W101: 60,000 Crowns for US$60

For the next 10 days you can buy 60,000 W101 Crowns for just $60.

According to Tesh that's enough Crowns to buy every zone currently in the game. In other words, for the same price as a 12-month Sub you can get permanent access to every zone currently in the game (I say 'currently' because a new zone is already in the works). But don't take Tesh's and my word for it, check for yourself.

Wizard City = 3,000 Crowns
Krokotopia = 11,895 Crowns
Grizzleheim = 9,975 Crowns
Marleybone = 12,000 Crowns
Moo Shu = 10,800 Crowns
& Dragonspyre = 10,800 Crowns

That's a Grand Total of 57,470 Crowns.

Two years ago I quit playing World of Warcraft, and for less than the price of two 6-month WoW Subs I bought my son and I each a 12-month W101 sub. I find it amusing that I just quit WoW for the second time, and once again am considering replacing it with a Wizard 101 subscription, but this time with what is essentially a life-time sub.

Fun (& grouping) in W101

Other than in the handful of Instances in each zone, W101 doesn't really let you group up, which is why it's amusing (to me) that this weekend I did more grouping in W101 than I have during the entire game. Don't get me wrong, I've ran a couple of Instances with other players, I even PUGd The Sunken City, but this weekend was something different.
For once I saw quite a few folks running around Moo Shu & Hametsu Village, I even befriended a couple of them, and because they were able to hold a decent conversation during combat (thus proving their maturity level), I even let them stay on my Friends List. I make it a habit to prune out people on my (& JE's) Friends' List who look like slackers. They'd be the ones who are very low level and so probably want a free ride to Marleybone or Moo Shu, or whose extra information cannot be access from the Friends List (highlight a Friend in your List, then click that little left-pointing arrow in the bottom left corner of their Friend Frame), which I assume implies they're on a Trial Account. I don't know if that's true or not, but they get deleted anyway.

Late last week I'd quested briefly with one player, Joseph, then offered to beat a minor Boss with him but he'd had to log off; him I let stay on my Friends List. On Saturday I ran into another new Friend, Jacob, and by coincidence, we were up to the same Questing stage in that area. We chatted and discovered we needed to kill the same Mobs, farm the same Quest Drops, beat the same minor Boss, etc. So Jacob and I ran around together for a couple of hours double-teaming all our quests, which not only made things a little more pleasant than solo killing, but also sped up the process, too. If you need to kill 12 Mobs for a Quest, on your own you'll be fighting 2 Mobs, but with a partner you face 3 Mobs. That's 4 fights with a partner compared to 6 on your own, and with a partner the Odds are tipped a little more in your favor, too. 3 vs 2 is still not a fair fight, but it's more fair than 2 on 1.

So Jacob and I ran around questing together and during the course of conversation it came out that he's married like me, and also has a son who plays W101. Like most MMOs, W101 is a lot more fun when you have a mature (not necessarily older, just mature) player to hang out with.

Later Jacob logged out to go to a Superbowl Party, but I stayed on, quested a bit more, and got a bit ahead of him. Liz and I had the game on ourselves but I wasn't too attached to either the Steelers or the Cardinals, so, meh. Interesting commercial? Sure, I'll watch for a few seconds. Interception? 100-yard TD Return? Show me the replay! But the entire game? Meh.

The kids came home and JE jumped into the game but he's discovered the new PvP Arena, so I indulged him and joined him for a Duel. For some reason we signed up for 3v3, even though it was just the two of us, meaning we needed a PUG for a 3rd...and we got your stereotypical MMO PUG player.

While a player on the other team apologized to her team mates for bringing her PvE Deck, our PUG guy was talking Trash. Another one of their players was decked out similar to Saylah in her new Kitty Cat Cap, so I complimented her on her outfit. Our PUG guy thought that was hilarious.

With our opponents being in Oni gear they all had well over 2,000HP, and two of them were even close to 3,000. By contrast I was the only Wizard on our team with over 2,000HP, and I wasn't over by a lot. I didn't like our chances of winning, but I figured we were here to have fun (well I was) so let's give it our best!

After several rounds of buffing & debuffing, and various attacks, both JE and our opponents' lowest HP Wizard were knocked out and reeling. (Players reduced to zero HP can still be revived if they don't Flee and another Player can Heal them.) Our PUG guy threw a HOT onto JE bringing him back into the game, for about 2 seconds until one of their Wizards hit us with Meteor, an AOE, which took JE straight back out again.

"We're going to lose," our PUG guy whined.

Then he Fled.

Leaving me to face two Wizards, both with close to 3,000HP. And then they brought their third player back.

Meanwhile our PUG guy ran around the Arena as a spectator, jeering at us, and cheering for our (& his former) opponents. I took the high ground and made the observation that Fleeing disrespects both your team mates and your opponents. That won me brownie points with my opponents, although it didn't stop them trying to defeat me :P

And of course with it now being a Three on One I didn't last long, but I did last a while, and they were attacking too; they weren't sitting back trying to Buff up and one-shot me with a 2K+ attack. In fact I survived long enough to make me wonder if we might have had a chance of winning, if our PUG guy hadn't Fled on us.

When the inevitable happened and I got hit with a DOT that was going to knock me out before I could take my turn, I congratulated our opponents.

Then I left JE in the Arena and resumed Questing. The little guy kept me appraised of his progress, and damned if he didn't go and win several matches on his own :)

I'd been questing for a bit when a third one of my new Friends messaged me, asking what I was doing. I didn't know if she wanted to Teleport to my location, or needed help with something. It was the latter so I ported to her and found her fighting the War Oni at the end of the Crimson Fields Instance. I called out to John and he teleported to me and between the three of us we took the War Oni down.

Later that night I'd find myself fighting the War Oni again, when Jacob returned from his Superbowl Game and we tackled the Crimson Fields together. The big surprise of Crimson Fields was raising 4 Banners, which seemed to do nothing until later in the Instance, when a 5,000HP Fire Boss spawned from out of nowhere. JE was in bed by this time so I quickly logged on his account and 'ported his Wizard to us, and it still wasn't a cakewalk. That Boss was tough, a lot tougher than the War Oni.

And speaking of the War Oni, as we approached his lair Joseph messaged me asking for help. I told him I was about to fight the War Oni, so if he wanted to port to me and help Jacob and I then I'd help with his Boss when we were done. Between the three of us we made short work of the War Oni, then I helped Joseph with his Boss, which moved him in to the area that Jacob and I were just finishing up. Previously I'd had a very long chat with Joseph, and apparently W101 is his first MMO. Which is odd but I can only assume means he has a young child who plays as well (or he's a very mature, younger player himself). He even claimed not to know what AFK meant, which blew my mind.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon/evening. I just wish W101 had something like WoW's Guilds, so players like Jacob and Joseph could more easily meet up with Saylah, Ronan, and the other mature W101 players I know.

Debuffs in Wizard 101

Card Combat in W101 is not terribly complicated, but there are little tricks of which you might, or might not, be aware. For example, what is the correct order in which you should cast the following three debuff spells, in order to maximize their effectiveness, and why? For the sake of the argument, let's assume you're a Death Wizard facing another Death Wizard.


Take your time now.

I'm not going anywhere.

And I haven't worked out how to do a "more after the Break" thing in my Blog, or I'd put the answer after a "break".

Instead I have to rely on cheap delaying tactics, like this ;)

So, what order do you apply those Debuffs for maximum effectiveness versus another Death Wizard? You must cast Death Prism prior to casting Death Trap. Curse can be cast at any time, but you must cast Death Prism before casting Death Trap.

Why?

Because (currently) debuff spells go off using the LIFO method, that is the last Debuff you cast is the first to go off, while the first Debuff you cast goes off last.

So if you cast Death Trap before Death Prism (as I found out, to my detriment), Death Prism will go off prior to the Trap, thus converting your lovely Death School Damage into Life School Damage. And your Death Trap debuff, the one which increases the amount of Death Damage inflicted by 30%? It does nothing for Life School Damage.

But if you cast Death Prism before Death Trap, the Trap will go off and add 30% more damage to your Vampire Spell, then Death Prism will go off and convert your Death damage to Life, and Life has a boost effect on Death-school Mobs which is why we're using Death Prism ;)

So, Prism before Trap except after...well...never, really :P

P.S. For Bonus Marks, can anyone tell me if the Pips next to the Cards mean anything? Coz I have no idea why they're there. And it might be important. It's not the Pip/Mana cost of each spell, because all of those Debuffs are free to cast, hence the zero in the top left corner of each card.

Death in Wizard 101

I must say, I am enjoying my Death Wizard. I haven't specialized in any other Schools, other than investing a few Training Points to get access to Shields/Wards to help better protect me against them. Death Wizards are very versatile, and very soloable, in that their (or at least my) primary attack returns half the damage I inflict back to me, but as health, so a 750 point attack will heal me for 375. It's not a lot, but when combined with Wards to reduce incoming damage it's enough to keep me going, and going, and going.

Like Saylah I find myself soloing a lot of W101's content, and a Death Wizard is very well suited to do just that. I even soloed The Ironworks Instance in Marleybone, twice. There were a couple of close calls but nothing so close that I was freaking out. Usually it was just my Health falling below 500 points before I was able to deal out the finishing blow.

Your Soloing ability is also greatly enhanced by use of RMT or Crown Gear, and my Death Wizard has the 25 RMT Cloak and Boots, but not the fugly Hats. After that last horribly inappropriate outfit, as much as it would have benefited me, I couldn't even bring myself to buy the 30 RMT Hat, which looks not unlike the Jester-style Hat I had at level 12. That Cap of the Banshee is my current Hat, which you'll get to see later.

I thought about farming the Boss-dropped Death School Hat, so I looked up where it dropped. It only drops off the final Marleybone Boss, Moewiarty himself, who is located on the 15th Floor of the Big Ben Instance. Yeah, like I'm really going to "farm" him, running the Instance numerous times, just to get a hat which is not only inferior to the RMT Hat...but still makes me look like a freaking Court Jester!!!
The game rewarded my adherence to style with the Cap of the Banshee:
While it may not give me a Health Buff like the RMT & Boss Hats, and there's no extra chance of a Power Pip, nor increased Accuracy, it does come with a +4% Attack Bonus to my Death spells, and a +8% Resistance to Death magicks. Ok, so that's not as good as the overall Offense and Defensive bonuses of the RMT Hat, but who cares? It's a freaking Bowler! Not only does it look totally cool, but it dropped in the very same color you see in the picture. It came matched for my outfit! And, I may be the only one to say it, but I think it completes the look, and my Death Wizard looks like a real Uber bad ass in it :)
John Shadowblade...Undead Hunter?
Damn straight!

Inappropriate work attire

My Life Wizard made it to Moo Shu, but because my son and I haven't been playing together as much my son's Wizard is still stuck back in Marleybone, so I rolled a Death Wizard, a big, bad Necromancer to play in the meantime. He's actually kind of fun. Whereas my Life Wizard has low damage but the ability to heal himself, my Necromancer can heal himself by sucking the life right out of his opponent. Other than my Life Wizards (yes, I have two :P) he's the only Wizard I've played that beat Golem Tower before hitting level 10. In fact I did it twice in a row with my Necromancer, with him at just level 5.

At level 12 you begin a chain quest to get a totally new outfit, and I was really looking forward to completing this quest as every piece is almost always an upgrade.

Here's my Necromancer before equipping his new level 12 Quest pieces.

Prior to this I had a Black robe with Purple Trim, and I would have dyed this one the same, but I figured I was getting an upgrade soon so I didn't need to waste the Gold, likewise with the Hat. The Boots were originally black so I didn't bother dying them.

Then I completed the quest chain and got my new clothes. Alright! Let's see what my Necromancer/Death Wizard looks like in his new clothes!!!

What the fuck is this?! Excuse me! I'm a Necromancer! A Master of the Undead! I can't go running around looking like this! What the hell were the designers thinking? I know this is a game targeting the kiddies, but come on!

Actually, I'm keeping the Robe, but the obscenely tall & pointed hat, with the flower on the side? Uh uh. The shoes can go, too. It's a good thing that quest chain provides you with a decent chunk of XP (I leveled twice while doing it) because the Quest Rewards (for a Necromancer) suck. The hat would provide me with 14 more Health and +3% Resistance to Death Magic, while the Boots would have me exchange +3 Dmg for +2% Resistance to Death Magic (same Health, before & after). I can live without that. I might go dye my new Robe though, if it's not too expensive :P

Last Chance, allegedly ;)

This just in, from the W101 News Page in the Launcher:

I know, I know. I've been raving about Wizard 101, and I've even become known as the Famous Wizard101 Blogger ;)

$60 for a 12-month subscription. That's just $5 per month.
$60 is about the price of one, new release video game (@ $50+tax).

Now, there's no guarantees KingsIsle won't extend this offer, and maybe they'll even introduce a cheaper offer in the future, but if they do. Well, when they introduced the Family Plan (still not as cheap as two 12-month Subs at $60 each) anyone who'd bought several regular subscriptions and upgraded to the Family Plan got an in-game Crown allowance. Apparently enough Crowns to buy a couple of items, per account. And if you've seen what Crowns get you in W101, you'd realize that's not a bad deal.

At the very least, I encourage you to head over to the Wizard101 site, download the program for free and play it for a bit for free. Check it out, see if it's to your liking, and if you like what you see then now (and the next few days) is a good time to consider subscribing.

Instancing in Wizard 101

I dinged 15 this weekend, completed practically all of the Wizard City quests, found the entrance to Krokotopia (the next major Questing area), and got the quest to enter the first W101 Instance known as "The Sunken City".

If you thought WoW was MMO 4 Dummies, but you've never played W101, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Oh, before we get started, one other accomplishment I achieved this weekend was collecting a second Potion. In W101 the number of Pots you can have is limited (at least at the start of the game), but using a Pot will fully restore ALL of your Health & Mana. You could have 1 HP & 1 MP and using your Pot will still completely fill your Heath & Mana. So I managed to obtain a second Pot, which is really only useful for Instances as any other time you can just go play a Minigame to restore your Mana & Health. The Minigames are also, coincidentally, where you refill Pots, too, unless you're pressed for time and want to pay the Pot vendor 150g per refill.

I decided to have a go at Sunken City so I went to the entrance and waited to see if anyone else was interested. A couple of people turned up.

"Hi. Want to do Sunken City?" I typed. (I can do that, because I enabled Text Chat in my account).

"Yes, but I'm waiting for friends," replied the girl who first arrived.

Another fellow turned up, hit X and started the Countdown Timer. I hit X and followed suit. The girl joined us (so much for friends, or maybe he was one of them), and in we went.

The Instances are a little tougher because you're often facing multiple Mobs. In most areas outside, if you're fighting one Mob by yourself, other Mobs will (usually) wander up to your combat zone then despawn. It's only in the tougher zones where you'll face multiple Mobs, but similar rules still apply. If 2v1 Combat is allow, and you're already facing two Mobs, other Mobs approaching your combat zone will despawn rather than join the battle.

The Sunken City provided us with a quest quiver who sent us to the first Tower to retrieve a Key to unlock the first gate. Naturally there's a Miniboss in this Tower guarding said Key. The Group I was in was able to coordinate our battles fairly well, and it was amusing to see almost all aspects of combat in a more developed MMO are also present in W101.

As an Ice Mage I'm technically the Tank class. As I level more I'll be able to get Spell to Taunt Mobs & Bosses so they'll attack me, rather than my allies. Because of this the Armor for my School tends to provide more health & mana than that of other schools. To counter this potentially making the Ice School over-powered, my spells are often less damaging or powerful than the other Schools. There's also a Life School (& its counter, the Death School) which naturally can be the Healer class, capable of healing not just themselves (as most Schools can do) but also others, including the entire Party. There's the standard Heal spells, group Heals, and even HOTs...and yes, that means there's DOTs, too. There are Spells which can Stun Mobs for 1 Turn (most likely higher level Mobs can Stun players), and there are Spells to summon Minions. There are even AOE spells, as I saw utilized by a Fire Mage in Sunken City.

Getting back to that.

The problem with Combat in W101 is you cannot break away from Combat without Fleeing, but Fleeing reduces your Mana to just 1 point and works as if you were a Paladin Bubble Hearthing. If you get defeated in Combat you also "flee" and this is actually a good thing for Instances, as I later realized.

We killed the first Miniboss, got the key, unlocked the first Gate, and received our second quest to unlock the second gate. These quests do reward you with XP and by the end of the Instance, after completing the entire Chain, I'd put on almost a full level.

The final Tower contained the last Miniboss who was guarding the key to the Boss's chamber, and we fought our way up, floor by floor. With each fight my Health got lower and lower and that was when I realized being "killed" in W101, even in an Instance, is not really a big deal. There's no repair costs, and as I mentioned, unless you're in a hurry, you can just play the Minigames to recoup your Health & Mana.

We got to the final Miniboss and I decided against drinking my last Pot, foolishly wanting to keep it until before the Boss battle. I was hopeful we could defeat the miniboss without suffering any casualties, specifically mine, but that was not to be. As my health was reduced to zero (or zero point one, perhaps ;) I typed "I'll be right back." and I "died" and Fled from battle.

The point at which you spawn after Dying/Fleeing from battle is right down the road from the Pot vendor. I quickly guzzled my second Pot, totally rejuvenating my Health & Mana, then ran to the Pot vendor and bought two refills. And it was then that another aspect of W101's simplified play style came in very handy.

Earlier in the Instance the four of us had made "Friends" with each other, and as Friends can Teleport to each other's location with a few clicks of the Mouse, it was a piece of cake to rejoin my comrades in arms, with full health and mana.

"Did you miss me?" I typed. Yeah, we all know I'm a bit of a smart arse ;)

The Miniboss went down and we made our way to the Boss's chamber. The fight was long, but not overly taxing. The most annoying aspect are the defensive spells Mobs can throw up, mitigating in some cases up to 80% of the damage your spell would have done. A clever Wizard learns to use his Wand to dispell these, although it's not so much dispelling the debuff, but rather using a low level spell to negate the effectiveness of your target's protective spell. Which would you rather do? Wait 3 turns to use a powerful spell, only to have it do 80 points of damage instead of 400? Or use your wand and have it do 10 points of damage instead of 50 ;)

With the Boss defeated I earned myself another title/achievement: "Sunken City Survivor". Now other players can see my avatar and know that I've conquered Sunken City.

Clicking the Home button on your Map act as a Hearthstone with a cooldown of 60 seconds. Yes, I'm serious. So I Hearthed then looked through the Loot I'd got out of my run. There were a few decent Items in there, but none suitable for an Ice Mage, or at least not upgrades for me. One or two would have been good for JE's Myth Mage, and that's the downer with not being able to Trade Items among each other, not even those you get from regular Mobs in non-Instanced areas. Several times I've picked up Items that would have been great for JE, but I couldn't give them to him.

/sad panda :(

Anyway, that was my first PUG'd W101 Instance, and I must say it was inherently less painful than any WoW Instance I've done, and understandably so given the target audience of W101. That said, from start to finish I think it still took us well over an hour, maybe even close to two (it was long enough that Liz was getting pissed because I hadn't done the vacuuming :P) It was not exactly a walk in the park...more like a walk in an overgrown park where you have to hack your path with a machete ;)

It was actually fun :)

Dual Boxing in W101

JE finally got his 1,600 gold and promptly spent it all on a Red & Black Dragon Pet. But he'd also dinged lvl 10 so for 560g he could have bought a bigger Spelldeck allowing him to field more Spell cards, meaning instead of going into Battle with 40 Spell Cards to choose from, he could have 50. (Those number might not be accurate, they just exist to illustrate my point.)

After the happy little Dragon Owner went to bed I logged into his account and played some of the Minigames to get him some more gold, and I discovered an interesting thing about one the minigames that I normally wouldn't have played. I could play it using the chaos theory, and I could make more gold in less time than by playing one of the mini games that I'm actually good at it. Just rapidly & randomly clicking and moving my mouse cursor around was more successful than actually playing the game properly. But also very boring. And tiring if kept up for extended periods.

I'd made JE about 460g when I gave up on the Minigames and decided to do some quests. But I decided to be sneaky about it. I was already logged in on JE's account, so I Alt-Tabbed out to Windows, fired up a second copy of W101, and logged in on my account. This is known in the MMO world as dual-boxing and with graphically intensive games like WoW, Everquest, Warhammer, etc, it takes a decent gaming rig to be able to do this without suffering severe slowdown.

With a game like W101, dual-boxing is a piece of cake. I looked at our quests. We needed to talk to a Witch a couple of streets over. I ran my Wizard over there and...remember I mentioned that Friends in W101 can Teleport to each other? Well, I ran my Wizard over to the Witch, Alt-Tabbed to JE's Wizard and Poof! Teleported him straight to my Wizard and the Witch, who wanted us to talk to her apprentice on the next street over.

I ran JE's Wizard around the block to the next street, found the Apprentice, Alt-Tabbed to my Wizard and Poof! Joined JE's Wizard next to the Apprentice. The Apprentice wanted us to collect some items from barrels in the nearby Cave. I ran my Wizard into the cave, found the barrels, collected all my items and Poof! Teleported straight back out to JE's Wizard and turned in the Quest. Alt-Tabbed to JE's Wizard, rinse & repeat. We...I mean I :D I did this all the way up to the end of the Quest, for which the final step was defeating a Boss Mob.

And that's when the slower-paced, card-based, turn-by-turn combat of W101 works brilliantly with dual-boxing. I'd select my Spell, then Alt-Tab to JE's Wizard and select his Spell. You get up to 30 seconds to choose a Spell so even if my PC was a slow & clunky machine (which it's not) I'd have still had plenty of time to Alt-Tab between our two Wizards and choose their Spells. With another MMO, the few seconds a slow machine would take to Alt-Tab between two open programs could be enough to cause the death of one or both Toons. With W101's turn-based combat, a few seconds is irrelevant.

The Boss went down faster than Divine Brown, and the Gold we earned from completing all the Quests in the series meant JE's Wizard now had the 560 Gold he needed to buy the bigger Spelldeck.

Actually, that also highlights one aspect of W101 which exists as a double-edged Sword. My Wizard has over 2,000 gold. JE needed 560 to buy a new Spelldeck. In almost any other MMO I could have just given him the Gold, but W101 does not allow any Trades between Players except for Treasure Cards, which cannot be sold to Vendors anyway, so there is literally no way to move Gold between players.

/sad Panda :(

This means W101 will never see Gold Sellers (which is a good thing), but we may see some companies farming high quality Treasure Cards and selling them. But even if Treasure Card Farmers/Sellers do immigrate to W101 they'll have a lot of trouble hawking their wares because of the limited chat features. W101 will never suffer the plague of Gold Farmers/Sellers seen in other MMOs, but it also means there's no way to loan a friend some Gold, thus it came to me dual-boxing in order to make some Gold for my son.

Wizard101: One week later

With the placement of our home PCs (mine being in the family room while JE's is at his desk in his bedroom), and with W101's limited in-game chat option (coupled with an 8/yold being a slow typist), solving the communication problem between JE and I while we played W101 together was paramount, but easily solvable, nonetheless.

One desktop microphone, one download & install, and JE and I were talking as if we were right next to each other, instead of in separate rooms.

"OK, mate. What quests do you have?"

"I need to defeat the Harvest Lord. Four Lumbering Trolls. Find the Fire Alley Smith..." he basically reeled off every quest he had. He can read alright, he's just not a proficient Typist.

I picked a quest that I knew was part of a Chain and off we went.

In WoW, Warlocks can summon party members if they have a couple of helping hands.

In W101, two players who are Friends can Teleport to each other's location as easy as clicking the Mouse a couple of times.

Unfortunately dedicated Grouping is not (yet) part of the game, and the combat mechanic meant that when I ran into JE's battle sigil to help him fight a Lumbering Troll, a Lumbering Troll of my own entered combat along with me, so we ended up fighting two Lumbering Trolls, which worked to our advantage because we needed Quest Drops from them. But that exact same game mechanic could lead to Griefing if Players Train Mobs into Combat with other Players then Flee, leaving the original Player facing two or more Mobs. Although some people did join our battles, we never experienced any griefing. The Quest Item Drop Rate is also pretty good, and when JE needed 6 items from a particular Mob for one quest I think we killed about 10 Mobs to get all 6 drops.

We took care of several quests in the Chain before we were up to the Boss Mob quest. Most Boss Mobs are in Mini-Instances of their own, usually nothing more than a one-room Tower. While Players cannot "group" in the traditional sense, outside the Tower are four Entry Sigils and players can "group" to fight the Boss by meeting at the entrance then pressing X at the same time (or within 10 seconds of one another) to move into an Entry Sigil. As soon as the first player presses X to move into an Entry Sigil a 10-second countdown timer appears in the doorway, and at zero all players who occupy an Entry Sigil (my term, by the way) teleport inside the Instance to face the Boss.

* * *

A couple of nights ago while helping JE, another player stopped next to us and asked for help defeating a Boss that was just down the road. I agreed, as I knew JE would think it cool to fight a Boss, and off we ran down the sidewalk. Yes, sidewalk (or footpath, if you will). Most zones in W101 have paths alongside the roads, and if you stick to the paths you can actually avoid most of the wandering Mobs, which is kind of neat. Even if they're a high level Mob they won't Aggro onto you if you're on the path. We got to the Boss's Tower, the other Player hit X, as did I, then I quickly ran next door (this was pre-Skype) and told JE to press X to join us.

"I am," he yelled, "but it's not blue!"

The 10-second timer meant I had no time to trouble shoot and I ran back to my PC as I zoned into the Instance. The other Player and I defeated the Boss & his Minion, then we zoned back outside again.

I ran next door to find a tearful JE almost getting ready to quit the game. The Entry Sigils outside the Tower were not glowing blue for his avatar, as his level was too low, so him pressing X to enter the Boss Instance with us was pointless. I told him we'd go back to fighting the Monsters we'd been working on earlier, then ran back to my PC.

The other player had just asked for help with another Quest.

Quickly I hit the Pulldown Chat icon and found...Ah ha!

"Sorry. I'm helping a friend."

"Okay. Goodbye." was his reply, and off he went, and JE and I resumed our questing.

* * *

Tonight the Boss we were about to fight was for JE's Quest, so I knew the Entry Sigils were lit up for him and he wouldn't be left out in the cold like the previous night. In we went, and with Skype it was very easy to coordinate our attacks. Most W101 Bosses (that I've encountered) have Minions, who may not be as strong as the Boss but are not push overs, either. JE and I focused on the Minion first to burn it down. JE also summoned a Golem Minion of his own which helped with our Damage Output, and in very short order both Boss and Minion were defeated.

With that Chain done we started on another Chain that I was already on.

One good thing about W101 is that in some MMOs, if you group up for collection quests it makes it harder to gather your Quest Items, but in W101 there's no such thing as a Loot Ninja. When a Mob drops an item, every Player who helped defeat that Mob gets the item (at least that holds true for Wandering Mobs outside Instances), so on collection quests every Player on a collection quest can get an Item from the same Mob. We ripped through the Quest Chain and in no short order were standing outside another Tower, ready to face our second Boss of the night. He went down to our coordinated attacks just as quickly as the first Boss we'd faced.

By the time we'd beaten the second Boss it was getting very late and we were drawing wife/mom aggro, so I called it a night and started getting the kids ready for bed.

After JE was in bed I took care of a few things for him. I logged into his account and sold all the useless armor he'd picked up, then ran around and took care of a few Messenger Quests and a couple of Kill Quests; I ended up getting him within a Quest or two of dinging level 10. Finally, knowing he's saving his gold for a Dragon Pet, I hit the Minigame Faire. At the Faire there are several, basic puzzle or arcade games, and if you score high enough you get rewarded with gold and armor. I say Armor, but as everyone plays a wizard you're looking at cloth hats, robes & boots, just some items have stats/buffs more beneficial to certain Schools of Magic than others. After playing several games and selling the prizes, I logged for the night leaving JE with a shade over 1,000 gold.

Mike, you were wondering just how much fun W101 is compared to WoW. The two games can't really be compared because they're both targeting different demographics, and other than both being MMOs they're not really that similar. But if you've got two (or better yet, three) PCs on a home LAN within close proximity to each other (in the same room would be excellent), I strongly suggest you download & install W101 on each PC, then jump in and start playing with your two boys. You'll be amazed at how much fun you all have, and what a kick you will get out of playing an MMO alongside your sons.

If you're playing by yourself W101 won't have the appeal & polish that WoW does to a solo player, especially as there's no Guilds, so no Guild Chatter in the background to keep you company as you single-handedly kill every last Kodo in Nagrand. Just like WoW, though, your W101 experience will be greatly enhanced if you're able to play with family or friends. After all, that's how MMOs are meant to be played ;)

Crunch time

I just checked my WoW account. It's set to expire/renew itself (with another 6-month block) on September 18th. Two days from now.

I normally buy a 6-month block of WoW for $78.

I could also do three months for $42. That would have me playing for a month or so after the release of Wrath of the Lich King.

I don't believe I'm seriously considering bailing on the World of Warcraft, for Wizard 101, but I am. I'd save $50 by not buying Wrath. That's practically a 12-month sub to W101 right there. And 6 months of WoW is more expensive than 12 months of W101.

Oh boy.

Wizard101 Launcher problem

Well, I'd consider taking out two Wizard101 subs, except for one problem. While I was able to play W101 last night for a couple of hours, tonight the Launcher crashes on me within seconds of booting up.

I have no idea why it's doing this, and while I am a wizard at finding stuff on the 'net, I'm unable to find any solutions to this particular problem.

So, has anyone else encountered this problem, and resolved it?

More importantly, did you resolve it in such a way that you were able to continue playing W101? Resolving the problem by uninstalling W101 and not playing it, is not the solution I'm looking for ;)

While $60 for a 12-month sub is a pretty good deal (IMO), it's not such a good deal if I can't play the damn game.

*EDIT - As a WoW player I'm a little paranoid about keyloggers, so I have NoScript, among other protection, on my PC. Wondering if this was a Java-issue caused by NoScript I went into my PC's Control Panel and double-clicked the Java icon to access the Java Control Panel.

Whether or not this did something I don't know (maybe force-loaded Java?), maybe it was just a coincidence, but the W101 Launcher booted up and ran w/o crashing, and I was able to get in and play W101, which promptly downloaded a bunch of patches. I kept it running in the background while I played Warcraft, for a good couple of hours. Other than getting DC'd from the W101 server for not remaining active (which is to be expected) W101 stayed up the entire time.

I also installed W101 on Liz's PC last night and it ran just fine, but then it also ran just fine on my PC the first night I installed it, too. We'll see what happens tonight. Still, if anyone has any suggestions for why the Launcher might be crashing (and a reinstall didn't help at all), or even experienced this problem and resolved it, please feel free to let me know what you did.

* EDIT - The game booted up fine again, tonight. Possibly whatever the problem was, it managed to resolve itself on its own.

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.