Azteca - Underworlds & Pyramids

Nineteen days later and Azteca is here! Also the waiting time for Celestia, I believe. In the days leading up to release, I *finally* recruited help for the Keep of Ganelon via Wizard101Central's M4H team. With a week to spare, I finally completed Avalon. W00t!

Going a little overboard on the dragons o_O

A pretty strange 3D view of the Dragon's Lair in the background. Still, the land doesn't look very healed to me :P

Ambrose and Archmage ... yet he still isn't satisfied even after I save his own world. Sigh.

Finally managed enough amber to craft this little game. Now all I need are participants!

Thus brings me to Edward Halley's home. Since when were bugs interested in astronomy? Nevertheless, I would befriend a cute little Quetzal. Worth it in itself!

A little, er, issue with Myth Trap from my sword..

First view of Azteca! Doesn't look particularly big at first.

Doesn't fall very fast, does it?

Hooray for pyramids that are really..really..tall. Awesome view.

Hungry dinosaur zombies? Why not just give them food? Oh, wait........

Gasp, Eloise speaks!

Sure..?

Fun with grenades, I guess?

I decided to look up 'Cenote' on Google, and it turns out there's a well-known coffee place by the name in Austin (KI's HQ). So apparently, they decided to name the dinosaur underworld after a coffee shop. LOL, Kingsisle, nice going :)

My first boss battle features a storm helephant.. stormephant? o_O

While we're at it, it would be nice to be King.

The bosses tend to have upwards of 18,000 health, but are still manageable. It was awfully annoying when the storm lizard lady kept using tower shields, though.

And into the marshes!

More coming tomorrow or Saturday from the Marsh and Swamp. Hope everyone is having fun questing!

Happy Adventuring!

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!

Well, That Was Fast.

Five hours ago, Kingsisle-fans alike leaped at the news of a new world to Wizard101.
Azteca.
Nice way to pull back some of your new P101 fans, KI!
Anyways, Azteca was not only just announced, it's already on the Test Realm. Apparently, any hint of hype for this world was skipped, but it still seems to be amazing judging by the few teasers on the press releases. Guess it'll be a couple weeks until I roll out the area-by-area posts again!

For now, it looks like I'll be straying away from Twitter and all to avoid spoilers. I managed to do it for Avalon, but it's definitely going to be extremely tough this time.

I was planning to make a post coinciding with the two-year anniversary of Celestia this coming Friday, also imposing some questions on how good hype is for a game (CL took 6 months between announcement and live release). I'll still be here to post that on Friday, but geez - what irony. Maybe this time around I'll manage to avoid spoilers on the new spells before I actually get them ;P

If taking a peek around the new world interests you, the Test Realm has opened. Try not to spoil it all for yourself, though! I'm starting to sound a little cynical, but really, I can't wait for this live release. Level 90, here I come!

Happy Questing!