← Art Tickles: Over Those Who Watch Off the Grid: Dead End Junction →Character FantasyartFantasyart FantasyPortraits PhotoCharacter PortraitsCharacter ArtFantasy CharacterCharacter IdeasFantasy Art DwarfIdea FantasyForwardPainting done in Photoshop. Starting with BW sketch and with a callout for the foreground pillar!Sure, Wizard101 is free… for certain values of free. I guess I’m just going to have to fall back on definitions, here. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to KingsIsle’s VP of Marketing, Fred Howard, today! Thrilled and a little surprised. What about yesterday’s Wizard101 post, I wondered, could have caught his attention? The gentle fun being poked at the humorously irrelevant Facebook sidebar ads? “Those were made by a third party specializing in ads on social media,” said Mr. Howard. (I’m paraphrasing here from my notes). “There was an error in the imagery, and the third party changed the text to drive players to the Wizard101 site.

The ads with the incorrect imagery should be ceasing, though some may still pop up for awhile.” I had noticed one of the newer W101 ads did have some concept art from the actual game (the smallest Wizard City castle, if I remember right). dedolight backpackIt all makes sense, though — a company specializing in social media advertising would say whatever they needed to in order to get people to click that icon. targus 16 ascend laptop backpackThat’s how they get paid.lp backpack n3 I’d also written yesterday that Wizard101 is hardly free. nike wvu backpackWell, you know, I guess it depends what you want to do. If you want to go through all the worlds and do the quests and be part of the story — the things I’m interested in — then no, it’s not free.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty for free players to do. “Wizard101 is free for what a lot of people do,” said Mr. Howard. “The pet games, the dueling, the minigames which are as good or better than those on other sites, are all free.” He went on to note that there were a ton of people who never paid a dime to KingsIsle yet happily spent lots of time playing with the pets and the minigames. I guess the best way to think of the game, then, is as two games, really. You have the free one, with the pet games and minigames and the dueling, and then you have the pay to play one, with the story and the leveling. Other pay to play games with free zones, like Warhammer Online and Age of Conan, do not have a separate minigame areas. My definition of a free game is one where all the content is open to free players, but they would be given the opportunity to speed their progression or buy useful items for cash. This is the approach taken by Turbine’s F2P games, Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online, by SOE with EverQuest II Extended, and by SOE’s Free Realms before they changed their model to be more similar to W101’s (game is free to level 5).

The word “free” is, really, meaningless in an advertising context, since nobody REALLY thinks a company will actually give away anything without expecting more back. Mr. Howard pointed out that KingsIsle IS a “for profit” business, after all. Heck, I have no problem with that. I’ve spent LOTS of money on Wizard101 stuff, and gladly! But then, I never consider any commercial game “free”. The Selena Gomez Promotion has been a huge success for KingsIsle. Adults may not want chocolate in their peanut butter, but apparently, the target tween audience DOES want to see branded merch everywhere they turn. Backpacks, lunchboxes, TV, their video games — they are happiest knowing that they are never far from the day’s hottest kid-focused intellectual property. Ah, I don’t want to talk about Selena any more. It’s clear I’m not a fan. I don’t even have cable! But I did have to admit that I loved getting a peak at Celestia, and if Gomez’ new CD promotion got me a look at it, then I guess I have to take part.

Done that darn quest four times now…. danced with the crabs so often, I’m growing a shell. On to happier topics, I asked if wizards would get a training point reset so that they could invest extra points into the astral magics. Mr. Howard urged me to think of the new schools (sun, moon, and stars) as more of a “third school” of magic. We’ll be getting sufficient training points on the way from level 50 to 60 to get our astral spells; and these training points COULD be spent on the traditional magics (but why would you want to?) Celestia will be out somewhere between “very soon” and “before the Halloween content re-opens”, which should give us an idea of when we can expect to see it. Celestia should keep us busy for awhile, and we should be looking forward to a big chunk of content in the new year that will have something for everyone, no matter their level. Probably not a new world, but I guess we’ll find out more after Celestia arrives. The folks at KI are already working on the actual next world to pop up on the Spiral (I suggested a “field animal” world, with mice and rats and bees and stuff, or maybe whatever world the bird NPCs like Mr. Lincoln come from, since the long-expected Celestia turned out to be a little wet for the kind of birds that fly.)

Since we’d had hints in the game lore about Dragonspyre, Grizzleheim and Celestia before they were announced, I wondered if there were any similar hints in current game lore about the NEXT world! He closed by saying he appreciated the ‘instructive feedback’ KingsIsle gets from the Wizard101 community and urged all Wizard101 players to vote for Wizard101 as the Game Developer’s Choice “Audience Award” for this year’s Game Developer’s Conference. If W101 wins, everyone gets a really rare Storm Bat. Well, a suddenly not really rare Storm Bat :) But it is pretty cool. Pyramid released a new EP today. It's 10 tracks long, you can find some tracks that were already released on his soundcloud such as or , and obviously a lot of new ones. is a simply amazing, it gives an impressive look of what he's able to create, wonderful, deep yet dancy tunes... Welcome to Pyramid's universe. Beside having a nice taste for the artworks he uses on his covers, he has a very personal style, between ambient, soundtrack like music and 8bit / à la Danger synths.

It's a release, so don't forget to grab it, and give him what you think his work is worth, it's important to help new artists. Lost in Space by Pyramid I Wanna Go Kill Everybody (Britney Spears // Skrillex) by Basic Physics I know that a lot of you guys like Nu Disco / French House, that kind of stuff. So here a post that focus on the new releases there is. Justin Faust & Vincent Fries are simply killing it on this one. And another track, his remix of Fabian . Vincent Fries & Justin Faust - Choppy Slick by Justin Faust Fabian - Last Flight (Justin Faust Remix) by Justin Faust A regular Leonardus track, and regular Leonardus comes as great in my book so... Get Up And Boogie by LeonardusMusic I don't remember talking about Mix Chopin, one of my favorite producer from Canada, be sure to check out his EP :, you won't regret it. Mix Chopin - Lush by Mix Chopin And last but not least a whole EP for free, by Calembour released on Indo Silver Records.

Including remixes by LeBatman (my favorite), Loopalike, the frenchy John Poincarré and Futurewife. INDO009: Calembour - My Darling! by Indo Silver Records Oh and, the little bonus from Futurewife, two bonus track ! Futurewife - Springer Spaniel by Futurewife Futurewife - Say Yeah, Say Oh! - Indian Flute 2011 [click to download] | Breathtaking remix by Rex The Dog The Knife - Heartbeats Rex The Dog remix [click to download] | Instrumental version of a pretty dated french rap song. La Caution - Thé à la Menthe (Instrumental) [click to download] | And 3 tracks from Klub Des Loosers's instrumental album . Simply amazing, get it if you can. Klub Des Loosers - Nice Try [click to download] | Klub Des Loosers - Tears And Drops [click to download] | Klub Des Loosers - Run [click to download] |A nice mix by Pyramid including an unreleased track. Kiblind x DYWACOT x Pyramid Mix #1 by -Pyramid- Sooo, I can't sleep, here are some tracks !

First, two remixes of The Rapture's new song by Populette and Lapse. I listened to the original about 10 times on my way to work, it was in my head all day long and those two remixes didn't help to get the lyrics away. The Rapture - How Deep Is Your Love (Populette remix) [click to download] | The Rapture - How Deep Is Your Love (Lapse dub) [click to download] | That one's a bit older but some of you might not know it, anyway, it's a brilliant remix from Designer Drugs. Klaxons - Echoes (Designer Drugs remix) [click to download] | Two tracks from The Whip's new album , to be released in September on Southern Fried Records. The Whip - Movement [click to download] | The Whip - Best Friend [click to download] | And I'll end with three pretty recent remixes made by Louis La Roche because I know some of you guys want us to post about him ! Today he also announced that he'll release something so... Geyster - A Change For The Better (Louis La Roche Innovation) by louislaroche

Foo Fighters - Everlong (Louis La Roche remix) [click to download] | The Swiss - Double Or Nothing (Louis La Roche remix) [click to download] | Oh and, brand new Skrillex music video. I don't always post, but when I do I'm freakin tired so... goodnight, and enjoy ! I just remembered (well, I was reminded) I had a lot of the stuff Boba gave out in his producer goodies post saved, which is important as those links are dead thanks to The Reckoning. So now I'm going to repost them, as well as throw in a few instrumentals and loops I have lying around. Chuck Roberts - Only House Music Accapella [click to download] | Daft Punk - Da Funk (1 35 Beat) [click to download] | Daft Punk - Teachers Instrumental [click to download] | Daft Punk - Work It Loop [click to download] | Laidback Luke - Break Down The House Acapella [click to download] | Modjo - Lady Accapella [click to download] | Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You Acc [click to download] | Supermode - Tell Me Why Accapella [click to download] |

And finally, a little treat I've had stashed away for a long time, Never Be Alone. Or as it's more commonly known: We Are Your Friends :) Simian - Never Be Alone Accapella (Chorus) [click to download] | You can find all of these, plus a few extra I cut for space or because they didn't play well with the code in this here handy .Zip file: PRODUCER GOODIES!. Hi there, back from my vacation and I have a little something in my backpack for you guys ! First, 3 songs released by Alecks Awklr to make us wait as he's working on another LP ! Alecks is keeping his nice sound, very calm downtempo, so refreshing these days. HOMEWARDSOUND by Alecks Awklr These two other releases are not really new, but still. The Glitch Mob throwed a three songs long EP, and I simply can't decide which ones to post because they all are impressivly good. If you enjoyed their LP :, you will definitely love these. So here they are. We Can Make The World Stop by The Glitch Mob

Remember how I think violins are more than great when nicely used in electronic music ? T H I S. Warrior Concerto by The Glitch Mob Palace Of The Innocents by The Glitch Mob Our long time readers might remember SBTRKT (pronounced subtract), we talked a bit about him back in the beginning of 2010. He released his album this year, and it's been praised everywhere, for obvious reasons, as it is simply amazing. So who is SKTRKT except a guy with a tribal mask ? If you ask me is an Ambient/Jungle/Dubstep prodigy with a bit of Hudson Mohawke on the side, as you'll hear in his track . His style is hard to explain but easy to recognize, isn't that what's best ? I obviously won't post the whole LP, but here are my favorite tracks and the music video for Wildfire. SBTRKT - Hold On [click to download] | SBTRKT - Right Thing To Do [click to download] | SBTRKT - Ready Set Loop [click to download] | SBTRKT - Go Bang [click to download] | We here at ilictronix are no strangers to cutting things into teeny tiny pieces and then using those pieces to create something bigger, just look at Pogo for example.

But what I bring you today takes that concept and does something truly amazing with it.I saw this a few weeks ago, over on the Something Awful Forums and have waited anxiously for it to be completed. is an audio story set to music. Nothing unusual about that right? Well, the bloke who made it, Dan Warren, dissected the audio version of Barack Obama's autobiography and has meticulously been re-arranging it for the past four years to make this tale of creation set to music. I was skeptical at first, expecting not much in the way of quality but I was wrong. The whole thing flows amazingly well to say it's formed from fragments of sentences from throughout the book. So, in essence what you are left with is a 30 minute short story narrated by Barack Obama himself. And with that: Enjoy the first four chapters of Dan Warren - Creation [click to download] |Dan Warren - The Golden Age [click to download] |Dan Warren - Son Of Strelka [click to download] |Dan Warren - The Decline [click to download] |