I love numerous facets of Wizard101.  The card game style battle, the gorgeous animations, Pets, Housing, Gardening, and more.  Its just an awesome game filled with generous players.

I sooooooo need a new computer.  Im using an old 2 GHz single core with 1.5 gb of mixed Ram, 120 GB hard drive, and a Geforce 6200 graphic card , failing power supply, and a noisy hard drive.  With old 16 in gigantic moniter. var fctb_tool=null; function FCTB_Init_b1c0793d775d416499a86a39ac2e7b28(t) { fctb_tool=t; start(fctb_tool); } FCTB_Init_b1c0793d775d416499a86a39ac2e7b28(document['FCTB_Init_97fbbf0b4d4e47b899e6ee8ec1b5cec4']); delete document['FCTB_Init_97fbbf0b4d4e47b899e6ee8ec1b5cec4']

Dont know what happened with the previosu post.

I sooooooo need a new computer.  Im using an old 2 GHz single core with 1.5 gb of mixed Ram, 120 GB hard drive, and a Geforce 6200 graphic card var fctb_tool=null; function FCTB_Init_6b53d6b83eb042978269da9dd0b06bba(t) { fctb_tool=t; start(fctb_tool); } FCTB_Init_6b53d6b83eb042978269da9dd0b06bba(document['FCTB_Init_0d02e7e7c65e4f619d6b6dc9736b326b']); delete document['FCTB_Init_0d02e7e7c65e4f619d6b6dc9736b326b'] , failing power supply, and a noisy hard drive.  With old 16 in gigantic moniter.

 Unfortantly, more and more I find myself hating the hard core players.  They get a new game, max out thier chracters in days, and then spam the forums complaining about no end content, nothing to do at high level, etc.

The end game is not the true objective of an online game.  The true objective of an online game is the journey.  If the game just came out a few days ago and you already beat everything there is to do, go find another flavor of the moment to play or maybe even get a life.  Same is true of any new content just days after its release.  Whats sad those is this small minority or very vocal, loud, obnoxious, and rude.  They quickly turn others off what could be a good game from thier skewed observations.  The developers reading the forum see the majority of the posting is about stuff the hard cores are complaining of and make changes that end up killing a game before it has time to develop.  The reason you don't hear as much from the rest of the group is that we are busy enjoying the game and the journey in the time we can play and enjoying the real world as well.

** Steps off soapbox. (for now)

 Its what first drew me to the game several years back when it was in beta.  I like to try games that have unique styes or unique game play systems.  Thats why I continue to play this game even to this day.  Part 2 of this articles coming shortly.

 Yea been giving this one a try this last week.  Love the combo system and the unqiue and cute graphic style and unquie animations.  Im more of a solo player though and the heavy dependency on groups was slightly annoying.   On the plus side this does seem to foster more friendly players.  Was stucking trying to solo missions when a Lvl 15 showed up and helped me.  Had all levels of difficulty done in no time with high scores on each and some really nice loot as well.

BUT overall great fun, fast paced game.  I fell in love the first time I figured out how to uppercut with my thief character, sending several opponents into the air, then jumping up towards them while they were in the air and doing a kind of bsaic spinning attack over and over, racking up huge combos and not stopping till the bodies hit the floor.  :-D

One feature I noticed I really liked is how the starting areas for each class is very different.  The thiefs start in a darkend back alley area.  The mages start in this high brow/univeristy like area with grand statues everwhere, etc.

I am a huge fan of the A Tale in the Desert (ATITD) game.  I have played in all 4 tellings to one degree or another.  The large diversity of stuff to do, the community, and events.  I sometimes spend 8 hours in a single day playing and while exahusted, I am satisfied and proud of what I have accomplished.

ATITD is a niche game though.  It is not for ever one and for some people is a little daunting at first.  ATITD has a subscription cost of $13.95  and usually has a subscribing base of 1500-2000 players.  ATITD makes very small profit but it has a super dedicated group of developers and workers.  It over time has proven that a game can be succesful even without huge numbers of WOW.

As an example of the comunity of the game.  We have a player who spends almost all her time doing the landscaping of Egypt (ATITD).  Recently it came to light she has some health problems and needs a special dog that helps care for her.  To the tune of $15,000.00.  Teppy, the head developer, introduced to the game a small pet Otter.  The lady doing all the landscaping plays a chracter named Otter.  For $50 you could purchase a small pet otter, with all the proceeds going to Otter, herself for the dog she needs.  They run around were you place them and do little cute movements.  In 10 days ATITD players had already raised around $8000 dollars.

I think more than just subscriber numbers and net profit sometimes are not the only deciding factors in wether a game is a success.

Angels Online - Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

I won one of the gift card.  My question is will I recieve a code by e-mail since this store is only online? 

(Which makes sense to me)

OR will I be mailed a physical gift card.  With the required 4-8 week wait.?

(Seems a waste of postage costs.)

Any able to answer this one?

Thanks

There seems to be no mention of Wizard101 on the site.  Wizard101 is currently in beta testing and is scheduled for a Fall release, probably Sept. or Oct.  It is geared toward tweens.  For those who want something less kiddie than ToonTown but not ready for the harsh world of WoW.  But its not just for tweens, all players of all ages can enjoy this game.  One of the top betatesters is a grandmother.    Would be nice to see this game added to MMORPG, especially since I use this site as my main source of online information on MMORPG's.

The game is made by KingsIsle.  www.kingsisle.com/

The games main site islocated here.  www.wizard101.com