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Wizard101 announces 10 million registrations
Subscriptions, registered users, unique users, unique players, characters created, accounts created, boxes sold -- there really is no set standard to measure a MMO's popularity and success against these days. The only thing that's for sure is that the bigger the number, the better. Fortunately, Wizard101's claim to fame is more solid than most, as they recently announced their 10,000,000th registered wizard in Wizard City and are throwing a party in honor of the game's growth. Wizard101 has been a runaway success since its launch, pulling in players across several demographics, from family to tweens to seasoned MMO vets. The hybrid model, offering a selection of both subscription and free-to-play options, has also opened the game up to a larger playerbase. To celebrate the 10 million milestone, KingsIsle is throwing a party for wizard #10,000,001 at Ravenswood School of Magical Arts. All players are eligible to receive a nifty party pack that holds a decorative banner, balloons, a festive party hat and moist, delicious cake. To snag it, all wizards and witches are directed to head to www.wizard101.com/promo and enter the word PARTYPACK to enjoy the fruits of their play. Congrats to KingsIsle on this impressive achievement!
The OverAchiever: The 25 most evil achievements, part 1
What are evil achievements? They're the soul-killing rep grinds, the raiding milestones that required sacrificing a farm animal to get, and even fun pasttimes like battlegrounds into which a sizable dose of misery has been added. Eventually you just want to grab the nearest developer and shake him back and forth, screaming, "What the hell were you thinking?" Last week I previewed three of the most evil achievements in the game, both to collect my own thoughts and to canvass commenters' opinions for a larger article. This week, I'd like to present the first set of evil achievements for your reading, wincing and antacid-chugging pleasure. A note on judging the "evil value" of achievements: I've been adding to this list for a while, and it's drawn from both the achievements we've covered in this column and some I've seen players complain about frequently in game. Obviously, there's no real way to quantify exactly how difficult or excruciating achievements are, so I'm going with the definition I gave above. Any incredibly difficult or RNG-saturated achievement made the short list, but I also tried to keep some unusual picks in mind. In this vein, there's an achievement in today's column that, while extremely easy by today's standards, was a screaming horror when it first debuted. I may wind up doing a list of honorable mentions as well. So, in no particular order, I am pleased to present World of Warcraft's 25 most evil achievements, starting with #25-16 this week.
Well Fed Buff: Delicious Chocolate Cake
Well Fed Buff serves up tasty dishes to boost your HP, stats and appetite – with that special WoW twist, of course. Are you happy? Are you so happy that you're Very Happy? You would be, if you had some Delicious Chocolate Cake. This cake is so fabulous that it's even listed by The Chocolate Cake Church. And now, this delectable delight is your ticket to some very tasty achievements, in game with the Echoes of Doom (patch 3.0.2). Make this cake out of game, while you make this cake in game – you can have your cake and eat it, too. When Delicious Chocolate Cake was introduced a year ago, nobody could figure out what the one-hour Very Happy buff was all about. For a while, it rumored to increase xp gain. Players eventually determined the effect was simply a vanity buff, including a few happy-fun fireworks, a smoke rocket and the infamous one-hour Very Happy buff. But the cake is not a lie. User Snuggly over on wowhead.com points out that Delicious Chocolate Cake, which can now be purchased from Misensi in Dalaran for three Dalaran Cooking Awards, is a necessary ingredient for quite a few achievements. (More details, after the break.)
