I almost resubscribed to WoW last night. Just for a month, just so I could see some of the new places, see if the stuff the expansions added changed the game for the better. I didn’t, though, because to roll up a Death Knight and see all this cool stuff would cost me $$$ for the core game, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King. Maybe when Blizzard finally makes all-in-one editions, like everyone else these days. ...
Famed sociopath and brother to the villain Malistaire, Professor Drake of Myth school, apologizes for the lack of a level cap increase in Grizzleheim. Drake, this is the second time you’ve come before we students with an apology. Stop it! You’re Professor Drake! Maximum Level / Grandmaster XP Wizard101 friends, fans, and customers, When we first envisioned our sixth world we saw it as a world Wizards would experience after Dragonspyre. This world would have increased the maximum level beyond 50 and the supporting content (new spells, equipment, etc) necessary for the max level increase. However, when we dug into the overall Wizard101 game play and what would best serve our community we decided to launch Grizzleheim, a world that created a parallel experience and offered new content and experiences as players leveled thru the entire game and the other five worlds. While we hope that high level characters find the content enjoyable and engaging the immediate downside to this decision was that no level increase was introduced with this world. ...
The weekend went by too fast, as it always does. Rock, Paper, Shotguns Kieron Gillen had the perilous job of re-reviewing Darkfall for Eurogamer. Eurogamer’s original review score, 2/10, was savaged by the Darkfall developers and players. In Darkfallout, Kieron talks about the perils of being the clean-up crew for a disaster, and why he was shocked at the reaction by some other game journalists to the first review. Following up on last week’s discussion about how MMOs are like men, women, dogs, or kitchen cleansers, Green Armadillo notices that his dog is a lot like an MMO player. Except we have to go get our OWN food. ...
See, this is what I like about KingsIsle. The Bazaar wasn’t all that useful when the Grizzleheim expansion launched. It did the job, but it wasn’t easy to use. KI has an entirely new Bazaar up on the Test server, and invites all W101 subscribers to give it a try this weekend before it opens on all servers. Items may be sorted by school, price, usability, minimum level and quantity. It becomes extremely easy to find upgrades. ...
What makes The Prancing Pony such a “must see” when you’re in Bree? Butterbur just stands in that same spot all day and all night, perpetually on the edge of remembering what it is he needed to do while buying sticks and pebbles from snickering children. If you go, though, to the cloakroom on the second floor, you might find Melmoth of Killed in a Smiling Accident hiding from insanely super-powered wolves as he struggles with Lord of the Rings Online’s gated content – where overpowered common animals with a long history of being dead block lower level adventurers from peeking around the next curve. (Wolfshead also has a tankard of tears, by the way, for the poor, bereft children of J.R.R., whose money beds require additional stuffing). ...
I think this might be old news, but here it is: KingsIsle is sending out truckfulls of gift cards to department stores and electronics outlets the world over. Using Crowns garnered by redeeming the gift cards in game is, by far, the cheapest way of enjoying W101. You pay as you go, don’t pay when you don’t play, and you never lose access to areas you have already bought, even if you never play again. ...
Like an ebbing tide, the weekend slowly recedes, leaving behind the flotsam and jetsam of yet another Monday. Only a few years too late to knock ’em dead in Mrs. Moran’s 3rd grade English class on similes. Are the World of Warcraft’s raids too dependent on scripting to be done by unaided humanity? I haven’t played WoW in a few years, but it’s sounding more and more like WoW raids are just a multiplayer, more colorful version of the old “Dragon’s Lair” video game, where you had to move to lit-up squares in a room to defeat monsters. Actually it sounds EXACTLY like it, as Copra found out to his dismay. WoW raiding – an update of a classic 80’s video game for a new generation. ...
Proving again just how awesome they are, KingsIsle will patch in some reagent and crafting changes early tomorrow morning. I’ll have an “in game” report about the changes tomorrow evening. There will be an update to Wizard101 July 8th at 3am Central US Time that will include the following important updates! **Enhanced Boss Encounters Update ** The bosses of the Spiral have been taught a lesson by Merle Ambrose, and they will no longer interrupt your combat! All the Enhanced Boss Battles are back to normal, but the bosses have kept their knowledge of Power Pips, and they will earn and use Power Pips just like a Wizard. ...
With the Grizzleheim expansion, KingsIsle also brought crafting to the world of Wizard 101. The crafting system chosen is the most … um … unique(?) … that I’ve seen in any MMO. Crafting in the real world was once the domain of skilled artisans who devoted years to learning their craft, and then spent the rest of their careers making items of art and utility for their customers. A good craftsman’s name was known far and wide, but every village had a smith, and larger towns and cities would have entire quarters set aside for the crafting trades. ...
Along with Grizzleheim, the folks at KingsIsle introduced new boss battles more along the lines of bosses from traditional MMOs like World of Warcraft or EverQuest II, which required specific strategies to defeat. In particular, the fight against Malistaire went from a rather ordinary fight to one requiring a quite specific strategy. I personally believe we haven’t yet found the strategy the designers intended, as there are no (or very few) master crafters. But nonetheless, the folks at KI have decided to give these encounters another look. The picture above has what I imagine Drake really WANTS to say, but what he ACTUALLY says is: ...