The Community As A Whole

I've been sitting and thinking about the community as a whole. I know that some of you might have had negative opinions or feelings about fansites; official or not. So instead of that, I want to focus on the positive at the moment.

I just wanted to let you know that I, personally, am very proud of our tight knit community. I don't care if you're an official or non-official fansite. I have seen all of you work very hard to try to provide great content, posts or art for the community. It shows that you're doing it from the heart. It's hard work keeping up a fansite. Some do not succeed or some still struggle. Don't let others make you feel like you're a failure. We are STILL proud of you. Every one of you is a puzzle. Some are big, some are small, some are still here, some are not. You all have your own shape. But together, we complete a puzzle. Without you all, the community would not exist.

I want to thank all of the official fansites for working hard and trying their best to provide the best for this wonderful community. I know from personal experience that it's incredibly hard, harder than you think to keep up and manage an official fansite. They're incredibly generous with giving their time to help their follow gamers in-game, managing events and creating guides for the community. So they deserve all of the accolades and positivism that you can give them.

I adore managing contests. It's so fun. Many people say that the community has become an contest oriented community. It's not really true. If those same people who said that had the ability to give amazing prizes, they would change their tune. Because honestly, even though it's difficult wading through all of the entries and making sure nobody cheated as well as picking the right winners, it's still FUN! It's fun seeing all of you smile and laugh. Every time I see a contest being made on the fansites, Twitter, blogs, etc, I smile to myself because wow.. It's not just the official fansites that are doing it, it's the rest of the community too. I love seeing people give away to others because that's something that I like to encourage.. Generosity.

Also, when there's no content, contests keeps up the morale and spirit of the community. So, every single time someone provides a contest, it doesn't matter if it's an simple giveaway or a major contest, it keeps the community busy and happy. It's like trying to manage a house full of kids hyped up on sugar. Not pretty. But if you set them to an activity, it helps! Remember, even us official fansites came from an non-official status once, so don't compare the amount or type of prizes that is given. A prize is just a prize.

I notice something that has been bothering a lot of the non-official sites. Many people worry too much about followers, about popularity and being official, that sort of thing, don't. If you write something and one person read it, you have already succeeded. You are a winner in my eyes. Be proud of it. Sometimes it's just a matter of finding your niche and practicing, everyone has to come from somewhere. It's like drawing with me, I suck at it. But with practice, I do get better. I figure out what style suits me, what kind of subject I like, and I figure out how to draw it in my own way. It isn't easy to do. It took me a long time. But in the end, I'm more proud of myself for trying than how many people liked my art.

I also want to thank the Wizard101 and Pirate101 community managers, Tom Purdue aka the Friendly Necromancer and Kiersten Samwell aka Lydia Greyrose, for allowing us to make many of you smile and cheer because of all of the contests that we are able to give. It's incredible to think how many codes they give out every year, just not to the official fansites, but on Twitter too! Now that's generosity to the ninth degree.

To end this letter, I do want to encourage all of you to still keep up your work. Write, draw, sing, make, create anything that speaks to your passion of the game. Don't let anyone get you down. Tomorrow is another day to succeed or create something amazing. You all are amazing to me, every single one of you. I thank all of you for being a part of the great community we currently have!

New Companion System Coming To Pirate101

Soon, we will have an update to the entire Companion system. Our companions will soon be able to perform jobs that will help us earn companion xp, gold, nautical xp, items and more!

In battles, our first three companions will always appear in battle instead of one and it won't be random anymore. We will be able to set the first three companions the way we want to. With this new system, our companions now can be wounded if they are defeated in battle. Life fountain will be a thing of the past. They won't be able to revive our companions. They have to wait until they can be fully healed or cured by Miracle Mitch who will be found in Avery's Court. The new building there is his with a band aid obviously on the sign. You will have to pay gold for them to be healed. If you're gold poor, you can wait until the task timer on your companion expires. But be warned, the higher the companion, the longer the timer will be and the more expensive it is to have Mitch heal them.

Interestingly enough, our companions will be able to take special orders or tasks once they are Level 8 or above. I'm wondering how this will work out.

I wonder how much gold is given when you hit a gold mine?

Also each class will receive a new companion! Chantal Livingstone is the Flamingo. Fan Flanders is the frog obviously. Carcarius Grimtooth is the shark. Peter Quint is the pelican. And The Marchioness is the Monquistan. You will receive them at Level 4.

That makes me wonder about the shrimp or prawn character. I wonder what part of the story he is in. 

Not only that, there's a NEW panorama sneak peek of Bestia!

To view it, go to: https://www.pirate101.com/free_game/spring_preview2014#bestia

New Pet?

You can read more at: http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/816/feature/8343/Pirate101-Advanced-Companions-Incoming.html

Advanced Pet System Is Coming Soon To Pirate101!

Massively has released a long article about a new pet system that's coming to Pirate101. Apparently we will participate in the Great Petathelon on Bestia who I bet is the Eagle or its buildings. There, we will be able to hatch, mix, raise our pets as well as use them to fight against other pets in the new Pet Pavilion, the Circus Maximus. Our pets will be able to gain new powers and talents as we train them. Interestingly enough, there are seven levels of the pet. Hatchling, Baby, Teen, Adult, Ancient, Epic and Mega. Every 10 levels, it unlocks a Power and Talent. 

In the Massively article, I noticed something new in one of their photos. Maybe a spider pet and a Clownfish with literally a clown hairdo?

To train them, we will be able to travel to other worlds on pet based activities.. Is this the Xol Akmul and Temple of Fire the places that we will travel to? They remind me of Skull Island areas we already have been to.

The Temple of Fire makes me think of the Volcano. There's plenty of caves there that is not used. Also, Xol Akmul reminds me of the Ancient Ruins in The Gold Mine, Skull Island.

There's a lot more information about this new Advanced Pet System at: http://starsofthespiral.blogspot.com/2014/03/advanced-pet-system-is-coming-soon-to.html

Now about the Temple of Fire and Xol Akmul.. Pirate101 has released more Panorama sneak peeks of two new areas we'll go to! I've tried to make a single panorama image. It's not perfect, but at least you'll get the gist of what you're seeing.

Temple of Fire

Xol Akmul

New turkey pet! (I think it's a turkey..)

You can see the life fountain and something else we can't even figure out. Some people think it's spiders or crabs. We'll see!

You can see the panorama sneak peeks about Temple of Fire and Xol Akmul at: https://www.pirate101.com/free_game/spring_preview2014#fire1

Upcoming Avery's Court Changes!

Today, Pirate101 has released an extremely cool panorama camera pan where you can scan around the entire Avery's Court while staying in the center. You could zoom in and see cool new features. But when you zoomed in, it became blurry. 

Here's what we know already. The grand staircase as well as the new dock and the flying Eagle. I do not know why they had to add a grand staircase. Maybe it's a design thing. The huge eagle is flying behind Avery's office. He reminds me of the turtle in Mooshu who would move around in his own little area carrying buildings.

He's the one we land on and go into buildings to the final bosses of Mooshu. Once completed, we finished the world's main storyline. So clearly in Skull Island, we will go to a new area which is on the top of that Eagle and to get there, we would have to row or sail there from the new dock. Think of Jonah Town too. Same thing. I just find it interesting that it had to be from Avery's Court.

In Wizard101, as a new wizard, the FIRST area that you can access is the Unicorn Way other than the Commons. You had to be able to get in Unicorn Way if you want to PvP as an extremely low level Wizard. At this point, the Shopping District as well as Ravenwood is closed. 

In Pirate101, as a brand new pirate, you cannot get through the gate to Shopping District from Avery's Court or even access the Class Houses. However class houses are ALREADY in the area. That's like going to Ravenswood, but can't get in the school houses yet. But you get the general idea, we cannot get in the buildings like we can't enter Ravenwood. We also cannot enter shopping district and we can go into PvP.

So now let's backtrack a bit.. It would make sense that the Eagle is related to PvP. Because in Wizard101, the PvP area which is a part of Unicorn way is connected to the Commons. And it is open to Level 1. In Skull Island, it's just designed a bit differently because, hey where else can you put it?! They were pretty clever to create a dock and then an island we can sail to where we can go PvP'ing. It's like going into Unicorn Way and going PvP'ing. The only difference is you take a canoe than go through a tunnel to get there. Hey we're Pirates! Tunnels scare us.

Also I noticed as a Level 1 in Wizard101, I can join Ranked PvP, but not Tournaments. However, it required me to be Level 10 before joining a Tournament. So, it'd be the same for Pirate101. This is another clue! It cannot be Tournaments because they wouldn't let low level characters to play it. Also it doesn't make sense if you throw in Tournaments in first before even introducing Ranked PvP anyway.

Now keep that in mind, my point is anything in Avery's Court has to be generally accessible to LOW levels. 

 Here's a brand new building that is added which does not exist in live game yet. So if there's a new building, it has to be important. They wouldn't add a building for no reason. Again remember, LOW levels has to access it. So what could it be? There is a sign attached to it. So, I zoomed in the best I could. 

Paige Moonshade said it was like something that they threw up to cover the sign. Swordroll said that it looked like a loaf of bread that was cut and a slice was falling down, so I looked at it very carefully at the shadows and the lines, then I drew it in.  Tada!

I noticed right away the bottle behind the bread. Then after looking at it for a few minutes, I noticed the table. A sign that has a loaf of bread and a bottle on a table? Keep in mind that the bottle doesn't even look like a bottle of yum. So, what could it be? Could I be wrong? Let us know what you think it could be? It has to be a building that all low level characters can access too! Paige Moonshade said that it could be a Bait and Tackle shop for Fishing. There were wild ideas floating around. But why else would we need a food shop? What do you think?

Now there was another thing that was new in that camera pan. The new Pelican companion. This does not exist yet. Remember, so far we have seen a Shark in the Witchdoctor's class house, a Prawn (shrimp) which I am guessing is Buccaneer's since it can cast a Buccaneer power, Flamingo in the Musketeer's class house and now this Pelican. I'm not sure, but that character reminds me of a Swashbuckler. I don't know for sure. It's quite blurry. But that makes four, leaving one more to go if it's one companion per class. So what could it be for Privateer?

One more thing that I noticed in the sneak peek camera pan... What the heck is this?! This looks almost like a permanent court camera lol. I even checked in-game and I saw NOTHING like this. Do you have a clue? If so, post a comment below.





By the way, if you want to view the Avery's Court panorama camera pan for yourself, go to: https://www.pirate101.com/free_game/spring_preview2014

St. Patricks' Day Sign Language

ASL Nook tends to make really adorable videos about ASL. But I love it even more because this is a family who's making them including their own children. This video is about St. Patricks' sign language. I was thinking that since St. Patricks' Day has arrived in the Spiral, maybe you all would love to learn some St. Patricks' sign language. Enjoy!

Make sure you turn on Closed Captions so you can understand EVERYTHING they are saying.

What Is Your Leprechaun Name?

(click on the picture above to expand it)

So it's March, the month of the gold rush and Leprechauns. So I realized heyyy, why don't we try out this cool Leprechaun Name poster that I've made for this month. I'm part Irish, so I'm very gung-ho for this kind of stuff. I even got natural red hair! 

For this chart, you should use the names we have created for Wizard101 or Pirate101.

I will show you an example using my own characters' names.

For Wizard101, it is Kelsey Fireheart, but according to below's chart, it's Mickey O'Little.

For Pirate101, it's Fearless Kristen Eastwick. Don't use the Fearless or descriptive names in that slot. Focus on your actual first and last name which is in second and third slot. We'll use the Kristen Eastwick which means Hairy Moneybags according to the chart below.

What's yours? Post your Leprechaun Name(s) below in the comments.

A Very Strange Day With Friar Sands

Well, it was an interesting day when we visited Friar Sands today! A friend of mine, Greedy Jacob Maxwell, was poor on gold. Since that's quite embarrassing for a pirate, I took him to the best spot for farming... Friar Sands! But of course Friar Sands wasn't at all pleased with us. Well, here's what happened.

Then suddenly in the distance, we hear...

Errrm.. I'm starting to think that we've interrupted him watching "Grease"...

probably for the millionth time.

So is this what he does when we're not around?

Anyway, don't forget to pay him a visit when you're running low on gold. You can even ask your higher leveled friends to help you bring in your low level characters for gold replenishment. Just be warned, Friar Sands won't be happy.... as always. But I think now we know why.

Castleville Legends: A Game To Play

 Welcome to my Castleville Legends' Village!

I have been playing Castleville Legends for so long that I'm surprised that I'm STILL playing it. That's a good sign that this game is a smash! This is a free game that you can find on Facebook, Kindle and on mobile phones. I have been enjoying myself immensely with this game.

My current quest!

YEP SEA TRADING! WOOT!

You can sell any items you have in your Royal Vault, items you have made or ingredients you have collected and the ship will take it to the distant markets for you, so other people can view it and buy it if they want.

The first tab is trading with people that is not in your alliances. The second tab is trading with your Facebook Friends. And the last tab is trading with people in your alliances. Plenty of options there! You don't have to rely on your Facebook friends if you don't want to.

Castleville Legends is an spinoff of the Castleville game on Facebook, but with a few new nifty things. You are not limited on energy. I don't like games that limit you on energy. You also can trade with people that are not on your Facebook, so you don't have to harass your Facebook friends to join your game or whatever. You can also form alliances with people around the world and earn pearls to gain another hero to help you explore instances where you can earn unique drops to use in crafting things, so many things! Honestly, I think this game beats the original Castleville game in so many areas.

This is my alliance I'm currently in above. The only reason I chose it is because it's a full group which means more chances of getting good stuff in trading. As you can see there's a lot of alliances from all over the world below, it's quite easy finding one.

My favorite thing about this game is that your mobile or kindle Castleville Legends will connect to your Facebook, so if you ever switch phones or kindles or whatever, you won't ever lose the game as long as you sign in the same Facebook account. Also, the Castleville Legends game on your Facebook AND your mobile is connected, so you don't have to start over at all. You can just pick up where you left off on your phone or vice versa. This is an option I truly love. I don't like spending money on a game that is not "transferable" to other devices.

He's always hungry for stuff. This is just another way of getting more unique drops to craft for your items. Just be careful, he likes to belch loudly right after you complete his order.

Workshops are buildings where you can craft things in to sell for gold. With gold, you can purchase buildings, more plots of land and more! Below that is Resources like farms or trees that gives you ingredients. Then the third tab is decorations. But the last tab is Special Heroes! They can be used to help you explore different instances within the game.

Liang will give you his order and if you are able to complete it, you can get a random pearl that you can use towards a Special Hero purchase. Also, during Holidays, you are able to unlock a FREE Hero as long as you complete the Holiday Quests that they give you. I got a Yeti Ice Chief for Christmas and a Swiftwing Pegasus for Valentine's Day.

This is just one place where you can explore to get awesome ingredients as well as xp. Those rubies are pretty good because they can be used in the Sea Gem Chalice which goes for a lot of gold. There's four slots, so the more Heroes you add, the more XP you get. And the chances of rare ingredients dropping will rise.

And you know what's the best thing of all? I've been playing this for months and there's STILL unexplored land I have to unlock. This just tells me that this is a game that won't run out of content for MONTHS!

You can play this on Facebook at: https://apps.facebook.com/castlevillelegends

It's also available on your phone and Kindle.

Got any games you want me to try out? Just post a comment below and I'll check out your suggestions.

Crowns, Crowns, Crowns!

For the 30 lucky winners today, you can get a 2k crown code. However, let me warn you, you can only redeem up to FIVE of those codes. If you won 5 codes from me and Paige Moonshade combined already, you might have maxed out your chances. The crowns are also not transferable. So if you get a code and you can't redeem it because you maxed out... I highly encourage you to give it away to a family member, friend or heck, make your own contest! Just remember today is the last day to grab those Tribal Packs before the sale ends, so plan accordingly. :)

Concept Art From Billy George

I was searching for something else when I came across the following images. Then I realized, hey why not? It wouldn't hurt to refresh your memory about Billy George's concept art. I picked some of his to post here, but honestly he has a LOT more at his blog, http://billygeorge.blogspot.com/ Go check his blog. He's quite amazing. He does both Wizard101 and Pirate101 Concept Art.

This looks so neat and creepy which I love!

Man, he looks so much more fierce here than in-game. *backs away slowly*

I love the different looks for both. I can't even pick which's better.

Honestly I love the way Scrooge has been drawn. It's just perfect. I love the different expressions.

I find this interesting. Promotions for Handsome Dan? Awesome!

I would love to have the above furniture for my house in Pirate101.

That cat? Priceless LOL.

The first thought when I saw this was.. INDIANA JONES! But in a monkey form...

Different types of guns and swords. This is pretty cool. This way you can see the difference.

I don't recall this guy, but then my memory can be quite crappy.

Again, Billy George has a LOT more at his blog: http://billygeorge.blogspot.com/ Go check it out!