[A Quick Wizard101 Review]

In my drive to find something new to occupy too much of my time with since I'm out of WoW, I've tried out a couple of F2P MMOs. My Mabinogi impressions were pretty favorable, while my Earth Eternal one... wasn't (it felt very blah to me). Since Beau over at Spouse Aggro has talked many times about Wizard101, I figured why not try that out too? The nice thing about these lower-spec F2P games is that it's so easy to hop in and give them a test drive with no strings attached. =)


So yeah, it's a cutesy kid's game. So was Pokemon, which absorbed many a hour for me back in Junior High. I don't knock a game based on graphics or style alone, as long as it's fun to play. So even though the art style wasn't very appealing to me I determined to give it a fair shot.

The first thing I noticed was that every quest is voiced. So I turned the voices down. =P Personally I don't like voices in most games, though I understand a lot of people do. The game also has a very restricted chat policy (to ensure kid-safe conversations) and a large selection of canned words and phrases that people on closed chat can use to still communicate game-related information. If you're over 18 you can turn off all the restrictions from the account website. I thought it was an interesting way to keep general chat safe for kids without parents having to worry.

The seven Magic Schools reside in the
Ravenwood District of Wizard City.

Combat is 'collectable card battle'-style and turn based. Different wizard schools (you pick your school at the beginning) get cards with unique elements and abilities. For example, Storm magic has very strong attacks but with a high failure rate, while Balance specializes in buffing/debuffing, and Life specializes in healing. You can buy cards from other schools of magic with Skill Points, which you earn from certain quests as well as by leveling up. You can customize your deck of cards in many ways: by choosing which cards from your own school you want to use in a specific situation, by buying 'Treasure Cards' which are one-use cards that give you spells you otherwise couldn't learn, and by buying spells from other schools of magic by spending skill points. The card system really has more depth than you'd think for a kid's game, particularly at the higher levels.

Inside the Pyramid of the Sun dungeon in Krokotopia.

There are some cool elements I really like about grouping in Wizard101: Not only can anyone group at any level with anyone else simply by running up to them while they're fighting a monster, but xp has nothing to do with the level of the people involved in a battle -- money and loot is distributed equally to everyone, and your exp gain depends on the skills you used in battle. In other words, people of varying levels are not punished for helping each other. Also, you can instantly teleport to anyone in your friendlist wherever they are, even if they are in an instance, which makes helping friends easy. But with proper deck design, most bosses are actually soloable if that's your preferred gameplay style. There is also ranked PvP dueling if you get tired of outwitting PvE mobs.

The combat circle and my current hand of cards.
Anyone can join a group by running onto an empty party circle.

Also: HOUSING! :D Furniture comes from shops, crafting, monsters and quests, and there are several styles of house or castle that you can buy (you are given a free dorm room when you start out). Even the cheapest house has a very nice lot, often with fun little details like waterfalls, beaches or caves outside the house itself that you can spruce up however you like. I can imagine that just getting enough items to decorate it all is a task in itself. One flaw is that furniture is not really interactive, though you can invite people over to show off your interior design and landscaping skills. =)

You can preview player-house lots before you buy.
This is the cheapest Wizard City house option, and it's pretty nice!

Most of the RMT items (mounts, special potions, etc) are optional unless you want a specific pet or mount for luxury's sake. So far I haven't felt penalized for not using the Crown Shop at all, which is nice. I probably will get some things eventually, of course, just because I personally love fluff items and 5$ here or there is really nothing, especially if you're enjoying the game. RMT in Wizard101 doesn't make you feel disadvantaged for not using it unless you're the type that just HAS to have a certain fluff item (like me, lol).

All in all, Wizard101 is a fun little game. It doesn't try to be an epic fantasy world, and it doesn't have to -- it succeeds in being a fun, solidly-designed multiplayer game with RPG elements. It's well worth it's $10 a month fee, imo.

BONUS: An interesting article from Game Developer Magazine dealing with the behind-the-scenes development of Wizard101 is here. The devs talk about lessons they've learned while working on the game, as well as early design mistakes that they'll have to fix as they keep the game growing.

[The Dark Side of Happy Memories]

MMOCrunch has a breakdown of the archetypes of forum whiners on MMO boards. I'm sure we've all seen iterations of these people (or been one of them ourselves) in many games. His description of 'Whiner Type #4' is a counterpoint to my previous post on MMO memories, in that it shows what happens when 'nostalgia goes bad':

"This is someone who mentions their old games because they are desperately trying to recapture their experience with that “magic” MMO… which is typically the first MMO they played that actually hooked them. Now, they miserably shamble from game to game, almost enjoying them, but never quite getting the high they got from THAT game, which ultimately leads them to complain about THIS game. I have a friend for which City of Heroes was his first game and it was quite an experience for him. Now, no game can ever come close, so even though he is bored to tears with CoH, he can’t really get into other games because they don’t compare to the mythologized version of CoH he has playing in his head.

Of course, the irony here is that no game exists that can compete with that first game… not even that first game. Once you cut away that thick coating of nostalgia, most of these folks would go back to their perfect game, quit after a week, and post on the forums about how the game they remember had been ruined by some phantom patch. In reality their love for their game was based less on mechanics and more on the novelty of the MMO experience."

In other words, this is the kind of person who is confused about what they loved about their MMORPG experience. They can never recapture that 'magic', because the magic is in the PEOPLE and COMMUNITY more than in the game mechanics. Unless the appropriate investment is made by them to interact with people positively and build their own community in a new game, they will claim the game 'has no soul' or 'is lacking some hook' and will quickly grow disillusioned. Such people are stuck in an endless cycle of trying to find a GAME that inspires the kind of feelings in them that only other PEOPLE can create. They're related to the 'MMO Burnout', who hates all new games that are not similar enough to their preferred game while hating any game that is TOO MUCH like that game because "it's just a clone." It's a recipe for perpetual disappointment.

[The Good Old Days]

Gestalt Mind takes us back to his first memories of EQ and how they revisit him to this day.

Your first MMORPG really does seem 'magical' when you look back on it, doesn't it? Stepping out as a freshly-minted newbie in a world that seems so big and strange and cool, and your first days exploring and learning all about it. Halcyon days, those were! I think that's seriously why WoW has that affect on so many people -- the affection of your first MMO stays strong for a long time.

It's WoW's fifth anniversary, and I've been in Azeroth from day one on the same server in the same guild -- I've seen many changes both ingame and 'IRL' across these five years. It's kind of overwhelming to look back and realize how many memories and adventures I've had in this one game with the same group of people. Some of those people left long ago, but others are still there and still going strong. I stepped away for other games several times, but always came back to WoW in the end. So many memories and friends are hard to make a break from. But those games showed me, a newbie MMORPG-player, other ways of playing and other types of communities. They helped me discover my 'true playing style' and affected my view of what the 'perfect MMORPG' would be. It's a testament to how important I think free trials are, imo. =P

I don't know if I'll be coming back to Azeroth anytime soon. But I will never be able to look back on it without affection born from many happy memories of playing with great people. In the end, they're what make MMORPGs so special and so lasting in our minds, regardless of whether it was WoW, EQ, or any other game. That's the reason we take pictures of our guild's first kills -- not to brag and show off to others (though many do) but so we can look back and remember how exciting it was, and who was there with us when all that group preparation and effort has paid off. And THAT feeling is the true magic of MMORPGs.


Above is a shot of my guild's first Magmadar kill, way back in the MC era. Many folks in that pic that no longer play WoW, but I still recognize their avatars. Those were good times with good folks. =)

[Spouse Aggro Reviews 'Second Skin']

A great rant and review by Leala and Beau about the 'MMORPG Documentary' Second Skin (which is available to watch online for a limited time), questioning the objectivity of the movie and whether we MMO geeks are really as dysfunctional as the selection of people the moviemakers chose to represent us to the 'wider world'.

Be sure to check it out; it's a great listen!

[Penny Arcade Debates PUA]

A discussion between Tycho and Gabe from Penny Arcade on whether or not PUA is misogynist manipulation is being discussed over at Pandagon. Tycho is being remarkably perceptive about this issue, given that a TON of guys in the gaming community have misogynist tendencies that they revel in pretty regularly:

"I’m fairly certain the purpose of this course is to make you a better predator of women. Check out their offers of “in-field training,” as though you were going to hunt antelopes from a jeep in the Goddamned Savannah."

Gabe's response? This jaw-dropper:

"I think you’re being overly dramatic. Girls have been using their “feminine wiles” to manipulate men since the beginning of time. Do you really think the mind games girls play on guys are any better or worse than this stuff. The only difference is that this sort of thing comes naturally to women. Guys are in a tight spot because in very real terms, we have nothing they want."

Wow. There are no words for how seriously screwed up Gabe's beliefs about human relationships (and female sexuality) are, if he seriously thinks that. I thought it was supposed to be us FEMINISTS that believed all men were worthless slobs? However, once again, it's shown that it's actually the PUA/anti-feminists who perpetuate the myth that men have so little to offer as individuals that they have to bribe, trick, and force women into wanting to have anything to do with them.

What a horrible way think of yourself. Of course, I quickly stop feeling sorry for guys like him when they then start blaming all womankind for their own personal self-esteem issues. Seriously, if Nice Guys(tm) would just get over their entitlement complexes and see women as individual people instead of hive-minded ambulatory vaginas, they'd become a lot more attractive to the opposite sex. Just sayin'.

ETA: The second part of the Pandagon discussion, dissecting one of the pro-PUA letters that Gabe recieved in response to the debate, is here.

[Don't Date Noobs]

Srsly. =P