Please Hold

My internet of fail suddenly decided that Wizard101 was the root of all evil and that I should be banned from both the game and the website. Needless to say this has made me very grumpy.
In the meanwhile, I'll try and figure out why my internet is messing with my mind, and you can ooh and ahh at my super cool new robe I got when I became commander a couple days ago!

Alright, maybe it isn't that exciting for everyone else. But I am so excited to have this robe. I've been admiring them since I joined the game! I now officially look like a "cool kid" or some one who "knows what they're doing"! I could not be happier!

Also don't forget to enter my little contest (everyone has a shot at the prize!) which ends on April 2nd.  You could win Magma Peas! Which are crowns seeds and will give you mega snacks. They are very nice I have several myself.

Hopefully, nothing TOO awesome will happen whilst I cannot get into the game. 

~Heather

P.S. Yes. I know that I've just jinxed it.

"Now that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard"

Oh sure it may look like a Pet Rock...

Betcha didn't see that one comin'.

I think my only complaint is that I cannot name my rock "Groucho" so I had to name him "Chico". (The wrongness!)

Okay and now, that we've gotten that out of the way... here is the exact train of thought in my mind when I first saw/read about the "trolling stone". This may seem random, and it is, but it's rather funny. 

First thought: "That rock doesn't look like Mick Jagger!"

Second thought: "GROUCHO!"



Third thought: "I want to feeeeeel... like a trolling stone!"

Then that song got stuck in my head and I spent a good twenty minutes going: "How does it feel-- SHOOT! THAT SONG!"
But I like the pet. Pets that remind me of Groucho Marx can never be a bad thing.
~Heather

Show Me the Onion Domes

If you thought I was referring to a tasty snack, alas no.
I was referring to the architectural wonder, the onion dome.

Why am I mentioning onion rings--uh domes! and making everyone hungry? I'll come straight to the point. I would like a world in Wizard101 that is based on Russia. 

We could have really awesome onion domed houses, and sleighs that take us from area to area like in Krokotopia and Zafaria with the boats. We could have fur trimmed outfits with large hats, fur lined hoods, huge boots, and those double breasted tunics that cowboys also wear! 

Not only would we get a great looking world, eastern europe is full of wonderful folklore and mythology. Not to mention all of the real legendary battles, history, and art! 

In order to keep it in line with Marelybone's story line it would have to be imperial Russia, that is when the Tzars ruled, almost at the end of their reign. (Right when Anton Chekov was around!!! Ahem. But they don't have to do that.) Actually this is perfect timing because there was so much wonderful art being created at this time and the whole empire was starting to become unsettled and uneasy. Just perfect. Oooh! KI why haven't you done this yet!? It's so perfect.

~Heather

Seeing green

St. Patrick's Day is always fun around my family. We eat our traditional irish potato soup, and watch the film The Quiet Man. Good times.

This year I caved and bought some holiday wands that I've been eyeing for three years now. I usually like to farm for them but I've been short on time because of school.

I really like the shillelagh. It's unusual, I never see people with it. It also makes me feel a little bit like Yoda. 

source

~Heather

Old School

When I was a kid, we didn't have no stinking MMOs.
When I was a kid we didn't even have a Gameboy Advance.
We still played a lot of games. We played board games! I can think of many happy afternoons when I beat the pants off my friends. I can also think of many less happy afternoons when the beat me. We liked to play:

Monopoly
Oh gosh. I was a champ at Monopoly! One time I had to give money back to the bank! Hehe! When I say Monopoly, I mean the classic version. None of this "New York", "Star Trek", "Chocolate" business. Honest to goodness Monopoly. With the dog and the horse and rider and thimble!
Clue
I loved Clue! Granted, after about the tenth time it got a little old, because there's not that much to it. That's when you make up the confessions. "I did it. I killed him because I've always hated him since he stole my bike when I was four years old. When I entered the Library I saw my chance. I grabbed the candlestick and smashed it over his head!" (What makes you think I was a morbid kid?) If you'd like something that's a little more substantive, try Harry Potter Clue. I got it for a friend's birthday and we tried it out. It was much more involved and more fun for us. Plus we get to play as HP characters. I always play as Neville.
Candyland
Is Candyland the most annoying game ever, or the most fun? Yes. You have to get an older version with all the slightly creepy characters (I had one from the 80s for many years until it fell apart, that one is my favorite version). Like Plumpy. It's really simplistic game, so it's great to play with younger kids/siblings/cousins. I don't know, there's something magical about following the brightly colored squares to Candyland.
Uno
If you haven't played the card game Uno at least once in your life, you haven't lived as far as I'm concerned. You would think that Uno would be really boring because it's so repetitive but it's not. Just when you think you're about to win, three players give you draw two cards. Then the wonderful verbal sparring begins. We've had Uno matches that have gotten so loud... I'm surprised nobody called the cops! Then you get all the funny different versions. I had Hello Kitty and Harry Potter versions. They all have their own special ability cards. But no one can ever remember what they mean! So it's really all the same. Good loud fun.
Trivial Pursuit
We have this super old one from the 80s (although it might be from the early 70s). I would recommend getting one that is slightly more modern, unless you happen to know a lot about the 1974 olympics! I really like Trivial Pursuit, it's like my life, in a board game form! So much random useless trivia. Then there's always the fun of picking a really obnoxious topic when you're friend is about to win the game. "Name the swimmer who broke the world record for freestyle in 1967." "...Bob Hope! WHAT THE HECK DO I KNOW?!" "Heheh!" "Shut up."

(Here are some games that I've been introduced to more recently, but if I was a kid today, I would totally jump all over because they are SUPER fun)


Sleeping Queens
This is actually a card game that is ridiculously fun. It's kind of hard to describe, but it involves dragons, magic potions, and cookie kings. If that doesn't make you want to try the game I don't know what will.
Ticket to Ride Europe
This game is not based on the Beatles song (but you could always play it in the background!). It's about connecting railroad lines from destination to destination. My friends got it for me just a few years ago. I love this game! It has the right blend of concentration, competition, and imagination. It's kind of like the better version of Castle Risk. You know, the one that doesn't take four hours to play, and involve many tiny pieces that end up getting stepped on.
Bananagrams
It's the not-extremely-annoying version of Scrabble! I don't even really remember what the rules are, I just like to plop a bunch of tiles on my desk and try to make the words I can with them. But when you play with the rules, it's fun too. It's also achievable, unlike Scrabble. I can make words! Short words! Words that I know! Plus it comes in a pouch that's shaped like a banana, which is awesome.

It is so odd for me, who grew up playing the actually games to now be able to play everything on my mobile device. I have my Monopoly app with me wherever I go, no need for counting out paper money or little plastic houses. My friends often say, "Hey let's play Monopoly!" "Sure! I'll get the board--" "Oh, let's play the app. It takes to long to set up the board." But in all honesty I like playing with the board game. I like sitting around the card table with my friends. I like having to clean up all the pieces when somebody bumps the table with their elbow. It's fun. It's a way of connecting.

So, with all that said, I have a challenge for you. Spring break is about to start, why not invite your friends over and play some board games? If you do, please comment and tell me:
 What game you played (it has to be a board game, a real one, not an app or computer version)
 If it was a new game for you or not
Who you played it with (example: my friend Cassie, or my little brother, or my mom, etc.)
What you liked about playing it
And finally who won the game!
One of the people who comments with all the correct information will receive two Evil Magma Pea seeds! I will use a random generator to decide who gets the prize, so everyone has a chance. I'll end the contest on April 2nd at 12pm PST.

I hope you all have a great break and try some new games. Old school style!

Things I Wish I Had Known....

This game. Wizard101. It's not all that easy. Especially for people like me, who are novices when it comes to MMOs and "serious" gaming. I've been thinking a lot lately about how the game has gotten much easier than when I started playing it almost three years ago. Then I thought about how my friends that I met after I became a grandmaster really helped me out. They introduced me to concepts and styles of gameplay that made the game much more enjoyable. I've met some players recently who haven't been playing as long as I have and it's really taken me back to the days when I had no idea what I was doing! It was a lot of fun to be figuring it out on my own, but it was also really tough (I don't think Nightside was meant to be a four hour dungeon....). So I wanted to take some blogging time and talk about the features of the game that I wish I had known about back when I was starting.

The biggest thing I learned that saved me much heartache was the difference between crowns gear and school specific gear. Granted, it took me until level 50 when I got my Malistaire robe to figure it out, but from there it was onwards and upwards. Let me explain.

Here are two pairs of level 60+ shoes. Take a moment to look at the stats. Which one would you wear? Maybe you picked the Kozane Boots because they give better health, accuracy, block, and incoming health. Plus the have this spiffy spell card. But look, they don't have any additional strength at all. Strength is important (and this is something that I found out the hard way). Lets say I cast a Humongofrog with only my Kozane Boots on, and that I haven't enchanted it and I'm not using any blades or traps. This humongofrog will hit between 265-325 damage points. Eh, not bad but definitely not great. If I put on my Tricksy Boots it will it between 353-421 damage points. That's your fourteen percent at work right there. And that's quite a lot when your trying to get your 8 Conga Drums from Restless Lion Spirits.

"But look at the spiffy card!" you might be saying. Well, it certainly is spiffy and I'd love to try it out, but it's 5 pips and a Balance spell, so I'm probably never going to use it. Five pips is a lot when you consider that when you're 60+ they are mostly power pips. So that means if I cast Obsidian Colossus with 5 power pips I could've casted...

I think when you illustrate it like that you can see why using spells from your own school is smart. This is another thing that took me forEVER to learn. But I'll talk about that at length some other day. 

So in conclusion, the reason it's good to wear clothes that are tailored to your school is because they meet your school's needs. I don't need a ton of accuracy as a myth wizard, but my storm wizard does! Her clothes are suited to meet her needs. Crowns clothes however, aren't tailored to meet any one school's specific needs and therefore can be less beneficial to use. You might have cool new cards and a snazzy matching outfit, but it doesn't matter if you die all the time in battles!

And that's something I've learned.

~Heather