January 30th, 2009
THE BEAST: Released!
Boss fight for the Inquisitor Part 2
The Inquisitors are a group of Knights dedicated to eradicating all of the magic in the world. The Grand Inquisitor is summoning a beast that will eat all of the world's magic-- and only you can stop it. Go to the Citadel on the map and complete all of the quests to stop the magic-hating Inquisitors and unlock the boss battle! Defeat the beast to unlock a shop containing 4 MONSTER MORPH armors, 2 Inquisitor soldier armors, and several very mean weapons!

Defeat the beast to unlock a shop containing...
4 MONSTER MORPH armors
2 Inquisitor soldier armors
and several very mean weapons!

The Beast hits HARD
You will need friends to bring him down.
He drops weapon parts for the Monster Morphs!

See All the Releases
4 Games = Lots of awesome stuff to do this weekend!
See the official post on the forums for information on the releases from all our games this weekend... holy smokes!

January 28th, 2009
Inquisitor Part 2
Miltonius just took the mini out of mini-release!
The Grand Inquisitor said it would take one week to summon THE BEAST*... this Friday... prepare yourself** for a brand new boss fight! Victory will unlock a shop with new armors for you to aquire. Then, on Sunday, during the Super Bowl half-time, a special shop will open in the town of Battleon with rare event items. THEN... next week is the big event that we have all been waiting for. You will enter Swordhaven castle to collect your prize from the King and THEN.... <%Error: Binary Text Flow Syntax Error #FF000000%***> .... which will unveil the plot of the world and start the main story line for you character. I can hardly wait!

* He clearly does not understand our release schedule! (It is a good thing you do)
** Bigger weapons, bigger armor... maybe a spare pair of shorts -- this monster is terrifying!
*** Hey, that is not even a real error!

The BEAST will be summoned Friday!

January 26th, 2009
Superbowl Sunday
The Special Shop Opens at Half Time!
This Sunday is the Super Bowl. Seeing as how the Super Bowl is taking place just a few minutes away from the secret underground lab, we thought that we would do something cool and release some items at half time! It would be a special shop continaing rare items including a spiked Grid Iron Death Helm and other event items. Do you have any ideas? See you on the forums!

Lore Lolcatz
Geopetal just posted the winners of the Lore Lolcat Contest. LOL, you guys are too funny. This was the most interesting and creative contest yet.
Official Post

Preview of the Intro & Game Fixes
We are starting to apply your suggestions and should have the final version ready for testing this weekend. We are going to do a mini-release this week, because we are working on Castle Swordhaven. This is where you will travel to claim the ultimate prize from King Alteon for saving his Daughter... or the Dragon... well, for whatever you did. He is nice King. You might want to take note that Swordhaven is currently under attack by Sepulchure's army of the undead... what could possibly go wrong when you get there? The room goes dark and Artix turns on a flashlight under his chin. With a doomed gaze and in a deep voice he says, "The next major release is going to change our world... forever."

January 23rd, 2009
Release Day!
An Epic Saga begins is being tested... NOW!
The intro can be seen via a button in the town of Battleon. I cannot tell you how happy we have been seeing all of the positive feedback on the forum. I really hope you like it! Wait until you see what comes next...
Official Forum Thread

Shrunken Weapons, Miscolored Items
We are fixing all of the incorrectly sized and colored items as you read this. Every file in the game was updated with bug fixes and new code for this major game update. It was completely worth it as so many huge bugs have now been permanently fixed, but -- it looks like someone dropped some paint and a shrink ray in the Server*. All of the weapons are now fixed. Please clear your temporary internet files if you are still seeing small weapons. Everything is supposed to be the way it was before the release. So, if you see anything else that is wrong, let us know on the forums and we will fix it for you right away!

* LOL, The Big 100K... suddenly became The Little 100K. It shrunk to tiny size. Does anyone have a screenshot of this?

Fixes
We are fixing more things than are listed here. But here are some quick updates for you on important items.

• All Weapons are now the correct size
• The Shadowcape is having its color fixed.
• Corinthian bronze helmet is having its color fixed.
• There is an issue with hair shops where players are unable to see someone's change after they have changed their hair style (at least until they switch rooms or the next time they log in.)
  

January 22nd-th-st-ith, 2009
Your Story is about to Begin
Part #1 of the intro to the game, launches tomorrow!
They say writing the first sentence of a book is the hardest part. Seems true enough for games as well. So, if you read fast enough to actually read the three sentences I wrote as they fly by at mock 3 on your monitor tomorrow... well, I spent two weeks thinking what you would think about them. We are writing a game about you... so I wondered what I would like to see when a game opened up. Something like my character being all cool on a hill with a giant castle and dark clouds in the backgound... thunder and lightning and... well... being cool. Then I would want to battle a Dragon. Yes -- this is how a game should open. Exactly like that.

Yup, that is Bloodtooth, "The friendly Dragon"
(Read Jan 19th Design Notes for more info)

Most games do not start you off battling Dragons at level 1. Maybe that is what makes our games special. You are no newbie! You are starting this game as a hero (well, you are still level 1.. and um.. there are little tutorial thingies... but just um... ignore those if you know how to do things in the game like... you know... walk). Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun. As you read this everyone is working really hard on it. If you like it... just wait until you see part 2 were things get SERIOUS, the main villian is unvieled, and your destiny becomes.... destined!

Behind the scenes secrets
So many things I want to tell you! We are releasing a new version of the game along with all the insane bug fixes which required us to update every file in the game (Go Minimal!) Also, we.... <looks at sun dial>... OMG! I am late meeting my martial arts Master for breakfast. Nothing is more embarrasing than having to do pushups at a public restraunt. I will tell you tomorrow -- see you then!

January 21st, 2009
The Funeral of a Blue Mage
Emotional Cutscene just released in DragonFable
As you may already know, Warlic was slain by his beautiful, half-dragon apprentice Nythera in DragonFable last week*. I am heading there now as many of the great heroes are gathering to show their respect to this great mage**. He would want you to be there as well. A traveler said that even Warlic's arch-enemy, the nefarious Pyromancer Xan making the journey to the funeral...
Happening NOW at DragonFable.com (Go to the War using the "storm" button in town)

* Here in AQWorlds, the Nythera server slew the Warlic server and took its place.
** Hmm, I thought it was supposed to be 2 weddings and a funeral -- we are one wedding short!

January 20th, 2009
Updating 4,500+ files...
Go team go!
This week we are releasing the intro to the game*. It is Part 1 which will take you to Battleon. It is... definately... ArchKnight style humor**. Exactly the way one of our games SHOULD start. Things get very serious in Part 2 where you will abruptly come to understand your true importance to the world and choose your side as Good or Evil. Also this week, Minimal is doing a huuuuuuuge game fix which required us to update single file in the game. What would possibly go wrong***?

* ..OR ELSE!
** ArchKnight Style Humor (adj) - A savory blend of caffinated epic failure served with with a side of cheese. This also probably means Artix wrote it himself... it is sort of like a train wreck. You really want to look away, but for some reason, you just... have to watch.
*** In an unrelated story this week, cans of Bug-spray have begun selling like Hotcakes are Yul-mart! May the fates have mercy on us all!

January 19th, 2009
Legend of the Red Dragon
or... Tale of a Giant Crimson Lizard
Not all Dragons are evil. Take Bloodtooth the Hungry for example. He is only named Bloodtooth because he likes to floss and has sensitive gums. Bloodtooth is a heroic Dragon who has helped save the Kingdom of Swordhaven several times. A true friend of the people and Royal Family...

More on this coming with the release of the INTRO this week! (Note: The Dragon's real name is Astranax... silly humans and their observational Dragon naming habits)

19 New Armors & Phoenix Hatching
We have just released the rest of the awesome widescreen maps, the newest version of the game and new armors that you can customize your character with. A few of the armors are free, many are Member-Only and the Berserker Champion will be available for AC. Also, the Golden Phoenix has hatched!

Berserker Champion

Storyline Pushed back a few days
The main storyline of AdventureQuest Worlds is preparing to start -- but we need a few more days to finish and fix major errors. Since this release will reset everyone's hometown it is probably a good idea that it is all working before we release it. Just like ketchup, good things come to those who....

The intro is coming in the next release!

Armors that were just released
These are armors that you can wear over your class. Many of them are color variants of the existing classes. Check the blacksmith, warlic's shop, the button in battleon, and Yulgar's for these 19 NEW armors!

• Draconian
• Zardman
• Orc grunt
• Iron Bones
• Blood Ninja
• Fighter
• Celtic Warrior
• Steelplate
• Rogue Leather
• Robe of the Arcane
• Dark Acolyte
• Berzerker Champion
• Simple Robe
• Imperial Plate
• Simple Green Healer's Robe
• Scorpion Assassin Armor
• Peasant Rags
• Crimson Paladin Plate
  You must be a rank 10 Warrior and Healer to access Artix's shop in Swordhaven

Reens took some screenshots of a few

More items that were released

• Titan colossal sheathed sword 900,000g back item
• Draconian head
• Zardman head

Beta Berserker got an art update!
Miltonius was working on the new Berserker armor and saw a lot of rumors being spread around the forums that the Beta Berserker was getting an update. He messaged me and said, "I think we should make that rumor true." If there is one thing we are guilty of, it is listen to you -- Congratulations!

Nythera Server! (Chat-Enabled)
I am not sure if anyone noticed... but the Nythera Server killed the Warlic server and took its place. This new server features chat for all players, but features limited moderation while we work to improve our chat system.

New Game Engine Features

• All maps resized and a full build update so you see the newest files <cries just thinking about the bandwidth>
• Events that can trigger on monster death (like a cutscene after you beat a boss)
• A feature that will allow us to copy your character art onto an arbitary movieclip for animation... this lets us make some killer cutscenes and minigames where your character can move in new ways.
• Ability for the game to change your hometown (Note: This feature will first be usable after you get to Swordhaven and Shadowfall in the storyline.
• Bug fixes and File cleanup
• Chat now turns invisible after 1 minute of inactivity. Talking or getting message from the server will bring it back. I think what we should do instead is put a toggle somewhere.
  

January 14th, 2009
Lots of things!
Golden Phoenix Egg about to hatch!
The egg is starting to shake and rattle. This month's Super Mega Ultra Giga Rare (see proposed rarity guide below) pet, the Golden Phoenix is going to hatch! This pet will only be available until the end of January.

Intro to the Game
The Main Storyline is preparing to start. We are currently working on the quests and cutscenes for the intro which may (I bolded the "may" because we ended up needing a few more days to finish everything) go live on Friday. Cross your fingers for us! Also, Miltonious's new armor shop is almost ready and features a ton of new armors to customize your character with.

This is actually... "ShadowFall" I called it Swordfall a while ago on the design notes by mistake. This screenshot is technically a spoiler (My fault!) because ShadowFall does not exist yet, and will not until the third Storyline release. So pretend you did not see this... and remember, the really fun part is finding out how/what/why everything happens!

Combat improvements coming
In the next major game update, Healers will start getting credit (and aggro) when healing a target who is in combat. This is a major improvement for those of you who enjoy helping others with your healing skills. Also, monsters will receive diminishing returns. At first this might sound like the monsters are getting a buff -- which they are. Skills like stun will only work on a monster a limited number of times. Because this solves the exploit of permanantly stunning a target that we saw back in Beta, will can finally put skills like stun/sleep/fear/etc back into the game!

Proposed Rarity Guide
Every item in the game will be assigned a proper rarity better describing what the item is. Please let me know if you think this is ok on the forums. Please keep in mind, that this is chart is for rarity, not power.

0 Junk
1 Silly/Wierd/Bizzare
2 Unidentified
5 Common (Easy to get)
10 Uncommon (Semi easy to get)
20 Rare (Hard to get)
30 Seasonal Rare (Only available during holiday)
50 Event Rare (Only available during event)
60 Collectors (Special items)
75 Epic (Super hard to get... or insanely powerful)
80 Ultra Rare (Super hard to get in a special event or holiday)
90 Legendary Item (Retired and no longer available in game)
100 Super Mega Ultra Giga Rare (Never available again)

January 13th, 2009
A Tale of Two Dragons
The Prologue's Prologue
When Galanoth's blade struck true, he slew the Eternal Dragon of time and destroyed everything... creating the void. A vast empty wasteland of nothingness. Reality was literally, uncreated. They say mortals could not comprehend what happened next. I beg to differ. I think if you looked inside that slain Eternal Dragon you would find an shattered Hour Glass where his heart should be. The Hour Glass would be bleeding out the sands of time on the floor... but before the last drop of sand fell, ending everything, someone (or more likely... someTHING) must have noticed that there was not one hourglass in that Dragon's chest... but three! <to be continued>

Happening Now
Gazing into the clear blue sky from the hill just outside Battleon, you would never expect such terror to be brewing. Sepulchure's fortress was built upon the the reanimated skeleton of our world's largest Dragon. Seeing the monstrosity soar through the air drives fear into the hearts of even mightiest heroes. Within it's cursed walls are Sepulchure's elite forces... including the deadliest of his Necromancers and unspeakable legions of undead abominations. Scouts have just reported that Sepulchure's flying fortress has JUST lifted off and looks to be flying towards the capital city of Swordhaven!

Update: We renamed both Pirate Class's back to their original names. The name change had made it impossible to access the pirate shops in Lolosia. (Also it seems a lot of you just liked the sound of Alpha Pirate more... and you are the boss around here!) Also, the upgraded Berserker armor will work properly after the next server restart (Later tonight)

January 12th, 2009
Classbots! Transform .... and roll out!
(against the evil forces of... the Decepta-costumes)
Thank you for your patience. We restarted the servers a number of times today to while fixing classes and armors. They are now labeled properly and I am now writing descriptions for the classes (I would love some help if you have any good ones for the three upgrade classes)

Hey! The game says I have no class!
LOL. "Peasant class" has now been renamed to "No Class" which is.... both, funny and more accurate. You get "No Class" when you log into the game and do not have a class equipped. It only has one skill (auto attack) and can be purchased for a little gold if you REALLY need to see it. We are going to add Peasant Rags for you soon, and the new armor shop is coming this week too!

The Intro Quest
J6 is animating the intro quest which we plan to release this week kicking off the main storyline. Miltonius has completed all of the major characters who will be revealed as the story progresses! OMG... I just remembered we need to resize the intro for wide screen!

January 10th, 2009
Class / Armor Confusion
Fix for the confusion coming
We had a good release yesterday, but I made a major mistake on the Class / Armor customization. It was really confusing and none of the names were changed. I am very sorry, please let me get this fixed for you as soon as possible. It is going to take a while, but if you relog in now, you will find that Holiday costumes including Undead Curse, Red Moglin Suit, Undead Moglin, Potato Sack, Turkey Suit are now equippable over your class. We are working on it now and the whole system should be done correctly and will make perfect sense to you by the end of Monday. (Classes will be called Classes, Armors will be called Armors, and everything will have the right icons.) Wish us luck!

Also, Miltonious will be adding a new "Armor" store for you next week so you can customize your classes. In addition to new versions of your mage robes, warrior plate and etc.... there will be at least one never before seen armor.

January 9th, 2009
I Love Release Days!
DragonSlayer Class
Galanoth the DragonSlayer has new quests leading to the DragonSlayer Armor. Because this is an MMO, this class was built with unique talents that makes it the ultimate dragon slaying machine when playing with other players. DragonSlayers can taunt Dragons to attack them instead of other people in the room... and then they can reflect much of the Dragon's damage back at them! Please give us your feedback on the class on the forums, and we will make changes as needed.

• Bane of The Scale
  Forces a dragon to focus its attacks on you, while reducing the dragon's damage dealt with all attacks by 30%. Lasts 10 seconds
  2 mana, 16 second cooldown
• Impale
  Causes 200% of weapon damage over 12 seconds with a chance of stunning the target for 3 seconds.
  6 mana, 12 second cooldown
  
• Scorched Steel
  A fiery attack dealing 150% weapon damage.
  4 mana, 6 second cooldown
• Talon Twisting
  While active, 30% of damage done to you by dragons will be added to your attacks. Last 8 seconds.
  3 mana, 12 second cooldown

Other New Things in the Game
We just released the new version of the game, "Before the Chaos". Here is a list of what just went live!

• Golden Phoenix Pet
  The egg may have leaked into some stores already. Expect it to Hatch tonight. This is the ultra rare pet for this month.
• Class & Armors
  This is was the #1 most needed change for class customization. You can now change your class to whatever you want (lets say... Paladin!) and then put on any armor you want (lets say... um... <Reens made me do this> Pretty Pretty Princess) Then you would be a Pretty Pretty Princess Paladin! All of the old "costumes" are now equippable armors. Note: Both Classes and Armors can be found under the armor tab of your backpack.
• Widescreen!!!!!!!! Bigger & Better
  How J6 resized and drew larger areas on those maps I will never know. The game is now 960x550 and looks.. AMAZING!!!!!
• Tiny Mode
  We added a new size screen that is even smaller than the old one. (See, I really do listen to you guys)
• Bug/Lag/Error Improvements
  Minimal edited every event handler in the game over the past week which may really improve the performance of your game. We spent a lot of time tracking down game engine level bugs and fixed'em! For the record... Flash's Actionscript 3.0 memory garbage collection system scares me more than any scary movie..
• Baby Red Dragon Pet
  Since we are not doing Dragon pets this month, the regular Baby Red Dragon Pet is now available at Aria's pet shop. This Dragon can be turned to a Baby Dracolich by letting Death pet it. (Note: The ultra rare version was armored and that version will never be available again)
• The Theater
  This is a preview area of the upcoming Theater. There is currently nothing there, but you can check it out, stand on stage and if you are really bored, do your best Hamlet performance. /join theater

January 8th, 2009
Pet of the Month
Phoenix rises from the ashes
I was really inspired by the idea of a Phoenix as the first pet of 2009. A Phoenix is a mythological creature that lives over 500 years then bursts into brilliant flames. From it's ashes it is reborn and flies again. What better pet to symbolize the the reimagining of our world through the upcoming storyline... Great idea!

Chimera Pet!
But what should it look like?
A really popular choice on the forums was the Chimera. I think this is a great idea for next month's uber rare pet. A Chimera is a mythological creature made up of the parts of many different animals. The head of a lion, a snake for a tail, and so on. We really wanted to know what you thought our Chimera should look like. Would anyone (you?) like to draw us a picture and post on the forums to inspire Miltonius?

Tomorrow's Release
Setting the stage...? More like resizing it!
Galanoth is going to jump the gun and release the DragonSlayer armor along with the newest version of the game engine. The Armor/Class split (formerly known as Costumes) will go live letting you truely customize how your character looks. We MAY have the theater working... hmm, did I never mention this one before? While we hope you enjoy this release, the team is working over time in the background on the main storyline which will not be released tomorrow... but will be released as soon as possible . So check back every day for an update on our progress!

Forum Post: Chimera drawing wanted!

January 7th, 2009
Fancy Quest Book!
Pretty... pretty.... shiny... shiny....
Below is the first ever glance at the inside of the Book of Lore. Only the greatest heroes in the Kingdom will ever see this in game... my gut says you wll be one of them.

Nice job J6 and Jemini!

The book keeps track of your progress through the main story and holiday special events. It is really easy to use and by simply opening the book you will know exactly what you should do next to move the main story of the game alone (Sorta like what Twilly does in DragonFable.)

Widescreen AQWorlds
Big project... we need your input!
How would you like the game to be bigger so we can make the maps bigger, add more to the interface and have some extra room to move around? Check out the two links below then cast your vote on the forum to help us decide if this HUGE PROJECT requiring us to update every room in the entire game is worth it. (Please note that my mockups are a little... rough.)

• AQworlds in WIDE SCREEN
• AQworlds in Normal Mode
• Cast your vote

Pet Del...notevengoingtotrytospelltherestofthat
Hmmm, which to build.
You had a lot of great pet suggestions on the forums. A griffon, chimera, scorpion seem really popular. Because these pets become uber rares we cannot do things like Sir Ver, Nerfkitten, or Jimmy the Eye because then we would not be able to use them later. Unless we did some uber rare variant version... like Golden Sir Ver ver 1.0 (does something special when game version 1.0 is released) or... hmmm. This is such a tough one. In completely unrelated news.. Miltonius JUST sent me the final version of the main Villan for AQW... O.... M..... G...........

January 6th, 2009
Warlic & Cysero....
Why is everyone jumping into the fire?
Apparently Warlic and Cysero posted the lyrics to the rock song, "Jump in the Fire" by Harry Nilsson on their Design notes today. They did this because... well, I am not sure. But it would probably explain why I heard them laughing all day in the other room... I googled the song, but I still do not get it.

A Symbol of Madness
It is said that those who merely gaze into the realm of Chaos loose their sanity... with no hope of ever returning to their normal existance again. Fortunately, no such gateways exist in our world. You will not find anything written about the Realm of Chaos... well, except in one book.

That book is special though. Some call it the Book of Lore while the fancy pants historians call it the Lore Grimoire. On one of its pages it has a sketched symbol of an eyeball with tendrils. As I read the words dissapeared. The part about the Queen of all Monsters and how she was sealed away by the Dragons using the Elemental Orbs... well, that caught my attention. But I am easily distracted by pictures and shiny objects. I am sure it was nothing important.

In Development
Today we rewrote the intro... again. Originally we had you starting in King Alteon's Throne Room, but now you have a much more.. "you" focused intro. Miltonius and J6 are drawing and animating while Zhoom is finishing the code that will let you customize your class with a new look. Minimal found a megaton of new ways to speed up the game for you. Keep your fingers crossed for a solution to the IE crashing problem (The game currently runs A LOT better in Firefox.) Jemini is building the new interface and the Book of Lore which will help keep the storyline of the game structured.

Forum Question: We need a killer pet for the Ultra Rare pet of the month. Ideas?

January 5th, 2009
The Main Plot
The timeline. May the fates have mercy on us!
When Galanoth the Dragonslayer drew his blade on that fateful day, he must have been out of his mind. Why would anyone, especially HIM, dare to battle the Elemental Dragon of Time. We are sure he had a good reason... he must have... right? Because when his blade struck true slaying the Dragon of Time, he destroyed the very fabric of time and reality. It can only be described as... inconceivable. inconceivable*! Just like the books said, it would destroy... everything. However, instead of ending the universe as the books forewarned, something strange happened. Perhaps it was because of what you did with Warlic at the end of MechQuest**. Or perhaps it had something to do with that time you and Cysero used the time traveling booth in DragonFable. Regardless of what caused it... we know the universe was not destroyed. Instead, a new reality was formed merging all of the stray timelines into a new, single timeline. There must have been a 0.0001% chance that this could have happened. Which makes you wonder. What was so important that Galanoth the DragonSlayer would have risked destroying everything to do this? ...the ultimate act of defiance that reset everything and created... AdventureQuest Worlds.

* I too have spent my life devloping a tolerance to iocane powder.
** Best ending of an RPG ever. Just wait until you see the transforming Warships.

What you read above is unknown to the characters of our world. To them, the world is the same ol' normal place it has always been. The good King Alteon is aging but rules his Kingdom with a protecting, gentle hand. Sepulchure and his undead army have been conquering the countryside gaining power. The war between the Vampires and the Werewolves rage on in Darkovia whilst the Pirates and Ninjas fight for Osprey Cove. Xan and Akriloth fight over who gets to have their base in the Volcano. Famous towns such as Battleon, Soluna and Falconreach still attract heroes looking for danger, excitement and... treasure. Things are... normal. Well, they are now.... That is all about to change.

Coming Next
The next major content release is going to be.. the start of the storyline! More coming tomorrow...
Forum Thread

Happy New Year!!!
2009 - The Year of Adventure
Fireworks have been added to the town of Battleon. Battle on into the new year!

New Year's Day
The Gift Boxes open.. tonight!
It is the last day of 2008. The final day to reflect on all of the great memories and achievements of the year. It is also.. um.. the last day you can obtain your Gift Boxes or the Baby Frost Dragon Pet! At midnight the presents will magically unwrap (you will have to relogin in to see them) ... and yes, the armor is levelable with brand new skills!

A few favorite memories of 2008
There were an incredible number of memories across AdventureQuest, DragonFable, MechQuest.... here are my favorite from the newest game you helped create -- the AdventureQuest Worlds -- our MMO!

• The Start of the AQworlds Alpha/Beta
• Getting AQ.com as our domain name!
• When Captain Rhubarb accidentally changed ALL of our names to Captain Rhubarb.
• The time where 5,000 of us tried to log into Battleon-1 on Sir Ver... at the same time.
• When Swordhaven was promoted as the "Safest Town in Lore: It's walls were never breached by any living enemy" -- and we all showed up to find out it was under attack by Sepulchure and his army of the undead.
• When Zhoom and Minimal finished the core MMO game engine in Actionscript 2.0 -- and then had to learn and completely recode the whole thing to 3.0 (In some sort of miracle it only took them 2 weeks)
• Releasing all the new zones
  • Battleon (and Yulgar's inn and the basement)
  • The Cemetary (First boss monster)
  • The Crash Site (with aggro monsters)
  • The Dragon's Lair
  • Lolosia
  • Willow Creek
  • The Orc Town
  • Swordhaven (and the bridge, server and sneevil boxing area)
  • The Member's Club House
  • The Citidel (Inquisitors Saga)
  • Bludrut Keep
  • The Ruins
  • Noobshire (hehe)
  • The River
  • Guru Forest
  • DEATH! (Who would have thought having a baby Dracolich would make so many players happy)
• Mogloween! (Halloween special event... when the Great Pumpkin King arose to eat all the players who had candy)
• Adding a third server rack and increasing our bandwidth to like 3GBps or something insane like that! (We now have over 40 servers running the games for you)
• DragonCon 2008 - where we met some online friends in life for the first time.
• The Harvest Feast! (Thanksgiving special event)
• Frostvale (Winter special holiday event)
• The donation to Child's Play Charity
• The Wedding of Bello and Merca
• Adding the new features
  • The Armor Tab
  • Friends Lists
  • Parties
  • Well... technically every feature of the game was made this year. So we can keep this list short! LOL
• The interviews with Warcry, Stratics, Massive Gamer, and other great review sites. Leading to the ButterQuest joke.
• Doing design notes almost daily and seeing your feedback and responses on the forums.

It is amazing to think that I announced that we were going to start working on an MMO at midnight on last New Years. The majority of things we made... were done in the last two and a half months only!!! Not to mention we were doing that while building core game features at the same time. Imagine what next year will be like?

On behalf of the entire team, I would like to thank you and all of the other great players who made this possible. It is because of you that we were able to create this new MMO and put our hearts into making it. Wether you upgraded and became a member, clicked on ads, or helped your fellow players on the forums -- you are making this happen. Thank you!

I would also like to thank the entire AE team for their hard work this year. I applaud everyone's perserverence and indominatable spirit. The team overcame every challenge and hurdle thrown their way. Every time they got knocked down... they got right back and started swining. Our company may not be big... but our hearts certainly are. I would love to give a huge round of applause to the game masters, creative team, moderators, player service and all the unsung heroes of our gaming family and online community. How you guys do this... is beyond me! (and I sit next to you) Thank you too!

2009 is an opportunity for us to take all four of the games to the next level. AdventureQuest Worlds will begin the main storyline soon.... lol, just thinking about the intro I got goosebumps. We are not pulling any punches on this one -- those of you who said "just jump right into the epic stuff" cast the winning vote on what is to come. I am looking forward to battling alongside you in 2009.... THE YEAR OF ADVENTURE!

FORUM QUESTION: What is your New Year's Resolution?

Child's Play
Special Announcement
Child's Play is a charity that raises money to make lives better for sick children in hospitals around the world. It was started by gamers, like you and me, and is a cause that the Artix Entertainment Team feels very strongly about.

Last year, AdventureQuest, DragonFable, and MechQuest contributed their reserves and sent in a Gold level sponsorship to the charity. We had intended to match last year's contribution again, but thanks to all of you who upgraded and became Founders of AdventureQuest Worlds, you empowered us to DOUBLE our donation this year! We sent in a Platinum sponsorship* on your behalf to Child's Play Charity this year! Thank you so much!

* Wow, your Platinum Dragons ended up giving a Platinum Sponsorship!