Sponsoring giveaways, answering questions, and keeping players up to date on the latest game news are just a few of the many tasks our wonderful community managers are faced with on a daily basis! Today we ask Wizard101’s Professor Greyrose and Pirate101’s One-Eyed Jack a few questions about what it’s like to be a community manager at KingsIsle.
What does it mean to be a good gaming citizen in the community?
Professor Greyrose: Wizard101 has very a special community that already knows how to be good citizens in the game, and how to deal with those that are being inappropriate or abusive. Those who are not good citizens in games find themselves placed on people’s ignore list, reported and in some cases, banned from the game.
To some of our players, being a good gaming citizen means:
- “It means to be kind, considerate, helpful, and sportsmanlike.” – Critical Death
- “To be a good gaming citizen for me is to always try to assist people in need.” – The Balance Master
- “Being a good gaming citizen can also coincide with good sportsmanship. Being a more experienced player, I try to help others learn about the game, spells, pips, pets, gear, gardening, etc. I try to be courteous to players and treat them with respect. – BrynnerofReign
- “They ask before helping somebody and is available to fight. They say thank you and your welcome. They don’t get angry when you join a battle with them. They don’t attract other enemies in battle and flee. They don’t teleport to you unless you tell them to. They aren’t negative about your fighting. They invite you to do other things with them.” –Molly the Balance Wiz
- “Be Respectful” – Logan Deathwisper
- “Asking to join, saying thank you and your welcome is nice. Helping people when you can.” –Kjkazinski
One-Eyed Jack: Good citizens in Pirate101 are much like good citizens in real life. They play the game well with others, look for ways to better themselves and others, have charity, and abide by the “laws of the land.” Much as in the real world where “my rights end where yours begin,” good citizens respect other players, don’t seek out ways to cheat or swindle others, and both offer help (and take help) when it’s needed.
If you find what you think is an exploit in the game, good citizens are those that speak up and stay far away from breaking our terms of service agreement. In real life, if a situation looks sketchy, you report it to the police. In game, you do the same . . . only the police in this instance would be Customer Support. In real life if you see a person struggling with a flat tire, you might offer assistance! Our “flat tires” in game are when another player is struggling with some difficult content. If the situation arises, you might even offer them some friendly advice. Teaching can be a great way of showing charity to others.
In the end, good citizens are this world’s everyday heroes, and when you’re playing a game like Pirate101, you are definitely playing as the hero—so be one! Make your game’s community a better place.
. . . and here’s another tip, we don’t sent bad-seed Pirates to jail in Pirate101 like you would in the real world, instead we block them from playing our game and levy account sanctions as needed. Review our FAQ page about reportable offenses, and if the occasion rises, use your report and ignore buttons through the friends list as needed.
So players, what do you think it means to be a good citizen in the gaming community?
We have a treat for you today! Fred Howard, Vice President of Marketing, is a huge part of bringing the Wizard101 and Pirate101 TV commercials to life. He’s taken some time to share a behind the scenes look at making a commercial in today’s part I of a two-part blog series.
Have you ever wondered how we create our Wizard101 and Pirate101 commercials? I’m going to do a two-part blog series on the making of our commercials in what I hope is an entertaining look behind the scenes. In this first post, I will talk about the making of one of our all CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) commercials. For the second post, I’ll go behind the sets for the live action shoot we had for our recent Wizard101 tournaments commercial. We also worked to put together a video that walks through the process. Enjoy 🙂
Similar to when we create new content for our games, our commercials first start with a story. Basically, “What are we trying to convey or message with the TV spot?” It is more challenging than it may seem as there are only 30 seconds to tell the story. It’s really more like 25 seconds when we account for the opening and closing logo sequence. This is a very iterative process. We go from a high concept of the message to a detailed script written out with descriptions of the scenes, character voice lines, AVO (Announcer Voice Over – voice acting for things like the ESRB rating, our website, etc.) and other necessary details needed to execute making the commercial.
Once this is done, we work with our concept artists to create story boards. These are still image drawings that show detail for each step in the commercial. As with the script, this process goes through a lot of iterations to ensure we have the right look and feel in the commercial. With the completion of the story boards, we move into the actual production.
The first thing we have to do is build out all of the characters, props (like boats, equipment, etc.) and locations in very high resolution. This process starts with a bunch of concept art and the in-game characters to drive the development. Our goal is to stay close to the actual game play look but to take it to the next level given we have the output opportunity of High Definition TVs.
The first piece of the characters being created is called a Brush Model. These are grey scale characters built out with all the details they will have in the final commercial. Once these are done, the characters are moved to texturing and shading. This is where all of the color and depth is added — things like making a leather vest look “leather”.
As the characters and props are getting built out, we actually are creating the “set” in the CGI world by placing all of the cameras, characters and assets. Once the set is built out far enough we start to capture footage with the cameras (even though the characters and assets are not done yet). This is called an Animatic. Many times an animatic is done with just storyboards, but we feel it is a much better process to actually use camera moves in 3D. We have to make sure that what was envisioned in the script and storyboards actually looks good when it is in 3D with the camera motion. This process also goes through much iteration as we make tweaks to the camera moves, the camera cuts, and fine tune all of the placements.
The scene is then fully animated with all of the characters and movements. It sounds simple, but this is a lengthy process and difficult to really convey the emotions we are working to get across. Once this is all done, we move to adding all of the effects. This really brings the commercial “alive”.
It sounds like we should be done… but there are a few critical pieces that come toward the end of the commercial’s creation. The first is the soundtrack. We have all of the music for our commercials scored specifically for that spot. Usually we have an idea of the mood/sound that we want for the spot early on in the process, but until we lock in timing of movements and camera angles it is not possible to get a finished piece. We also have our sound team put down the soundtrack – meaning all of the sound effects you hear in the commercial from cannons to wind to characters grunting (side note, I actually helped make some of the “grunt” sounds that are in the Pirate101 commercial :)). The sound portion also consists of recording the voice over and announcer voice over. You might be surprised that each line gets read sometimes 50 or 60 times (or more) until we get the one that we think really captures what we want.
Once all this is put together, it gets finalized and shipped off to the various TV channels for your viewing pleasure. 🙂 One of the things I think is really interesting is how much detail goes into a CGI commercial like this. Stuff gets built that you barely see (and sometimes don’t see at all in the finished product) but that we have to get the little details right to ensure a high quality commercial. I think the video here showcases a little of that. Enjoy.
Fred Howard
Vice President of Marketing
Today we have a very special guest blogger… Headmaster Merle Ambrose from Wizard101! Merle has some very important information for you about how to keep your KingsIsle Account safe and in good standing.
The popularity of any game brings with it those who seek to take advantage of other players. We have many ongoing safeguards to protect players from sharing personal and account information within the games, however it is up to you to keep your account information safe outside of the games.
We’d like to take this opportunity to remind our players that any website offering you Crowns, Memberships and items for free or at a discount should not be trusted.
Anyone that asks for your password is clearly doing nothing more than trying to steal from you.
Anyone that asks you to download a program to cheat at the game is cheating you.
Don’t fall for it, it will cost you your account, your characters, your pets and all your other hard-earned game rewards.
Theft is never ok, and players found to be in receipt of stolen goods will be sanctioned. It is up to you to keep your account information private, and if your account is found purchasing or interacting with any of these fraudulent websites your account will be banned.
Be sensible and ask yourselves if this person or website is really going to give you an item worth real money for free or for less than you can buy it regularly. The answer is no, they’re not. They’re going to take your account away and disappear, or worse, use your account to scam other people. It’s not a very nice thing to do, but the only way an account can get compromised is if you share your account information with someone. Some people mistakenly call this a hack. To be clear, giving someone else your account information is account sharing. This violates the Terms of Use and will result in your account being banned. You are fully responsible for all activities conducted through your account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and for any use of your password to gain access to your account and your account information.
Please heed our cautionary tale and protect your account information, or you will find yourself banned from all KingsIsle games.
Not sure if a site is safe? Visit our list of approved affiliate sites at https://www.wizard101.com/game/community/fansites
My name is Sara Jensen Schubert and I’m the design lead of Pirate101. That means that I manage all of our talented world, systems, and UI designers. I allocate tasks and bug fixes, and keep the team informed. I’m also the primary contact for people from other departments when they have questions. I make many small decisions every day!
My typical day at KingsIsle goes something like this:
9:30 AM
- Arrive at the office.
- Check my email to see if any problems have arisen, or any other issues that deserve a reply.
- Check our bug tracking program to see if any design bugs have cropped up. If they have, I make sure they’re valid design issues and route them to the appropriate designers.
10:00 AM
- I drop by the designers to see how they’re doing.
- A producer comes by to ask about the design team’s tasks for the week.
10:30
- Throughout the rest of the day, there’s more email and more bugs. It’s the same procedure as before – keep an eye out for emails that need a response, and review incoming bugs to be sure they’re valid before assigning them out to the right people.
- I read the forums to look for interesting conversations and bug reports.
11:30
- One of our UI designers calls me over to review a feature he’s prototyping. It looks good! We discuss options for improvement and he gets back to work. We take a screenshot to send to the management team to make sure we’re on the right track.
12:00
- Lunch time!
12:30
- Return to yet more email and bugs.
- One particular email is from a designer who’s having trouble redesigning a boss fight in game. I play the fight and offer suggestions. We exchange a few ideas and settle on a solution.
- Another email is from a designer with a game design document. I read it and offer my feedback.
2:30
- A designer comes to me with a great idea for the next update, but it requires new art. We discuss it with the art lead, and it turns out we have time to do it! It’s officially on the schedule now. A good idea goes from a thought in somebody’s head to a real task in the space of an hour. I love it when stuff like that happens – it demonstrates how much we value individual creativity here on the P101 team.
3:00
- A design document is ready to go to art and tech for implementation, and I revise it to ensure it includes all the information it needs.
- A programmer drops by my office to ask a question about a feature he’s implementing. It turns out it’s a bigger problem than we thought, so we rope in a few other people and turn it into a mini-meeting. After getting everyone’s input, the problem gets solved.
4:00
- A designer drops by with a question about a bug fix.
4:30
- A few bugs arrive that I can fix! I update my game editor and get to work.
5:30
- Email, bugs, and office visits start to slow down, so I get a chance to play the game!
6:00
- Time to go home.
My days are busy, but satisfying. It’s fun to keep the team running well and to manage so much information. And it’s great to be a part of the effort towards making a fun game better!
Sara Jensen Schubert
Design Lead (Game Systems)
Here at KingsIsle, we were extremely excited when researchers at Trinity University approached us on wanting to do a study on gaming demographics using an anonymous survey of more than 35,000 Wizard101 player volunteers. Today Trinity researchers Dr. Aaron Delwiche and Dr. Jennifer Henderson share some of their findings with us!
As you know, millions of people of all ages get to play Wizard101. But what do we know about these people who play in the Spiral? In a study recently published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Dr. Aaron Delwiche and Dr. Jennifer Henderson learned some interesting things about Wizard101 players. More than 35,000 players responded to their survey about how, when, and why they play Wizard101.
For example did you know that, on average, adults over the age of 50 play Wizard101 almost 10 hours a week more than younger players? These researchers from Trinity University also found that older players were more likely to underestimate their playtime. Younger players did the exact opposite, often thinking that they played longer than they really did.
These researchers also learned that approximately two thirds of the players under the age of 50 were male, while two thirds of the players over the age of 50 were female. Did you have any idea that Mom and Grandma were playing so often? Well, you probably did, because older female players were more likely to have characters at higher game levels than younger players.
But players of all ages shared common ground when reporting how much they value the connections and friendships made within the Spiral. For example, one woman said “this game has given my family a way to play together and communicate more often even though we are thousands of miles apart. It has brought us closer together and that means the world to us.”
Dr. Delwiche and Dr. Henderson’s next study from this survey will take a closer look at intergenerational gaming. What sorts of rules do families have about playing Wizard101? When players are in the Spiral, who decides which quests to undertake? What do family members say they learn about themselves and each other by playing the game?
Dr. Aaron Delwiche and Dr. Jennifer Henderson
Trinity University
KingsIsle Blog 