Wizard101

I come from a big family, so big that Mom didn’t even bother to name us! It was always “Hey, you!” and “That one, no not you, that OTHER one!” and “Everyone to my LEFT, time for dinner. Everyone to my RIGHT, homework time!”. On my birth certificate, it just says “Baby Turtle #117”. Well, when Headmaster Ambrose hired me and my brothers and sisters to come to work building homes and islands for all the students of Ravenwood, I said, I will come, but under one condition. And Headmaster Ambrose asked, in that kind voice he has, what that condition was. I explained to Ambrose that we were all very proud of the homes we make – we turtles carry our home everywhere, so we very much want them to always be at their best! And that when we built a home for a Ravenwood student, we wanted them to be able to tell people who built it for them. We need names! ...

I am SO EXCITED today! Last week, KingsIsle, developers of the wonderful MMO, Wizard 101, asked if I would be interested in participating in a little contest to help promote their new player housing. Players will be able to buy homes based on themes from each of the five worlds in game – Wizard City, Krokotopia, Marleybone, Moo Shu and Dragonspyre. The vendors for these homes are going to be industrious builder turtles, who will exchange piles of gold for the keys to your new home. The names of these turtles will be determined by the players, and the readers of West Karana who also play Wizard 101 will be naming the turtle for Marleybone, which is my personal favorite world. ...

These are the games I’ve played at least a little in the past week. I’m going to end up with Chronicles of Spellborn, because I haven’t talked about it in awhile. First up: I’ve been spending quite a lot of time in Free Realms and as much time as I’m allowed in another which I can’t even name. What I can say is that I predicted awhile back that 2009 could be the best year ever for MMOs, and I’m sticking to that. There is some incredible stuff coming this year. ...

Welcome to the Sunday Web Log! When’s the new EverQuest server coming? The rumor mill has it that the 51/50 server – new characters start off at level 51 with 50 AAs – is in the bag. Others assume that SOE will be opening a new progression server, and have reactivated their accounts in order to start over. As near as I can tell, nothing has been announced yet, but it seems likely that we’ll be able to play on the new server, whatever kind it is, in June. Oh, and EQ players? You voted two frogs in as Mr. and Miss Norrath of 2009? I mean, grats to Kannak and Molleah but … frogs? ...

Interested in playing a little game called Free Realms? They’re letting ANYONE in. They let ME in, right? If you haven’t gotten a key, and want to try out the Next Big Thing, head on over to http://www.freerealms.com/index.vm?cid=1054126 and sign up, first thousand get in (via @freerealms). Odds not good enough for you? USA Today has 20 thousand keys to give away (via Grimwell). Why exactly can’t we talk about this game? This sounds so much like an OPEN beta. ...

After the thrilling adventure that gaining the Life power of Rebirth held for me on the Test realm, nothing could stop me from invading the Labyrinth with thoughts of crushing Life bosses to dust once again, or maybe for the first time, at least with the crushing. Seriously! Because I’d taken the opportunity to lose my useless Fire spells, bought, and learned some useful ones. Well, I’d learned Feint, and a night of 2500 to 3500 point nukes awaited. ...

To lose oneself in reverb, in all that is and all that seems. So, ladies, fish and gentlemen, here’s my angled dream. To see me in the blue sky bag, and meet me by the sea. – Blue Oyster Cult C’mon, I know someone at KingsIsle is a BÖC fan. Anyway, I dived deep into the Test server this week end, and swam out with a new spell card pasted into my spellbook. And here it is. ...

I don’t want to talk about Kraysys. But… five times! Five times I killed him last night. Add that to the dozen times or so I’ve killed him before, all but one of those times specifically to try for a chance at my Life school hat. No luck. My alt on the other account, Allison, won it once, not that it does her any good. We can share stuff between characters on one account, why not between all the accounts on the family plan? ...

Hinted at by Quinn Hexthief a couple weeks back, KingsIsle has finally introduced their player housing. And it looks FANTASTIC! I can’t WAIT to start building a wizard tower of my own! It will have seven – no, TEN – floors, and anybody who wants to visit me will have to battle two to four monsters at once, and they will ALL BE YOUR SCHOOL OF MAGIC! Bwahahaha! (Thanks to gamemom for the heads up!)

Malistaire has gotten a really bad rep. Sure, he destroyed parts of Wizard City, stole the Krokonomicon from Krokotopia, plotted with Marleybone’s nefarious Dr. Katzenstein, nearly killed the Moo Shu Emperor, and teamed up with the Dragon Titan whose army destroyed Dragonspyre, but really. Can you blame him? Think of what Wizard City was like, pre-Death professor going berserk. “Oh, hello, new students. Here’s your wand. There are no monsters wandering the streets of Wizard City, so go about your business. Don’t worry about Professor Malistaire, he may seem gruff, but he likes puppies and loves his wife. If he should happen to go insane, I’m sure your experience never casting the one spell you have will be adequate to stop him.” ...