Wizard101

In the aftermath of the scandal surrounding Darkfall and its 2/10 Eurogamer review, I just have a couple of things to say. You Darkfall players and those bloggers up in arms because they didn’t play it sufficiently enough to get a good picture of the game? Listen up. Are you the ones who write about EverQuest II that the starting areas are drab and some screenshot you saw a few years ago wasn’t bright enough for you? Weren’t able to figure out the skills or heroic opportunities and pronounced it broken? Wondered why I stuck with the game even though it clearly wasn’t as good as WoW? ...

I scurried my way to visit a housing turtle as soon as I finished patching Wizard 101. I wanted to get started decorating my house as soon as I could, but which? I’d been thinking about buying one of the Wizard City castles, but when I tried to decorate it one last time on the Test server, I found the outside difficult to work with. I talked it over with Kasul, and he convinced me to go with a Marleybone home. ...

My new computer is due to be delivered today! I’ll be at work, of course, but maybe I can finally find their delivery center and pick it up afterward. My hope and fervent dream is that this will be the computer powerful enough to run Lord of the Rings Online…. Anyway. A couple of weeks ago, Paragon Studios introduced the Make Your Own Farm Mission (aka Architect) system, where players could find a badge they wanted to gain, and find the perfect mission among the thousands created for this purpose to gain that badge, or that level, or whatever they liked. Experience with similar level creators in such obscure games as Diablo, Diablo II and LittleBig Planet wasn’t clue enough that many players would use their new powers to create and play custom missions to benefit their characters. ...

We’ve word from Ravenwood that the newly-named Builder Turtles are being dropped off at their new homes across the Spiral, and that tomorrow, we’ll be able to buy and furnish our own homes. Thomes the Friendly Necromancer has been finding lots of treasures everywhere, and I’ve gotten a good look at all ten of the currently available homes (and a closer look at a couple). ...

That contest all we Wizard 101 fansites had last week? Where we named the Builder Turtles for Wizard 101 player housing? The votes are in, the challenges have been made, the lawyers for all sides have counted and re-counted the votes, and the Spiral Supreme Court has made their ruling, and here are the names of your Builder Turtles! Well let me start by saying, we have some very popular turtles! Thousands upon thousands of you submitted your name suggestions for the new Castles & Lands Turtle representatives, and here are the results: ...

Agent Provocateur Eggbert defies Wizard City planners by giving out free Summer Dragons WIZARD CITY, Shopping District – Holidays come and go in Wizard City, and the merchants who come with them tend to do what they’re told. In a shocking move last Thursday, Easter merchant Eggbert chose to not go quietly back into the Spiral. Authorities were called to investigate reports that Eggbert was giving Summer Dragons out to any who asked for free. Wizards everywhere flocked to the shopping district. Many made alts just to receive the free flying flapping friends, which were available in every conceivable color for the price of a stroll through the Commons. ...

Yes, this is the Daily Blogroll MY OWN BLOG didn’t want you to see! I’m kinda tired of Free Realms. Not the game; heck, considering my computer now refuses to run Lord of the Rings Online for long, I’ve been spending most of my gaming time in Free Realms. Beau is having fun playing. Pete at Dragonchasers took a 75 degree turn and went from being marginal about the game to a fan in just three short days. Syp of Bio Break is still dubious, but what does he care – his wife is Tinker Bell! ...

Tonight, our friend Nameless, the Nameless Builder Turtle, will be heading back to Wizard City to find out what his or her name will be. It’s been great having her – or him – with us these past ten days, and I think all of us here look forward to seeing the homes s/he’ll make. English REALLY needs non-gender specific pronouns. Straight from KingsIsle offices in Texas, this already widely-reported news: ...

Just a reminder – tomorrow, April 30th, is the last day to help choose names for the builder turtles! Click on the big, green turtle button at the right to choose the name for the Marleybone turtle, then follow the links on that page to places where you can help name the other four! Wizard101 Test Realm Downtime Beginning at 9am Central US time on April 30th, the Wizard101 Test Realm will be offline for approximately four hours. During this downtime players will not be able to log in to the Test Realm, and are invited to continue to enjoy playing Wizard101 on the Live Realm. ...

After hours of agonizing labor pains, SOE popped Free Realms out last night, just before midnight in California. They were just half an hour from having to have their launch party in Fairbanks, but they technically shipped it Tuesday, despite it being Wednesday in four-fifths of the world. Despite the late hour, the server was bustling with new chefs and brawlers. It doesn’t look like Station Access members are considered members in Free Realms yet, or maybe it’s just me. Look for me in the game, my character is Tipa Tanglewood. Speedy custom name approval FTW! ...