GameCyte

When KingsIsle Entertainment announced that they were adding PvP gameplay to Wizard101, we remarked that the kid-friendly MMORPG actually looked rather entertaining. So, when KingsIsle director J. Todd Coleman invited us to take a sneak peek at the new content, I put on my robe and wizard hat headed out to meet the man behind the magic. Coleman was kind enough to answer my questions about kid-friendly design and gamer-friendly content, as he demonstrated the mighty duels and new areas which will soon become available to Wizard101 players.

Wizard101 tells the story of a young boy or girl who finds his way to another world where he/she is enrolled in Ravenwood, a wizard school. A cheerful, grey-haired headmaster takes the young apprentice under his wing, and warns that he/she has a great destiny which involves a sinister practitioner of dark, evil magic. Along the way, our hero will be assigned magical homework, meet the various magical creatures that roam the school grounds and surrounding areas, gain new spells, and engage in dangerous wizard duels.

If this story sounds extremely familiar to you, it's not a coincidence. When I asked about Wizard101's Rowling-esque elements, Coleman was very forthcoming with an explanation. "The similarities end outside of the fact that it is a magic school," said Coleman, "There's not a whole lot that is a cross-over. But that was not an accident; the 'magic school' genre -- if you look at Dragonlance, or Terry Pratchett's stuff -- it's pretty compelling. It's the idea of, I'm taken out of my normal life, and I'm put into a normal set of classes -- classes being something that most kids are familiar with -- but, instead of learning arithmetic, I'm learning how to summon Ninja Pigs, and Fire Dragons."

"In our case," added Coleman, "We also decided, in a big break from Harry Potter, to make the wizard school not in our world. So, you, the apprentice, you are from Earth, but the world is a distant place." Differences aside, however, Coleman readily acknowledged the popular novels as helpful in securing the game's audience. "There clearly are similarities, and I'm not going to say that there's not a huge amount of our fanbase that are also Harry Potter fans. That's pretty obvious, and the marketing is clearly a direct hit. But, from a storytelling standpoint, for the genre and the artistic style -- in things like that, we're very different. If anything, I'd say we had more in common with The Muppets, and Dark Crystal -- talking animals, and things like that. Narnia; there's another area where you could see a pretty direct correlation."

Whatever influences were used to create Wizard101, the results speak for themselves: Players are greeted by a bright, colorful, cartoonish world, populated by recognizable character archetypes, smiling and imaginative creatures, a friendly interface, and a constant flurry of elaborate magical animations from their fellow wizards. New apprentices are placed in the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, an ivy-covered castle which looks more like something out of a classic Disney film than like the forbidding Gothic theme of Hogwarts. All in all, a very safe-for-all-ages place where young sorcery enthusiasts can enjoy themselves.

Still, despite its child-friendly trappings, Wizard101 also enjoys a significant population of mature magicians, as well. The game officially launched at the beginning of September, and since then, the ramp-up of player population has already put KingsIsle into what Coleman termed "growth pains." "We've literally had to more than double the number of realms (servers) that we have," said Coleman, "And I'd be shocked if we don't have to add more by the end of the year, especially with Christmas around the corner." Coleman wasn't able to discuss any actual numbers with me, but he assured me that, over the last thirty days, the game has seen a massive spike in its grown-up player population -- both from the "hardcore" set, and from families playing the game together with their children.

Coleman cited a number of factors for Wizard101's success among a broad range of demographics: The production value, the aforementioned appeal of the "magic school" story, and the game's unique combat mechanics. That latter point seems to be the major differentiator for the game, not only when compared to other kids' MMOs, but for MMORPGs in general: Wizard101's combat is a turn-based, card-based affair, playing out with health, mana, and elaborate monster-summon animations -- like a cross between Yu-Gi-Oh! and Final Fantasy.

The structure of Wizard101's combat lends itself to a number of advantages: Being a simple turn-based operation, it's slim on data, which helps keep the game running smoothly, even over spotty connections. The CCG angle attracts the collector/completionist player archetype, as well as strategic gamers who are looking to escape twitch-based combat. In addition, if players aren't frantically queueing up their next moves, they can focus more on the game's art and animation -- arguably one of Wizard101's strongest attributes.

I was given a live demonstration of a pitched wizard duel, in which a pair of magic-wielding kids assaulted one another with meteor showers, ice storms, minotaurs, and, yes, Ninja Pigs. Coleman told me how much fun the KingsIsle team had had when putting together the various spells, and it showed -- for every magical creature based on traditional fantasy or mythology, there was another based on pop culture, or just plain strange creativity. As the wizards cast their spells, massive scorpions burrowed out of the floor to sting the spellcasters, skeletal pirates slashed away with rusty swords, and a gigantic lizard stomped all over a tiny city before breathing fire at everybody. In addition, each monster and spell has a variety of animations which can be displayed during combat, to keep things from getting stale or repetitive.

Ordinarily, these duels would take place between players and NPC wizards or monsters, but from there, Coleman gave me a demonstration of the newest feature being added to Wizard101: PvP Wizard Duels. Up until now, players could not cast offensive spells upon one another, but soon, a few designated "arena" zones will become available, allowing consenting magicians to test their spells against one another in duels ranging from 1-on-1 to 4-on-4 (Coleman also suggested that uneven matches may become available, as well).

For some, of course, the thrill of the fight is enough incentive to tangle with their fellow Ravenwood students. Still, I found it necessary to ask: What's in it for me? According to Coleman, there can be plenty at stake, even in a simple, unranked "practice" match. Spell cards, it should be mentioned, come in two varieties: As a Wizard levels up, he will gain new spell cards that become part of his permanent repertoire, available to draw into his deck in any subsequent battle. However, there are also single-use "treasure" cards, which can be cast once, and only once. Needless to say, some players will be loath to cast these spells unless they really mean it, and PvP does not exempt these cards. Whether you cast them on monsters in the service of a quest, or cast them on another player just for kicks, they're still gone.

Thankfully, Wizard101 will provide plenty of incentive for players to bring their "A" game to a PvP match. Two varieties are available for PvP play: In a "practice" match, nobody's record is tarnished, nobody takes home any major prizes, and nobody climbs the leaderboard -- however, friendly wagers are still allowed, so spending that valuable card may well be worth a hefty sum of in-game currency. In a "sanctioned" match, however, the stakes are higher; the winner will not only boost his permanent duel record for leaderboard bragging rights, but will also be awarded "arena tickets," which can be redeemed for special gear -- some of which will only be available via PvP play, and some of which will be limited-time items. Coleman suggested that Wizard101 would be hosting ongoing "seasons" for the PvP leagues, and in time, one might know who the old champions were by seeing them strutting about in "Season 1" PvP clothes and prizes.

Coleman also pointed out that since the arenas will be the sole elements of PvP in the game, they will help keep Wizard101 a friendly, cooperative affair -- something that KingsIsle feels very strongly about, with regards to keeping things kid-safe. There is no ganking or bullying in Wizard101; all PvP is strictly on a voluntary basis, and even pick-up matches in the arena can be designated friends-only. Wizard101 does away with kill-stealing, as well, out in the PvE campaign areas; when more than one wizard joins in the fight against a monster, nobody's XP is lowered, and all loot -- both currency and items -- is given identically to all participants. If anything, seeing another player rush in to help you should be cause for celebration.

As friendly a place as Wizard101 may be, though, it's a parent's job to worry. Like so many other kid-oriented online games, the big question on their minds is whether their children will be protected, whether from online predators, or just from other players' bullying. Coleman described the game's design as intended for the pre-teen set, ages 8-14. It's the perfect game, said Coleman, for gamers who have "graduated" from kids' fare like Club Penguin or Toontown Online, but who aren't ready for brutal, hardcore titles like Age of Conan or Warhammer Online. On the other hand, the pre-teen set is perhaps a little more net-savvy by that age, and a little more comfortable interacting with others online -- and, perhaps, a bit more brazen about sharing personal information.

Coleman, when asked about his players' safety, had quite a few reassurances to give. On a basic level, Wizard101 maintains the usual safeguards for a children's MMO: Parental controls allow underage players to be restricted to a menu-based chat system, where only harmless phrases pertaining to the game are available. Beyond that, of course, players aged 13 and up (or those with parents' permission) can type in their own chat messages, which are kept clean by the game's chat filters -- though not in the way one might expect.

"The model, historically, has been that [game designers] come up with a list of 'bad words,' and you type, and it's compared against that bad word list. If it finds a bad word, it gets rid of it," explained Coleman. "We decided to use a more filtered approach. Instead of assuming the word is good unless it's in the 'bad word' list, we actually did the opposite: We assume all words are bad, unless it's in a safe vocabulary/dictionary that we created. We have a dictionary of a couple thousand words, and you can talk about anything you want in the game. You can talk about Ninja Pigs, Goblins, Fire Cats, and stuff like that, without any problems. The second I try and type 'I live in Texas,' though, 'Texas' isn't in the list, so it turns red, and you can't say it."

Wizard101's chat filters even go so far as to catch 'bad' combinations of otherwise 'good' words. Players can say "pants," for example, since gaining new clothing is a valid gameplay topic. However, should you happen to type the phrase "in my pants," well, Wizard101 won't have you discussing that.

Were I a parent, these features would be of significant comfort to me, but as a (mostly) responsible adult gamer, they were a matter of some concern. With such overzealous safeguards in place, I wouldn't be able to carry on a perfectly innocuous conversation with my in-game friends; Wizard101 would find it inappropriate of me to ask "Did you catch The Colbert Report last night?" It's a delicate balance, Coleman agreed, and one that KingsIsle is working on. "The system is overzealous; you're exactly right," he replied to my question. "In general, we err on the side of safety, but we have had a lot of call recently to add in, say, an adult server, that would have open chat. We're looking at that stuff. It's a tough position for us to be in, because we originally shot for this market, and now we've got this whole other market that is interested in our game, and they're starting to put in feature requests."

"We're still debating internally, as a company, where do we draw that line?" noted Coleman. "Obviously, our number one priority has to be to protect our younger demographic."

With so much work being put into mechanical features, adult-friendly concessions, and new social/competitive gameplay options, it's a wonder there's any new actual content in the works for Wizard101, but as I saw during the second half of my demonstration, Coleman and the KingsIsle team are preparing to add their first post-launch world expansion to the game. An all-new region called "Dragonspyre" is in the works, and with it, Wizard101 will see new monsters, new NPCs, new quests, and -- most importantly -- a new chapter to the game's story.

Coleman gave me a brief tour of Dragonspyre, pointing out the darker motif and spookier characters. A far cry from the friendly and colorful realm of Ravenwood, Dragonspyre was a run-down castle crumbling into a river of lava, swarming with ravening spectres, and overshadowed by a massive volcano -- with an enormous dragon perched on top. As Coleman explained to me, Dragonspyre had once been the wizard equivalent of a military academy, another proud school to match Ravenwood, until something had gone awry; a mystery players would have to solve by exploring for themselves. It certainly struck me as a puzzling mystery -- a school full of experimental magic, placed right under an active volcano, clearly named for the giant dragon who lived there? What could go wrong?

Dragonspyre will be more than just a couple of extra quests and characters, according to Coleman, who claimed it would be adding as much as 30%-40% more content to the Wizard101 world. In addition, it will add quite a few new gameplay wrinkles to its quest puzzles and boss fights -- I was told that Dragonspyre will be "the closest that Wizard101 comes to raids." Naturally, I asked for clarification; Wizard101's fights allow for a maximum of 4 players at once, which didn't seem to translate well to the traditional "raid" concept of 20+ players storming into battle. It was explained to me, instead, that Dragonspyre will contain a number of team-oriented puzzles, requiring better player coordination and teamwork. An objective, for example, might be guarded by two separate groups of monsters which would need to be defeated simultaneously -- and those monsters would be tricky enough to require well-organized teams to fight them. That, alone, would take 8 players, and would be just the beginning of the quest. When Dragonspyre is fully conquered, I learned, players will finally have the opportunity to go toe-to-toe with Malistaire, the story's ultimate villain, and fulfill the destiny which is presented to them at the very beginning.

As similar as Wizard101 may seem, story-wise, to a number of magical tales from literature or film, it certainly works hard at being different as a game, and in today's crowded MMO space, that alone should make it worth a look for any gamer, of any age.

We would like to thank Mr. Coleman for answering our questions. Wizard101 can be downloaded and played here. Much of the game is free to play, but some of the game's "premium" content, including the upcoming Dragonspyre expansion and the "sanctioned" PvP system, requires either a subscription or micropayments.

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