Greetings Duelists,

As Blerg just announced, the Abtu-Khan set will be released later this week.  To help whet your appetite for Mummies and Cats, please enjoy this preview of some upcoming items.

As I spend my day skipping from glamorous Party to glamorous Gallery Opening, to glamorous Gun & Doll Show, I am often complimented on my officially licensed Duels T-Shirt from J!NX.

“Hey!” they will exclaim, clapping their hands together and batting their eyes.

“Is that an officially licensed Duels T-Shirt from J!NX?.  I love Duels! Duels allows me to control my own destiny as I combine the detailed character building and advancement of massively multi-player online role-playing game with the strategic and collectible elements of collectible card games!”

“Wonderful!” I will exclaim.  Then I will lean in a whisper in their ear.

“I don’t just play the game…  I work on it.”

Their eyes will grow wide with childlike wonder and they will mouth the words “work on it” as though tasting some new, wonderful candy for the first time.

“How did you get that job?” they ask.  Then I put my arm around them in a completely friendly and in-no-way-uncomfortable-or-harassing way, take them Hometown Buffet and share this story…

“One day, I saw an ad for a job posted online.  I applied for that job, interviewed for it and now I work there.”

“Wow.” They’ll say, stifling a tear, “That’s a really triumphant story.”

Then we get Soft Serve.

Many of you know me from the forums. My official title on Duels is Game Designer.  This involves primarily Item, Quest and Action design, along with game balance and testing.

I came from a background of writing and performing in Theater and Film.  After a few years in Los Angeles, I began to question my devotion to that industry and decided to move into games.

I have been working as a professional in the Game Industry, specifically in MMOs for about five years, and with some of the biggest companies.

What attracts me to games, more than any other single element, is the potential for new ways to tell a story. Games are still in that infant stage, emulating and being judged against other media.

But, I believe we are on the crux of breaking the bonds of film, television, books, comics and other linear art forms, so that we can soar into vast cosmos of possibilities that interactive-storytelling promises.

I’ve been meaning to get one of the new iphones because, as our players will attest, I don’t spend enough time looking at Duels, working on Duels, participating in Duels and generally just being around Duels. While I do love the Blackberry Pearl, it’s web browsing capacity is somewhat limited. That and the fact my “Shift” button is basically busted makes the decision to dive into iphone madness an easier one.

I really didn’t want to kill a day waiting in lines, jumping through hoops and eventually receiving my hard earned treat. I’ve been patient. I’ve given the launch excitement some time to die down [pick up backpack, notebook and move - more on that later] and figured I’d have a reasonable shot at a quick pick-up this weekend. Plenty of work to do so I’m going to be up early….why not run by the mall. Showed up yesterday at 7:45 AM (Apple store opens at 8). Guy outside the entrance tells me there’s no way I’m getting one. Line is too long and even if I do make it, it will take me 3-4 hours. My investment so far is minimal so I’m willing to write it off and return to fight another day.

Sunday. Have a short meeting at 10 AM but the store doesn’t open ’til noon so I figure I can get there around an hour early and hope for the best. No naysayers at the door this time. I make it to the store to find about 40 people lined up. I start a conversation with the last couple people in line and find out they’re giving out #’s so you don’t even have to wait around all day. Perfect. Almost. I wait about 15 minutes, get my # and I’m off thinking I’ll show up in a few hours for smooth sailing. Those few hours go by, I make my second appearance at the Apple store (third if you want to count Sat) only to find out that the line has not dissolved and I’ll probably end up waiting an hour or more. No good. I break for another hour, come back and the line is the same but this time I’ve come prepared laptop in hand. And I’ve discovered they have wifi at the mall. It’s almost like being in the office only I have one less monitor, no chair, have to move my computer every 10 minutes or so and Bhaal is strangely absent. Ooops…gotta go get my phone.

This is what I want to post. Nothing more.

StarryEyed is the watchful eye on the Duels community. When problems arise, she works to resolve them as quickly as possible. She also creates graphical content throughout the Duels site, answers questions from players, and loves cupcakes. In her spare time, StarryEyed likes to cook, stockpile gems, raise baby unicorns, and whittle. She also dabbles in interior design and global domination.

A few fun facts about StarryEyed:

• StarryEyed once commanded a large fleet of pirate ships, but gave it up when told that pirate flags were not allowed to be pink.

•  StarryEyed’s first pet was Godzilla. One day, as a prank, she let him loose. She secretly laughs about it from time to time.

•  StarryEyed and Chuck Norris dueled for 11 days before calling it a draw. This is the real reason for global warming.

•  StarryEyed eats Kryptonite in her Corn Flakes and maintains that Superman is a “punk biatch” for making such a big deal about it.

•  StarryEyed likes her tea sweetened with revenge.

•  StarryEyed once tried her hand becoming a mad scientist. We now have the platypus and the manatee.

•  StarryEyed never admits that she is wrong, because she never IS wrong. This is a scientific fact.

•  StarryEyed doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, but Santa Claus does believe in StarryEyed.

•  StarryEyed has been voted the World’s Best Kazoo Player 3 years in a row.

•  StarryEyed was banished from the city of Atlantis because her skin was too blue. We all know how that turned out.

“I said good day!”

The name is actually Diocyatchin and if you correctly pronounced my name you just got props in my book. I started working for Duels in March 2008 as a game designer to create content and other awesome stuff! I enjoy making quests that offer a variety of interesting scenarios from fighting a Hungry Bat to taking on Tarsh the Defiler. Oh yeah, I hope you like the NPCs with openers.

Here are some questions and answers that you might find interesting.

Q: Who’s my favorite NPC?
A: Hedo Taigen, I mean he just looks so cool!

Q: What’s my favorite Quest?
A: Shattered Past, the end is pretty cool; I don’t want to spoil it if you have not done it yet.

Q: What kind of games do you like to play?
A: Mostly MMO’s. I think the count is up to over 46. This includes any subscriptions or betas. I believe that through playing games you learn what works and what doesn’t and that helps you become a better designer. I also enjoy RTS, Command & Conquer: Generals-Zero Hour is my favorite. I spent many strategically agonizing hours trying to beat those general campaigns but it was well worth it when I won. Oh yeah, my #1 favorite kind of games are Strategy RPG’s, like Disgaea, Gladius, Stella Deus to name a few.

Q: Was getting into the industry difficult?
A: Yes, but if you want it bad enough and work your tail off you can do it! I got my B.S. in Sociology and then went to graduate school for Digital Design. Maybe that’s why I gravitate towards MMO’s.

If you have any more questions for me please feel free to post. I’d also like to know your impressions of the quests and what you thought of them when you played through.

Our friends at TCGPlayer.com have an exclusive feature on our new expansion, including the announcement of the second new race.

Read all about it here.