Wizard101

I probably shouldn’t have titled this post “First Night in Grizzleheim”, because I hardly went there after doing the quests to open it. At 50, Tara doesn’t get any experience rewards from defeating monsters or completing quests, nor are any of the gear rewards any upgrade, so she has no reason to go. Allison, my Balance wizard on my second account, just hit 30 and is a perfect level for Grizzleheim – but she’s been partnering with my level 13 Myth alt, Marissa. And level 13 is too low for Grizzleheim – she can’t get any of the quests yet. ...

Yesterday, EverQuest launched its new 51/50 server to rave reviews, and this morning, Wizard 101 launches its latest expansion, Grizzleheim. So many cool things happening, but who has the time to play them all? Inspired by the Star Wars: Galaxies news out of SOE’s Fan Faire last weekend, Werit jumped into the game after some time away and found a lot to like with the new battlegrounds, player-created content and factions wars. He even has some video! ...

Grizzleheim, the Bazaar, crafting, groups, open chat, and newly enhanced boss mobs comes to Wizard 101 July 1st, after an extended downtime. Wizard101 will undergo an extended maintenance window on 01 July 2009 from 3am to approximately 5am Central US time. This downtime may extend beyond two hours and we will message accordingly. Wizard101 is going offline to add Grizzleheim, Crafting, Bazaar and Enhanced Chat features to the game. For more information on what is being added to Wizard101 at this time, please see our Update Notes. ...

EDIT: I apologize – the service I used to host the wallpaper instead shrunk it. I have replaced that link with a link to the full sized, 1280x1024 version.*** I got a shocking letter from Fernando Blanco of KingsIsle today. As a thank you gift for all the Wizard 101 players who read my blog, the artists have drawn up a “cast list” of all the faculty and staff at the Ravenwood School for the Magical Arts… look closely, because if I’m guessing right, Wizard 101 Director J. Todd Coleman himself (or someone who looks a lot like him) sneaked in while they were gathering for the photograph (see if you can pick him out)! ...

Deciding to see if a treasure card like “Quench” could stop Malistaire from casting Meteor Storm all the time, Thomas the Friendly Necromancer and I took ourselves and our alts to the Great Spyre to see if we could figure out the puzzle of Wizard 101’s ultimate encounter. Aside from the forge outside the instance, we didn’t find anything unusual. Inside were some harvests – some ore and lava flowers – and two of us received ectoplasm (a new crafting reagent) from the spirits that protected Malistaire – but nothing suggested itself as a counter to Malistaire’s spells. None of the treasure card recipes seemed to make anything that would reflect his spells back on him. ...

A lot of commentators in yesterday’s blogroll felt the changes to boss battles in Wizard 101 are bringing the game away from its casual, kid-friendly roots. It’s important to remember that even easy games like World of Warcraft would seem difficult if the solution to every single quest, instance and boss mob weren’t carefully explained to people. Soon every single quest, instance and boss mob fight will be figured out and carefully explained to every W101 player, and these will be easy again. Thomas of The Friendly Necromancer noticed that there is now a huge forge outside the Grand Chasm (Malistaire’s lair, forge pictured above), and harvestable items throughout the instance. It’s not too much of a stretch to assume that the new Malistaire fight consists of crafting certain treasure cards which would nullify or reflect his constant progressive AEing. ...

Between allergies and traveling, hasn’t been a lot of writing being done. When I got back home Sunday, there were nearly 200 messages in the my feed readers. Ugh. Lots happened! <– You’ll see over on the left that we now have a guild on Free Realms. Let me know if you want to join ;) On to the blogs! ...

Though I was away this weekend, I still managed to squeeze some hours into Wizard 101’s Test server to check out the latest changes. And there’s a LOT of them. This next update does not just introduce the world of Grizzleheim into the game, but a whole laundry list of things players have been begging for (aside from appearance slots, which haven’t made an, um, appearance). ...

Grizzleheim is now live on Wizard 101’s test server! If you’re a subscriber and want a peak at the next world, download it and check it out! Unfortunately, right at this moment the servers are down – but they should be up soon! Grizzleheim and many other Features are now available to preview on the Test Realm. To find out what features are being added to the Test Realm, please consult our Update Notes Page. ...

A few days ago, the MMO blogging world burned with the news that rock star MMO developer turned lonely exile, Brad McQuaid, had returned from his lonely, sparse existence of playing video games, racing cars and sports bikes and feeling sorry about the harsh hand life dealt him to urge people to play more Vanguard. Some people were skeptical, but have come to believe. Others forgive him for his sins. ...