Celestia's Effect - More Hype = Awesom-er World?

Happy 2nd birthday, Celestia!

Back in 2010, the community waited anxiously from March 24th-October 27th, 7 perilous months all building up to the biggest world release yet, Celestia.

Now, a wizard today might ask - what took so long? After all, the time between worlds being released today is faster than that announcement/wait for one world.

Of course, Kingsisle had less staff then, but the prolonged wait wasn't all bad. The Advanced Pets update acted as a sort of distraction, maybe creating less of those I'll-Come-Back-When-Celestia-Comes-Out players. But when Celestia finally arrived, long-awaited "SQUEEs" of excitement arose from everywhere. I mean, look at my blog post on October 8th, 2010. Okay, I was a little less mature back then, but you get the point ;P. The fact that we were finally going to Celestia was huge. Ravenwood Radio held one of their after-parties the night before the live release, and a few of us stayed until the "maintenance" clock struck, happy to witness the final minutes of pre-Celestia Wizard101.

Celestia isn't my absolute favorite world, but it was definitely the most exciting. Wintertusk came out next Spring, a two month wait after Ditto's announcement, once again pretty exciting. Ever since, though, the worlds have come out of nowhere - Zafaria came out in the Test Realm about a week after it was announced (though there was a picture of elephants leaked that summer). We got a puzzle for Avalon, but, besides the long Test Realm, that wasn't a long wait either. I was surprised myself, as shown from my April 11th post -

"Really though, I'm surprised they've released one so soon after the puzzle.. wasn't ZF released just 5 months ago too?" 

Now it's been 6 months since Avalon, which isn't too bad. But now, where's the hype for Azteca? It was announced just hours before it hit the Test Realm. Is 7 months (Celestia), 7 days (Zafaria) or 7 hours (Azteca) more appealing? We'll have to go in-between for the majority opinion: 7 months is too long and 7 days too short.

In my opinion, Wintertusk's release was quite exciting, and would have been even more if it were a main world. So, 2 months wait is a suitable amount of time, but I'd advocate an even longer wait time - not 7 months though, as some element of impatience outdoes the wonderful effect of the world finally being released.

So, that narrows it down to 2-7 months. There is one more waiting period wizards faced, albeit the first - Dragonspyre. 4 months after Wizard101 opened, DS opened it's doors to conclude the Malistaire saga (or maybe not?!?). Besides the obvious "Malistaire stole the Dragonspyre key!" clue to the next world, DS didn't seem to have any announcement (I could be wrong) until the Test Realm opened its doors in January, 2009. 3-5 months seems to be an optimal amount of time between announcement and release without starting to alienate the now-millions of players. We may live in an increasingly hyper-attentive society, but the prospect of a new world does not leave the minds of players between the announcement and release.

I don't have any way to prove that 3-5 months is an optimal amount of time, but it's the best bet - especially if it's been at least 8-10 months since the last world. It probably won't happen, but this timetable would be a smart move for Kingsisle. I mean, Azteca looks awesome-with-Mooshu-bbq-sauce, but it's hard to get really excited over a world that goes from announcement to Test Realm in only a few hours.

So, let's celebrate Celestia with the ironic timing of Azteca - Alura, Arlen's little sister (not really, just a roleplay :P) , just got to level 48 (I'll supply the beginning of WT with Mycin/Orthrus pics next post), so Celestia is open for my 10th wizard!

Ah, welcoming words.

Even more welcoming words after the first battles of Celestia.

First cast of Orthrus! However, it was futile - my first two boss battles each took three attempts before emerging victorious. Tough being a level 48 Conjurer in Celestia.

FINALLY, DIE!

...

*ahem*

Well, this has been a nice post. Only X more days till Azteca......................................................................................................................................... :D

Happy Questing!