August 2, 2018

Online Safety Post: 2018

Hello Wizards!

It's been about a year since I've last made an online safety post so I thought that it's about time that I make another one of these posts. Staying safe online is very important when you're playing Wizard101, interacting on social media, or visiting websites. So let's talk about the various ways you can stay safe online!


Staying Safe Online: Kingsisle Games
Wizard101 and Pirate101 are family-friendly games, but you will still come across people who have an alternative motive. There are people who may say they're going to give you gifts (such as crowns or memberships) in return of your password. Others may ask you for your personal information because they say that they're your friends. The best thing to do if you're facing this situation is to use the Ignore option in-game. If it comes to harassment, you can use the report option.

The Wizard101 Ignore Option

The Pirate101 Ignore Option

Did you know that Kingsisle employees are also impersonated in-game? Someone in-game may say that they or a relative of theirs work at KI when that's not factual. Most of the reasons people say that is to get personal information from you. If someone says that they're a KI employee in-game, ask them for their badge. If they don't show you their badge, report that player. You should see a badge called "Kingsisle Support" under their name if they indeed work for the games.


Staying Safe Online: Social Media
My advice for staying safe on social media really relates to the games. You should remember to never give away personal information to anyone no matter what. There are ways to ignore and report people on social media. Check out the images below to see how to ignore/report on social media. Remember to report only when it's required such as someone pretending to be a Kingsisle employee, harassment, etc - depending on the rules of the site you're reporting the person from. Scroll over the Hyperlinks below to access guides on how to report someone on each social media network listed:



Speaking of social media, Kingsisle does have official social media accounts, including email. If someone emails you from a random email or message from someone asking you for your password to your account - they do not work at Kingsisle. Ignore any emails/messages like that! Kingsisle has an official list of emails that you can contact them by. They will never ask you for your password:

Wizard101 Social Media



support@wizard101.com
community@wizard101.com

Pirate101 Social Media
support@pirate101.com
community@pirate101.com

Kingsisle Social Media



help@kingsisle.com
billing@kingsisle.com
community@kingsisle.com






Staying Safe Online: Websites
There are many different types of KI-game related sites out there. It's best to keep a close eye out there for scammers. They can also ask for personal information in return for "gifts". If they do, it's best to avoid or even report the site to Kingsisle. If they're asking for your personal information, you should not pay any attention to them. There are fansites out there that you can get stuff from when they have contests, in which the codes are provided by Kingsisle. If you would like to see a list of trustworthy websites, you can click on the hyperlinks below to access the Wizard101 and Pirate101 fansites. 

Official Pirate101 Fansites

There have been times in the past where people have made websites that looked like official websites from Kingsisle, but they were not. As I've stated above, report any website that's not official Kingsisle websites to Kingsisle. There are several official Kingsisle websites. Most of these websites are linked from their main websites. If you would like to access these websites, scroll over and click on the images below:

Wizard101 Website

Pirate101 Website

Keep in mind that there are different versions of Wizard101 based on language/area. For example, Wizard101 UK is a different version of Wizard101 based in the United Kingdom from Gameforge. For a full list of these websites, you can view the image below. You can also click on the image to access this list at the bottom of the Fansites list! 


Online Safety Tips: The Main Message
I have already shared so much with you, but there's actually a lot more than you should know. The main message I'd like you to get out of this post is to NEVER give away any personal information with anyone. Whether it's where you live, your password, or billing information. It's called personal information for a reason. Please keep it personal and continue to stay safe online. Although this is mostly focused around Wizard101 and Pirate101, it really goes beyond the games. This is an internet safety post. Please continue to stay safe online! If you would like more online safety tips beyond this post (including links that provide nice online safety tips), please click on the link below! Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral.

Online Safety Page

Do you have any online safety tips you'd like to share with the community? Comment them below!

August 1, 2018

Sixth Pirateversary!

Ahoy Pirates!

Happy Arrrgust! I hope you're having a wonderful first day of Arrrgust. Today is a very special day for me because it's officially been six years since I joined Pirate101. P101 opened around October of 2012, but I was lucky enough to be invited to be apart of the last few days of P101 Alpha! I created a Privateer during the last days of Alpha. A few days later, I officially joined Beta and created a Buccaneer.


I have so many amazing memories from trying out P101 for the first time. I was placed under an NDA so I couldn't share anything about the game until a certain day. But this made time for hundreds of different screenshots. I had a chance to take a few amazing screenshots during my gameplay during Beta and compile it into a slideshow for a video spoiler for those who couldn't access Beta. Codes were given away by Official Fansites, but many thousands were wanting to try it out. Around Mid-August, Kingsisle allowed us to share spoilers of the game. 


Pirate101 was officially released to the public on October 15th, 2012. I created a witchdoctor this time around! Witchdoctor then became my favorite school because it reminds me of wizards, but way more awesome! I definitely recommend to the wizards reading this post to create a witchdoctor first. You'll feel more at home, but you'll notice an amazing difference. Kingsisle did an amazing job on this school and all other schools. I've enjoyed my time as a pirate and I look forward to more time as one! Thank you, Kingsisle, for creating an amazing game with a whole lot of potential. Thank you for allowing me to try out your games, KI. If you ever want me to try anything else, reach out to me. ;)

Read My Pirate101 Beta Party Post

You didn't think I'd forget Edward Cringle, did you? Look for new EC posts soon! :D

July 23, 2018

Kingsisle Live: Thursday, July 26th

Hi there!

I wanted to make a quick blog post to let everyone know that Kingsisle Live will air this week! This Kingsisle Live will be a special episode because our new community manager of Kingsisle games, Mathew Anderson, will be joining Tom and Leah! You can use the hashtag #AskKI on Twitter to ask questions for Mathew or ask any other questions you have about the games.

Kingsisle Live
Thursday, July 26th
4:00 pm Central / 5:00 pm Eastern


July 20, 2018

New Community Manager: Mathew Anderson

Hello Wizards & Ahoy Pirates!

Today, our awesome community manager, Tom Purdue, announced that he would be leaving the community manager position to fulfill an awesome new promotion as Game Designer on a Kingsisle Mobile Game, Animal Cove. He also announced that we will now have a new community manager, named Mathew Anderson. He will be known on the Wizard101 Message Boards as Sparck and the Pirate101 Message Boards as Bat Masterson.

Tom has been a very great help to this community from the very start. He started blogging about Wizard101 nearly 10 years ago! Since then, he's brought the community closer together in various ways - Blogging, YouTube, streaming, etc. I know he'll be a Game Designer on Animal Cove, but I am glad I got to know him as both a Fansite Owner & a Community Manager. He's given many people, including myself, chances to bring this amazing community together. Thank you so much for being an awesome community manager. The entire community appreciates everything you have done for this game. Thank you so much for all of the support you've shown my website & the events that we throw for the community. You're the Grandfather of Blogging and Community Management!


It's now the time to welcome our new community manager, Mathew Anderson! We're happy to welcome you into this community. I look forward to working with you for many years to come. As I've stated in my email, I know you'll do a great job! Thank you for everything that you will do in the future. Now, if any of you would like more information about this change, you can view the message board links by clicking on the links below or you can view the upcoming episode of Kingsisle Live:

Wizard101 Message Boards

Pirate101 Message Boards

Kingsisle Live
Thursday, July 26th at 4:00 pm CDT

Thank you again, Tom! Here's to a very bright future for both of you! :)

May 10, 2018

Happy 8th Birthday, edwardlifegem.com!

Hi there!

I am proud to announce that today is this website's 8th Birthday. I made this website 8 years ago today to make blog posts about Wizard101. Since then, I've attended events such as the Diary of a Wizard events, had interviews, made posts about online safety, became a Pirate101 Fansite owner, and even started hosting events. Since 2010, I've made it a priority to bring more people in the community together using this website. These past 8 years have been a great experience!



As a backstory, I created this website on May 10th, 2010 with a good friend, Mary Dreamshade. We created our websites because we were inspired by many of the great Fansite owners - one of them being The Friendly Necromancer aka our community manager, Tom Purdue! The Friendly Necromancer, Ravenwood Radio, Diary of a Wizard & many other great fansites were fine examples of community leaders at that time. I was inspired by them to be a friend to those who needed a friend. 

Back in 2008, two years before the creation of my website, I had personal issues such as anxiety and depression due to a loss of close family members. I had these issues and didn't really care much about keeping friends, making new friends, or really much at all. This was until I joined Wizard101 after watching viewing an advertisement on television on July 4th, 2009. This was the date I decided to join Wizard101. 

Since joining Wizard101, my anxiety and depression have virtually disappeared, made a lot of great friends, chose a career path, and more. Now, not everything is perfect, but I am so glad I decided to move forward. I've been asked many times why I still play Wizard101 & make blog posts about it. The reason is to pass it forward just as the old community leaders have done for me when I joined during a tough time in my life. I want to help others who may be going through the same thing. This website has been used for 8 years to do just that. 

The Future Of This Website
The future is looking bright! I have a lot of plans for this website. One of these plans is to starting making blog posts again. I've been behind on my blog posts for a few years now. I miss making blog posts like I did during my first few years of blogging. I hope to make that type of return soon! I think it would be great to have more interviews, questing posts, and of course event posts. Speak of events.

We started streaming events last year to improve the quality of the events that we have. So far, it's been a success! We are always working hard to improve these events - and we do improve upon each event as we go. Compared to our first event, I'd say we've improved our events so much that even I don't mind boasting about the events - that's saying a lot because I don't like boasting! They have been great and I look forward to improving them. The purpose of these events will always be about bringing people together, but they'll never be about how many attend. I look forward to making many more event posts over the next who knows how many years.

I have a lot more planned and I hope you stick by to see these goals. I will continue making blog posts for years to come! A lot of you have stuck by me during tough times since the beginning and I am grateful for that. Thank you for all of your support. I look forward to making a difference in this community. Although I'm not a conventional fansite owner, I do care a lot about this community. I've stayed with y'all for over eight years (even before my website). I will continue staying here to try to make a positive difference in this community. Thank you for allowing me to do that! 

Thank You For Your Support



Your support over these past eight years has meant a lot to me. I thank you for your support whether you just now started supporting me or supported me for eight years. I also want to thank Kingsisle for giving me a chance to share news about this website and our events. I am also grateful for their support! Here's to many more years of Wizard101, Pirate101, Kingsisle, this community and to edwardlifegem.com! Let's continue making a positive difference together!

Read Previous May 10th (Bloggerversary) Posts


Until next time, I'll see you around the spiral!

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