Ditto’s Video Blog – July 12, 2010 – Introducing Madame Jasmine!
So here is my video blog this week – I have a big fun announcement in here, it’s very exciting for me 🙂 I found a nice soft cuddly Madame Jasmine crimsonzilla dinosaur all for myself – in real life. She’s very cute, there will be many more pictures of her I’m sure.
Other games to talk about…
Since starting this blog I’ve been following a lot of other good gaming resources, not just Wizard 101 stuff. I don’t have a video to post today and not much to talk about since my big ‘Level 22 announcement’ earlier this week, so I figured I’d talk about some other gaming stuff I happened across this week… Let me know if you like it….
Of course I have to start with the big Wizard 101 news!!: The July update has arrived, and with it the first (now non-mandatory) steps towards the wonders of Celestia!!! Plus Grizzleheim house crafting, a quest line written by some old rock and roll person, and UNICORNS!!! NOOOOOO!!! Anything but that!!!! Ahem… sorry about that.
Age of Conan Briefly Opens Expansion to all Players: Current players can hop straight on over to the land of Khitai while those with inactive accounts will receive ten days of free play in both the expansion and original content.
Blizzard will not Require Real Names: Here’s yet another big announcement in the ‘blizzard-realNames’ saga. I have to admit, I saw this coming… In a move that is sure to generate just as much discussion as the initial decision itself, Mike Morhaime, co-founder and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, has released a statement that says “real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.”
Blizzard Discusses Making WoW Free: Here’s something of direct interest to F2P Game fans… Speaking to PC Gamer at their studios in Irvine, California, World of Warcraft’s lead designer, Tom Chilton, explained that “at some point, it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee.”
Guild Wars 2 Death to be an Experience: And why am I excited about Guild Wars? NO UNICORNS!! Also, Guild Wars 2 players will enter a “downed mode” state, similar to near death states in Borderlands. If players manage to defeat the attacking enemy while downed (using four class-based “downed mode” abilities), they will rally to their feet, free to continue adventuring. Sweet!
Final Fantasy XIV Beta Begins Saturday: Last week, Square Enix revealed Final Fantasy XIV would hit stores in late-September but would not lock down a date for the anticipated PC beta test phase of the game. Earlier today, Square Enix revealed the test is scheduled to begin this weekend.
Multiplayer Combat in Star Wars: It’s Star Wars, and there’s a video – need I say more?? Seriously…
TCOS Shutting Down?: This doesn’t surprise me much, seeing as playing TCoS was the single worst MMO experience of my furry orange life.
WoW Cataclysm Class & Mastery Update: another WoW article. Not sure why they get so much press – this is just a small niche title, isn’t it? Anyway, for people into that sort of thing, there are lots of changes for talents to make talent trees that matter and let you see the impact of your decisions quickly.
Ditto reaches Level 22!!
So ti has been a long time coming, but my wizard, Digby Hexcrafter, has reached level 22 as a pyromancer! Of course level 22 seems an odd level to celebrate, but at level 22 all young pyromancers get….
Yes, Meteor Strike, which allows me to blast ALL my foes into a fiery oblivion all at once instead of blowing them up one at a time with Sunbird. 345ish damage base, but with a few well placed damage buffs I can increase that significantly. It’s even more fun to use it against ice school foes – you can almost hear a frightened little ‘meep’ as the heavens open and giant fireballs rain down upon them…
So here is my video of the whole journey, from level up through my first test of the spell – hope you enjoy it and see you in the Spiral!! PLOX!!
The joys and frustrations of being a Wiz 101 vBlogger…
So I’m back in my beloved Krokotopia after spending a week or so in Grizzleheim fighting deadly Grendels and spiders and I think there were some chickens in there too… so I defeat mister big scary grendel boss – a VERY hard fight – and then turn in my quest to mister ‘Oh you’re way too young to talk to our king please try again later’ bear warrior person. And of course, I STILL haven’t proven myself worthy to see the king and basically get a ‘thanks for visiting and taking care of that pest problem, don’t let the door hit ya on your way back to Wizard City’….
So like I said, I’m now back in Krokotopia, in the depths of the Krokosphynx, and I’m fighting these very scary ice warriors. I get done with one fight, two fights, and then notice – I’m almost at level 22!! I’m just one, maybe two fights away from hitting level 22 and getting – wait for it…. – METEOR STORM!!!!
Of course I don’t’ have my video camera and I’m not playing on my regular computer, and I of COURSE want to capture this pivotal moment in heroic Digby’s career! So now, mere points away from making this milestone level, I have to log off and wait until either tonight or tomorrow to play again so I can tape ‘the moment’ and capture myself learning my new spell and using it on some poor unsuspecting unicorns or something.
So stay tuned folks, because Ditto and Madame Jasmine are about to get a whole lot more dangerous and Krokotopia is about to get a bit more singed around the edges…
Proud to be a Fabricated American
Have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend everyone! I might be fabricated, I’m still proud to be an American!
The New Harry Potter trailer….
So I watched the new Harry Potter trailer, and I recorded myself watching it. If you haven’t seen it, well you need to see it, even if you’re not a Potter fan. And if you are a Potter fan, you’ve already downloaded the high-res version and made wallpaper out of all the various screen captures and probably plastered your room or office cubicle with them, because every FRAME of this trailer is simply magnificent…
Ditto’s Video Blog – July First!
OK I’m technically posting this July second but I recorded on the first.. So Happy July and Happy Summer everyone!! I’m kicking of July with a new video blog and a new segment – reader mail!! Because, amazingly enough, I get mail from people who follow my blog or follow my twitter lately. I think it’s great so I try to answer a few. There is one question that maybe all you fine Ravenwood students can help me answer – how do you find a group? I’d like to know that too, really…. Anyway, have a great weekend, here is Ditto’s video blog. PLOX!
The life and times of a Crimsonzilla….
I’ve got more fun footage of Madame Jasmine playing the dance game in the Pet Pavilion. she really loves it so we have a lot of fun playing it together! We’re getting better too, and she loves getting her snacks, she makes the most fun little moves when I feed her. I love a happy Crimsonzilla!!
And speaking of happy and fun, how awesome was Ravenwood Radio last night? Leesha really scored in her interview with Kingsisle and got me way more excited about Celestia!! I mean seriously – some of those new creatures were awesome, and a squid mount? Seriously!! I know they didn’t come out and SAY we could get a squid mount, but those pictures really made things look amazingly cool!! Very excited about it now, definitely. I’m very curious what kinds of new pets we’ll see, too, and I’ve got to keep playing more so I can get my level up high enough to get in there and have some fun adventures when it opens!!
And speaking of adventures – Hope everyone is enjoying the new narrator! My new narrator is definitely getting pretty creepy lately isn’t she? Sending me and Madame Jasmine deep into spooky woods to collect crazy biting plants and now I’ve got to go hunt some scary forest demons and collect their wings? I can’t imagine what she has in store for me next but I’m sure it will be both daring and adventurous… thanks for everyone who enjoys the show and sends me notes and stuff, it makes me happy that people are liking my Daring Adventures…
Madame Jasmine loves to dance!!
So we tried the new ‘dance game’ in the Pet Pavilion, kind of a ‘Dance Dance Revolution’ for pets. We did OK for a first try, but Madame Jasmine just wants to keep playing – she LOVES to dance!! You should see her go! I’ve had to start reminding her when we’re out adventuring that fighting a rank 4 boss and his minion is NOT a good time to ‘get her groove on’…
Grizzleheim – Wizard 101’s version of Australia?
OK, I have been exploring Grizzleheim for a little while now and I think I have it figured out. Sure it’s supposed to represent the proud and fierce viking warriors of the North, but in reality, they have modeled it more after Australia.
Why Australia, you ask? Surely the lush forests and streams don’t remind me of the great Australian outback or the limitless pristine shorelines around the Great Barrier Reef, do they? No, not at all. The topography and landscape of Grizzleheim looks nothing like Australia, and those noble bears inhabiting the deep green forests are pure Viking – or at least the furry cartoon bear version of the vikings…
So why Australia then? Because apparently in Grizzleheim, much like Australia, EVERYTHING WANTS TO KILL ME!!!!
I have never been so terrified just to walk out of the main inhabited area. I fully understand why they invented these nifty teleporters, because walking more than seven feet from the village will get you attacked, cooked, eaten, and digested by something out these in the woods before you can say ‘Sunbird’. It comes out more like ‘Sunbi—-argh!!!’
Even cute little flitting fairies just come right over and thump me across my furry orange head. It’s a crazy, crazy place that makes Krokotopia look like a vacation hotspot. Sure you’ve got your sand scorpions and evil Nirini warriors, but at least you know they’re coming!! In Grizzleheim you turn a corner and come up against some giant spider or long-taloned grendel or something else that just walks up and makes a snack out of you.
I admit, I am not brave – typically we monsters are not, ironically. Just look at Grover and ‘The Monster at the End of this Book‘ – spending the whole narrative afraid of himself…. and that’s pretty typical for us, really.
So I’m going to keep exploring Grizzleheim for a little while longer, all in the name of entertainment (since that’s where my ‘Daring Adventures’ are taking me lately… ) but I think I’ll be making more trips to the pet pavilion to calm my nerves…. And someone in town actually said ‘this is nothing, just wait until Jotun’… I wonder what that meant? Sounds bad in any case…
Ditto plays the Cannon Game again….
I know people love this game, and Madame Jasmine has started to enjoy it too – though she is requesting that I start using a pet who actually has WINGS for the ‘flying through the air’ games… she prefers to stay on the ground most of the time.
I think it would be cool if a winged pet was better at this game, actually… I do have fun with this one, and when you get a windy day or buildings in the way, it becomes quite challenging…
A furry orange monster’s guide to casting Heck Hound
This could also be called ‘Fabricated Americans are bad at math’….
I got my Heck Hound spell recently and started using it. I understood that it was a very powerful damage over time spell – probably the most powerful in the game – but I wasn’t really getting hthe results out of it I had expected. I did some research and finally figured out why…
The Heck Hound - powerful damage over time fire spell
You see, when I read the card, it seemed pretty straight forward. It does 120 fire damage per pip for three rounds. Of course to me – I am a furry orange monster, after all – I was figuring 120 damage per pip per turn, and I was getting really confused when I was casting it with three or four pips and not seeing that kind of damage….
So now let’s talk about what the card REALLY does, ow that I finally figured it out… So if I cast the spell with only one pip, it will hit my opponent for 40 damage points per round for 3 rounds, totaling 120 points. The more pips you use the card with, the more damage you cause.
So, say I max out at 7 power pips, that’s really 14 pips. 14 x 120 = 1680 Total Damage over 3 rounds, which means 560 damage per round – that’s impressive! And if I add a fire blade to that spell, then it’s even MORE damage per round. That’s not a bad spell, assuming you can get it set up right. And assuming you actually understand math….
The Daring Adventures of Ditto – Episode 4
Here it is, the latest episode of my daring adventures as they originally appeared on Episode 18 of Ravenwood Radio! This week I have a new narrator and begin to explore the dark depths of Grizzleheim to, um… pick berries, apparently. Here is my awesome adventure, I hope you enjoy it…
The Daring Adventures of Ditto, Episode 4!
Let me know what you think about the new narrator, too!
The Dreaded ‘Gobbler Drop’….
So here it is, me and Madame Jasmine playing ‘Gobbler Drop’…. I don’t know if my Fabricated American reflexes are just not up to the task or if there is just something about this game that I don’t get, but I am just so awful at it, it’s sad, really… I think we’ll stick to the maze game and the cannon game while leveling up for the Pet Derby.
And if anyone is wondering – this game was played AFTER hearing the great guide on the last episode of Ravenwood Radio, so before that I was even WORSE at this game, if that’s even possible…
Madame Jasmine loves the Maze Game…
Madame Jasmine’s favorite Pet Pavilion game is definitely the Maze Game – it’s like a first-person version of Pac Man and it’s just a lot of fun! Madame Jasmine definitely likes apples best, but she’ll eat just about anything really.
The Pet Pavilion games really are pretty well done – even the Gobbler Drop, which I am really, really terrible at. It’s just a lot of fun and kind of extra immersive to play the game as your pet and help level them up, gain skills with them, etc… and then finally bring your grown-up pet to the Pet Derby and race against other players! I know I’m actually having a ton of fun with it and have been doing more pet pavilion play than actual questing lately, and I’m having a lot of fun doing it!!
I think I love mounts….
I got a Starlight Pony 1 day mount while battling Rattlebones and I really liked it! It was more than just getting around more quickly – which was useful – it was also the experience of it, and it made me look around more at other mounts, like the dragons and cats and brooms, and I definitely want one! So now I just have to figure out which one best suits me, you know? I’ll have to check them out and think about it.
One disappointment is that our pets disappear when we are riding our mount. I kind of wish they could ride with us, or fly along side, but that’s not a big deal really.
So here is me riding Princess Noodles for the first time. Yeah I know you can’t name your mount, but I did anyway…
Ditto and ‘Pet Farming’
After listening to Ravenwood Radio on Wednesday night I decided that ‘pet farming’ sounded kind of fun – or at least interesting – so I headed to Unicorn Way and started fighting Rattlebones. After a couple fights I streamlined my deck down to just Sun Birds and Leprechauns, so that I could take out old ‘bones and his minion in either 2 or 3 turns, minimizing my downtime. I am very pleased to say that after ‘a while’ of pet farming I won a 1 day pony mount and Miss Madison, a Myth Sprite. I know she’s not a super-duper pet, but I was pretty thrilled just to have gotten her, and she’s very pretty – here are pictures and a quick video of me doing some pet farming and kicking some Rattlebones butt…
DItto’s video blog – June 17th
Another video blog – I went back to my old camera, I haven’t been as happy with the newer rig I was using. It was easier for me to use – you know, three fingers, furry, makes a lot of technology tricky to use – but the quality wasn’t as good…
So this week I’m just talking about pets, pet farming, and other fun in Wizard 101. I like the video blogs, they are fun to make, I hope you like them too…
Return to Grizzleheim, Narrator Troubles…
So Ditto has returned to the lush green forests of Grizzleheim – somewhat against my will if you have heard my latest daring adventures… I do love Grizzleheim, though, and the quests this time around are far more impressive and fun than what I experienced during my last trip. The woods of Grizzleheim are frought with danger – which is just fine for me, but Madame Jasmine gets a little nervous. Some ferocious fire dinosaur she turned out to be.
There are a lot more quests and adventures than I expected, too – I guess I hadn’t really read up on Grizzleheim much, I thought it was more of a ‘fun little side quest’ area, but it’s as big and full and detailed as Krokotopia, including it’s own Prospector Pete quest line. I’m really getting into it and it might be a little while before I head back to Krok, not sure. Grizzleheim is a nice change of pace and scenery, but I’m one of those somewhat obsessive-compulsive Fabricated Americans who likes to ‘finish’ stuff, so it’s bugging me a bit to see the unfinished Krokosphynx quests in my quest log….
Of course thanks so much to Leesha and the Ravenwood Radio gang for including yet more of my Daring Adventures… In case you missed it, I finally fired my crazy annoying narrator and hired a new narrator from a bargain narrators site at the last minute. I’m not sure she’s working out just yet, but I’m curious what everyone else thought. Steven and Leesha seemed to enjoy the segment, in any case, and though picking berries isn’t exactly what I’d consider a ‘daring adventure’, I’m sure it will pick up next episode though, right? She certainly seems nice in any case… and far less crazy.
Madame Jasmine is adult and nearly ‘ancient’ now and we’re having a ton of fun at the Pet Pavilion, but after last night’s Ravenwood Radio episode I’m also thinking I want to do a little pet farming, because there seems to be some awesome pets out there. It this something a level 21 pyromancer can do readily, or is the really good pet famring saved for higher level players and areas? I’m hearing a lot of people farming Rattlebones – that’s a lower level instance, right? Maybe I’ll try that a few times. I think I’ll head over to the PetNome project and some of the other great pet sites and get some more info…
Until next time – see you in the spiral!!
Ditto’s Video Blog – June 9
Just me, your favorite furry orange monster, talking about other games (gasp!) like LOTRO going free to play and the new Clone Wars free to play game that was just announced. Also – a big announcement regarding ‘The Daring Adventures of Ditto’….
New Celestia teaser!!!
So we’ll be able to start doing quests to get ready for Celestia soon!! From Wizard 101 news:
Are You Ready?
Are you ready for the perils that await you in Celestia, young Wizards?Very soon you may have the chance to find out if you have what it takes when you begin the first of many trials that await you. Wizards must earn their entry into Celestia by completing a series of new quests that will begin late June, early July.
Watch the Ravenwood News for updates on these quests.
Look for this and more in the Wizard 101 newsletter!!
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The Daring Adventures of Ditto – Episode 3
Here it is – Episode 3 of ‘The Daring Adventures of Ditto’, where our intrepid duo find themselves deep within the dreaded Krokosphynx – what evils await them in the icy halls of that dread place? Listen and find out!
The Daring Adventures of Ditto – Episode 3 As heard on Ravenwood Radio Episode 17
A really nice blog post about Ditto…
I just stumbled upon this (thanks Google) and it made Ditto very happy -another Blogger from a blog I even know already, the wonderfully named Homework in a Graveyard, has a great post about me that was really nice and made me a very happy Fabricated American. Thanks so much!!
Homework in a Graveyard – ‘My Jaw Just Dropped’
More Pet Pavilion – Cannon Time!
Yes, Ditto gave into peer pressure and shot Madame Jasmine out of a cannon. It was actually kind of fun, and I think Madame Jasmine liked it.. She loved cupcakes apparently.
Ditto Monster's Bloggy Thingy 