Wizard 101

I was amazed to see a television commercial for Wizard 101 the other night. JE saw it too and his eyes grew big as he watched avatars summon beasties to fight Mobs. So I was compelled to download and install it on his PC last night.


The interface is very simple, and the graphics are pretty good, for a free-to-play (to lvl 10) online game. It took a while to download and install, but a nice touch was while it was DLing the textures and finishing the install, you could actually start playing by answering a few questions to create your avatar, which you could then customize by changing the face & skin color, and hair & hair color. You could also change the color & trim of your hat, robe, & boots, but as I discovered when I downloaded the game on my own PC, you quickly upgrade your hat and robe with drops from Mobs, so the time you spend coordinating your outfit at the start is quickly rendered moot.

The gameplay is very simple and child friendly. The initial quests are the simple "Talk to NPC Smith" variety, and your first introduction to combat is about the 3rd quest where you fight a Puppet Wizard, who doesn't fight back and is defeated in two moves. However, this initial fight serves to explain the combat system and the card layout. Yes, comabt is turn-based, with you using cards to attack your opponent & defend/heal yourself and allies. Playing cards can use Mana, but you have some cards with low level attacks which use no mana, so even when you're tapped out and are trying to get to the mana clouds floating around, if a Mob drags you into combat you can still defend yourself.


Combat is rather interesting, and takes place in a small in-game arena. When you enter combat a sigil appears on the ground surrounded by eight circles. You are moved (by the game) into one of the circles, and your opponent takes his place in the circle opposite yours. You choose a card and when it's your turn to attack (maybe you go first, maybe your opponent does) your avatar casts the spell automatically. There is the animation, which naturally differs for each spell. You might summon an Ice Beetle which sprays ice onto an opponent, someone else may summon a Fire Cat which blows flame, and someone may summon a Sand Beetle which leaps into attack. And of course there are many other Spell Cards obtainable, depending on the School of Magic in which you specialize.

The quests are very simple (at least at the start). One objective could be "Find the Guard hiding in his house. You look at your Map and it will show you where the Guard's house is. When you get to his house the Guard may ask you to kill 3 Skeletons, so he can return to his post. Yup, 3 Skeletons. Not 10, not collect 10 Skulls, just kill 3 Skeletons and the Quest is complete. The really child-friendly thing is even if you're not in a Party with someone, if you're both within close proximity and you both enter combat at the same time, you will move to adjacent circles on the same sigil, and when you defeat your Skeleton mob and your ally (who's not even in a Party with you) defeats his, you get credited with two kills. If your ally's spell fizzles and combat enters a second round, you can cast a spell to attack his skeleton; it's not Kill Stealing, you will both get credit for the kill.

The game is free-to-play to level 10, that is you cannot advance higher than level 10 without subscribing. I made it to level 4 last night with an hour or so of playing, so level 10 is probably easily reached within a few hours. As JE and I ran around (not together, I didn't start playing until he was in bed. Maybe we'll do that tonight.) I saw other players with Pets/Minions. I'm not sure if they're available before level 10 or not. Probably not, it's probably one more hook to try to get you to subscribe.

Wizard 101 may not be the WoW beater you're looking for, but it is a cute little game, and it's very child friendly. One of the more child friendly aspects is there's no General Chat window like you get with WoW, which is often filled with random, inane, and obscene messages from bored & immature players. In Wizard 101 you communicate with Emotes/Chats selected from a Pulldown Chat menu. General Chat is available, but only if you subscribe (another hook) and only if you register as being 13-years or older, and then only other 13+ y/old subscribers can see General Chat.

When I installed the game on JE's PC and set up his account I used my email address, and the game recognized that I'd already created an account (on my PC) using that same email address. It then asked if I wanted to combine the two accounts, which I agreed to do. I guess (I hope) this means I only need to subscribe once, and that both JE and I will be able to play and level past 10. That would be a very cool feature (if it works that way). Imagine being able to Install WoW on two PCs under one Account, but being able to log in on both PCs at the same time, because one is a Parent and one is a Child account.

If you have younger children and you're looking for a child-friendly alternative to WoW for them, Wizard 101 just might be what you're looking for. With it being free to play (to level 10), the cost just to check it out is more than reasonable.

Note that if you do decide to subscribe, that right now (as of Sept. 17, 2008) you can get a 12-month subscription for just $60. That's about the same price as a new video game, and is just $5 per month. My WoW sub costs me $13/month and that's only if I buy a 6-month block. So both my son and I could play Wizard 101 together, for a year, for less than the price for me to play WoW, alone.