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Wizard 101: Catching Up
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh recently had the opportunity to catch up with Wizard101 developers from KingsIsle Studios. After speaking with KingsIsle personnel, Carolyn has a terrific look at what's been happening in Wizard101 since its debut in 2008. Find out what's new and let us know what you think on our forums.
A session presented at GDC Online Austin: From Shadowbane to Wizard101: A Tale of Two Cities chronicled the rise and fall of one game and the continual rise of the other. J. Todd Coleman and Josef Hall are the founders of both companies and creators of both MMOs; one a hardcore PvP game, the other a kid-friendly family game. It is hard to imagine that these two vastly different games were created by the same people, but as they like to say, real life is stranger than fiction. Shadowbane as we know crashed and burned while Wizard101 is enjoying unprecedented success, as they showed with graphs taken from compete.com and comscore.com, and it was Wizard101 that we caught up with at GDC.
Read more Catching Up with Wizard101.
Comments
Kids and I liked Wizard 101. It's a fun game for a short time, but we unsubscribed because:
Content - There's only enough for about a month or two of play.
Dungeons - Some dungeons take 3 hours or more, and you can't save your progress. This isn't bad for the hardcore, but my kids usually don't have 3 hours to string together. The dungeons requiring this amount of time are few, but they happen to be in the story arc, so they aren't optional, and you can't progress until you conquer them. They're also generally not soloable, so unless you bring your own entourage you may have to loiter around the entrance to the dungeon for quite awhile until someone shows up that will help you.
Wizard101 is a great game build arround their target audience. Excellent game design and rock solid technology. I can't wait till it's available in Europe! http://www.online-kostenlos-spiele.de/news/mmorpg-news/wizard101-bald-auch-in-europa/
Online Games - Games
I love Wizard101 and have played since Beta. The game is ever changing ... bugs are fixed ... new things are developed to recharge a player. The KingsIsle staff is always willing to help get a wizard into the game or give advice through the forum or acknowledged fan sites. And, they are consistently the same way (I have been playing almost 2 1/2 years now, I guess).
I am an adult gamer with a disability. Wizard101 is a game for all ages and for all levels of gaming experience. The ease of movement is a huge plus for me. In fact, I cried the first time I played the game ... to so easily run down the streets of Ravenwood was special for me.
I do have a problem with the label "free to play" when it is actually "limited free to play". I don't know what will ever be done about this but for me, even as a long time many hours player, it goes against something inside of me.
Celestia on the test realm is fantastic but I did not expect it to be so difficult. As a wizard with insomnia, I solo a lot. I am not sure what will happen now with such forceful hits by NPCs before my wizard's pips accumulate. KingsIsle will fine tune this, I'm sure. They listen to players and participate in forums.
A rant: Something has to be done about the wizards jumping into a battle. This has been a problem since Beta ... now I feel it is almost like rabid wizard gangs jump into battles. They sweep in from out of nowhere (just before the battle ends). There is no communication prior or during the battle. No regard for how much health I have after fighting and nearly finishing the battle before they appeared. This is huge problem and a problem that I think some subscribers have quit over ... I have come close to quitting because of this more than once that's for sure.