United We Stand ... so far

Well, we got off to a rocky start but with this being a first time event these things WILL happen, and we use them as a learning experience.  We did only get 7 teams, not 16 so the matches are progressing quickly.  The standings:

The next matches are Saturday July 23rd, 2011.

Shadow Arcane will face off against SASSY
at 1 pm Eastern/12 noon Central/11 am Mountain/10 am Pacific.

The Narwhals will go against The "Noobs"
at 4 pm Eastern/3 pm Central/2 pm Mountain/1 pm Pacific.

Final Match to take place Sunday July 24th

3 pm Eastern/2 pm Central/1 pm Mountain/12 noon Pacific

All meetups will be in front of Diego in Vampire Realm 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the match.

United We Stand

The next match takes place TODAY -- Sunday July 17th 2011

5 pm EST

4 pm CST

3 pm MST

2 pm PST

This IS a change from the earlier stated time!

We will meet at Diego in VAMPIRE realm 15 minutes prior.

Good Luck to our last two remaining first round teams!

And We're Off!

Well we have our teams -- only 7 :( -- so the Tourney will be much smaller than we had anticipated, but we move forward and have fun, ah yeeaahhh!

A round of appaluse for all of our participants please!

The Teams:

Shadow Arcane
 Jacob ShadowSword (Necromancer)
Alexander LionHeart (Thaumaturge)
Devin StormSword (Diviner)
Ian LionShield (Conjurer)

Mercs for Honor (M4H)
Katherine LightWhisper (Thaumaturge)
John Shadow (Pyromancer)
Joshua WyrmGraden (Theurgist)
Zachary LegendForge (Conjurer)

Narwhals
Cody SoulMender (Thaumaturge)
Sophia (Diviner)
Destiny (Conjurer)
Paul LifeHammer(Theurgist)

The "Noobs"
Colin Petal (Theurgist)
Chris NightFlower (Sorcerer)
Luis DragonHeart (Pyromancer)
Chris (Thaumaturge)

Inferno Storm
Mason FireThorn (Pyromancer)
Jonathan EmeraldSwrd (Thaumaturge)
Blake Stone (Theurgist)
Jeremy EmeraldFlame (Diviner)

Kettle Corn Killers (KCK)
Heather Raven (Conjurer)
Angel WinterBreeze (Thaumaturge)
Benjamin FrogStone (Sorcerer)
Paige MoonShade (Theurgist)


SASSY
Alia NightEyes (Diviner)
Jasmine SpellCaster (Thaumaturge)
Sydney LifeStone (Theurgist)
Angel Stone (Sorcerer)

Since this is now a 7 team Tourney I went out to random.org and used thier number generator.  I have a spreadsheet showing in what order I received the team rosters and that is how this first round bye was created.  SASSY has been givin the bye, number 7 was generated.

The Brackets for the first matches, to take place Saturday July 16, 2011 and Sunday July 17, 2011 -- Practice Arena -- Vampire Realm:

Shadow Arcane versus Inferno Storm to take place  Saturday July 16th 1 PM Eastern/12 noon Central/11 Mountain/10 Pacific

Narwhals versus M4H to take place Sunday July 17th 1 pm Eastern/12 noon/11 Mountain/10 Pacific

KCK versus The "Noobs" to take place Saturday July 16th 3 pm Eastern/2 pm Central/1 pm Mountain/ 12 noon Pacific

Round 2 matches will take place next Saturday July 23rd, 2011.

BEST of LUCK to all participants!  and Thank you all for joining and helping us Rock the Arena with TRUE Arena RATs (Radically Awesome Teammates)!

DEEP THOUGHTS

And no I am not doing this Jack Handey style but some actual things that have been percolating through my brain for the last few weeks if not months.  This is probably going to be a pretty "dry" post, but I hope you will stick with it.

Let's start out with some things that caught my eye or attention in the past and are the reason for this post.

Glitches within the game being exploited:

• ranging from "minor", porting to someone as they move between zones and ending up in the clouds, or power leveling a wizard.
• to “medium”, the "Chancel" glitch which allowed you to port  an under level wizard into the instance and level them to Legendary without questing
• to "major", the "plant" glitch which apparently was allowing unlimited harvests of plants, leading to an overabundance of single school blades and mega snacks within the bazaar, this also lead the closing of housing for a short period of time while KI worked to straighten things out.

Areas of concern in the Arena:

• Blade Stackers, usually a team of Ice wizards, sometimes with a life wizard thrown in.  They use multiple blades upon a high resist, high health player allowing said player to OHKO all the wizards on the other side of the battle ring while taking a minimal amount of damage to themselves.
• Tempest Spammers, usually a team of Storm wizards with one Myth or Fire wizard.  Please see my previous post on the subject for more details.  
• Use of high level school pets by low level wizards.  I have experienced this one myself MANY times while I was doing low level PvP.  A wizard will come in at low level (anywhere from 1-25) with a school pet equipped (either level 48 or 58, or a hybrid) and proceed to use said pet to hit someone with a health pool that is not designed for that massive hit.  Now this is mostly confined to the level 58 school pets as the level 48 pet cards drop readily.
• One of the newest ones, a Legendary wizard starts a 2v2 match with a ZERO rank level 1 player and has that level 1 flee the duel.  Since the current matching system tries to "level" all wizards within a match it makes the 60/1 duo about a level 30 which is Magus.  Now if 2 Magus wizards are in the PvP queue and get this 60/1 pair they are facing a team that has Critical on their side, in addition (once again) to a larger health pool.  It may be 2 on 1 BUT they are going against a human player who can think, and not the game AI (Artificial Intelligence) which has a set number of spells it can use, though it seems to have an infinite number of cards.

Areas of concern throughout the Spiral:

• Inappropriate Language
• Inappropriate behavior
• Trolling
• Begging
• Oni-ism -- pretending to work for KI, or pretending to be a well known wizard
• Bullying

A lot of the above issues boil down to ONE thing : lack of Ethics.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Ethic as follows:

Definition of ETHIC

1

: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation

2

a : a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values <the present-day materialistic ethic> <an old-fashioned work ethic> <an elaborate ethics> <Christianethics> b : the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group <professionalethics> c : a guiding philosophy d : a consciousness of moral importance <forge a conservation ethic>

3

a set of moral issues or aspects (as rightness)<debated the ethics of human cloning>

The highlight is mine by the way :)

I find that one of the major issues we are all facing in the Spiral is this lack of Ethics.  The Ethic to do the right thing, a moral code of conduct.

Let’s go over my bullet points one by one

The “Minor” issues:  being in the clouds is no big deal, its not really something we do on purpose, it just “happens” ;)  It’s sort of fun too!  Power leveling only hurts you to a certain extent. You do not get the chance to earn the spells you are given for completing a Wizard City, or Krokotopia until you actually go there and DO it.  And once you do go there it takes FOREVER to level! Trust me, I know and learned the hard way.  Wont do that again.

The “Medium” issues;  Chancel glitch, I know many wizards who did take advantage of this glitch -- they could manage getting a wizard to Legendary in just a few hours of playtime.  But once again, they paid for it in the end -- they didn't have access to instances to farm without porting into them.  They ended up learning the hard way, cheating the system doesn't pay in the end, you still need to do the “real” work.

The “Major” issues:  The “Plant” glitch, this was plain and simple a gross MISUSE of the floating trick that KI was nice enough to leave in the game for our decorating enjoyment.  Once the first wizard discovered it they SHOULD have reported it to KI and NOT spread the word.  Instead, through lack of a moral code, they thought it was “ok” to basically STEAL from KI and say it was KI’s fault for not fixing it.  That is just a cop out my friends.  Do you go in and steal a friend’s television or computer because you know they didn't lock their door?  Or do you tell your friend the door is unlocked, I will watch your stuff until you get back?  Which friend would YOU rather have?  The one who has your back, or the one you cant even trust with one slim dime?

Areas of Concern throughout the Spiral:

KI has said they ALL of us are the moderators of the Spiral, it is our duty to report inappropriate language and behavior, harassment -- whether it be racial, sexual, bullying, impersonation.  Use your report button, but use it wisely!  Do NOT become a vigilante in your journeys throughout the Spiral.  Be sensible about the power KI Has given us, don’t abuse it!  Once again, it boils down to YOUR ethics.  Do what you think is morally right.  Try to set people on the correct path, but remember you cant FORCE them to take it, you can only guide them.

Arena Concerns (all rolled into one):

They Arena is an ever-morphing place, with each change in the game that KI institutes we see a change in the seemingly “unstoppable” teams.  Chain Stunning, Blade Stacking, Tempest Spamming, Chain Smoking -- they have all come into fashion as a means of “easy” victory, an easy way to gain rank and tickets.  But I ask you this -- does your moral compass think this is fair to the other team?  Do you think its right that one team gets NO chance to play a card against you?  What makes this “strategy” even worse is the attitude many bring with them -- “We are all powerful and you are NOOBS!”  TPC has faced this many, many times -- it was what were designed for after all -- to bring the fun and excitement of the Arena to ALL wizards.  The Arena is there for all wizards to face a THINKING opponent.  Computer AI can only go so far into teaching us strategy and tactics, it takes a human mind to overcome another.  If I play this card now, what will he do? Will he do X or Y or Z, or will he play something I never even considered?  These thought process are joy that the Arena can bring to every wizard.  They help all of us with many things -- analysis, theory crafting, statistics even!  The Arena should be a place to go to learn and grow and expand your self and your abilities.  Not to go there and feel awful about yourself.  Once again, allow your moral compass to guide you.  If you see someone and they are struggling, ask if they would like some tips if you feel you are able to offer them.  On the other hand if you are struggling and you see some one's play style you admire ASK them for tips, I bet they would be flattered to know that someone admires their ability!

Allow yourself to be THE best wizard you can be -- and allow others the same privilege.

Remember that ethics and a moral compass DO count in your playtime!

I hope you enjoy your journeys around the Spiral, I know I enjoy mine!

Watch this space -- part 2

4v4 PVP Tournament 

hosted by Perfect Catch member,

Cassandra Dragonheart

Single elimination

4v4 tournament

16 teams

One Victor

The rules are simple:

Must be level 58 or higher.

MUST be a team of mixed schools.…in other words, you must have 4 different schools on your team

I prefer that teams are members of the DoaW PVP party forum, but it’s not required.  (To become a member of the PVP forum, you must have an account or create an account on DoaW  – go to Groups on my.diaryofawizard.com and find the PVP Party Forum group – you can ask to join the group from that page)

Teams must submit their team name and roster in advance to UnitedWeStandTourney at gmail.com by July Tuesday, July 12. The email must include your teams name, the schools, and each members in-game name.

Once you submit your roster, you can’t change the members or their schools…so choose wisely. If more than 16 teams register teams will be chosen at random using random.org.

After each match, both teams must email proof of their win or loss to me at UnitedWeStandTourney at gmail.com.

All matches must take place in the practice arena, this will prevent a specific team line up. This is also so that all wizards have a chance to watch – it promotes the Arena more.  The only downfall is we can’t boot people for bad behavior….so be on your best behavior  Teams must also be on their best behavior.  They can lose their chance at advancement if behavior issues arise. Elimination can happen for bad sportsmanship!

The matches will take place on Saturday and Sunday afternoons between 1 pm and 5 pm Eastern, so PLEASE do not register if you cannot make this time frame!

The line ups will be posted on July 14 on the DoaW PVP Party Forum, right here  at http://fromtheheartofadragon.blogspot.com, Ravenwood Radio forum and my Twitter account @CassDragonHeart

The first matches will begin Saturday, July 16, 2011

First place team members will each receive - Couch Potato seeds, Dragon's Hoard pack and a code for 2500 Crowns.
Second place team member will each receive - Dragon's Hoard pack.


I am extending the deadline for registration until July 13, 2011 at Midnight CST! PLEASE have your rosters to me by that time!

Watch this space:

Upcoming contest, stay tuned for details!

Turmoil in the Spiral ... and on Twitter

The past few days have seen a burst of posts across the Blogoshere and a spate of tweets flying over the air and landing on the #Twizards.  Many of them only know what they are told are are "picking sides" based on one person's point of view, and this is VERY sad.  As we all know there are two sides to every story, but it appears that only one is being heard.  Someone is crying poor, pitiful me, people are picking on me.  They are pointing fingers and smearing the good name of others in the Spiral.  The thing is, those people getting pointed at know the truth, the whole truth.  We were there and heard/saw with our own ears/eyes the whole of the conversation.  We have put no twist on it to paint ourselves in a favorable light.  No one was called a troll, no one said anything derogatory to another.  It was a rational discussion but one person decided that her point of view was the ONLY point of view.  I believe you all know who Fallon and I are and can figure out who were we speaking to. Without further the ado, here are the screen shots of the conversation.

 You can click on these pictures and they will enlarge in another web page.  Press your "back" button to return.

Some of the conversation bleeds over into other pages, but it was required in order to get it all. Fallon and I are being painted as witches of the highest order, if that is what y'all would like to think of us based on one person's "statement of facts" I am sorry.  I do not condone people acting as this person has.  Fallon has been a guardian of children's safety on this game since DAY ONE.  Fallon was looking out for the emotional well being of the child in question.  Being subjected to the invective some players hurl at spamming teams is something no one should have to deal with, much less a child.  The adult in this scenario should have said NO firmly and left, suggested she play another school, any number of things.  Instead she decides that since she has had a "bad day" she will use this cheap tactic to make herself feel better.  There was no thought about the people on the other side of the battle.  How did they feel losing in 2-3 rounds?  What if THEY had a bad day also and just wanted to have some fun PvPing with friends in the Arena?  Does the good of ONE person override the good of the many?  She claimed that the other team could use any number of spells to defeat them.  It is possible to defeat a tempest spamming team, but only with A LOT of luck on your side.  I know TPC is working on a way for us to survive the onslaught, but many teams are abandoning the Arena.

Please, please don't allow one person to cloud your judgment of others.  There are always 2 sides to a story, and one picture IS worth 1000 words.