Hogwarts Live Blog

Being this is becoming a common trend for players, if you accuse another house/staff of cheating at the House Cup in chat obnoxiously you'll be penalized points. If you think thats happening petition it and other staff will look into it. There should be no doubts about them being looked into either, us HoH's and other Staff wouldn't want our houses to lose because another one cheated.

Having some house rivalry is alright, so is having house pride until it starts causing fights to break out in chat. While having rivalry/pride in chat, please do not try to instigate players from the house you may be saying things about to respond in a rude way that'll start a fight. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about which house is the best and which they don't like. They can say it in chat. If you don't like what they have to say, ignore it, don't attack them for their opinion about that.

Well the results of the poll last week were clear, most people would prefer the house identification and for clubs to be separate.

So all clans have been disbanded, and you are now in a "clan" that matches your hogwarts house. The Guildhalls have been replaced with your Common Room, and the dorms have moved there.

Dorms will get a rewrite in the near future to be house specific, but I can only do so much at once.

A quick note about the upcoming Club system...

Yes, we know that some of you miss the old clans. However, Edmund's idea for the new Clubs will essentially become the old clans. As far as I know (and I may be wrong about this), anyone will be able to make a Club. The only requirement is that you need 3 members to actually be able to access your Club. PLUS...you will able to join MULTIPLE Clubs. So as you can see, the old clan system is not completely phased out. No, it will not be exactly the same as before, but it WILL be VERY similar.

He is still working on the code for the clubs so please be patient until they are added.

Sorry, if some of you find this MoTD inappropriate but I was told it shouldn't be. So, let me ask if anyone is interested in earning donator points to write a critique paper on a short fiction piece? I need a minimum of 500 words critique on a 2,300 word short story (aprox. 15 minutes to read out loud). Also, I'll give out 100 house points per critique in addition to lots of donator points. This offer expires June 1st.

I have some pretty hardcore critique guidelines laid out so if you've never done one before don't worry. It's a speculative fiction story I hope to enter into a contest, the target genre is science fiction/fantasy, it's a post-apocalyptic mythology/romance. If you have read chapters of my science fiction novella, this is at a higher reading level and is geared towards more mature readers so don't expect the same style writing.

Email me at if you're interested and want the complete directions/details, if you just want to read it that's fine too. Just remember you may not modify, redistribute, or reproduce it anywhere as it's copyright 2006.

I have taken the time to update the complete list of Site Rules on our Wiki page. THIS IS WHAT STAFFERS USE. It will eventually become a clickable on the nav bar, but in the mean time, please use this link to READ them. Even if you are a older player and think you already know the rules, I still suggest you read them over because I have seen A LOT of older players warning people for things that are NOT against the rules, rules have changed, been updated, and added. Thank you.

http://encyclopedia.wizards.pro/index.php/Hogwarts_Live:Rules

Yay for Edmund and his hard work on our newest module! And not just a simple little forest event or new shop...but basically a whole new system here on HL. The House Cup system!!! As huge as this module is, it is still not quite done and we have even more to look forward to so be sure to check here whenever you see the MoTD link highlighted. (Or Witchy WILL kill you AND we will take away House points from anyone who asks anything that was answered here)

Here is a basic rundown of how the House Cup works:

Race. Right now, there is only one race: Human. The Loyalty is Ottery St. Catchpole. This will soon be changing so please check back for updates.

House. You choose your House but choose wisely; this is a permanent choice. You will not be able to change Houses once you have been sorted.

Heads of Houses. Not quite in effect yet, but later tonight, there will be 4 Heads of Houses (HoHs). Edmund is the HoH of Ravenclaw, LilyAnnKnight is the HoH of Gryffindor, SpinalRemains is the HoH of Slytherin and WitchyWoman is the HoH of Hufflepuff. The other staffers are school faculty. We ALL have the power to give you points and we all have the power to take them away. Remember that. Also in development is a way for students (you all) to become Prefects and maybe even Head Boy/Girl. Check here for updates.

Earning/Losing Points. Think of HL just like you would the real Hogwarts. How do students earn points there? By doing good things, mostly. Answering questions correctly that a staffer may ask (like pop quizzes), helping other students (answering questions correctly for new students), defeating your Professors and defeating Voldy. Even random forest fights can earn you House points. Hopefully you get the idea.

In the same way, how do they lose points? By misbehaving and dying. In addition to the regular warnings and punishments, we now have the option to take away House points from players. So if you want your House to win the House Cup, you will behave yourselves (hint, hint). Be warned that those who are caught trying to sabotage another House's Points will be dealt with. Strictly.

Changed again. After seeing it in action, we figured out that it was not fair to have Firstyears GAIN points when they never LOST their House any points. However, we do realize that they die more often and can greatly affect their House standing in either direction. We have a NEW point-loss system for newer players. It is as follows: Firstyears will lose 5 points when they die. Secondyears will lose 6 points, Thirdyears- 7, Fourthyears- 8 and so on until they reach 10 points and then it becomes the same formula as below (in yellow). They will also earn their House a few extra points when they defeat Voldemort for the first time. For a player's first VE, they will earn 19 House points. For their second VE-18 points, third VE- 17 points, etc until they reach 10 VEs and get 10 House points.

However...because older players should know how NOT to get killed, they will lose their House even more points when they die from now on. Okay, Spinal explained how many points a player will lose their House when they die. It is the number of VE's they have, divided by 20 and then + 10. So, if you have 60 VE's (60/20=3+10=13), you will lose your House 13 points when you die in Battle. This includes PvP when you attack and die.

As it has been, no one loses points when they die due to Stonehenge or the old bridge or any other Something Special. Points are only lost due to death in BATTLE.

Prizes. Although not in effect quite yet, I am going to explain what the prize is for having the most Points so you guys know what you are trying to win. At the beginning of each game day the members of the House in the lead will get a positive buff. Also, we will reset the House Points each week and Edmund will put in a place for the winning House. For the entire following week members of the winning House will have a benefit for the ENTIRE week! So as you can see, it is in your best interest to want to earn as many points and be as helpful as possible.

Those are the main points right now. As mentioned above, there are still many things to come so check back here whenever you see the MoTD link highlighted. And please remember that this still is a game of discovery and finding things for yourselves so go out there and play the game and have fun!

In respect for my son and Autism awareness month here are some facts.
Facts about Autism

Did you know…
1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autism (If this many kids were kidnapped then it would be a national emergency.)
1 in 94 boys is on the autism spectrum
67 children are diagnosed per day
A new case is diagnosed almost every 20 minutes
More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined
Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
Autism costs the nation over $90 billion per year, a figure expected to double in the next decade
Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases
Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism
There is no medical detection or cure for autism

Incidence vs. Private Funding
Leukemia: Affects 1 in 25,000 / Funding: $310 million
Muscular Dystrophy: Affects 1 in 20,000 / Funding: $175 million
Pediatric AIDS: Affects 1 in 8,000 / Funding: $394 million
Juvenile Diabetes: Affects 1 in 500 / Funding: $130 million
Autism: Affects 1 in 150 / Funding: $15 million

Many players have petitioned or commented in chat about Live Chat not updating for them and it refreshing when they post. All of those users had been using Internet Explorer at the time, which is what causes it to not update quickly and post properly. So we suggest that you use Firefox while on here, the chat works fine on it.
Click here to download Firefox!
Also:
Click here to download Thunderbird!

If you make a donation via PayPal please do not cancel it by contacting your credit card company, you have 10 days to dispute a charge on PayPal. If for whatever reason you wish to cancel a donation and have not used your points yet please do so using the PayPal site and I'll be more than happy to refund your donation. When you cancel your payment via your credit card company I receive a nice little "Chargeback" notice. When this happens the transaction fee for the PayPal donation is taken out of the Hogwarts Live account, it is not refunded; meaning when you cancel this way HL loses money, please keep this in mind for future reference. There were ten chargebacks this month totaling $27. It appears that the people who did this had stopped playing the game but had used all their points already. Please keep this in mind before donating.

UPDATE (03/14/2008): Seriously, this is getting annoying, HL already received $57 (USD) in chargebacks this month. Please, if you make a donation by accident file a complaint/dispute requesting your funds back within 10 days of the transaction online at the PayPal Resolution Center or by calling their customer support at toll free at (888) 221-1161 in the USA or 08707 307 191 in the UK. The site currently relies completely on donations as we do not have ANY advertisers at the moment.

If you see any ads or popups (aside from the topsite buttons and the MoTD) either you need to clear your cache or you have spyware/adware on your computer and I suggest if you're a Windows user you download an antispyware a free program like Spybot-S&D or if you have the money Spy Sweeper. Also, a couple good free antivirus programs for Windows and Mac OS are ClamWin and ClamXav respectively.

Hello everyone, as you can see, the site is running insanely faster. The network issue at the colo seems to be finally resolved which has helped a lot.


I will work on bringing most of the modules back online this weekend, as well as a special new module that I hope you will all love.

More on that later, but to give you a tantalizing hint, it's a new way to compete with everyone else on the site in a very potterish way.


Because so many people can't understand this, I'm going to state it as simply as I can.

Everything except for the mounts, forest, weapons/armor and Professors was taken out of the game so Edmund could clean up the site and update things where necessary.

SOME of it has come back. SOME of it has NOT. SOME of it will NEVER come back. Just be patient and stop asking in chat about every single thing, please. As Edmund stated, he is still working on bringing things back.

CLAN VAULTS will NEVER come back. Save your gold in Gringott's and get over it.

Anything that was taken away from you, will NOT be given back to you.

You have to earn/buy it all back.

STOP asking about stuff in chat and just be patient. Do NOT petition to ask where your stuff is or when you're going to get it back. We will not answer you. Just go and play the game..

Witchy

All dwellings have been removed, and before you ask about getting your gold and gems back from your dwellings, I should point out that your gold in bank, gold in hand, gems, and clan vaults have all also been reset.

The Marriage system will be back here shortly (one of the first things I'll restore) but all marriages and flirt points have been reset to nothing, which means everyone is currently a free agent once again.

I've finished the data optimizations I'm going to do for now, so it's time to start putting modules back. This will take a bit of time, as I'm going to check for updates on each one while I reinstall.

UPDATE - Basic Villages, Marriage and Jobs are back with the latest versions, remember, everyone is unemployed, and everyone is single, let the flirting mayhem begin!