I took a quick look at it last night and I mean, a really quick look. (Hey Ken, this is another one your daughter might enjoy.)
It’s a cute game. For some reason the settings in game allow for more resolution options than in the log in screen. Weird.
It’s meant for kids about the age that they can read. I thought it might have been nice to have voice over so kids that couldn’t quite read yet would be able to pick out what they’re going to say. Two problems with that:
1. They’d need to have a reader for what other people are saying
2. Not having it read out encourages parental interaction (i.e. the parent plays along and reads things for them)
The chat system has a non-free form chat (much like what was said to be coming in Free Realms and which already exists in Webkinz World) and a free form chat with a parent’s approval. The chat works by building up a short sentence of common things. Nifty.
The game has levels (and XP), gear and it appears to have spells that work as part of a card game. Sort of Pokemon online. You toss down a card and it does something to your target (or targets or you).
I didn’t look too much farther into it. I’ll let my son (five) try it out and see how he likes it.
By the way, he’s been impressing me with his reading. We’ve worked on sounding things out, but he’s also recognizing words too (not just simple word recognition, but recognizing words he’s sounded out before).
There’s no link – unless you’re talking about the FreeRealms site…
By: Ken on November 11, 2008
at 3:04 pm
Whoops… http://www.wizard101.com
By: smakendahed on November 11, 2008
at 4:23 pm
It’s really cute, I’ll say that much. And, if you’re a crabby old bag like me, you can play it pretty much on your own for a half hour or whatever, which suits me just fine right now.
I can see the kids in the main areas chatting away, and it seems relatively safe and circumscribed. If you don’t enable tells, then there’s very little chat-harm that can come to them, which is a good idea.
By: Ysharros on November 11, 2008
at 5:53 pm
I’m addicted to this game, it is bad. Perfect for when WoW servers are down
By: Hudson on November 11, 2008
at 10:43 pm
Strange, I get a crash when I press “Play” on the patcher. I wonder if it’s due to the resolution switch? Ysh or Hud, did either of you adjust your resolution in game to something above what it let you set from the settings in the patcher?
I get an error with the patcher’s settings saying it couldn’t start the settings. I poked around in the install files but didn’t find the settings I was looking for. I found video settings but they looked like defaults rather than what I set.
I found one with my settings in it under ‘bin’. I reduced the resolution, still crashes. Very strange.
UPDATE: I contacted their support about the issue and got a pretty swift reply that suggested I delete that config.xml then restart the game. That did it, it works now. I’ve replied thanking the CSR fellow and asked about whether I can ever change the settings or not. 1680×1050 resolution where are you?
By: smakendahed on November 12, 2008
at 8:48 am
1920×1200 right now, with a stint at 1680×1050 to see if there would be a change, but it runs just fine at max.
Where are we? My main char is Iridian Nightheart (Myth, 16) but I have no idea how one meets up with people to friend them without directly meeting up with them. The servers aren’t relevant, since you can hop from one to the other.
I have a couple of alts (cmon, this is me) and I’m trying to talk Mort into trying it for some uncomplicated fun. I bet playing with one’s kids would be fun too.
By: Ysharros on November 12, 2008
at 4:38 pm
Oh sure, rub it in. Smak only has a gimpy monitor that supports 1680×1050…
I have no idea either. I popped in, played for 30 minutes and shut it down. I tried to show it to my 5 year old last night but I was getting the crashes. I don’t know what server I’m on (Artur Icethorn – or something like that). I didn’t know you could jump servers, thanks for the info!
I have no idea what my son will end up as but I think he might like the game. It won’t be something he’ll play alone. Not for fear of predators or anything like that, just that his reading isn’t all there yet and he’ll need me to show up how it all works.
By: smakendahed on November 12, 2008
at 7:07 pm
There seems to be a limit to how much server-hopping you can do in a day (at least, at one point my “hop” button ended up greyed out), but the next day it was active again. Ambrose is the server everyone ends up on when they make characters, I think, so it’s almost always packed to the gills. That has its good points, but if you need a little peace and quiet, the other servers are active without being a seething mass of kids at recess.
I’ve hopped my chars to… Greyrose? Something like that.
By: Ysharros on November 13, 2008
at 9:31 am
Hey, do you know how to disable the free chat? I entered my birthdate so the free chat is allowed and I didn’t see any obvious way of turning it off.
I played a little bit this morning with my son, not a whole lot. My wife took over but she says it moves too fast and it makes her dizzy.
I came up with a Balanced Wizard when I took the test online but Ice Wizard (Artur Icethorn – I think) when I played the other day. My son came out as a Myth Wizard (Adam Lionspear).
He seems to like it. He surprised me this morning by poking his head into the washroom while I was in the shower and he was chatting away about stuff I couldn’t hear. He wanted me to play it this morning and was really excited.
It really does surprise me on how many words he knows how to read already!
By: smakendahed on November 13, 2008
at 9:51 am
You can disable stuff by going to the website — log in using the left menu pane, and there should be a “manage my account” type option where you can enable/disable a few different things.
I can understand why your wife gets dizzy — W101 has one of those very elastic cameras that slowly snaps back to its default and has the same organic feel to it that the camera in Obivion had. First thing I did in Oblivion was get a mod to turn that off, because it makes me want to yark too. For some reason, however, I’m ok with the W101 camera now — sometimes exposure will let you get used to it, and sometimes it won’t, and I never did get past the nausea in Oblivion.
I’m playing a Balance wizard with Mort right now (he picked fire), just to see. Balance is a strange school, but powerful later on I suspect. I have an ice gal but haven’t done anything with her yet. Iridia NightHeart, my “main” (she’s 17 now), is a Myth/Life wizard and I really enjoy that combo.
It’s great to hear how LilOgre is taking to it. I may have to mail my ex-VG/ex-SWG buddy and mention this to him, his daughter would probably like it. Not to mention Mort’s grand-kids.
Oh, and we got the family sub yesterday, and we BOTH pay only $6.95/month, not just the extra account. I like that — definitely family-friendly.
By: Ysharros on November 14, 2008
at 11:24 am