Wizard101: An MMORPG?

This week I played Wizard101 on Switch. I had intended to play it on PC so that my son and I could play together, but it took almost an hour for 7% of the game to download from Steam, so I fell back on the Switch.

I've known about this game for about 14 years. It was a favorite of my son's when he was in elementary school. As parents, we liked that the game provided an opportunity for our autistic child to interact with others, but in a very controlled way that maintained his privacy and safety.

He's recently joined the large group of adults between 18 and 30 who play the game. The publisher, KingsIsle Entertainment don't share demographic data, and indeed don't collect much as far as I can tell. However, adults on forums and fan pages point out that kids probably can't play much past the free content (the tutorial) due to the expense of the subscription. There are many in-game purchases that are available if you don't choose to get the subscription. Parents could be purchasing Wizard101 gift cards for their children, as we did in the early 2010's. Nevertheless, the estimate is that about 50% of the current players are adults. 

According to SteamCharts, about 730 people were playing during my longest play session. This did cause some lag and I turned off cross-play for the last half of my time on the game. It didn't seem to make much difference in terms of the social experience. While I did participate in a few team battles, other players did not respond to my friendly gestures. 

When you set up your character, you are given three columns with name choices. This gives children an opportunity to choose a player name, but limits the choices so that they can't use names that might compromise their privacy. You have a chance to make choices about your avatar's gender, hair, eyes, etc. 

Since all communication is also chose from an emoticon wheel, this game is a safe choice for an MMORPG. The game is classified as an MMORPG, but I question the designation since the interaction with other players is so limited.

You have been recruited to attend a Wizard's school. You answer some questions so that the game can decide which school (like Houses in Harry Potter), you will be assigned to. Each school has different strengths in battle.

Immediately you are sent to Unicorn Way to help get rid of some ghosts that are plaguing the neighborhood. Unicorn Way serves as the tutorial. As you are doing the quests you are given, you are given instructions about how to play.

The actual battles are turn-based battles. It reminded me a lot of Pokemon. Your enemy has health points and you have cards in your backpack that are rated with different hit point ranges. There's even the same element of chance that the dice in Pokemon give you. Although you aren't rolling dice, the game decides how effective your strike was.

I struggled with the game controller. I knew I hadn't played on the Switch in a long time, but I didn't realize how rusty I had become with the controller. 

The graphics have held up pretty well since the game came out in 2008. There were some animations that were a little off--not all of the NPCs move their mouth when they talk--and my avatar got hung up on mesh sometimes. Nevertheless, the creators have provided a very rich fantasy world for exploration and I'll probably continue to play this game. My son says in the 4th world you get to ride a dragon. He estimates each world takes about a month of game play to  conquer.