Truly fun for all ages

Well, here I was, doing some light grinding in Golem Tower. By my side, 2 little ones, ages 5(girl) and 3(boy).

The 5 year old has taken to asking :
"Are you playing Won-Oh-Won?"
"Is that Won-Oh-One?"
"I like Won-Oh-Won."

So, I had a young fan club watching with rapt attention, as I monotonously swept through the floors, repeatedly dancing around the Iron Golem. Soon enough, the 3 and 5 year old displayed their understanding of what was going on, in their own curious little ways:

"Oh! Vampire is going to put the robot in time out! Bye-bye, robot!"
"Flap, flap, flap!"
"Shovelman!"
"Arrrrr, matey!"
"Hahaha! He fell apart and made a big mess!That's silly!" (Iron Golem)
"He hit you! He's naughty!Bad robot!"
"no leper-cons!"

It's always refreshing to see the world, through new eyes. Long ago, I had a Sensai that told me to "always keep your beginner's mind". What he meant by that was " do not let your accumulated learning weaken your original hunger to learn all you can".short version: "Don't get jaded."
You know how it is. Remember your first day in Wizard City, when *everything* was new? All you knew was "how much you didn't know". And so, you learned. A lot. As much as you could.

Fast forward to present day. Do you still have that same "gotta learn it all" enthusiasm? Odds are, "no". That's not to say that you don't love the game, but it's a natural part of human nature, (often coined negatively as "Familiarity breeds contempt", or "resting on your laurels"). We get so used to a "thing", (in this case, W101), that sometimes we forget the magic that swept us up, in the first place.

Thanks to the don't-know-any-better wisdom of a 5 year old, and a 3 year old, I have been reminded to "keep my beginner's mind". Food for thought.

Be well!

History of Wiz 101

Hiya, Graveyard Wanderers,
Just passing on a bit of W101 update notes, about....um, update notes. You *do* read the update notes, right?

Just a quick look at the synopsis, shows just how far KI has come, in (really) so short a time. The fact that the game you play 'today' is not the game we played 'yesterday'. Almost 2 years, already? Wow.

Finally got around to re-testing the test realm, and was pleasantly surprised by the small 'tweaks', that I noticed, (not all of them related to pets). Each of these small, seemingly unrelated adjustments seems to be 'minor', in and of itself, like a single drop of water in a cup. Given time, though, those drops add up, and soon enough, our cups runneth over.

So, why not take a moment, and see just how full our cups are now, as opposed to where they *were*, (and then project that forward to where they *will be*).

I think we need bigger cups.

Be well.

Curses! Foiled again!

Yes, dear Graveyard wanderers, it's "sad, but true". Friendly's level-headed, slow-to-draw-conclusions, and let's-go-check-the-actual-facts demeanor has prevailed, yet again.

I'll get you next time, Friendly! Next tiiime!

Maybe I should just take a moment to consider that Friendly's way might just be the right way. Keeping an "even keel", and not "flying off the handle" into wild speculations.Actually getting the facts, and not jumping to conclusions...
...
.....
......
Nah.

I mean, as excellent as Friendly is, and prodigious, and well loved and respected by all (including me), he just doesn't seem to echo the inspiring motivational poster quoting the sage wisdom of Dark Helmet:

Um, other than that, I got nothing.

(And thanx for being such a good sport, Friendly!)

Be well!

This video should be remade

(curse you, Friendly, now I'm all nostalgic!) I really think someone good with audio/fraps should make a wizard101 version of this: (Go ahead, tell me you can't see this in Wizard City, heckhound, even the original video has the 'power pip' sound in it!)



The Wizard Dance
W-w-w-w-I-i-i-a-Z-z-z-Z-z-z-A-a-a-a-R-r-r-D-d-d
Wiz, dance!

[Spoken]
We can cast if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't cast and if they don't cast
Well they're no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to
Dragonspyre's mighty fine
And we can act like we come from out of this spiral
Leave the real world far behind
And we can cast

[Sung]
We can cast if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't cast and if they don't cast
Well they're no friends of mine
I say, we can go where we want to
Maybe go to Grizzleheim
And we can act like we come from out of this spiral
Leave the real world far behind
And we can Cast
Caa-aast!

We can go when we want to
The dead all live and so do I
And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet
And surprise 'em with the Banshee cry
Say, we can cast if want to
If we don't nobody will
And you can act real cool and totally improved
We've got a Dragon Titan left to kill

[Refrain]
I say, we can cast, we can cast
Everything is under control
We can cast, we can cast
We're doing it from hall to hall
We can cast, we can cast
Everybody look at your hands
We can cast, we can cast
Every Storm Wiz iz takin' the cha-a-a-ance

Wizard dance
Is it safe to cast
Is it safe to cast
W-w-w-w-I-i-i-a-Z-z-z-Z-z-z-A-a-a-a-R-r-r-D-d-d
Wiz, dance!

We can cast if we want to
We've got all your life wizards in line
So long we don't abuse it, never gonna lose it
Everything'll work out fine
I say, we can cast if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't cast and if they don't cast
Well they're no friends of mine

[Refrain]

Is it safe to cast, oh is it safe to cast [6x]
Is it safe to cast

Ha!

Dearest Friendly,

I see your tweet, and raise you a video!



Gotta love *anything* with Sir Christopher Lee in it! (And yes, those are the same two twins from Terminator 2. Don and Dan Stanton)
Let the blog skirmishes of obscure 80's culture commence! Muah, ha, ha, ha!

Cryptkeeper: What do you get when you cross a witch and an igloo?
The Old Witch: I don't know?
Cryptkeeper: A cold spell

Test Realm Reset

This, according to post at Wiz101 Official:

So, it's only a 4 day rollback. No 'biggie', really, but it has me curious. A 4 day rollback is nothing epic, (and certainly not game breaking, since it *is* Test Realm, after all. I just don't get it. In my experience, a MMO rollback is usually to address an unintentionally coded 'exploit' being used by players. If that's the case, I say 'serves them right', and better that it gets fixed now, as opposed to live. Anyone who has the 'cheat' to get ahead lacks honor, imo, and thus respect. And can someone please tell my *why* there should be people begging for crowns on Test Realm? Actually had someone ask me (and this, after the second issue of the free 100k). Ridiculous. Our main purpose for the Test Realm, (this time around) is the pets.

 "Oh, I bought a couple houses".
On Test Realm? Boggles the mind, it does.

Or, (even better), "Can you help me beat [insert Boss name here]? I beat him once before, but now I have the quest, again.". *sigh*. And guess what? When you go back to live, you've still already beat him.

"Why so serious, Autumn?" "You should lighten up, a bit"."It's probably just a coding issue, on KI's part, that they're fixing".

Meh. It's not really in my nature to look at the "bright side". And besides, The Death School already has a Star Pupil to handle all that: Friendly. Now, don't get me wrong, I respect Friendly to Dragonspyre-and-back, but his level-headedness is not my level-headedness. He'll give a person the "benefit of the doubt", whereas I'll just usually doubt. He'll (usually) give a person the opportunity to correct their errant ways. Me? I'll see their head on a pike at the castle gates, if I had my way. There's a reason that Friendly is the one we all look to for inspiration: He's just that darned good. Me? I tend to slither by on sarcasm. Fortunately, there's room enough in The Spiral for all types. ('cause if it came down to Friendly vs. Me, even I wouldn't vote for me)

A Tale of Two Necros

"Good Necro, Bad Necro". You know which is which.

Okay, this post is going waaaaay off topic. Back to Test Realm Reset.

One way, or another, it shows KI's active development, and bodes well for all future product. (And the 250k crowns is a very nice "sorry for the inconvenience". Keep it up, KI!

What? No time for games!

Back to work, people! We have Celestia to bring forth! (from here)

Headmaster Ambrose schooling the good folks at KingsIsle

btw, How many pips does it cost to cast "ping pong", Headmaster? And which, exactly, school is that?

(I'm going to go with Death School, (of course)), because I have substantial proof:

Yeah, Death School *rules* ping pong!

C'mon, now, would Christopher Walken choose "Life School"? I think not.

Never in a million years. Death School, forever, baby!

Anyone up for a little arena PvPong?