Category Archives: Site News

Guests Writers are Coming to Mantasticpad.com

Introduction

In the past, I have featured some guest writers who would share their thoughts and opinions on various PAD topics that could range from team building, efficient farming set ups, along with card reviews.

Due to the fact that PAD is a complex game with no “perfect/ideal” way to play the game, having a diverse sets of opinions can be beneficial when making decisions for your own Monster Box.

As such, I have decided to invite a few individuals to write various articles on topics of their choosing. They plan to release their content whenever is convenient for them.

Guest writer line up

At this point in time, InSomnia and Miso are the two planned guest writers who will be providing their insight and expertise for their fields of interest. Both are high ranking, multi-crowning players who will be able to provide a new perspective on advanced topics.

There is no planned time for their articles to be released so just keep checking back but InSomnia is nearing the completion of their publication.

My influence

I plan to give each guest writer free reign when it comes to their content and mostly plan to only provide formatting help to make it look more consistent with my own posts along with general proofreading. I wish to try and preserve their voice and writing style so I will try to keep my influence on the actual writing to a minimum.

Conclusion

Guest writers can provide a healthy new view point on various aspects of Puzzle and Dragons. There are many reasons why players choose to play this game and having differing opinions is healthy overall.

Happy Puzzling!

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Creature Quest Content has Moved

Based on the feedback received from my posting a few weeks ago, I have decided to port over all my Creature Quest content to a sister WordPress site (which can be found HERE).

This will help streamline both games in a more efficient manner as well as enabling players to find the Creature Quest content more easily as I do not post there as often.

The transfer still has the Creature Quest content on this site, but no more will appear in the news feed moving forward. However, I will not be creating a separate YouTube/Twitter account.

If you have not tried it out already, I highly encourage you to download Creature Quest and give it a shot as it is incredibly fun and rewarding to play and occupies a large portion of my video gaming time. Creature Quest has 3 unique gameplay modes that are both rewarding and generous with their Magic Stone equivalent currency. You will often find yourself rolling at a fast-paced rate along with a vital dependency on using farmable Creatures to advance in the game instead of solely relying on REM-equivalent cards to progress.

In addition, the developers are responsive to user feedback and have made tremendous strides in improving the overall experience through the various updates I have experienced in my 100 days of playing. Finally, all new content is released immediately (no server disparity) along with rich in-game flavour text and animated Creatures with sometimes amusing audio death-lines.

If you ever have any questions, I do have a bumpin’ Discord channel that is full of helpful players.

Happy Puzzling/Questing!

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I Want Your Feedback

Introduction

Over the past several days I have been reinstalling my entire desktop due to a hacker infiltrating this website stealing 3 months of ad revenue by putting their PayPal email address over mine. I have repeatedly changed the passwords, email address used, and even reinstalled everything on my desktop to try and keep them out.

The whole process has left me somewhat depressed as every single penny I earn goes to funding my medical expenses and not something that is actually fun or entertaining. I have a physical disability that leaves me in constant pain along with a potentially cancerous lump in my right eye (can read more about it HERE) and I created this website to share my passion for Puzzle and Dragons as well as helping others. I never expected to surpass 3.7 million views since starting in October 2015, but here I am averaging over 11,000 views per day in 2017.

Regardless, I want to take this opportunity to find out why you come to my website as well as helping guide me/make suggestion for future content while I finish putting everything back together on my computer.

Video commentary

—video goes here—-

Reasons why you come to here

Everyone has different reasons for coming to my website and while the vast majority of referrers are search engines (with Google occupying 98% of them), there are a good chunk who have bookmarked this site. While I can see what are the more popular articles, I would also like to know the whys behind them.

With that being said, there are certainly things I enjoy writing about more than others, but I want to know what your reasons for coming here are.

Thus, I will try to use the poll function in WordPress to quickly gather data. You can vote multiple times, but may only submit once. I don’t know how I will see the results but I can figure it out along the way. Feel free to elaborate in the comments below.

Where you consume and how you consume?

Weird question, but I want to know where you access my website along with what electronic device you use:

Length and detail of each article

What style of postings do you prefer? I would like to maximize time spent to the amount of people it could help as some articles can take days to write.

Conclusion

Thank you for providing your feedback as it is important to me as well as future content creation moving forward. The polls should work, but the comment section is always a great place to leave your thoughts.

Happy Puzzling!

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I am now an Official Twitch Partner and have a Sub Button!

Introduction

I began streaming Puzzle and Dragons on June 14, 2016 and it was not without various hiccups and speed bumps. However, I kept playing with myself on camera with the help of Pancaaake and all my other Mods. Fast forward to today and I have managed to turn my streams into an incredible place to hang out and watch some high end and entertaining gameplay. And all this work has paid off as I am now an Official Twitch Partner and have a Subscriber Button!

Video commentary

—-video goes here—

Streaming schedule

I make my very best effort to stream four days a week at varying times to help my East Coast and European viewers tune in. All the following times are in PST and can also be found on my Twitch site:

  • Monday at 6pm PST
  • Tuesday at 6pm PST
  • Thursday at 3:30pm PST
  • Saturday at 2pm PST
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What does Twitch Partnership mean?

Twitch is a free streaming website that allows any individual the ability to broadcast their favourite games for free for all of the world to enjoy. However, only a select few are able to gain partnership through consistent viewership, a steady streaming schedule, and an entertaining environment. Thankfully, I am able to piggyback off the success of my website and was able to quickly grow my channel along with creating a hip to the hop place to watch Puzzle and Dragons.

Partnered Twitch Streamers gain access to an enhanced support system, but on of the main perks is the subscriber button. A subscriber button allows viewers to subscribe for $4.99/month and this unlocks additional features set out by the broadcaster as well as providing another avenue of support for your favourite streamers.

In addition to anything I am able to create, all subscribers gain an ad-free viewing experience which means you do not have to turn off Ad-Blocker.

What I plan to do & your feedback!

For my channel, I have already created the subscriber badge (an extra shiny Mantastic icon) that will appear in my channel along with chat exclusive emotes that are pending approval. In addition, I have created subscriber-only redemptions via my Myracle Stone currency that reduces the cost on all Silver and Gold Egg rewards by 50%. The cost reduction was done to preserve the leader board rankings as if I granted subscribers an increased generation rate, it may throw it off. It also means you can spam !wukong twice as often.

However, this is just the beginning and I want your input as to what you would like to see for subscriber perks.

sub-button

Twitch & Amazon Prime

A new feature that was released this past month was the ability gain a free Twitch subscription via Twitch and Amazon Prime. In essence, if you have Amazon Prime, you are given Twitch Prime for free which not only grants you a special blue crown beside your name, but also a free monthly subscription to your favourite Twitch streamer. This subscription has to be renewed on a monthly basis which does allow you to change channels, but can simply be used on the same person over and over again. This is a great way to show your support and it may end up costing you nothing. More information can be found HERE.

A new way to support Mantastic PAD

As many of you may know, I struggle with extensive health issues as I have been on long term disability since July, 2014 due to a serious neck and back injury that leaves me in a constant state of pain. I spend most of my days either in intensive (and expensive) therapy and then recovering from said therapy. In addition, I have had eye surgery in September, 2016 in an attempt to remove what is almost certain to be a cancerous lump in my right eye. The surgery was unsuccessful and the lump remains inside; however, it is not growing which does reduce the chances of it being malignant but requires constant monitoring every few months.

All of this is taxing to say the least and I created Mantastic PAD as a way to help other people enjoy the game I love most. If you wish to read more about my health struggles, they can be found HERE.

I have monetized my website and despite the fact I will generate over 7,000 views a day this month and the previous 2 months exceeding 200,000 monthly views, it amounts to very little. One month of ad revenue equates to less than a single 30-minute specialist appointment ($100). It may not seem fair considering the amount of effort I do put into my content, but I honestly began this website as a way to help others and to also provide a healthier medium for my PAD obsession.

Thus, this subscriber button means a lot to me as it was another milestone to achieve along with providing my readers a more beneficial way to support all of my work. However, even if you do not subscribe nor have an Amazon/Twitch Prime account to spare, I would greatly appreciate it if you turned off ad blocker for my website. The difference may be small from a single person, but if all 200,000+ views did this, the impact may be astronomical.

If you wish to make a direct contribution, it can be done through my Twitch link as you are able to leave a message I can read. It will also allow me to credit you Myracle Stones if you swing by my stream; however, these can still be made anonymously.

Conclusion

I got a shiny new button! It kind of goes with my shiny ranking dungeon hats, but I was so happy to have received the email that confirmed my Twitch Partnership application. I am excited to take the next step in my streaming journey and I thank each and everyone of you for your continuous support. I also look forward to your suggestions on what you want to see as subscriber perks and also you turning off ad-blocker!

Happy Puzzling!

Big Updates to my Stream!! Also looking for new Twitch Mods!

Introduction

I have been streaming Puzzle and Dragons on Twitch for a brief period of time with only two short streams a week. I do have reasonably strong views by PAD standards, but I wish to improve the experience for both myself and viewers. While recovering from my eye surgery, I had a lot of time to think about the direction I want to take for my stream and came up with a lot of fun and exciting way to evolve my stream from a 5-star to 8-star status! The two most notable changes will be more streaming sessions to help catch people in different time zones along with implementing a viewership reward system that awards a currency from passively watching which can be redeemed for Fantastic prizes!

Video commentary

More streaming sessions!

People love watching me play with myself, in coop, with my Mantastic and Fantastic accounts. As such, I wish to provide more times in which you can be entertained while trying to provide streaming sessions that are more convenient for viewers who are not on the West Coast. Note all the following start times are in PST:

  • Monday at 6pm
  • Thursday at 3:30pm
  • Friday at 3:30pm
  • Saturday at 2pm

I will try my best to adhere to this schedule and may still shift times/days around as needed. The best way to stay informed is to follow my various social media platforms as I will make announcements for when I go live and any delays that may happen:

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New currency system

One thing I always try to achieve while streaming is engaging my audience through verbal interaction and entertaining gameplay. However, I want to go above and beyond the average streamer by rewarding my viewers with an in-stream currency to give them more options to interact with me and have a lot of fun at the same time.

I had a test stream on Friday and one viewer (forgot the name, sorry!) suggested I name my currency Myracle Stones as it is both punny along with tying into my love for Myr. Viewers will earn 1 Myracle Stones every 3 minutes they spend watching (Oh look, it is just like stamina!) and there is a large list of rewards they can redeem that will have a message pop up on stream along with a flashing an image and audio component. Continue reading Big Updates to my Stream!! Also looking for new Twitch Mods!

1 Million Site Views!

Introduction

With all the various poison orbs plaguing my health at the moment, there is a still a rainbow of joy creeping through: 1  million site views!! I actually achieved this milestone around my surgery time frame and was actually lucky enough to catch this monumental occasion as close as I could possibly hope to get:

1-m-views

Video commentary

What does 1 million signify?

According to Wikipedia (which is the real MVP for all college students), a million seconds is equivalent to 11.57 days and for myself, the end result of just under 11 months of Mantastic PAD. Continue reading 1 Million Site Views!

A Less than Mantastic Health Update

Introduction

Many people have asked what I do with my life whether I am a student, employed, or a secret agent spy. Sadly, I am not a secret agent spy and I haven’t been a student for a number of years nor am I employed. This post will contain virtually no Puzzle and Dragons content aside from a cleverly veiled reference here or there and I mostly want to share what is going on in my life currently as it will be having an effect on the next few days/weeks to come.

Video commentary

Background

I graduated from a well respected University and began working shortly after and actually discovered Puzzle and Dragons while reading a newspaper as there was an article describing the biggest mobile game in the world. I thought I would give it a shot and turns out I love it. Fast forward a year to July, 2014 when I suffered a serious back injury while playing soccer. I went to the ER and was discharged a few hours later with no notable damage to my spine/hard tissue and was told I should heal relatively quickly as I am both young and in good physical health. Continue reading A Less than Mantastic Health Update

Mantastic Will Be Streaming Again on July 14th @6pm PST!!

This Thursday at 6pm PST, I will resume live streaming Puzzle and Dragons after overcoming numerous technical difficulties. This a great opportunity to be entertained by me playing with myself in real time! My stream will probably consist of playing through various coop dungeons with my second account, Fantastic, and hopefully showcasing fun to play, but somewhat unpopular leads.

To help everyone prepare for my momentous streaming re-debut on Thursday, July 14 at 6pm PST, I encourage you to follow me on Twitch as this will also deliver a notification when I go live along with my other social media platforms:

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I am quite excited as this will be an opportunity to provide another medium of entertainment and puzzling knowledge to my readers. It will also help put a face to the mysterious Mantastic entity along with the realisation that my corny jokes and puns carry over into my speech. It may also make reading my articles more entertaining as you will begin to read them in my Mantastic voice.

Stream Overlay
I would probably get more views if I was a pretty girl like her…

Hopefully you are as excited as I am and I look forward to seeing all of you on Thursday, June 14 at 6pm PST!

However, all of this could not have been made possible without the contribution, patience, and dedication of countless individuals. The numerous Twitch followers who have endured my countless testing, horrible audio, and bad jokes have helped shape the stream into what it is today.

In addition, I also want to thank a four people in particular: Pancaaake for her overlay and countless troubleshooting, Polygonica for the generous desktop donation and technical support,  Anita Waffle (Shrekt) for her patience with my lack of tech-knowledge when helping me set up the stream, and finally SamB for his tech support and advice for capturing my game screen. I encourage you to add them as everyone can always use more Fantastic friends!

Pancake ID

Polygonica ID

Shrekt ID

Happy Puzzling!

500,000 Views & Advice for Starting a PAD Blog

Introduction

This is a two-part post in that I want to say thank you to all my readers for your continuous support in achieving over half a million site views along with providing some advice/guidance to players who wish to take the plunge into WordPress and start their own PAD blog.

500,000+ Views

When I first started Mantastic PAD in mid October of 2015, my goal was to create content that was accessible and entertaining for all Puzzle and Dragoners. I had around 200 views per day for the first two months with the vast majority of views coming from Facebook referrals (a large majority probably came from me constantly refreshing my page to see how the small changes I made turned out). My content was somewhat fragmented as I tried to jump all over the place as I had so much I wanted to write about. In addition, my writing style was not as polished nor was my direction as focused as it is today.

Despite a slow start, I stuck with writing and posting along with discovering what kind of content people wanted to read. As such, I was able to create articles and guides on popular topics and transitioned away from a blog-style format. This allowed me to devoted most of my focus to helping other players progress through the various dungeons as well as providing commentary/analysis on changes in the meta.

Blog Views
This image was taken on June 20th

As mentioned earlier, most of my initial views came from Facebook referrals as there is a large and established PAD community. Over time, I started to be picked up by search engines due to the increased site traffic and I currently experience the majority of my views from Google clicks. In addition, I experienced a sizeable influx of views from Reddit due to my inclusion in their Skill Inheritance Guide along with numerous Xiang Mei Xiang Mei discussion posts and I am thankful to everyone who references my work.

Advice for starting a PAD blog

Continue reading 500,000 Views & Advice for Starting a PAD Blog