Avalon

Sure, everyone had this figured out awhile ago, but finally it’s announced — the newest world on the Spiral is Avalon.

Professor Greyrose writes:

Avalon is the silver city, a medieval fantasy world of knights, goblins, giants, and dragons. Merle Ambrose was born here, and gained a reputation as a fierce Wizard. Merle helped the young warrior-bear Artorius become king of Avalon. However, once King Artorius fell in the final battle slaying his archrival, Malory, Merle decided it was time to leave Avalon – Merle left to found Ravenwood School of Magical Arts and teach magic to any Wizard who wanted to learn it in the Spiral.

Avalon is a large world with 15 expansive areas to explore. Young Wizards who are a minimum of level 70 and have completed the quest “Through Glass, Darkly” need to speak to Merle Ambrose who will send you off on your adventures with a quest named “This Little Light of Mine”.

I pretty much keep returning to “knights and dragons” because, YUM. Anyone who knows me knows that if there’s a dragon to be killed, I am TOTALLY THERE. That desire for dragonly death held me from TSR’s DragonStrike game, through EverQuest, World of Warcraft and the rest.

Time to get leveling!

Here’s the last puzzle piece, for completeness’ sake:

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Whenever I get confused or overwhelmed in Wizard101, I head to Wintertusk and talk with Mother Raven. These mysterious puzzle pieces had me puzzled… I guess… so I headed over the rainbow bridge to the Wintertusk barge, threaded my way through the slow-moving vultures, worked my way up the root of Yggdrasil and asked her if she could fit these puzzle pieces together.

She said nothing. She just gave me another piece. I had a feeling from her that it would all fit together in the end, but … who can tell? Who can know the future?

Only Mother Raven. And she’s not telling.

This puzzle piece looks like it’s below and slightly to the left of the previous puzzle piece. Where that previous piece looked like something that was being held, here we’re seeing, I believe, a little bit of the person that is doing the holding.

One more piece to go!

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I had to wonder if there were any other puzzle pieces in any of my other character’s homes. To my shock and welcome surprise, Marissa’s wall contained a third mysterious puzzle piece.

It looks to be the right part of some sort of building or statue, which kinda implies it’s on the right side of the puzzle, but not all the way to the edge. The yellow markings could mean Myth or maybe Balance. There’s something poking up from the bottom which could be an axe or a hammer.

Which is it? I have no idea… and I can’t wait to find out!

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The First Piece

This piece looks to be a corner piece… those are always the best pieces to start with! Definitely part of the Wizard101 logo; it kinda looks like a piece of the old Celestia art… but it couldn’t be that.

The second piece

This one’s a real mystery. It looks like sand or stone. Part of the right edge. Edge pieces are good, especially if they fit into a corner piece. These two pieces don’t go together. Maybe if I turned the second one around… and used a hammer and some tape… hmmmm….

I’ve heard rumors of other pieces in other places… There’s a mystery here!

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Ophiga and friend

The big news yesterday was the dropping of the Press NDA for Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. I read all the press reviews I could find; I’ll point to some of those later on, but almost all of them credited the storyline for pulling them deeper into the game. The game mechanics may be old hat, and the standard roles, dungeons and raids are present, but the story, by all accounts, is worth the price of admission.

I still fondly remember the story from the original Knights of the Old Republic. I played the game twice, once good and once evil, and the story didn’t change that much, but that was okay because it was a good story.

That’s really the job of an MMO, isn’t it? To give you something that gets you to log in again each day, and then when you shut the game down one last time, to leave you with some memories.

I don’t HAVE a screenshot of SWTOR, so up there is a shot of my DDO rogue with a Favored Soul hireling. We’ve destroyed a generation of kobolds and I made two new discoveries in the Sands of Menechtarum, but in a few minutes, I and my hireling would be dead. Stupid swarm of revenge-minded kobolds and their named chief…

News? We have that.

SWTOR vs WoW

Well, there’s just not going to be any way of getting around SWTOR for awhile. Not until June, anyway.

After reading all the SWTOR articles, Google Plusser Tasha Schmidt had this to say (unfortunately, I can’t link to it because it wasn’t public (until now)):

Going through all the new SWTOR articles after the embargo drop, I kept seeing the same question in the comments: “Why should I pay $15 a month for essentially a single player game?”

Simply, for a persistent world. Even if you play it mostly single player there is still something to be gained just from it being a persistent world. It can stop being just a game and start to feel like a real RPG where your character matters to you. Even if you decide not to participate in any group content, you will still have experiences with other characters who are not NPCs. This brings a certain level of unpredictability into the game that is just not possible with actual single player games. You can find a social guild and meet other people to share your experiences with even if you choose not to PVP or raid. People who can help you find that last elusive datacron, or suggest a fun path for your next alt.

She’s not wrong. Most MMOs these days are single player games played with other people. Especially toward the beginning. But I just imagine how boring the original Star Wars movie would be if Luke had to do everything alone. (Well, in SWTOR, everyone but Luke would be a scripted NPC).

Over at Player vs Developer, the Chartreuse Cingulata notes the suspiciously suspicious timing that puts Blizzcon just a couple days after SWTOR makes its grab for publicity. Will Blizzard announce their next-gen MMO, Titan, and push SWTOR news back to the dusty digital archives?

The Ancient Gaming Noob hopes so. He’s still reeling from the Cataclysm that killed his interest in WoW. A new expansion might do it… a new MMO, definitely.

Syp over at Bio Break has a good roundup of the SWTOR press coverage.

Lingering Malaise

Tobold has done SCIENCE! to discover just exactly at what rate the global interest in MMORPGs has declined. But we must always remember that there are not “MMORPGs” to most people, there is only “WoW” and “games that just want to be WoW”. The genre went mainstream with WoW, and will become niche again as WoW fades away.

Then again, people are paying up to $180 on eBay for a single Blizzcon ticket… It can’t be doing that bad.

Millions and Millions

SOE announced that 20 million accounts have been created in Free Realms, which is by any measure pretty damn impressive. For comparison, Wizard101 made that milestone in July, which is cool, too. RuneScape, on the other hand, hit the 156 million account mark way back in 2009.

I appreciate that these are great milestones, but the only figure I’m really interested in, in a free to play game, is how much money they take in per user. Subscription games make $10-$15/month/user. We know F2P players pay MUCH less. If they can get away with it, they pay nothing at all. It’s the “Whales” that splurge on F2P games that keep these games running.

So, F2P games — how many whales swim in your oceans?

The Secret World

Funcom has been teasing us with news and forum games about their conspiracy-laden MMO, “The Secret World”. Ars Technica got a chance to see it in action at the New York Comic Con last week. People have been begging for a horror-themed MMO for years; will Funcom be able to deliver? High-profile misses like Anarchy Online and Age of Conan have made people understandably wary of Funcom’s ability to make a game as good as the hype. Ars thinks the lore might possibly be enough to make people overlook the wooden characterizations.

Well, people said that about Age of Conan, too.

Bless

MMOSite blurbs forthcoming Korean MMO “Bless”. According to the article,

“BLESS” aims to surpass not just the limits of current MMORPGs, but games as a whole.

Judge for yourself. Included in the “Bless” trailer, which in the grand old MMO tradition, contains no hint of what the actual game is like.

In this as in so many other things, EverQuest was a leader. After seeing the opening video below, people loudly wondered in Verant’s hearing why the GAME wasn’t like this?

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Pining for Hrundle Fjord

It’s been no real secret that Wizard101′s Ravenwood Academy owes at least a little of its inspiration to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. Alison Goldtalon and I were having a chat with Grandmother Raven over in Wintertusk; we’d just tied some gewgaws to the threads of our destiny in the Loom of Fate and freed her. Forgotten was that we’d earlier been told that because we were outsiders, the threads of our destiny were not part of the fabric of Wintertusk reality.

Well, NOW they are. ANYWAY, Headmaster Ambrose, using that mind talk voodoo all the Ravenwood faculty have mastered, summoned us back from deciding the fate of Wintertusk to give us some exciting news.

The Spiral Cup!

Finally! We’d teach those uppity upstarts at Hogwarts a thing or three. Those losers get all heartsore if they just see a couple of giant spiders. At Ravenwood, we fight the primal forces of nature.

Get ready, Potter. You may have overcome Death, but you have no power over Life.

Ambrose gave us the Spiral Key for the world of Wysteria, and we set off.

Wysteria, home of the famous wizarding school of… Pigswick?

Pigswick?

This is not Dumbledore.

Bait and switch much, Ambrose?

Well, before we can compete in the competition for the Spiral Cup, we have to win a series of duels against Pigswick students, and if the first couple of battles are any clue, this should be an easy run. But… rumor has it that the higher form students cheat. And the headmistress knows about it and does nothing!

The grand prize

That doesn’t matter. I will defeat my enemies. I will drive them before me and hear the lamentation of their pets.

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Alison Goldtalon notices something

THE CONTEST HAS ENDED! SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR THE LIST OF WINNERS!

The answer was Greyson Chance, and the silver chest was in the Library.

Woot! West Karana is proud to announce that we are giving away *15* Balance Houses to anyone that can solve Alison Goldtalon’s puzzle! Since everyone says my puzzles have been too easy, I’ve made this one (I hope) a little more challenging!

Here’s how to enter.

First, solve Alison’s puzzle. It *may* help to go into Wizard101 and have a look around the Balance home there. It shouldn’t be necessary. Once you have the solution, e-mail it to me at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. This is important. I will be turning off comments on this post so that the puzzle doesn’t get spoiled for everyone else.

Each day I will choose *two winners* from among the correct answers received until then. Be sure you have included an e-mail address with your entry where I can send a code if you win! I will be posting the winner’s names to this post as the codes are won.

If you are a lucky winner, head to http://www.wizard101.com/promo to redeem your prize and claim your new home! (Be sure you have space enough for a new home on the wizard who claims the prize!)

That’s the important stuff! Now, here’s the puzzle:

Map of Balance Excavation

Alison Goldtalon was standing in the basement excavation of her Balance home, when she, by chance, noticed that each of the seven rooms had a chest in it, and each of the chests was made of a different material. If you went counter-clockwise starting in the nearest room, the first letters of the material the chest in that room was made in would spell the name of her favorite singer.

She is keeping the Balance House codes in a silver chest. Who is Alison Goldtalon’s favorite singer, and which room holds the silver chest?

HINTS!!!!!

• The room that looks like it might say “SALINA” really should say “SAUNA”. Selena Gomez is not the singer. Good guess, though!
• Alison is standing outside the Wyrmkin Room. If you look carefully, you can find the chest in that room.
• The material of that chest provides the first letter of the singer’s name. The singer’s last name is given somewhere in the puzzle description.
• Woody Guthrie is not the answer :-) We’re looking for a ROOM name and a SINGER’S name.

WINNERS!!!

1. Morgrim Deathwielder
2. Adrianna Aune
3. Alura HexCaster
4. Justus Story
5. Saffron Fireblossom
6. Jose
7. Alyssa Moonheart
8. Paige Unicorncaller
9. Matthew
10. Valdus Talegiver
11. Noffin (forgot your wizard name :/ )
12. Eric Bearstrider
13. Lane Mills
14. Dylan GhostRider, the hardest working wizard in the Spiral!

I used random.org to help me award the last two homes to the people who gave the correct answer today. Here’s the list from random.org:

There were 6 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Jacob Redblade
2. Victoria AngleBlossom
3. Moria Shadow
4. Blaine Lionheart
5. Amanda
6. Wolf NIghttail

Timestamp: 2011-08-19 02:23:16 UTC

Grats to Jacob and Victoria!

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Mythology 101!

I spent a few nights last week getting my Myth wizard, Tara Mythcrafter, through Grizzleheim so she could enter Wintertusk. She was already max level when Grizzleheim came out, and it just made more sense to put my alt team through, as they could use the experience and loot. When Wintertusk was released and I found it required Grizzleheim, I was at a loss.

Nothing for it but to rush through from showing my bravery to bears to destroying the coven — twice. I’d missed a necessary update the first time through. It wasn’t tough, though — a level 60 balance wizard and a level 60 life wizard have little to fear from some old crows.

Imagine my surprise when, in Wintertusk, that same team was almost wiped out by three “trash” frost goblins. I officially hate Tower spells, when monsters play them, anyway.

So, here are the Norns. Ravens here, but in myth, they represented the divine force of women. From the sacred Eddas:

12. “Tell me then, Fafnir,
for wise thou art famed,
And much thou knowest now:
Who are the Norns
who are helpful in need,
And the babe from the mother bring?”

Fafnir spake:
13. “Of many births
the Norns must be,
Nor one in race they were;
Some to gods, others
to elves are kin,
And Dvalin’s daughters some.”

So they might as well be ravens as anything else. Note that some of the Norns were kin to Dvalin, that is to say, dwarfs. Note that Tolkein stole Dvalin from the Eddas, named him Dwalin, and inserted him into The Hobbit. These old Norse songs and legends are the truth source of Middle-Earth. Tolkein himself was a scholar of the old Norse legends, and never made a secret of the source of his stories. The One Ring itself was based on old legends that were woven into an epic opera of heroic fantasy, Das Ring der Nibulengen, a fifteen hour work meant to be presented over four nights. The first night is a prelude. The next three nights are the trilogy. Tolkein happily followed suit in his Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

So anyway, these particular raven Norns informed me that, as an outsider (an Auslander?), I am not part of the destiny they weave, so I can change the Fate that would cover the entire Spiral in ice once the evil ravens awaken the Ice Titan.

I was consumed by questions.

• Shouldn’t this be an Ice Jotun from Jotunheim?
• Now that Wintertusk is inviting wizards in, does this mean the Fate they weave is pretty much destroyed forever now?
• If Norns traditionally were midwives that helped women birth their children, what role do they have in a race that lays eggs?
• Why do the raven Norns have breasts?
• If they are weaving Fate, why can’t they just weave the Ice Titan’s defeat?
• Why can’t these Norns just do the tasks themselves?

I ask too many questions. But… I am on a quest for answers! One thing’s for sure, though. I bet I’ll be meeting the Ice Titan in battle at some point.

And it’s for damn sure that I won’t be getting any help from Ambrose or the other master wizards at Ravenwood. That Ambrose fella even informed me that even though I would be saving the world — ALL the worlds — I shouldn’t expect to get a pass on any schoolwork.

Forget that. When I save Wintertusk, I’m going back to Dragonspyre and re-opening the Dragonspyre Academy. Our motto: More saving the world. Less homework.

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I received over 1,400 correct entries to my Manta Ray giveaway! That was a LOT! So, I guess the answer (A ARMY ANT) was pretty obvious, and maybe letting everyone see what everyone else answered made it REALLY easy but hey, I wasn’t interested in giving the SAT here :)

Extra smiles to the people who said “ANT MARY”! I’m from New England and we pronounce “aunt”, “ahhnt”, so I didn’t get the pun until several people pointed it out to me :) That was considered a correct answer as well.

The winners were (I have removed their host name to save them from spam):

Ryan ryanrosen@removed.com
Jessica jess7525@removed.com
kevin sgt.banana64@removed.com
Morgan FairyBlossom phoenix_starlight_dreamer@removed.com
Brooke bmhoese@removed.com
David Blueeyes davntam@removed.com
Kieran Stormcaller kstormcaller@removed.com
Ebony Midnight ebonymidnight@removed.com
scott fireman11@removed.com
Heather SkyRunner hcjohnson5412@removed.com
Michael rexblaze3@removed.com
Grace gracepoulos@removed.com
DANIEL pastdjmp@removed.com
Dazzlegreen girtalk78@removed.com
Matthew mathumatster16@removed.com

Congratulations on your new MANTA RAY! E-Mails have been sent to each of you with your code. If you haven’t gotten it, let me know. Check your spam folder! I tried not to use any words which would make the e-mail seem to be spam, but you never know.

I have ONE MORE CODE to give away! And I’m just going to put it right here in this post — the first one to redeem it, gets it. Since everyone was asking for a hard contest, this last ray will go out to a master puzzle solver indeed. Don’t ask for help or hints — this is meant to be hard (at least I’d find it so if I were trying to solve it). I also won’t know if someone guesses it and gets the ray unless someone tells me — so if you solve it and get the fish, let me know!

Good luck! If you think you’ve got it, head to http://www.wizard101.com/promo and enter it to see if you’ve won. The code is 20 letters and digits long.

The riddle was solved by Zitio (see comment below). Grats Zitio!

I am the beginning of all things. I can be found in hospitals, libraries and classrooms but never in orbit, underground or cafeterias (but booksellers know me well). I am the number of fingers on one hand, but not on two. If you know I hate thumbs, then you know how I count the fingers on two hands. I haven’t failed, but almost missed the grade. Now that you know I hate thumbs, how many fingers on my left hand? I like tollbooths, swallows, and willows but not minnows, toboggans or bosses. Pie are round, but six are square. I like coral, teal and pearl but hate tin, tan and brown. Six are still square. Why isn’t a woman an oman? How many hands, again? Why isn’t a man an an? How many feet again? I love quizzes, quarries and Qatar, but I hate tests, pits and Kuwait. Call me ‘sir’ as I make this letter on the chessboard. I play games so poorly that all I ever see are a pair of crying eyes.

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The first place they’d have to come to find the Very Best Manta Rays would be very deep in the Spiral, in a watery realm called Celestia. Maybe Selena Gomez could mention it to them because, heck, she’s been there already. She’s scoped out the fine mantas of Calypso’s realm for sure. Camera crews might be on their way — in fact one camera crew surprised me in my home while I was training a new crop of rays.

Fact is, we’re overstocked with manta rays. I can’t afford to keep them all, and besides, who can ride more than one? KingsIsle has graciously offered me codes for fifteen of the startled looking ocean gliders, so here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to tell you a few facts about manta rays, and at the end I’m going to ask you a question about manta rays. Leave a comment with your answer, and I will randomly choose fifteen of the correct answers and send you a code for a Permanent Manta Ray mount!

A couple of rules before we get started: Make sure you leave an e-mail address where you can be reached with the comment — there’s a field for it. Don’t put your e-mail address in the body of the comment, spammers will find it there.

Second, the contest will run from Wednesday, March 30 to Thursday, April 7th.

Third, I do not work for KingsIsle; I have no affiliation with them aside from being a big fan of Wizard101. I can’t get more codes; when these are gone, they’re gone.

SO ANYWAY! Here’s some facts about MANTA RAYS.

1. Manta rays love paintings by A ARTY MAN.
2. Serve sweet potatoes to a manta ray and you’ll hear A YAM RANT.
3. if a manta ray goes to a zoo, they will stop and stare AT ANY RAM.
4. Last time a manta ray went to a concert, it RAN AT MYA.
5. And in spring, manta rays like to swim in A MAY TARN.

Now the question for YOU is…

What is a manta ray’s favorite insect?

Leave a comment and let me know below!

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