Wizard101
Ravenwood News

  Name those Turtles!
Since we announced the upcoming feature of player housing, we're also introducing new residents of the Spiral who will help you with your housing purchases in each of our worlds.

We want to give our Wizard101 players to have a chance at naming these new residents!

If you want to name our new residents, simply go to our Name Those Turtles Contest Page.

We've also teamed up with some of our top fansites for this contest, to name the other Turtles simply submit your ideas to them.:

Krokotopia Turtle: Wizard101 Central
Marleybone Turtle: West Karana
Moo Shu Turtle: The Friendly Necromancer
Dragonspyre Turtle: Follow us (Wizard101) on Twitter for the secret contest location!

Wizard101 Gift Cards Now Available!
PLANO, TEXAS - April 30, 2009 - Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. has announced a gift card program for family-friendly hit game Wizard101® (www.wizard101.com), which recently surpassed two million unique users who have registered to play the game.

Starting today, $10 prepaid Wizard101 gift cards are available in 7-Eleven® stores nationwide. Purchasing through local outlets offers friends, family and fans of the 3D virtual world of Wizards and spell-casting more options for unlocking advanced game content.

“Wizard101 gift cards give our growing community more flexibility and parental control in their purchases – beginning with a way to purchase advanced game content in a store,” said KingsIsle CEO Elie Akilian.

The $10 price point makes Wizard101 gift cards an affordable birthday gift, allowance treat, or a fun surprise for the in-game pet collector. With the new gift cards, players who don’t have a credit card will have more independence in the way they spend small increments in the game, whether they decide to unlock new areas of the game or purchase equipment and accessories for their Wizard101 characters, such as wands, treasure cards and holiday items.

Each card offers a limited edition collectible pet available upon redemption from one of four special sets: Protectors, Assistants, Adventurers, and Heroes. Pets from these sets will give players better powers such as increased accuracy, defense, damage, and a special spell card that can be used during duels.

In addition to the special abilities listed above, the gift card pets will be available in colors, patterns, and clothing that cannot be found anywhere else in the game. The first set, Protectors, are available now. Each month beginning in May, a new set will become available to gift card purchasers upon redemption.

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Wizard101 Test Realm Downtime
Beginning at 9am Central US time on April 30th, the Wizard101 Test Realm will be offline for approximately four hours. During this downtime players will not be able to log in to the Test Realm, and are invited to continue to enjoy playing Wizard101 on the Live Realm.

Players will experience a loss of items and experience in the Test Realm after this downtime. This does not affect your characters in the Live Realm in any way.

New Creative Writing Stories!
We've updated the Creative Writing Section to include some of our most recent submissions of fan fiction stories about Wizard101! Find out more by visiting our Creative Writing Pages in the Wizard Community Section.

New Color-Me Pages
Mr Lincoln has been very busy lately, but he's managed to provide three new Color-Me Pages! Click on the little picture below, to have a large picture appear in your browser, that you can then print and color!

For more Color-Me pages, visit Mr Lincolns Color-Me Page

Test Realm Opens to Preview Housing in Wizard101
To our Members and players who have made a Crowns purchase in the last 30 days, we invite you to test out some of our new features on the Wizard101 Test Realm.

We will be looking to you to test out the following additions to Wizard101:

1. Housing - Housing and housing item vendors can be found in all the worlds of the Spiral. Decorate your house or your Dorm room!
2. Voiceovers have been added for Marleybone, MooShu and Dragonspyre
3. Tips will appear to alert you to any items you have received as a reward.
4. Run Speed modifiers can be found on Crowns items and as boss drops.
5. Markers can now be placed that will allow you to recall back to a marked location.
6. New messaging for Dungeons when you enter and if you log out while inside.
7. New messaging for Quest drops such as 'Collect Armor'.
8. Boat and Balloon rides are now optional.
9. Friend Requests show more information about the character.
10. The ghosts have fled from Firecat Alley and Triton Avenue to be replaced with different creatures.

If you see any issues with these or other features on the Test Realm, please use the Bug Report button to let us know. For more information on how to participate in the Test Realm, please see our Test Realm Page.

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Message Boards
To make our Message Boards more visible, we have added a direct link to the left menu of the Wizard101 website. To find out what our players are talking about, click the Message Boards link!

Interview: From Shadowbane to Child’s Play: KingsIsle’s Todd Coleman on Wizard101
MMOGamer has an exclusive interview with Todd Coleman, better known to our fans as Headmaster Merle Ambrose.


Read the whole interview at MMOGamer.

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Wizard101 Downtime
Wizard101 the game will be offline on Tuesday April 21 from 3:00am to 4:30am Central US Time. During this downtime you will not be able to log in to the game, and players in the game will be prompted to log out.
The website will also be unavailable during this downtime. Thank you for your understanding while we continually improve the game and the website for all our players.

New Quick Guide
For those young Wizards who are not familiar with online games, we have created a Quick Guide that you can easily print and keep beside your computer for reference. You can find this guide by clicking on this Quick Guide button.

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Mid-day Downtime
Young Wizards, we apologize for the interruption, but Wizard101 the game will be offline for a brief mid-day downtime on April 17th, starting at 11:30am Central US Time and ending at 12:15pm Central US Time.

During this downtime, you will not be able to log in to Wizard101 and players who are in the game will see announcements letting them know they will need to log out.

Crowns Gear Update
During the April 16th downtime, we addressed the issue with players who found their Crowns items were not granting the health bonus that they previously gave.

You should find your health boost back where it was before the April 13th update.

Thanks to all our players who alerted us to this discrepancy.

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Wizard101 Downtime
Wizard101 the game will be offline on Thursday April 16 starting at 3:00am Central US time and lasting for approximately one hour.

During this time players will not be able to log in to the game, and players who are in the game at that time will be prompted to log out.

Hotkey Updates
A message to our Wizards: there are two hotkey updates, one is a change and one is an addition:

1. Control K now swaps between your decks (instead of just K).
2. T will toggle the Quest Helper Arrow on and off.

This is in addition to our currently existing hotkeys:

1. A  --  Move Left
2. B  --  Open/Close Backpack
3. C  --  Open/Close Character Screen
4. D  --  Move Right
5. F  --  Open/Close Friends Panel
6. M  --  Open/Close Map
7. N  --  Turn On/Off Navigation Bubbles
8. O  --  Open/Close Open Chat Window
9. P  --  Open/Close Card Pack
10. Q  --  Open/Close Quest Journal
11. S  --  Move Backwards
12. T -- Turn On/Off Quest Tracker *new*
13. W  --  Move Forwards
14. X  --  Interact
15. Up Arrow  --  Move Forwards
16. Left Arrow  --  Move Left
17. Right Arrow  --  Move Right
18. Down Arrow  --  Move Backwards
19. Num Lock  --  Autorun
20. Esc  --  Open/Close Options Panel
21. Enter  --  Start Text Chat
22. Space  --  Jump
23. Home  --  Recall to Dorm when Map is Open
24. Alt-F4  --  Exit Wizard101
25. Ctrl-R  --  Autorun
26. Ctrl-K -- Swap Card Decks *updated*
27. Ctrl-Shift-N  --  Show/Hide Name Tags
28. Shift-M  --  Open/Close World Map

Trouble with your Level 48 Life Spell Quest?
If Theurgists are having trouble completing your level 48 Life spell quest, you must complete a sidequest in MooShu in order to have access to Oakheart in the Jade Palace.

You must complete these quests, in this order, to get to Oakheart in the Jade Palace. A lot of these quests are the same side quests that you need to complete for the “Wizard Tours” quest or Obsidian Chests quest to get access to the one chest in MooShu.

Cave of Solitude
1. I’m Cursed (from Mossback)
2. Rock On (from Mossback)

Kishibe Village
1. Wear Your Gloves (from Mossback)

Shirataki Temple
1. I’m Cured! (from Mossback)

Ancient Burial Grounds
1. Distressed Earth (from Mossback)
2. Forest Foray (from Mossback)

Village of Sorrow
1. Tainted Forest (from Wavebringer)
2. Forest Spirit (from Wavebringer)

Tree of Life
1. The Great Forest (from Oakheart)
2. Everlasting Forest (from Oakheart)

“Everlasting Forest” quest will give you access to Oakheart in the Jade Palace!

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Basic PvE Deckbuilding Strategies at mmorpg.com
The staff over at mmorpg.com have created a news article on the intricacies of building a good deck.
Read more about Basic PvE Deckbuilding Strategies at mmorpg.com

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Missing Pets
Some of you may have noticed that your pets disappeared over night, but don't worry young Wizards, they were simply at the vets getting a checkup.

Sadly the vet isn't very organized and some of the nametags were switched around. Your pet may have a different name but you can easily change that at the Dye Shop in the Wizard City Shopping District.

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Wizard101 Quick Fix
Wizard101 the game will be going offline Tuesday April 14th at 3:00am Central US Time for approximately one hour.

During this downtime we will be fixing issues with the level 48 Ice School spell quest, Friends Panel portraits and some misdirecting arrows in the Quest Helper.

At the same time, Wizard101.com the website may experience brief interruptions as well, but know we will back up shortly.

Do your Friends Look Funny?
If the picture on your Friends panel doesn't look like your friend, all you have to do is meet up with your friend and the picture and their stats will update. What a great reason to meet up with old Friends and update their pictures!

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S3 ProSavageDDR Card
If you have a S3 ProSavageDDR card, and are unable to play Wizard101, please know we are working on correcting this problem and will keep you up to date on this message board post.

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Issue with Level 48 Ice Spell
Thank you everyone who let us know that the Kiln for the level 48 Ice Spell is not appearing. We are working hard to fix it quickly! Stay tuned to the Ravenwood News for more information.

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Update Complete
Wizard101 has been updated and is now back online. See you in Wizard City!

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Wizard101 Downtime and Update
Wizard101 will be offline starting Monday April 13 at 3:00am Central US time and will be offline for approximately 2 hours. During this downtime we will be adding lots of new features to Wizard101 including a Quest Helper, a new spell for each school, new pets, a new shopkeeper and more! For more information, see our Patch Notes Page

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Test Realm is going Offline
During tonight's Downtime we will also be taking down the Test Realm until further notice. Keep an eye on this Ravenwood News page for more information about the Test Realm in the future. Thank you to all our game testers who helped us out by logging in and testing items on the Test Realm.

News!
It's been a bit of a slow news week in the Spiral.

Thanks to all our players who logged in to the Test Realm and helped us really test the new features. We're excited about releasing them to everyone, and keep an eye on this page for more information about these features.

We've updated our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page to allow players to find answers to their most asked questions. You can find that by clicking on our Help & Support button - the first link is the FAQ. You may find a question there you've been asking yourself! If you have any suggestions for the Frequently Asked Questions section, don't hesitate to let us know by emailing your suggestion to community@wizard101.com

Just a reminder to all our Wizards, make sure that the email address associated with your account is valid. When you make a purchase or request a password reset, we send you a confirmation email and sometimes those emails bounce back to us - so to ensure you're getting your billing confirmations or password reset emails, please make sure your email address with us is valid. To do this, log in to Wizard101, and click the My Accounts button under your username. Under Basic Information you will see the option to change your email address.

Login Interruption
Between 3am and 4am Central time on April 6th, players will be unable to log in to Wizard101 the game and Wizard101.com the website. Players who are already logged in and playing the game should not see any interruption during this time. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Billing Unavailable
In order to improve our Billing system for our customers we will be performing maintenance on the billing section of our website.

This means that between April 03 at 11:00pm Central time and April 04 4:00am Central our website Billing system will be down for Wizard101.

During this time, you will be unable to make any Crowns or Membership purchases, nor will you be able to update your current billing information.

Thank you for your patience while we continue to upgrade our systems to better serve our players.

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Bumpy Ride
Just to let our players know that starting on April 03 at 11:00pm Central time and ending on April 04 12:30am Central, our players may experience brief disconnects from Wizard101 and possibly some delays. It may be a bumpy ride, so adventure carefully!

Brief Downtime
Wizard101 the game will be going offline briefly on Friday April 03 2009 starting at 3am Central US Time and ending at approximately 3:30am Central US Time. During this downtime, players will be unable to log in to the Wizard101 game, and anyone logged in at that time will be prompted to log out. Thank you for your understanding!

Test Realm Re-Opens for April
As a special bonus for Members of Wizard101, we have opened the Test Realm to allow you to get a sneak peek of what's coming in Wizard101 before it's released to everyone! You'll log into a new realm that only Members can access. If you find any bugs in the Test Realm, please use the Bug Report button to let us know!

To access the Test Realm log in to Wizard101.com the website. Click the bright red banner at the top of any page to learn more about how you can be a game tester! You can also follow this link to our Sneak Peek page.

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New Ravenwood Newsletter
Welcome to April! We start the month with a new Ravenwood Newsletter that includes important information about our upcoming Wizard Housing!
Read our Newsletter