Ditto the Monster looks at the world of family friendly online games from a Fabricated American perspective

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Ditto in Ship to Ship combat against the Cutthroats!

As part of the quest for the fabled Mooshu Falcon, recently stolen from Captain Avery, Ditto needs to fight dreaded cutthroats on the high seas, er… aether… Ditto’s trusty ship is more than up to the task as he tangles with multiple cutthroat ships, cannon’s blazing! Ditto cruises the skyways, looking for cutthroat ships in order to wrestle out key information on the location of Finn – as well as Blind Mew’s old antique telescope.

I love the ship to ship combat in this game, it’s fun and challenging and can be really exciting. I need to start looking for more ship upgrade soon. I still want a cool looking ghost ship…


Ditto Talks About his Deck, fights Greyhorns!

A number of people have commented on the size of my deck and the number of cards I carry, so I show off my deck and talk about my strategy.  I have a very straightforward strategy, nothing fancy, but it’s effective.  For standard street mobs, I rely on Fire Dragon with multiple damage buffs.  For boss fights I use a different strategy that adds more buffs and bigger damage (obviously) – I’ll show that off in another video.

I also fight a couple Greyhorn Mercenaries and play my most favorite mini-game, Shock A Lock!!


Captain Ditto finds Archer! Progress in ‘The Case of The Mooshu Falcon’!

Ditto is still on the trail of the Mooshu Falcon! He visits Blind Mew, the dockside informant, searching for clues, and boy does he get one! That Blind Mew is pretty knowledgeable about many things and seems to be a great source of information in general.
In this case, thanks to Blind Mew’s keen senses, Ditto learns that the thief, Archer, is hiding out in the old tunnels behind the old waterfall… Mew also has one of the most unusual requests for Ditto – it seems some nasty cutthroats stole his telescope of all things, and he wants it back. I’ll have to see what I can do about that…

Ditto follows Archer into the ancient tunnels and, of course, bad stuff happens. Bad stuff always happens in ancient tunnels and caves – never once has Ditto gone into a dark damp tunnel and found a cookie, for instance. Usually just bats and spiders and bad guys. So anyway, there is a big fight, stuff happens, and Ditto wins (yay!). So does Ditto and his stalwart crew find the fabled Mooshu Falcon? Well… not exactly. More Adventures to come!!


Captain Ditto and the Case of The Mooshu Falcon!

Captain Ditto has finally made level 10 and heads to his trainer to learn some new skills, like jumping over obstacles. Ditto then gets lost looking for Ratbeard (because I didn’t go down into the basement – have to try again later).

Ditto then talks to a disreputable man in an alley and learns that a another even more disreputable man has a job for him, to steal the famed ‘Mooshu Falcon’ from Captain Avery. I thought it had to do with the ‘Millennium Falcon’ but no, it’s just a statue of a bird (and another excellent pop-culture reference to ‘The Maltese Falcon’, a 1941 Humphrey Bogart classic) .

Refusing to steal from Captain Avery, Ditto heads to the captain’s office to barter a deal, but instead gets wrapped up in a web of mystery and intrigue! The Falcon is missing, and if Ditto can’t get it back, Captain Avery will hold him personally responsible. Not really sure how Ditto could be responsible, since it was stole right out from under Avery’s nose, and his chief of security isn’t even in the same building, but whatever – now Ditto has to seek out Archer and get the falcon back!!


Ditto’s Pie Contest Winners!!

After judging this Pie contest, Ditto is suddenly very hungry!!!  There were so many awesome and yummy looking pies – Ditto has already sent out all the prizes, and here is the list of winners and a gallery of all the yummy winning pie entries! (more…)


Ditto the Handyman fixes another fence…

Once again, the fearless handyman Ditto is called upon for general contracting work deep in the heart of Zafaria.  The Greyhorns have been getting in ‘Somehow’, and Ditto discovers a hole in the fence roughly the size of a truck that, for some strange reason, the defender guards did not see.  Using his now legendary handyman abilities, Ditto finds some prime lumber and fixes the giant hole in the fence, getting the job done on schedule and for a very reasonable price.

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I wonder if all this handyman work is just special pyromancer training, like in ‘The Karate Kid’, where Mister Miyagi made Daniel wash his car and paint his fence and all that stuff, but was actually teaching him karate… I’m wondering if my new fire spell requires some sort of vigorous hammering motion to cast…


Happy Holidays from Ditto and Friends!! Merry Whatever!!

As monsters like me are pretty much non-denominational, and I have a wide variety of fans, I wanted to wish everyone a happy whatever it is you choose to celebrate, and hope you enjoy time with friends and family and those closest to you.  Stay safe, be merry, and thanks for watching Ditto and his friends!!   I’ll leave you off with an old classic, Ditto’s monster rendition of the holiday classic ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’…


Ditto’s 500th Video!! 500!! Happy Holidays!!

Ditto’s 500th Video!!

Hi everybody – it is the Ditto.  Wow, so here we are – 500 videos.  That seems like a lot, doesn’t it?  I’m pretty sure it is, yes.  I’ve had a lot of suggestions about wacky things to do, from doing a Christmas video  to doing a parody of ‘Gangnam Style’, but when I thought about it, I think the most important thing to remember about this milestone is why I reached it – and that is for everyone out there, all of you who follow my blog, and watch my videos, and listen to my silly adventures on Ravenwood Radio or Pieces of Eight Radio.  To all the wonderful people who I have met in-game, from people I met and friended at parties to all the wonderful and friendly strangers who helped me get through tough quests or beat tough bosses.

In the nearly three years since my first video  I’ve done a LOT here – I’ve played all kinds of great video games, I’ve talked to people about staying safe , I’ve run I can’t remember how many contests, I’ve gone to PAX East and interviewed all kinds of people, like Fred Howard from KingsIsle, I’ve beta tested new games, written for an online gaming magazine, gotten over a thousand twitter followers, I’ve been attacked by Kittens and had a lot of fun with my Fabricated American friends.   The most important thing of all, though, is that I’ve made lots of friends with all of you – from people I’ve met online at game parties to the complete strangers who helped me out with tough quests or nasty bosses, everyone I’ve met and talked to and made friends with have been great, and all my my friends and fans and twitter followers are the real reason I keep doing this, and why I love it so much and have so much fun with it!!

So thank you everyone – thank you for being my fans and my friends and for sticking by me and for enjoying and sharing my blog and my videos so much!  I’ve got 500 videos done, and with all your support I’m sure I’ll do another 500 before you know it!!

Thank you all and happy, happy holidays to each and every one of you.  I couldn’t do it without you all!!  Well, I guess I could, but nobody would watch it, so why bother??


Ditto makes Level 10, and Captain Avery is a Ghost!!

After finding what was left of Gunn’s treasure, Ditto tries to return a prized chalice to Captain Avery, only to find that Captain Avery is a ghost!!  I can hear him, but I can’t see him!!  So spooooky!!!   Actually it’s just a funny game glitch and clears itself up pretty quickly, but it’s amusing.  I also make level 10 – how exciting!!


New Contest – It’s All About Pie!! Yummy, Delicious Pie!

Ditto has been running lots of contests lately, and I like to keep them interesting, of course. Ditto hates to be boring, after all.  Well, I have been having a heck of a time thinking up something new and exciting for this next December contest and asked for ideas on Twitter (OK, I complained I was out of ideas, and the wonderful people on twitter helped me out.  I love my Twitter followers) .  My favorite suggestion was to come up with pictures of Ditto to color – but Ditto has no idea how to make a line drawing of myself for people to color in a short timeframe, so I”ll have to work on that one a bit more.  Instead of coloring Ditto, I was able to come up with the next best thing – PIE!!

Below are two line drawings of Pie – a slice and a full pie – and you can color either one of them in and send it to me at dittocontest@gmail.com.  The email should have a subject of ‘Pie Contest‘, and you have to tell me what kind of pie it is, and tell me your wizard name.

You can print the picture out and color it and scan it back in (or take a picture of the picture), or you can digitally color it on the computer – whatever works for you.   The end date for this contest is Saturday, December 29th – that’s over a week and a half (because I know lots of people will probably be busy with family stuff during that time).

What are the prizes?  Well… everything I have left.  Bundles, crowns codes – ‘Everything Must Go!!’  That’s over 25 great prize codes!!

DittoPie2 DittoPie1

And there you have it – make Ditto a pie and win prizes!!  Have fun with it, get creative, and good luck!!

Ditto


Ditto Versus the Volcano, Part 2 – Chumba Wumba!

Ditto and his crew have made their way up to top of the volcano and come face to face with Chumba Wumba, leader of the water moles. It seems the tide has turned on the devious Ratbeard AND Captain Gunn’s treasure… This is an epic battle with a wild twist ending!

I will say that the Chumbawumba ‘Tubthumping’ references in this quest were amazing and hilarious, and were definitely my favorite part of the quest!! That used to be one of my favorite songs long ago… I have linked to the source of those references for anyone who has no idea what I’m talking about…


Ditto Uncovers a Conspiracy in Zamunda!

Ditto returns to the slightly scary Tse Tse Snaketail in Zamunda after defeating a bunch of bad guys, and he sends Ditto to round up the troops and strike a mighty blow against the enemy Rhinos and Elephants.  However, once Ditto gets to the barracks, things are not at all as they appear…

The zebra defenders have been subdued, and – I’m totally serious here – Rhino warriors have painted themselves in zebra stripes to try and blend in to infiltrate the camp.  Amazingly, Ditto does not fall for the ‘rhino disguised as a zebra’ trick, and a mighty duel follows!  Pyromancer Powers activate!


Ditto’s Week 2 December Contest Winners!! Great Job Helping!

Ditto here, and I want to say thank you to everyone who entered this contest – Miss Narrator and I were completely overwhelmed by the number of entries and the wonderful, amazing things everyone did to help others.  I did this contest to get everyone thinking about helping others, which I think is really important, and all you wonderful wizards out there surpassed my wildest dreams with all the amazing things you did to help others!  From selflessly helping new players level or get through long dungeons to writing letters to US servicemen to helping in your communities, the emails and pictures I got for this contest were amazing, and I enjoyed every single one.

In response to the amazing responses I got, I’ll be awarding a few additional prizes for this one.  Winners and their stories and pictures are below – this will probably be a really long post…

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Ditto Versus The Volcano – Part 1 Pirate101

After the disappointment of Gunn’s Tomb, Ditto and his crew chase the evil double-crossing pirate Ratbeard and his water mole henchmen into a volcano!  Can they make their way up through the perilous volcano and recover Gunn’s treasure before it’s too late?? Time is of the essence and stealth isn’t really Ditto’s forte, so it looks like he and his crew will be fighting their way up to the top…


Awesome News – Pirate 101 nominated for TWO MMO Awards #Pirate101

This is awesome news – Pirate101 is proud to be nominated for both Game of the Year and Most Innovative Game of 2012 from MMORPG.com!

Everyone should go visit MMORPG.com and cast your votes for Pirate101 today! (You need to log in/register for free) http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/6954/2012-Players-Choice-Awards.html  – Lets all vote and make sure Pirate101 gets recognized as the awesome game it is!!


Ditto has to Prove Himself to Tik Tik Snaketail…

Ditto meets Tik Tik SnakeTail in Zamunda and, even though the legend of Ditto is apparently awesome and amazing, Ditto has to ‘prove himself’ once again by defeating a bunch of bad guys (20 of them!) – sometimes I think these guys are using Ditto to clean up the streets so they don’t have to pay police or something…


Ditto’s Week 2 Wizard101 Contest – Helping Others!

It took Ditto a while to come up with his Week 2 contest, and since we’re in the middle of what Ditto likes to consider ‘The Giving Season’, I want to encourage my fans and readers to help others – and give you big prizes for doing so!!  Week 2 is all about helping out others, either in-game or in real life.

So how do you enter?  Well, first you need to help someone.  That could be helping someone with a quest or assisting a new player in-game, or it could be helping someone in real life to rake leaves, shovel snow, read a book to a younger sibling, put away the dishes… there are many options, the main point is that you’re helping out and doing something nice for someone.  (more…)


Ditto’s Week 1 December Contest winners!!

Ditto’s contest this week asked players to tell me which of Ditto’s awesome prizes they wanted to win, and why!  Ditto got a LOT of great answers, and out of all the qualified entries, did a random drawing for each winner.  Here are all the winners, with their entries – enjoy!

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Ditto is helping out in Zamunda, stacking shields and ‘training’ defenders

So once Ditto took care of helping out in the Savanna, Ditto started helping out in Zamunda.

Ditto collected a bunch of cool looking shields (After a bunch of fights…) , and then Ditto had to go round up some zebra defender guys and ‘train’ them. Of course training them pretty much means putting a good old-fashioned pyromancer beat-down on them… After a good Fire Dragon, they see the error of their ways…


Ditto Faces the Final Quest for Gunn’s Tomb!

Ditto and his crew have reached Bounty Island and have finally found Gunn’s tomb!  Now Ditto needs to prove his mettle as a pirate and sailor by completing all of Gunn’s tasks to unlock the tomb!  What happens when Ditto completes these tricky tests of skill?  It’s a surprise!!

This is my favorite quest so far in Pirate101 – it’s cute, it’s clever, and completely makes sense relative to the storyline.  The results of all of my preparations with the cannon and the rope are great, too!  I loved this quest.


Ditto faces Amara Blackmane in the Savanna.

After finding the Staff of Solomon for Indigo Montoya Whitestripes, Ditto is sent to rescue Indigo’s friend from Amara Blackmane, a nasty bandit type lion who just happens to be a rank eleven fire boss! Yikes! Ditto has everything under control, of course – but decides to hire a life henchman… just in case.
Of course during the fight, Carl was so caught up in the action, he missed the fact that the camera stopped recording for a couple minutes, so there’s a bit of a gap in the middle… but it’s still a great fight and Ditto is finally victorious, defeating the boss and saving Indigo’s friend, gaining greater knowledge of magic (a training point) in the process…


Ditto’s December Wizard101 Contests!!

Here we are in December and once again Ditto has LOTS of prize codes to give away – it’s like Ditto’s own crazy Code-A-Palooza!!  I’ve got multiple codes for the Epic Bundle, Mega Bundle, Hawkrider Bundle, Majestic Bundle, Pagoda Bundle, Dino Bundle, and Prehistoric Bundle, as well as a bunch of codes for crowns!  It’s like KingsIsle just said ‘Ditto is so cute and fuzzy, he should have all the codes this month…’    and now I get to give them all to you!!

Ditto's Exclusive Contest Prize - The Warpwood Wand!

Ditto’s Exclusive Contest Prize – The Warpwood Wand!

In addition to the bundle codes and crowns, Ditto also has a lot of codes for an exclusive item, the Warpwood Wand!  It’s a cool life wand that looks great, and it’s exclusive to DittoMonster.com – I’ll be giving these away in lots of different ways, including lots of new Twitter giveaways, so if you’re not following Ditto on Twitter you should start!

So how can you start winning these great prizes?  Well, I’m going to try to run a contest a week, and for the first contest I’m going to give away one of each bundle that’s listed above, so that’s seven great prizes to give away to seven lucky wizards.  To win a bundle, send an email to dittocontest@gmail.com with the subject “I want a [your choice] Bundle” and tell me which bundle you want, and tell me why you want it, as well as your wizard name.  Be creative, too – have fun with it. You have until Saturday, December 8th at Midnight(ish) to enter, and I”ll choose and announce all the winners on Sunday December 9th.

All the usual rules apply – please only one contest entry per email address, I filter out all multiple entries, and don’t forget how I choose and announce winners and how that applies to your wizard name.   There are lots of contests coming and that means lots of winners, so stay tuned to DittoMonster.com and good luck!!!


A clarification on Ditto’s contests and winners

First, congratulations to all my November winners!  In the month of November I gave away nearly 50 prizes, the most ever, and I had a LOT of fun doing it!  I love doing contests, and I’m very thankful to KingsIsle for getting me so many codes to give away to my readers and fans!

Have Fun and Play Safe

Have Fun and Play Safe

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Ditto’s Epic Battle Against Old Scratch in Pirate101

After defeating Old Scratch’s minions, he now has to face the wrath of Old Scratch himself, a powerful undead witchdoctor!

This is an epic battle, one of the most difficult Captain Ditto has ever faced, and it is terrifying! For an Epic boss fight, you get to choose which crew members you use, which is a cool thing, but it takes strategy. Ditto had a great strategy for this fight though, and it pays off, winning the battle AND getting an exciting (and spooky) new companion for Ditto’s crew!!