Pre-v1.3, The Rise of Ambrose, and Etcetera

In case you missed it, Karlos updated the 1.3 poll with this:

Update
Alright guys, I'm now closing the poll.

The results show that 88% of those who answered to the poll are in favor of releasing 1.3 early. That is what we'll be doing.

That said, those opposing the early release have given some very valid points and have expressed concerns that I share with them. By no means does an early release imply that I devalue the points made.

I'll be working to get the current 1.3 version stable and as bug free as humanly possible. I'll keep you all informed.

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Yaaaay! Do you know what that means? Wolf-Haven will hopefully be picking up a lot of activity over the first week of the v1.3 release. I can't tell you anything in detail until it's actually released, but I guess I can explain some of the things that Karlos already mentioned. Taken straight from the "Pros" list of the v1.3 poll thread, located here! I'll also post my opinions in regards to the idea's cons.

Pros

- New features that are much needed will be available.

This one is pretty much self-explanatory. There will be many nice features that have been awaited for a long time!

- Quest system.

That's right, Quests are back and better than ever! They'll make a lot more sense and be more interactive. You'll like 'em a lot!

- More power for the darling staff.

You know this one always makes me happy. 8D Some things that will make our jobs easier are going to be added. Those annoying accounts that won't activate? There's an app for that. If only my paws would work on an iPhone...

- Faster speeds on certain sections of the site.

Another much-needed update. Hopefully, hunting will be easier due to the reduced lag.

- You will have the power to mold the progress of Wolf-Haven 1.3 (With the suggestion system)

Since v1.3 is being released more gradually, you'll be able to input ideas and give your opinion on them. That way, everyone can be generally happy.

- More life to the website and hopefully the user base

Yaaaay!

- More pack controls (Ownership transferal and Pack Mass Messages) 

C'mon, you've wanted these back for a year... well, you're finally getting them back! Pack Massmails supply the life of a pack.

- New stoof

You'll see, wolfies. You'll see.

Sounds great, right? I agree! v1.3 is going to be absolutely amazing, I can tell you that.

Cons
- A lot of things will be Works In Progress.

Some areas of the site may be blank, useless, or unattractive, so hopefully nobody gets impatient.

- A lot of the art will not be done thus placeholder images will be used. 

This goes along with the first con. Our ideas work faster than our artists and we need a lot of diverse artwork that takes a long time to make. Until we get those images, you may see text boxes.

- Frequent Maintenance
With new content, there will be more downtime to work on different things.

- Bugs, bugs and more bugs!
Of course, with new code comes new bugs. Although a bug check is done generally before anything is added officially, things will slip and it will be up to everybody to report them and to deal with the inconvenience.

- Reverts may happen. 

Though I can't see this being a big possibility for any reason, it's possible. For example, if 200 users exploited something on the Map and it was impossible to correct, everyone may have to lose their v1.3 progress in order to remove the disadvantage that those other users gave themselves. That may not be the case with v1.3 but, of course, it could happen.

- Temporary strict enforcement of rules.

I believe that this is referencing to the v1.2 incident of over a year ago. If you weren't here during that time, be glad. It wasn't that v1.2 was bad or anything, but the main problem was that a lot of popular and well-respected players hated it and their opinions reflected on the site. Not only did many of them choose to express their opinions in a rude manner, they didn't even give the update a chance and many feelings were hurt over it. Some users did apologize and they are still happy and active members of our community, but as for the ones who didn't... well, they were banned, and not everybody was happy with that. I've bogged about it many times so if you're a newer member of WH or never really read my blog actively, you can search through some of my posts from May and June of 2011 to read more about the drama. I don't like to bring up past events in current blog posts because it only causes problems, and one of the main reasons that I blog is to keep WH problem-free. I write with the intentions that people will consider my opinions, which are for the most part sensible.

Anyways, that's all I can tell you about v1.3. It will be released in segments, so there will be plenty to blog about and many new things to keep you entertained!

Part 2: Ambrose.

Though I do give credit to Seagleam for originally creating the pack, CheshireAlley has done most of the leading from what I've heard. Ambrose was always a friendly pack with good intentions, and it still is. However, with the somewhat-recent closing of Shimmer, Ambrose has seemed to sweep up many of the old Shimmer members, making it (to my knowledge) the top pack on-site. It's got Sheri, Alizarin, and Aeralie in it; though the last two seem to be dead on WH, they've got a lot of XP. Other than the Retirement Home (which I am somewhat against, only because the theme suggests that the users no longer have an interest in being members of an active pack), I would have to say that Ambrose has done a good job at scooping up a bunch of XP. If they're not the #1 pack onsite, I don't know what pack is. Plus, Karlos joined, which says something, considering that the site owner wouldn't join a bad pack.

Congratulations to you, Ambrose!

In the last part of this post, I just wanted to rant about something that has been causing me an annoyance since it first became trendy: account sales. I wish they were banned, to be honest. They're great, but the negatives outweigh the positives for me.

Firstly, there are too many people who overpay for accounts with half-assed customs, then complain that they can't sell the account for as much as they paid. Just because you paid 2 donations for your level 2 Pup with a custom that would be rejected if it were sent in now, doesn't mean that somebody else is willing to do the same. Have a sense of value if you want to buy an account to resell.

And on the topic of reselling, that is absolute bullshit. People are making profit on accounts that were never theirs until they bought them. It's not against the rules, but it's still pretty offensive to the custom artist and whoever sold the account to you. Of course, those are the wicked ways of the market, and if Points weren't so easy to get, I may actually support the act of reselling. If you don't plan on keeping an account, why buy it?

As you can tell, I'm not a fan (and never was a fan) of account sales. It's not that it shouldn't be allowed, but users are so terrible with that Sales Board. I have only bought two accounts, and they were accounts that I really wanted. I overpaid on them both because I didn't want to go through with the hassle of participating in an auction, and if I were ever going to resell them, I certainly wouldn't be asking to get as much back. If you're curious, I offered 600 Points to autobuy Charley, and I paid 200 Points for Khoda (now Bleddyn). I only go on that board to delete the sales that are done with; other than that, it makes me want to vomit. Perhaps you feel differently, but that is my sole opinion on account sales.

Well, that's all for today. Hopefully I'll be back soon! I've been very busy with real life now that classes have started up, so I haven't had much time for WH. I've wanted to write something about Ambrose and the account sales for a while, but I never had the chance to. I'm glad that I was able to fit so much into one blog post.

Thanks for reading!