How to Create an In-Game Christmas Tree

Hey, all!

Last year, my PVP team and I took this holiday photo in front of a tree that I made in December 2010.  This year, I'll take you behind-the-scenes so you can create one of your very own:

Happy Holidays!

Petnome's Pet Feeding List

Another tool/reference page the Petnome Project is providing and maintaining is a "library" of all the possible Pet Feeding rewards for certain items:  The Pet Feeding List.  If you need a quick way to access this without adding it to your favorites, just remember that you can find this over at the Petnome Project (one of the links at the top of the front page), or visit:

http://tinyurl.com/petfeedinglist

The link must be typed in verbatim to this, or else your browser will become lost in the interwebs!

If you'd like to help us out, please visit

http://tinyurl.com/petnomefeed

Zafaria Test Realm Patched!

Recently, the Test Realm has been updated with a few new tweaks:

Transcription

Kevin:  Hey guys, Battleblood here.  So, there're some exciting updates in the game now, in Zafaria!  I'm actually on the Live Realm farming Nastrond -- I'll soon explain why we're farming here.  

First of all, there's been an update to the Henchmen.  You can actually fight with creatures of the Spiral...next to you.  So, you can literally have a Helephant -- well, not a Helephant, but one of the Black Cultists from Zafaria -- as a Level 70 Henchman.  They're supposed to be stronger, since they're more expensive.  I think they're 400 Crowns, but they're (supposedly) worth it.  They're worth buying -- I guess -- if you're in a rut, or if you're stuck somewhere.  They have higher Critical Rates...

At the same time, the creatures of the Spiral (in Zafaria) also have higher Critical Rates themselves.  Thus, your battles could be a lot longer than before.  I know their Health has spiked up along with their Critical Rates.  What that means is that there's a chance you might be spending much more time fighting than running around and questing, depending on how many teammates you have, and it might be harder to Block their Criticals.  You might have to shield more, or even use Conviction in your decks now, especially to ensure that you don't become stunned.  I remember from last night fighting Life mobs, and they've used Forest Lord on their first turn, and they actually saved up Pips to to another Forest Lord after that.  Because I was by myself, I had to work out some heals, get my own Vengeance up (so I can Critical better on them) and escape the battle faster to collect the Health wisps.  That's the good news: there's an abundant amount of Health wisps flying around.  Therefore, you might not struggle that much, but it's all about what you do in the battles now.

I don't know if the Bosses themselves have changed, but I'll do a Vlog on that when I get the chance.

As for now, Pet Feeding has also been tweaked a little bit!  But, before we get to that...

Some spells have been amp'ed up or nerfed:  there are the Sirens, which have been nerfed -- it went from 900-something damage to 800-something; Dr. Katzenstein's Monster has been renamed -- or, maybe it's always been that way (I haven't been paying attention) -- but it's called Dr. Von's Monster, and it does Life Steal still, but now it's buffed so that it adds a 25% Infection on the target; and, Chimera has about 30 damage added to each head, so it's an increase of 90 -- they didn't really add any other special effects (which is a little disappointing for some Balance wizards; I was kind of hoping that one of the heads might give a small DoT that does 90 damage to help remove shields from one Spiritual School).

The reason why I'm in Nastrond is because KingsIsle has expanded the window on what items can give Pet XP (PXP)!  To follow up on the last Vlog, where I said that it was based on regular or holiday Crowns items: now you can feed Auctionable items!  Last night, I went into the Bazaar, and bought a bunch of Level 0-1 Amulets (which gave Firecat), and started feeding my pet those.  It actually gained 1 XP here, and 1 XP there!  Most of the time, though, it received gold.

Now, that's not totally profitable if you're looking for an income of gold.  In the example above, I'm purchasing these Amulets for 38 gold each, but received only 2 gold back if my pet didn't gain XP.  My strategy is to collect as many Non-Auctionable items as possible, and feed that to my pets!  The cool part is that there is no difference between feeding your pet a No Auction item (and receiving gold for that) than selling it to a Shop Vendor (like the Seamstress, for example).  

So, what I'm doing here is collecting as many No Auction items as possible -- since it's from a high-level world, I'll have a chance of 4 XP per feed, if I get lucky.  Or, I can get the same gold I'd get if I sold it to a vendor, (plus some additional rewards like Reagents or Treasure Cards).

Plan to plant many Pink Dandelions, King Parsleys, Silver Trumpet Vines, or any of those plants that tend to give their own seeds at Mature or Elder.  I know that Silver Trumpet Vines sometimes like to give two of their own seeds at Elder; Prickley Bears also do this.  There's a small chance for Pet XP when you feed your pet these surplus seeds.

If your items are Auctionable, I would recommend selling to the Bazaar if you're short on gold, rather than feeding it to your pets.  If they're not Auctionable, you can feed those items on-the-go to make room for Auctionables!  If you'd like to see the results of the Pet Buffet Survey yourself, you can go to http://tinyurl.com/petnomefeedresults, or you can conveniently visit the Petnome Project and browse the links towards the top of the front page.  There will be a spreadsheet which has collected a bunch of data from numerous contributors, and if you scroll down towards the bottom, you'll pass the light-blue colored text (which represents the data accumulated before this Test Realm Patch) and come upon the current data in solid, black text.  It will help give an idea of which items are giving PXP!

Last, but not least, if you look at the Update Notes on the official site, they've scratched out the word "sometimes" and written in "occasionally" (in the Pet Feeding section).

I hope you've enjoyed this video; if you did, please Subscribe, Like, and/or Comment if you have some questions, and I hope to see you guys in the Spiral, and hope you've enjoyed your day!  Peace out!

"Next World" Leveling Preparation

Ever reach the level cap and feel like you've accomplished everything, and end up ignoring the side quests hiding around the Spiral?  Or, if you are a hardcore "completionist," ever feel the need to clean out your Quest Book?  Here are some tips on how changing those impulses may be beneficial for the long run:

Morse Code and Second Mystery Picture

Today, a new mystery picture for the jungle-themed world has been released on ZAM.com, along with a coded message at the top:

So, naturally, Katherine Light and I once again cracked open our Morse Code sheet:

...and in a short time, deciphered the following message:

@SirWolfblood asks, "How did you decode it?"

Honestly, the last Mystery Picture and this one are the only times I have ever worked with Morse Code -- it was an intimidating cryptogram for me back in middle school.  Then again, after asking some military veterans at my workplace about their knowledge of Morse Code, they've confirmed that they're just as fluent as I am, save for "SOS."  So in a way, it's almost a "dead language"...which makes sense, considering that it can be internationally deciphered, and national security secrets are supposed to be national security secrets.  Anyway, my method of deciphering the code may be very primitive and inexperienced; I accept that!  But, since it was asked, I shall share!

Let's look at a different sequence:

   - - - - - . - . . . . .  | - . - . - - - - . . .

According to the Morse Code chart above, every letter has a minimum of one character OR maximum of four characters.  It gets a tiny bit more complicated when numbers are involved, but we can use a method called elimination to find out which letters are which.  We'll assume that the vertical line is a symbol for a space between two words.  And, to save some time, both of these are words, and there are no numbers.

So, starting with the first word:   - - - - - . - . . . . . 


Let's start with the maximum possible characters (4) as our first letter.  Already, we know that the first letter of this message CANNOT contain four dashes, as no letter is translated for that.  Thus, we must assume it is represented by the three dashes (or less).

So, we have this:   - - - / - - . - . . . . . 


So, we'll try to find a letter represented by three dashes:  O.  We don't know if it's "O" for sure, because perhaps the third dash may belong to another letter's sequence.  But, we have to assume, for the time being -- we can find out whether it's not by process of elimination!

Now we have:  O - - . - . . . . .


Let's repeat the process and look at the next four symbols:  Dash Dash dot Dash.  That stands for Q.  Okay,  per a general English language rule, there is usually a "U" after a "Q."  But, "U" consists of dot dot Dash.  So, this word is unlikely to be a real one, but we'll go along with it, JUST in case it's one of those weird words that your suspiciously "clever" friend used on Words With Friends or Scrabble.  Since we have dot dot dot dot as the next four, we'd collectively have "OQH."  Well, how about just dot dot, I?  "OQI."  What about just dot?  E.  "OQE."

To save some reading time, the rest of these combinations do not produce a common word.  So, let's backtrack to the very first letter.

We'll look at just the two Dashes, which represent M.  Again, we don't know if it's this, or the single Dash T, but, the coding must move on!

Thus, we now have:  M - - - . - . . . . .  


Taking a look at the next four characters, we have Dash Dash Dash dot, which equates to...nothing!  So, we'll look at just Dash Dash Dash, which comes out to O.

Therefore, M O . - . . . . . 


Repeating the system, the next four characters are dot Dash dot dot.  L.

M O L . . . 


Now, the true test of this word begins!  The next three characters, dot dot dot, equate to S.  Thus, we assume our first word is "MOLS."

Let's look at the second word:   - . - . - - - - . . .

The first four characters, Dash dot Dash dot become C.  

So, we have  C - - - - . . .

Repeating the process, the next four are ... oh wait!  Dash Dash Dash Dash doesn't exist as a letter, so the next best thing is Dash Dash Dash, which ends up as O.  

Thus, C O - . . .

Finally, Dash dot dot dot becomes a B.

So, we have "MOLS COB."  However, this doesn't make sense, especially if we know that it has to be a commonly used phrase.  So, let's backtrack once again on C, O, and Dash dot dot dot.  Knocking the last letter down a notch, let's look at what Dash dot dot is:  D.  Finally, the single dot is E.

"MOLS CODE."  Now, let's backtrack on the word MOLS, and see if it can be read any differently, too.

M O L . . . 

If we treat dot dot and the last dot as two separate letters, we'll have MOLIE or MOLEI, or MOLEEE.  Thus, let's backtrack again on "L."

M O . - . . . . .

Thus, let's backtrack again on "L."  Instead of looking at the following four characters, let's focus on just three: dot Dash dot.  This represents R.

M O R . . . .

Based on our system, the last letter could be H, but since "MORH" isn't a common word, we should break it down further.  dot dot dot then gives us S, and the final dot an E.  

M O R S E   C O D E

Kudos to such an intricate way to hide a message...not only do you have to decipher the entire phrase, but you have to ensure that each word fits and is context with the rest of the phrase.  Mols is supposedly a peninsula in Europe, and a "Mols Code" could relate to an actual guideline or set of rules placed by residents...but unless a theme is known, misinterpretation isn't difficult to discover.

Finally, here is some actual pen-and-paper work that I did on my end:

Anyone else feel that a telegram will be included in this new world?  I think it's very likely!

Arena Design: "Vacuum" - Part 2

Now that you have "shadow floating" in your skills set and the concept of keeping random guests out of the center, let's take a look at how you would enter your duelists:

The miniature "stable" that I set up on the edge of my Celestial Observatory is reserved mainly for team PVP.  There were countless cases when set teams had to restart the Joining Process over and over, simply because eight minds were thinking in different directions, or there were connectivity problems.

If you haven't figured it out yet, you can control the order that teams and players are set up in PVP within a house.  Players from opposing teams must join in alternating fashion.

For example, let's say Team A is composed of Adam, Ben, Carrie, and Denise, and Team B is composed of Eugene, Frank, Gertrude, and Henry.  Team A wants to have Denise go first, followed by Ben, then Adam, and finally Carrie, and Team B wants Gertrude to lead, with Eugene, Henry, and Frank following, in that order.  Thus, for visual simplicity: Team A wants the order of DBAC, and Team B wants the order GEHF.

Since the game will automatically decide on a random turn order for each team, it doesn't matter which team enters first.  But, in the process that follows, it does!  Let's say that Team B decides to enter first; Gertrude would enter the ring to start the countdown.  Since both teams must join in alternating fashion, that means Denise will be the second player to enter.  Now each side of the battle circle has an opposing team member, and you technically have a 1v1 going on.  Thus, Eugene will be the next to enter, followed by Ben, then Henry, then Adam, then Frank, and finally Carrie.  The total join order is G, D, E, B, H, A, F, C.

It sounds elementary, but with a little miscommunication, mistakes can happen...sometimes again, and again, and again.  I remember when the Massive Fantasy Palace came out that it took about 6 or 7 tries in one PVP party until we could finally settle with a Fixed Teams match.  And still, today, it tends to happen, no matter how familiar the players are with the process!

Thus, the little "stable" thing I created is an attempt at "fool-proofing" the initialization of a PVP match.  Let's re-use Team A and Team B in this explanation, but with Team A's lead player (Denise) entering first!

Here's a top-down view of the setup:

Denise and Gertrude would enter the first lane, with a crate separating them from each other.  Ben and Eugene will take the second lane, Adam and Henry in the third, and Carrie and Frank in the fourth.  Since Team A is going first, Denise, Ben, Adam, and Carrie would occupy the space that's closest to the teleporters (and facing them), while Team B would be facing the crates.  So, imagine the top row of players in the picture are labeled D, B, A, and C, and the bottom row are labeled G, E, H, and F, respectively.

When the match is about to begin, all players would AUTORUN forward.  Team A should be running into the edge of the Celestial Observatory, while Team B should be running against the crates.  The host would then click on the Small Purple Rug (which has the Long Blue Runner "bridge" attached) and place the small rug down behind D.  Because there is now a "tangible" area in front of Denise (instead of the boundary of the CL Obs), she will advance forward and into the teleporters.  The crate in the first lane is then removed, allowing Gertrude to follow in the same manner.  The bridge is then moved to the next lane, where it "shoots" Ben towards the teleporters.  The second lane crate is removed, allowing Eugene to follow, and so on.

It sounds a little complex and tedious in writing, but it's a pretty simple (and inexpensive) procedure in the long run.  Maybe we'll have to have some PvP parties to show it in action, sometime!

(This set up is appropriately called "Vacuum" since players enact a "force of gravitational pull" by Autorunning towards the orange "black holes," which spits them into "another universe" where the victims must do battle to return home.)

Arena Design: "Vacuum" - Part 1

Ever tire of asking guests, "Please don't stand in the center," "Please move," or "GET OUTTTTTTT!!!" when they refuse to budge from the center of your residential battle circle?  I know I have.

At first, I tried to combat the issue by placing scrolls around the "inner ring" to create a collision barrier that would keep people out of the middle while allowing potential duelists to still join future matches.  However, it turns out that a player using the "ledge jump" bug (where you play in Windowed Mode, run forward, and click and hold the window "pane" or Wizard101 logo on the window; the bug is visible only to others looking at you, but you will "fly" through walls into space and infinite) can glitch themselves through the barrier.

So, my next idea was to create some kind of one-way ramp...but I was too lazy at the time to want to execute such a time-hoarding plan.  

Welcome to the age of Wysteria's debut, and you know what that means:  Teleporters!

This will be a two-part post; one will detail what "shadow floating" is along with a video demonstrating its use, and the second will show how to utilize "shadow floating" to your teleporters' advantage.  So, let's get started!

"Shadow floating" was discovered on accident while I was working on the barrier scrolls.  You can click on the link above, but if you're not able to hear the audio (or have 'Tube-phobia), I can elaborate what it is here.

Assuming you know the basics, "shadow floating" is a miracle in itself.  When you create a platform (small rug attached to a larger rug; the larger rug will be known as the "platform") and place the combined rugs/platform down, you have created "shadows."  (click on the pictures below to zoom in)

Red line = perimeter of "shadows" | Blue line = perimeter of "no placing furniture here" zone

The blue hashed line shows where you cannot initially place objects within.  The Small Purple Rug and Chessboard have now created a temporary "shadow", which expands the "tangible" terrain.  In other words, this is what happens to the blue line when the platform is set down and then picked up by the Small Purple Rug:

Placement of the rug and chessboard increased the area in which I can place objects down into.  I can click on the Small Purple Rug as this point and create a "leap frog" effect by moving the rug into the space where the chessboard just was:

The Small Purple Rug is now sitting in the chessboard's FORMER shadow.  Once you place the platform down into its previous shadow, that shadow disappears, and a NEW one is created, denoted by the red outline in the above picture.  Let's do it again:

And again...

And one more time...

Still unclear?  Check out this video where I demonstrate how to float the barriers and teleporters close to the battle circle:

Click on the bottom right corner of the player to enter "Full Screen" mode

(to be continued in Part 2)...

View > Hidden Files and Folders (8-Bit Trials Documentary)

>> Opening folder /Kevin_Battleblood_8Bit_Trials
>> ...
>> ...
>> ...
>> Processing...
>> ...
>> ...
>> ...
>> Enter command: start HIAG8BIT.exe
>> ...
>> ...
>> ...
>> Begin HIAG8BIT.exe?  Yes.


>> Text file found. View Day1.txt ? Yes.


>> Opening Day1.txt ...

I honestly have NO idea what I'm getting myself into.  As soon as I opened Autumn Duskhunter's post, it looked like something had corrupted Homework in a Graveyard...  But...there's a distinct message in this.  "Safety."  SOS?  ASHCAN looks promising...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes.


>> Opening Level 1...


>> Text file found.  View Lvl1.txt ? Yes.


>> Opening Lvl1.txt ...

Hm...a little "Da Vinci Code"-esque...  Looks like it's binary, due to 1's and 0's.  Thankfully my new job's required me to utilize graphics editing to build up their Knowledge Retention database via electronic display.  Going to cut up each piece, add Transparency, and set them up as New Layers in GIMP.  Then adjusting pieces based on the known/unknown...  Looks like the "A" and "D"-looking pieces fit here...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes.


>> Solution found.  Corrupted/missing file.




>> View alternate file?  Yes.


>> Proceed? Yes.


>> Opening Level 2...

>> Text file found.  View Lvl2.txt ? Yes.

>> Opening Lvl2.txt ...

Mazes.  Bleh.  Never heard of an "Alice" maze before...  Something to do with "Through the Looking Glass" perhaps?  Let's try working backwards...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes. 

>> Solution found.  Missing file.  Find Missing file? No.


>> Proceed?  Yes.


>> Opening Level 3...


>> Text file found.  View Lvl3.txt?  Yes.


>> Opening Lvl3.txt...

Oh my Frost Giant...  There are SO many pieces...  Contacting Cassandra Hexthorn to see if we can hammer this out together...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes.
 
>> Media file found.  View Jigsaw1.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening Jigsaw1.jpg...

Comment:  Managed to fit this abomination of a jigsaw together in a few places...

>> Proceed? Yes.

>> Media file found.  View Jigsaw2.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening Jigsaw2.jpg... 

Comment:  DAG-NABBIT!  I right-clicked, selected Zoom In...and now I can't Zoom Out.  At least we have this string...

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Media file found.  View Jigsaw3.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening Jigsaw3.jpg... 

Comment:  Visited the direct link that Autumn included.  White background makes it SO much easier.  Isolated pieces according to internal content.  "Border" pieces went to the upper right.  Bottom left zone is designated for "fitting."  Pieces with color are piled in the top center.  Pieces with both a straight line and parts of characters are to the left.

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Text file found.  View FinalCountdown.txt?  Yes.

>> Opening FinalCountdown.txt...

Thankfully due to Hexy, we aren't down and out, yet... It makes me shudder to think what would happened if we were "Nullified."  Frozen in "disk space to be overwritten," perhaps?  We solved the bottom two lines first, and I wanted to submit the codeword right away, but she made a great point in defending that the entire puzzle may reveal something else for future use.  While that wasn't the case, at least we felt secure in advancing.  Thank you, "ALM."  Seeing that many Guardians had chanted in using the "Save me, Mouse" option, and being the two that corrupted the Save File upon entry, Hexy and I decided to find any possible means of leaking out information.  We tried to dodge DAEMON's scanware (and succeeded) in sending out tiny packets of data to everyone else.  ALMOST got caught...but we managed to squeeze out the last two lines before the firewall activated...unfortunately, not all Guardians managed to receive or utilize our attempts in time...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes.

>> Solution found.  View JigsawSolution.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening JigsawSolution.jpg... 

Comment:  Courtesy of Hexy.  How fitting.  Hexadecimal.  Translates to:  Save a backup of your personal files offline,`like your pictures, and text documents. Save early, save often! Code word: BACKUP.

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Opening Level 4...

>> Text file found.  View Lvl4.txt ? Yes.

>> Opening Lvl4.txt ...

Math... YAYYYYYYYY!  Simple algebra and order of operations...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes. 

>> Solution found.  View Level4Solved.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening Level4Solved.jpg... 

>> Proceed? Yes.

>> Opening Level 5...

>> Text file found.  View Lvl5.txt ? Yes.

>> Opening Lvl5.txt ...

Uh...symbols.  Math + symbols.  I totally get that...but these dang symbols.  Male and female.  Google time, and then checking with Heather Hexheart...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes. 

>> Solution found.  View Level5Solved.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening Level5Solved.jpg... 

Comment:  Used pen, pencil, and notebook paper to begin the puzzle.

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Text file found.  View Hexheart.txt?  Yes.

>> Opening Hexheart.txt...

Heather Hexheart's worked on the puzzle on her end...  We chose to work independently to try to come to the same solution.  Got her file!

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes.

>> Media file found.  View Hexheart.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening Hexheart.jpg... 

Comment:  Noticed that her symbols/numbers were mixed up!  Corresponding with her to correct them...let's hope she gets her entry in on time!

>> Proceed? Yes.

>> Opening Level 6...

>> Text file found.  View Lvl6.txt ? Yes.

>> Opening Lvl6.txt ...

More visual puzzles!  I've NEVER seen THAT before...hmm...  Gonna look at the Wikipedia example, and then correspond with Maria Moonblossom.  (Thanks to John Lifeglen for connecting us!)

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes. 

>> Media file found.  View Wikiexample.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening Wikiexample.jpg... 

Comment:  Sum of the numbers adjacent in the Rows or Columns signify how many squares within  the corresponding Rows or Columns are filled in, respectively.  Autumn's puzzle, with color coding, made it MUCH easier on us...THANKFULLY!  Seems like this type of puzzle would take HOURS...especially in this example

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Solution found.  View nonogram.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening nonogram.jpg... 

Comment: Completed this with Maria, using GIMP and screen-sharing over Skype.  We laughed about how it looked like there was a fish within the picture...only to find that THAT was the point!  Thought of "Fish EX = FedEX, Fish Eggs, Fishy Mark, Fictious."  Didn't realize it looked like a timer, until searching on Autumn's blog for "FISHY," which had the code word.

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Opening Level 7...

>> Text file found.  View Lvl7.txt ? Yes.

>> Opening Lvl7.txt ...

Hah, more grids and numbers?  "Akari."  What's Akari?  OH DANG, THIS LOOKS FUN!  No allies, huh?  All right, then!

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes. 

>> Solutions found.  View akari.jpg and akari2.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening akari.jpg... 

Comment:  Started out with the squares that were surrounded by black tiles...rules state that all white tiles must be lit up, so those were dead give-aways!

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Opening akari2.jpg...

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Opening Level 8...

>> Text file found.  View Lvl8.txt ? Yes.

>> Opening Lvl8.txt ...

Ugh.  "Chaos spatial data."  Do we treat this like a Katamari ball?  Is it rolling the die on the 2D platform...or put ourselves into the cube's shoes?  AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!  Hints from Twitter say that it's the former.  Good.  Working backwards...

>> End of Text file.  Proceed? Yes. 

>> Media files found.  View tools.jpg and die.jpg? Yes.

>> Opening tools.jpg... 

Comment:  Starting as Guardian 4...gonna actually work from my ending position backwards...

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Opening die.jpg... 

Comment:  It was suggested a "Magic Marker" be used on the die.  Well, due to the lack thereof, I went with blue duct tape.  Ghetto Magic Marker!!!  The "arrow" is pointing North-East.  One of my solutions: 2U, 5L, 1D, 1R, 4U, 7L, 9U, 5R.

>> Proceed? Yes. 

>> Text file found.  View Conclusion.txt ? Yes.

>> Opening Conclusion.txt ...

The point of all this explained.  Heh, the last was OPTIONAL.  Bleh.  That was a very insightful and engaging post, and a one-of-a-kind method of sharing an important message with the community.  There have been a LOT of shake-ups throughout the past 12+ months, but somehow, we still manage to keep it altogether.  Why?  As Autumn said, that's who we are, this Wizard101 Community that we have.  Especially after Level 3, I realized that even the aspects of Wizard101 follow through to our overall attitude of forgetting about personal competition, and working together to bring about a new light on the cliche MMO-community image.  Instead of fighting for the lowest bargain, we're fighting monsters to fill one another's pockets.  Instead of aiming for the "best pet" and keeping the secrets to ourselves, we're writing guides and spending time explaining the process.  Thus, in the postive and negative times, we're powerful enough to become, once again, stabilized, and band together quickly when challenges arise.  Need guides, tips, proofs via pictures, help, etc. etc. etc.?  Just look to anyone, especially the Twizards.  Many thanks to Autumn Duskhunter for this elaborate test of mental, ethical, technical, and persistence skills.  I had a LOT of fun learning and attempting the challenges.  Our hats are off to you, Autumn!

>> End of Text file.

>>> End of folder.  Terminate program?  Yes.

>> Goodbye...

>>

>>

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Audio Log (ALog) #1: Thoughts and Advice on "Official" Status

My deepest thoughts, perspective, insight, and reflection on the "Official" status ordeal that's been going on lately.  It is 1.5 hours long, but this is dedicated to the roots of our great community, to official sites, to non-official sites, to those annoyed, to those hurt, and to anyone else who is interested in what I have to share.


Thank you to Ronan Dawn for his friendship and support in encouraging me to get involved with the community back in April 2010.


Thank you to The Friendly Necromancer for his insight, advice, and background stories in-game, and support.


Thank you to Prophet Feik for the inspiration to contribute to any community, gaming or real-world.


Thank you to "KT" for their support and conversations as many of us dealt with current issues.