Wizard101: FREE Multiplayer Online Game for the Whole Family!
Entertainment, Product Reviews, Tech-Related, Toys & Games — By Lindsey on February 20, 2010 at 11:56 am
Get ready for the adventure of a lifetime – an adventure that your entire family can take part in!
I’ll have to admit that before being introduced to Wizard101, I didn’t know much about online multiplayer games except that they looked intimidating (to me), and that people love them. My husband has played them before, and I’ve watched over his shoulder and wondered what the draw was. I even tried his game once (DAOC), and although I enjoyed it, I was annoyed by the people who would come over and try to friend me or talk to me when I was trying to adventure. Hello! I was busy! I figured maybe I wasn’t the type of person who should be playing the online games after that and gave up. ;-)
I recently joined the wonderful Game Review Network, and was excited when I was given the opportunity to review Wizard101, a game I had never heard of but appealed to me for the following reasons:
- It is totally FREE to play on your PC!
- It won MMORPG.com’s Best Family Game of 2009 Award!
- It involves wizards and magical worlds (sweet!).
- Your characters get to go to wizard school (Harry Potter immediately jumped into my mind, of course).
- It is family-friendly, easy enough for a kid to play, and has settings that allow you (the parent) to control all of the social aspects of the game.
So here is my full experience and opinion of the Wizard101 online multiplayer game…
Getting Started
In this online multiplayer adventure game, you create a student wizard character and immediately are thrown into Wizard City, where you begin schooling at The Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. “The magic of Fire, Ice, Storm, Life, Myth, Balance, and Death are taught here by the school’s esteemed faculty of full-fledged Wizards.” When you create your character, you choose a primary school of magic (Fire, Ice, Storm, etc) – and each one has its own strengths. This gives the game a major boost in replayability since you can change things up with your next characters.
You can customize your character completely, something I enjoy doing. I probably spent too long customizing mine. ;-) Here she is:
Game Quests & Wizard Duels
“In your quest to save Wizard City, you’ll make friends, duel with creatures, solve puzzles, play minigames, and collect pets while exploring the many worlds of Wizard101.”
There is definitely a lot to do. In the game, people who need help with quests have a yellow question mark over their heads. You can stop and talk to them, and accept or deny the quest. Right in the beginning, I found three people who needed help with something, mainly fighting off the “bad guys” who were roaming the streets. Fighting gives you experience and you earn gold and other special items, so its very rewarding.
Dueling, or fighting off the bad guys, involves using magic spells that you’ve learned at the wizard school. These come in the form of a card game, and you and the enemy take turns casting spells. The special effects while dueling are fantastic! I was totally thrilled by the scenes and love watching the duels.
Friends can duel with you to take out a monster, and you can duel against other wizards as well. And, as with many similar games, you can run out of mana (the energy you use to perform spells) and life. It’s nice to have a friend nearby when this happens because they can help heal you if your mana or life are depleted.
Controls & Ease of Navigation
I was relieved to find that the controls are easy to learn. You can click the mouse or press “x” to talk to people, and the navigational controls are the arrow keys on your keyboard. Getting around the map, talking to people, and walking through doors, etc. is a cinch!
How Many People Can Play At Once?
The whole family can play together if you have enough computers! There is a lot of opportunity for interaction between players, making it a blast to play with your friends and family.
Replayability
This is definitely a game that is something you your kids won’t want to stop playing. It is probably going to be great as a reward system!
Why Kids Will Like It
- Customizable characters and living quarters
- Mini games, player versus player dueling, player versus monster dueling, and questing galore
- You can earn clothing, equipment, pets, and badges
- You can friend other players online, start or join groups, and chat live as you play
- The graphics are impressive and the music is superb!
How Safe Is It For My Kids to Play?
You can control and oversee all aspects of your child’s social interaction with other players online.
- All usernames are pre-generated (your child can choose from a variety of different names from a drop-down menu)
- There are two chat options – menu chat (pre-generated options like “That was fun.”) and actual text chat.
- Password-protected parental controls
- Moderated message boards
- Full control over what your child sees while playing (see image below)
Although it says Crude Humor and 10+ in the rating box, I’m not entirely sure why. I’ve been playing this game for over a month now and I haven’t come across anything crude at all. In fact, I was pleased to find that there aren’t any revealing costumes and that there isn’t any “adult” humor to shake my head at or hope my child didn’t see/hear. It is a very decent and clean game. I have heard that children as young as 5 and 6 are playing the game as well, and I’m not surprised.
Cost:
I know, I know, I said it was free. And it is – at least your access to most of Wizard City is. You also get to participate in player versus player dueling practice and are able to decorate your dorm room or a Wizard City house as a free member. For full access to this extensive game, you have a few great options:
1. Pay as you play using Crowns. This means you will pay $1 to $3 per area and will be able to eventually buy all access to all areas with individual one-time purchases. You’ll also have your own castles and lands to decorate and will have access to numerous other features. You can also earn crowns by inviting friends! I recommend emailing the invite to yourself and copying the url so you can send it to anyone or embed it in a blog post.
2. Become a monthly subscriber for $9.95 a month and have access to everything. This will be for hard-core gamers – families who play a lot and love it.
There are also family plans, $6.95 per account (for individual family members who want to play together and have access to everything) for two or more accounts in a family, and awesome discounts when you purchase subscriptions of six months or more at one time (I would recommend that).
And in my opinion, it is worth the money, and it’s a good deal (according to my husband, who would definitely know). Wizard101 is a lot of fun, and a great alternative to many of the game system games that are SO spendy – the ones your child will be bored of after a week.
To find out more about the plans available, visit Wizard101′s Help Me Choose page.
Final Thoughts:
Wizard101 is an addictive, fun-filled online multiplayer wizard game that I think you and your children will enjoy. Its a genius alternative to the popular but expensive online (and game system) games available nowadays, and I love that parents can control all of the online interaction and keep their kids safe. This is doubly a great game to introduce to your family because adults and children alike love it!
I like that it is free to play online even if you don’t have access to everything – it is still a lot of fun, and its nice that you can try before you buy for as long as you want! I recommend giving it a try!
If you’re ready, sign up here! <——- If you use that link (using my friend code), you’ll get a special gift when you sign up, a rare pet dragon!
Giveaway over – winners posted here!
I received a subscription to this game thanks to the Game Review Network and Wizard101. This review is 100% my own opinion, my own experiences with the product, and in my own words.
161 Comments
I love this game. I have been a member/subscriber of Wizard101 for about a year now, and I must say it’s my favorite online game out there- if not my favorite game of all! :) I know it was originally aimed at the younger crowd, but it has attracted people from all over the place, and last I heard they had over 5 million players! I share 2 accounts on a Family Plan, and I think it’s fun, addicting, has beautiful graphics, and is great for everyone in the family- young and old! I also appreciate the fact that they keep the game updated and constantly make changes to keep up with the growing amount of gamers! I must also say that they have a great support/problem center. At one point in gameplay, my fiance noticed some of his things were missing in the game. He contacted support, and they walked him through the problem, and the problem was quickly solved. I am a part of their fan base on Facebook, as well as Wizard101Central.com. Can’t get enough of Wizard101!
About the customization for a choosy person like me, the following conversation between Ambrose and his owl, Gamma, lead into a skippable test to determine what class of wizard would best suit you. Even if skipped, a short description of each type is given when clicked, and you first choice isn’t the final.
In the ensuing battle with Mailistaire, you learn the basics of Wizard101′s turn-based card battling system and with the aid of Headmaster Ambrose dispatch his minions.It seems toappeal to several people with its Yu-Gi-Oh and Final Fantasy elements.
And for ease of play and storyline following, as is appropriate with a game whose target audience is children, the starting city will continue to hold your hand even after you’re done with the tutorial. A detailed map of each area is provided and by clicking on a compass in the bottom-right corner of the screen, arrows to common waypoints are added to the UI. Additionally, a golden arrow is provided to guide you to wards your active quest’s next waypoint.
Being a parent, the game meets my standards of kid safety as follows. From creation on, Wizard101 was designed for the protection of its younger players. Opposed to the selection of a potentially-offensive name, your character’s first name and surname are chosen from pre-generated options. Once in the game itself, communication between players has also been structured to limit or eliminate harassment and the spread of personal information. Parents can decide whether their children will have to pick from a list of pre-determined sentences, or if they have access to free-form chat, which is itself filtered for harmful words and phrases. The filter was built around a list of acceptable words, instead of seeking to filter specifically bad words. Sadly, this often leads to the censoring of legitimate, neutral sentences, rendering them an incomprehensible mess. You’re picking the game for the child’s safety, not for them to develop a vocabulary worthy of Shakespeare, though, right? So no harm done.
Quests are classic, but no grinding and they’re easy to follow.Quest NPCs have been given voice down to the appropriate accent and while kill-vermin-and-bring-me-proof quests are still present (even common), they’re short and nowhere near the headache-inducing level of most MMORPGs. You’ll find yourself advancing through the initial quests very, very quickly. Although there’s an umbrella storyline (Malistaire) tying them together, each world has a unique theme and flavor. These are major pluses for players who prefer storyline advancement over senseless grinding.
Player versus environment is, in many cases, moderately challenging. Boss battles remain a challenge, but the general monsters are predictable and relatively easy to dispatch. Battles are maxed at 4v4, with an additional monster joining for each player involved. Passing players can enter a battle in progress and all participants will receive the same rewards. This makes a great introductory MMORPG for children.
Player housing and the crafting system are … present and expansive, but not consuming. So many MMORPGs make the mistake of assuming a developed system requires hours of hunting down resources and hours more standing in the same spot making dozens of the same item to advance. Thankfully, Wizard101 has removed most of the mindless repetition from their crafting system, as reagents are relatively easy to find, recipes take little time and there’s no true need to make masses of the same item. Housing, like crafting, is more a bonus than necessity. Houses come in various sizes and are heavily customizable, including the walls and floors of every room. Both the exterior and interior of your house can be decorated to your taste. Again, not brain busting, but requires quite a bit currency from an escellent reward system.
Wizard101 is easily accessible by and attractive to preteens and teenagers, but fun enough to draw at least a minority group of older players. With a cartoon-like graphic style appropriate for its target audience, the title has effectively removed itself from the graphics race, ensuring its longevity and compatibility with both old and new PCs. With themes reminiscent of certain popular book series and card-based games, there’s also a sense of familiarity with young adults now entering their 20′s. This is a great gae for all ages! I highly reccomend it and hope to win this contest so my children will be able to unlock more of the game then they can with their cheap but timely subscription! :D
That is so true! I reported a problem and in about an hour they e-mailed me back! I worked out my problem quickly and easily, and they were so nice.
I’d play. I’m a dork that way lol I love MMORPGs! In fact, I’m going to go make a person now… who doesn’t love wizards???
Retweeted :o)
.-= VaBookworm87´s last blog ..Nox? =-.
I like that its a safe game for my kids to play, my son would like it!
I like this game because both kids can play it with their parents and no one will be bored! The whole family will play this!…Love it!
http://twitter.com/sagoveas/status/9479588451
everyone gets to play mverno@roadrunner.com
two of my granddaughters are totally hooked on Wizard101. I like that they can play and play without ever getting bored with it.
http://twitter.com/sagoveas/status/9529874616
This game is so fun and addicting! I almost wish I wouldn’t have told the kids about it since we now all compete to get the computer so we can play! I think we need a few more computers lol! I would love to win 5000 crowns so I could get a few more worlds! I love that it is family friendly and our whole family plays! Great review!
.-= Henrietta´s last blog ..Wizard101 online multiplayer game Review & Giveaway =-.
How we got involved this game is my children. I saw the commerical in Florida (when we lived there) and they went online. I saw that you can play each other. Then my daughter wanted to play then I watched them both play then I notice you cant go anywhere with out membership or crowns. That is when we notice that the new place are awesome. Then they said Mom why dont you give it try I said no I will watch and then my Husband got on it and it look cool. So I did give it a try and I have 2 grand master and working on my third. But it is fun to play with your children, and it is cool when they ask Mom can you help me in this quest. Thanks KI.
Wizard 101 saved me a life of boredom, i don’t know what i would have done without it. i have never subscribed to wizard 101 i have been trying to get my mother to let me subscribe. BUT i think i have worn her down a bit. i would love to win 5000 crowns that would help me so much i would just love to see the rest of wizard city and its mainly only the teenagers in my whole family who usually play this AWESOME game!!!!!!!!
Excellent review! I, too was thinking these games were not for me. I just never could get into video games. However, Wizard101 is different! The graphics are BEAUTIFUL! The music is SUPERB! And the action is INTENSE! It combines a card game with role-playing adventure. What a winning combination!
Thanks for the review!
Sincerely,
Marcus Shadowhunter (my Wizard Name, of course!) lol
I like Wizard101 because it’s a social game. I can play it with my family and it gives us something constructive to do! We all pick diffrent schools of magic and work together to win battles. It’s really lovely. We all play!
.-= Heather Raven´s last blog ..Browsing the Bazaar =-.
I play this game since over a year it’s so fun and save that i told my sister and little borther about it. We all enjoyed it and together we all made grandmaster the last lvl in game. We had so much fun doing i can’t wait when my mom will trust my 3 year old brother, Jesse, to play with us. This was a nice article that i think will get more people’s attention on how much fun it is and safe. O yea did i mention how FUN it is?