Back in the middle of 2014, the Community Team at KingsIsle had an idea for a new way to interact with (and hopefully entertain) our game communities. Livestreaming video games became a huge trend in the last few years with the growing popularity of Twitch. In 2013, Twitch had upwards of 45 million viewers each month! Many players already use Twitch to stream their gameplay of Wizard101 and Pirate101, so we thought, why not join in on the fun? KI Live was created!
What is KI Live? It is a monthly livestream from KingsIsle Community Managers Tom and Leala (with help from Social Media Coordinator, Julia, appropriately dubbed #JuliaFromKI on Twitter). Each month we focus on the latest news in KingsIsle games, show off gameplay, answer questions from the community and give away lots of great prizes. Players can watch live on our website and join in the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #askki. If you ever miss a live episode, you can always catch up by watching the recorded version on our YouTube page.
What goes into creating a KI Live episode? Glad you asked. Lots! Since KI Live is a new endeavor for us, we are learning as we go. This goes for the technical aspects as well as learning what topics most interest our viewers.
Scheduling and Planning: The first thing the community team does is get together for a meeting to discuss when our next episode should take place, what news we should highlight and what we’d like to show off in game. Sometimes an episode will be more focused on Wizard101 or it could be more focused on Pirate101. We try to mix it up and show off lots of aspects of each game!
Show Notes: Once we’ve got a rough idea of what we’ll discuss in the episode, we write down notes to help us remember everything and use them as an outline to guide us during the live show. Since KI Live is live, even with the best planning, the unexpected can happen! It’s exciting and definitely keeps us on our toes.
Announcement: Several days before the event, we make an announcement to all of our players across social media by creating events on Google+ and Facebook. This way everyone knows when the next KI Live will be and can join us!
Setup: When the big day rolls around we convert one of the conference rooms in the KingsIsle office into our own little recording studio. We move in our computers, lighting, microphone, props and decorations for the background. We use lots of posters featuring art from the games, as well as life-sized standees of some of the characters from Pirate101. Since each show has a theme, we often bring in fun hats or costume pieces to wear on the show. Fun Fact: Tom hates wearing hats but Leala makes him, because it’s funny!
Showtime: On the day of the event we announce again across social media and start taking questions from the #askki hashtag on Twitter. We also may call for submissions of in-game screenshots that go along with our theme so that we can share them on the show . We love showing off our player’s creativity! When the big moment comes, we flip all the switches and go live on Twitch. During the episode Leala and Tom will be on camera and in game playing Wizard101 or Pirate101 (or both!) Julia helps out behind the camera to coordinate all of the questions that we answer on air and award prizes to lucky viewers.
And that’s a glimpse into what goes into bringing you KI Live each month! Have you ever watched KI Live? Let us know in the comments what you think of the show and what you would like us to talk about in upcoming episodes. Thanks for reading (and watching!)
Join us for the next KI Live on Friday, February 13th at 4PM Central!
It was an amazing flurry of feathers on Saturday in Pirate101 as thousands of players descended into the reaches of Skull Island in the quest for four simple housing luxuries:
• Embroidered Royal Pillow
• Royal Throw Pillow
• Embroidered Elegant Throw Pillow
• Embroidered Regal Pillow
It was a royal rumble in our first ever KingsIsle sponsored Pillow Fight!
In total, 8046 pillows were acquired by players during the day! Who knew our troggies and cutthroats had such a big stash of treasure? Harvey Deuce, proprietor of the Skull Island Bazaar, is rumored to have filled several empty houses full with this resulting over-stuffed stock!
Check out these crazy statistics we discovered from your time spent farming pillows:
• The first pillow was found 9 seconds after midnight central time.
• The last pillow was picked up at 23:59:27, with 33 seconds to spare
• Pillows were almost without fail 25% of each type. This was mostly the same ratio for the top 10 players as well, so it seems like one pillow doesn’t really drop more than any other.
Though thousands participated, there were a few brave souls who came out on top of this pillow war victorious. Our grand prize winner, with 115 pillows is (drum roll please) . . .
1. Two-faced Anne
When reached for comment, Two-faced Anne told us her main strategy was to scout out a place to farm before the event. Her main target of interest was the Troggy Chief in the Dark Jungle.
Two-faced Anne also wanted to give a special thank you to her friends “Clumsy Calamity” who she called “a great motivator,” and “Perilous Paige” for “all the luck she brought me when it was most needed.”
Congratulations on winning your prize of 60k Crowns . . . and the bragging rights of being Queen of the Hill in our First Ever Pillow Fight in Pirate101!
Our next ten runners up (in order) were as follows:
2. Clumsy Calamity
3. Lazy Keelan
4. Misty Jackson
5. Crazy Cassidy
6. Stubborn Duncan Freeman
7. Merciful Misty
8. Katherine De Bouff
9. Seth
10. Fiery Samantha Moone
11. Harmony Everhart
Each of these pirates received a prize of 10k Crowns each . . . plenty of compensation for all those bops on the head with virtual pillows!
While the following Pirates didn’t win a prize, we were definitely impressed with our entire Top 50, and an honorable mention must be made to these stalwart pirates who weathered the storm and participated at an exemplary level . . . in order of their rankings:
12. Dante Everhart
13. Merciless Blaze Nightingale
14. Silent Sebastian West
15. Dead-eye Mark
16. Wicked Cheyenne Dove
17. Darling Sarah Parker
18. Esperanza Devereaux
19. Alexis Dove
20. Darling Christina Dove
21. Jack Burton
22. Karic
23. Ruthless Valkoor Stevenson
24. Silent Patrick Rackham
25. Blaze Gregory
26. Bloody Ryan
27. Dead-eye Alexander Devereaux
28. Dark Zane
29. Clever Cedric Tolliver
30. Sarcastic Rebecca Armstrong
31. Silver Katie West
32. Benjamin Windlass
33. Unfair Richard
34. Silent Sam Stern
35. Dark Hunter Dodger
36. Robert
37. Fearless Hazel Xanderman
38. Stubborn Joshua Hawkins
39. Rylee Sharp
40. Dashing Brom Dromond
41. Brave Brandon Dromond
42. Crafty Owen Underhill
43. Dashing Connor Bowman
44. Ruthless Emily DeClark
45. Trustworthy Allan Xanderman
46. Dark Rogan Underhill
47. Daring Blaze Usher
48. Dark Sierra Kelly
49. Annoying Rowan Foote
50. Fair Jack Carter
Nicely done and thanks for your participation!
Let us know what you thought of the event in the comments section below, and if you have any great ideas for “farming” events like this in the future.
See you in the Skyways!
Today is Community Manager Appreciation Day, an online holiday to recognize the hard work of Community Managers all across the web. And what better way for a Community Manager to celebrate than to turn the spotlight back on some of the dedicated players that make my job a pleasure every day. Many knowledgeable, helpful and creative members of the Wizard101 and Pirate101 communities create and run fan sites. If you aren’t familiar with their work, below is an introduction to the official fan sites that celebrate KingsIsle games.
Wizard101 Central ,Wizard101 Wiki, Pirate101 Central and Pirate101 Wiki
The Central sites host a massive player-run forum that holds a wealth of discussion and information about both Wizard101 and Pirate101. If you are looking for help, to hatch pets or just to chat about your thoughts on the games, Central is a great place to start. It also hosts the most comprehensive wikis available. If you are ever in search of where to find an item or where to go for your next quest, the Wizard101 Central or Pirate101 Central wiki will have the answers.
Petnome Project and Petnome Pirates
For fans of the pet systems in Wizard101 and Pirate101, Petnome is your source for all the information you could ever need about talents, hybrids and more.
A combination podcast about both Wizard101 and Pirate101 (and an assortment of other games), Spiral Radio is the longest-running audio podcast about KingsIsle games. Hosts Steve and Christina host regular live episodes that cover the latest news in both games.
Duelist101 is a wonderful resource for information about PVP, strategy and the latest news about Wizard101 and Pirate101. The site regularly posts guides and is host to many community blogs and discussions.
Stars of the Spiral is a fan site for both Wizard101 and Pirate101 that focuses on comprehensive guides, blogs about the latest news as well as community forums.
Mercenaries for Hire and Mercenaries for Charter
If you are ever stuck in game and need help with farming, completing a tough boss fight or dungeon run, the Mercenaries are there to help. On their websites players can request help as well as find many helpful guides.
Legends of the Spiral and Stormgate Pirates
The Legends fan sites are host to a large community of players for both KingsIsle games, with contests, comics, discussion boards, a nifty CardMaker and more.
The Art in the Spiral blog hosts wonderful fan art created by Alura RB, as well as art from other community members that she helps to spotlight.
Paige Moonshade is another Wizard101 and Pirate101 blogger, best known as one of the foremost housing decorators in the Spiral. Take a look at her blog to see some of her lovely creations.
Ditto is Wizard101 and Pirate101’s most famous Fabricated American blogger. Join Ditto as he takes you along in his video blog adventures throughout the Spiral.
Valerian’s School for Wayward Wizards
Valerian and team share their adventures through the Spiral in one of our longest running official fan blogs.
On Skull Island TV, Dr. Zeppers creates hilarious and catchy tunes about his adventures in the world of Pirate101.
The Adventures of the Spiral blog posts the latest news in KingsIsle games and hosts an informative Companion Database for Pirate101 and a Fishing Database for Wizard101.
Wizards of the Spiral and Pirates of the Spiral
On his blogs about Wizard101 and Pirate101, Johnny discusses his ideas for how to improve the games, posts high quality character renders and covers the latest news.
New to the roster of Wizard101 official fan sites, FrostCaller’s blog joins us with insightful posts, amazing graphics and colorful wallpapers.
And these wonderful sites are just the tip of the iceburg! Look for even more mentions of other non-official fansites regularly in our monthly newsletter. If there’s a good post to be read on the internet by one of our fans, we love to read it! Thanks to all of our wonderful Wizard101 and Pirate101 fan sites for all that you do.
-Professor Greyrose
Here at KingsIsle, we celebrate Cheese Day once a month. This has been our tradition for several years, and it is a fun way to catch up with fellow employees as we eat some tasty cheeses from around the world. But how did we get this strange idea to eat cheese once a month in an organized setting? Read on and maybe you will want to celebrate Cheese Day along with us, month by month.
A long time ago, when Wizard101 was simply a glimmer of an idea being worked on at Kingsisle Entertainment, a young designer got a gift for Christmas. He received a Cheese of a Month Club subscription. With an overabundance of cheese, he started to bring in the cheeses from around the world to the office, inviting everyone to finish off what he couldn’t eat. Once a month, a cheese from another country would arrive with a little pamphlet telling about the history of each cheese. Most of the cheeses were good and a few were bad, but it started a tradition of gathering around a table, eating cheese and crackers and chatting with each other in a relaxed environment.
People started to ask about when the next cheese package would arrive next month, and soon there was an e-mail thread about when the cheese would arrive. When the cheese DID arrive, people would rejoice and talk and laugh and eat a bit of cheese around the break room.
But all good things must come to an end, and that end was the discontinuation of the designer’s Cheese of the Month Club. For, you see, it had been a year since the initial cheese had been shared around the table, and the subscription died out. The designer left the company, and all hope was lost, for we had no cheese.
Until one day, a not-so-young but inspired artist decided that we didn’t need a Cheese of the Month Club as an excuse for eating cheese. We didn’t need one person determining when we could eat some snacks. The concept was stronger than one individual. That realization was when Cheese Day was born. We got people to bring their own favorite cheeses for others to share. Every month, we have discovered many different cheeses that still to this day surprise even me. The concept of Cheese Day is one of sharing and simple conversation around a break room table. It is a break from the busy day and instead focuses on how good a simple flake of 10 year old cheddar tastes on the tongue. (The answer? Very, VERY good, thank you very much.)
So, we celebrate Cheese Day here at Kingsisle. We may have started this tradition, but we encourage every business and family, large and small, to start their own Cheese Day. Announce a date; buy some cheese and crackers, (The more variety, the better) and simply eat and talk with your coworkers or family. Oh, and tell us about your Cheese Day experiences and maybe take some pictures and send them to us at community@kingsisle.com. We would love to spread this idea to the rest of the country, for it is both relaxing and delicious.
And isn’t that what life is all about? As we enjoy our delicious cheese, we’d love to hear from you. Share your favorite kind of cheese in the comments! Happy Cheese Day, everyone!
KingsIsle Blog 