Evil Theurgists and Diary of a Wizard that you could hardly hear people begging for dates and treasure cards! I was thrilled to meet so many new friends and fill up my friend list a little :) It was a lot of fun! Afterward we went and let Jade Oni know exactly HOW to play a Life Wizard … in STEREO!

This has been a pretty decent week in EVE Online, which is running neck and neck with Wizard 101 as my main game. Earlier, Otakudyne corp officer Sredans made a Dominix battleship for me as reward in part for a couple of nights of mining; I’ll be able to fly that Sunday evening. I was kinda disappointed to not find the skill to fly Gallente Battleships among the skills sold by the Federation Navy loyalty point store, so I put in a BUY order for the skill at a 20% discount from the average regional price set to expire just about the time I will need to train it. If nobody sells me one for my three million ISK, I’ll just buy it, no big woop. After all, I AM a millionaire. ...

I THINK this screen shot came while we were raiding the City of Mist for Jalanea’s shaman epic. Remember when guilds used to raid the City of Mist? Something I really liked about EverQuest was the mix of raid targets in leveling zones. Now it’s all instances and keeping people away from each other as much as possible. Sad. ...

Well, he’s a POTTER, and he’s HAIRY, so he’s a HAIRY POTTER, right? I was a level and a half from level 20 tonight, I wasn’t sure I’d make it to 20 – the starting level for the Grizzleheim quests – but I finished the quest chain in the pyramid and dinged 20 on the final quest. It was clearly meant to be :) ...

I’ve been playing a lot of Wizard101 lately, working on getting my characters to level 20 so that I can explore Grizzleheim. The game is so close to being perfect that when you get snags, you notice them all the more. Here are a few things that would make the experience all the better. Appearance Slots: With so many outfit choices available, it would be wonderful to wear one outfit for its stats, and another for its looks. It would clearly be a huge UI hit to have to worry about three more outfit slots, but maybe it could be done another way? What if you could make and dress a special mannequin, and whatever IT wore, you would appear to wear? Or you could talk to a certain NPC who, for Crowns perhaps, would cast a spell that let you keep the appearance of whatever you wore at that moment, until you requested they cancel that spell? ...

Hey, everyone ELSE returns to WoW…. And why not? Rumor has it that Blizzard is definitely going to introduce the Worgen and Goblin races as new playable races… something ever World of Warcraft player has been expecting since before Burning Crusade was announced. With news of the new expansion and the Starcraft II delays already making the rounds, Green Armadillo asks what else could Blizzard possibly have in waiting to surprise Blizzcon attendees? ...