Design Notes

November 13, 2013

Philippine Catastrophe

Our prayers go out to those affected by Typhoon Haiyan

I am often the happy-go-lucky girl who shares wonderful information with you. But I’ve traded my smiles and bright eyes with that of frowns and tears. On November 8, the strongest recorded storm Typhoon Haiyan slammed into the Philippines, destroying nearly everything in its path.

Picture retrieved from National Post

Many of our fellow players--1.3 Million players, in fact--hail from the Philippines, and only our prayers can reach them during this horrible time. Over 10,000 people have already lost their lives due to the Typhoon, and millions of others are suffering through the destruction. 

Photo retrieved from ABC News

We have the chance to be real-life heroes, guys and gals. Please, share your thoughts on the AQWorlds Facebook page as to what you, me, and everyone else who plays AdventureQuest Worlds can do to help those devastated by Typhoon Haiyan.

WE can make a difference. Help us help those in desperate need!

Submit your ideas on the AQWorlds Facebook Page.

Pray on,

xoxo Beleen

October 16, 2012

Time is Running Out

Before EbilCorp's Operation Gameocide is Engaged!

AQWorlds has defeated the dastardly Chairman Platinum and his army of EbilCorp minions! /cheer! BUT our gaming network isn't safe yet! We only have until 6PM Friday, and there are still THREE games in danger of being overwhelmed by EbilCorp - EpicDuel, MechQuest, and AdventureQuest. Save our games to save Artix Entertainment...

Click the pic to watch the war meters' progress!

And Unlock the AQWorlds 4th Birthday Party Finale!

We KNOW you guys battle hard when faced with a challenge... so when we're faced with the BIGGEST challenge Artix Entertainment has ever fought, we are even MORE certain that you will win. So much that here in the Secret Underground Lab, now that AQW is safe, we've started preparing for your birthday party!

Cake tastes WAY better than server hamster pellets.

The best Secret Underground Lab parties include boss fights... and cake fights! And yours shouldn't be any different! We'll provide the boss AND the cake, but you've got to make your way down here first!

We've got some EPIC rewards planned, including the:

• New Rider armor from Dage
• DrAEGon of Artix Cape
• Prismatic Pegalion Cape
• Brilliant Derp Fish
• CyberNet Warrior Armor
• Double Agent Zorbak Pet
• And more!

We SAID there was more: the Chunin Class!

Earlier today Cysero polled you guys and came up with this month's newest Class: the Chunin, an evolved ninja-type class. This warrior-based Class is shaping up to be a Multi-Hit DPS-dealer, and here's the first concept sketch straight from Cysero's drawing-pad to your internets:

Fade into the shadows after dealing an unseen death blow!

Time for ONE MORE RELEASE, I hope... my Wedding!

I've always been a dreamer, but I'm a pretty organized person, too. I've got a list for just about everything: what the team needs to do next week, next month, and yesterday. Lists for what needs to be done before my wedding day... and before the in-game wedding event.

And it's becoming VERY clear that with everything we've been doing these last few weeks (like the all-game war we are fighting RIGHT NOW) that there just isn't going to be time to get everything done! But THAT is where YOU come in!

A dream is a wish your heart makes.
This wedding is an event that YOU'LL save.

With as incredible as you guys are, I have no doubt that you will save Artix Entertainment. I sure HOPE so, because otherwise Alina and Rolith won't get married (in-game, at least. It'd make for a more frenzied real wedding day, too, since so many team members are going to be there)!

Peacocks symbolize immortality, wisdom, and peace.*

So, what do you say? If we can crush EbilCorp, do you think your Hero would have enough strength and energy left to help make Alina's wedding to DragonFable's Rolith take place? There's a LOT left to do, and NOT a lot of time left!

* Alchemists used to think the fan of the peacock was associated with certain items useful in turning base metals into gold... Perfect for making a Golden Eternal Flame cape!

April 06, 2012

We Are Not Ignoring You.

We're Not Ignoring You (unless you're just looking for attention)!

Artix Entertainment tries to set it self apart from other game companies in a lot of ways but one of the most important is how much we interact with you guys. Any of you who follow my Twitter or like our AQW Facebook Fan Page know this to be true.

We love talking to you and even when we don't love what we hear, we love that you care enough to tell us what you don't like and we try and fix it. Unfortunately, we are not always logged in to Twitter (we do sleep on occasion) and when we are, we all have a LOT of people talking to us (at this time I have 31,035 Twitter followers and Artix has nearly 47,000!) so If we don't reply to you it's probably because we either missed your Tweet or because we can't reply to every single Tweet.

Please try and understand that there is no way that we can answer every tweet, much less meet up with every single person who asks to meet us in-game. We would never have time for anything else.

Another thing to mention is that it is mostly the Devs who are on Twitter. Devs (or Game Developers) are the people who spend all week building each new release for you to play, and fixing the bugs that you have reported on the BUG FORUMS. We also have a lot of other jobs dealing with game development and community outreach. All that stuff takes up the entire week (which is why some releases come to you a little later than others) and our jobs don't leave time for much else. In the rare cases when we DO find ourselves with extra time, we make a Mid-Week release or work ahead on new functionality!

So you can see that we Developers keep pretty busy with our own stuff. That's why we have Moderators to help you and protect you in-game and Player Support to help you outside the game with account and payment issues.

Nythera, Zazul, Memet, Neveya & Lady Tomo make up the Player Support team. Their primary job is taking care of you and your account issues. They do a fantastic job and are often overlooked for all the effort that they put into making AE function.

These are the brave and tireless people who read all of your HELP MAIL so you should always GO HERE if you've been hacked or find yourself with a payment issue.

The Player Support team receives THOUSANDS of e-mails EVERY DAY and they read every single one of them, but with so much to do, they can get a little behind sometimes and can't reply to you instantly so if you have a problem, please be patient.

Reens, Stratos and their team of Moderators handle a lot of in-game issues. Everytime someone is using foul language or trying to scam or trade accounts, it is THESE heroes to quietly step in and take action to try and keep the game as fun as safe as they can, and many of these mods are volunteers. They are giving their own time to sort through reports for no reason other than they really CARE about making AQW a safe and fun place for everyone, but they need YOUR help. 

If you see someone that they shouldn't be, click on their portrait and use the REPORT function to bring them to the attention of the Mods!

Let's Review:

• A Dev's Job is making the games.
• Player Support's job is taking care of account and payment issues.
• Moderators handle mutes and bans of in-game rule breakers.

Each team has their hands full. That is why we Dev's can't help you with your account or payment issues when you ask for help over Twitter. It's not because we don't want to, it's because it's not what we do and we literally CAN'T help you in most cases.

Telling the us DEV's over Twitter about your account issues is just about as useful as telling a bowl of soup to fix your broken TV.

It's the same reason that Doctors don't put out fires, Firefighters don't pick up your garbage and Waste Workers don't do open heart surgery. They each have their own job that keeps them quite busy.

If you are having account or payment issues the best thing you can do is head to the HELP PAGE and if you ask us for help over Twitter, that is why we direct you there instead of fixing your account.

Please understand that we really do want to help you (of COURSE we do... we WANT you to play AQW!) and we all do our very best to point you in the right direction to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible. :)

I DON'T WANT TO GET HACKED!

If you don't want to lose your account there are 5 simple things that you should do.

1. Pick a VERY GOOD PASSWORD. Make it hard to guess, use letters AND numbers. Avoid simple or passwords like AAAAAAA, qwerty, asdasdasd, 12345, 54321, or your character's name.
   
   
2. Never share your account with anyone (even your siblings or best friend).
   
   
3. Never tell anyone your password, no matter who they say they are or what they promise you. There are TONS of fake Cyseros, Alinas, Artixs and other AE fake AE staff ALL OVER Facebook and Twitter. AE STAFF WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD.
   
   We don't need your password. We have access to all of your accounts right now.
   
   
4. Hook your AQW account up to your BATTLEON PORTAL account! If something ever does happen, it's an extra level of security and helps Player Support fix your up faster.
   
   
5. Never use Hacks, Cheats or Bots. Many of these programs will secretly install a trojan virus called a KEYSTROKE LOGGER on your computer. This virus records everything that you type (passwords, credit card info, which websites you visit) and sends the information back to the creators.