Wizard 101 (Windows)
common sense media says
Magical MMO where kids learn to become wizards.
parents & educators say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this is an engaging massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) for kids set in a fantasy world involving wizards. Kids will duel using magic spells that have some crude humor including the release of farts. Wizard 101 is COPA compliant and there are several ways to pay for this game. The download of the game is free and there are free areas for children to try out the game, including the ability to play all the minigames. Family plan subscriptions are $6.95 (per account) a month and general subscriptions $9.95. A micropayment plan beginning at $1.00 is also available to obtain permanent access to particular streets or areas within the game. Game gift cards are also available at various retail outlets. This allows parents to structure a reward system for their kids and many families do play this game together. However, it is also a game that ropes kids in for free, and then dangles additional compelling content in front of them to encourage them to become consumers.
Educational value:
Minigames include age appropriate memory games as well as shape and color matching games. Players will also learn that making friends and assisting others will yield greater rewards.
Positive role models:
By playing this game, kids learn that other players can be helpful to winning the game and that you don't always have to game alone. The in-game teachers are good role models.
Ease of play:
Easy to play, but younger players may need help. This is a beautiful, colorful animated world, yet you only need low system requirements to be able to play.
Violence:
Cartoon Violence where enemies are blasted by magic. Some spells include a bat who spits green goo, a frog who oozes acid, and a creature who farts. Losing participants in a magical duel collapse in various ways and simply disappear or in the case of a skeleton, falls apart and disappear. Defeated players will return to the Wizard School to rest and regain health and mana (magical power). Playing mini-games can hasten health and mana recovery. No blood, gore, or any other visible violent actions.
Language:
In game chat is controlled by quick chat choices which are easily accessed via an icon and menu system. Free-form chat is available but even these and the forums are heavily moderated and boast a stringent automatic language filter.
Consumerism:
Gamers playing for free will encounter areas which are locked and players are asked to go to the website to unlock them by paying a fee. This is called a velvet rope model where kids start to play for free but then get roped into spending money.
Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
Not applicable.
More on Wizard 101
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Most useful reviews by all members
waresmith
adult
adult
NO PARENTAL CONTROLS according to company
This company has no parental controls. Without my permission, my 10 year old took my credit card and charged $80 (the annual fee) three times in a row, buying tokens of some sort. He some how pretended to be me, and set up his own parent confirmation. The company emailed me saying that "Currently there's no known method to validate a "real" parent vs. a child impersonating a parent" The company refuses to give my money back or to acknowledge their responsibility. BEWARE --- not a very good company. The game is now banned in my home.
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Parentplayer
parent of 7 year old
parent of 7 year old
Game is fun, but they will take your money by inappropriate means
Wizards 101 is no different than any other predatory online game, i have myself played wizards for years and once thought of the game as being fantastic, However over the past year i have noticed a significant increase in the taking advantage of children and paying adults alike. When wizards has a Bug in the game. "they created in the first place". Wizards is making large amounts of money from these bugs in their game. Purchasing items that wizards later removes without notice affecting the players to repurchase items to fix the damage caused by the wizards team. Which means more crowns to get the character back or close to the status it was before wizards made the change. Wizards makes not attempt to resolve any issues with its customers. Children should never be taken advantage of. Financial practices pertaining to children in any online game should have protections. Wizards is likely to reply to an item purchase complaint with something like this. "The item was defective and contributed the wrongs stats, you the consumer should not have purchased the item". An item they sold in their game, An item they created, An item that showed no obvious signs of being defective. They blame the consumer for purchasing their product. The worst most appalling customer service ever. Hopefully wizards will get its act together and take responsibility for their products that are marketed to young children.
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playsgamesalot
teen, 15 years old
teen, 15 years old
stop hating on company
yes its expensive, but i hate parents complaining about how the company wont give them back money because their kid used their credit card.
NOTE TO PARENTS: DONT GIVE KIDS CREDIT CARD INFORMATION! DUH
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Texas-Ire
parent of 14 year old
parent of 14 year old
DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD INFO!
Wizard101 Will allow charges to be made on any credit card info you ever use, with or without your authorization with NO REFUNDS!!! BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!
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truth be to be ...
parent of 15 year old
parent of 15 year old
They ban players for there own in game bugs.I payed for 2 year memeberships for my daughters.Another player showed my oldest how to garden on the game.They banned both accounts no refunds of money.The ban like 3000 paying children for same gardening mess up.When you email them for help and would like some answers. You will get nothing but an auto reply.There is no phone number where they can be reached.They say all questions must be emailed.I would say this is not good customer service.Lost 120 on there memerships another 70.00something in crowns that my daughters used to bye in game iteams like mounts pets and clothes for there wizards. Hope this helps in deciding if this is a game for your child.Just remember if they do something worng knowing it or not your child will be banned and there will be no help or support for you.You will fill like me ripped off.
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kidatheart
adult
adult
addictive
Aimed to the young but requires grown up money to play. Have issues with the enticement to want more from the game which requires not earned coins from skill but parents to open wallets.Knew a child so hooked the parents credit card was "borrowed" and bought items with out parent permission.
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ldb
parent of 10 year old
parent of 10 year old
The problem I have is not with the game but there is a problem that they say that they can't fix.
I added my niece to my account so that I could transfer crowns to her. We were logged into my account which said it was the master account. I was following instructions. And then we added her. The next time I attempted to buy crowns the system told me that hers is the master account and Kings Isle says there is nothing that they can do about it.
I was really angry and disappointed. If I did something wrong it was not clear to me and now I have to be concerned about a 10 year old spending crowns willy nilly if I buy any. I would just start over but I have already paid crowns for most of the areas of the game so obviously not a good solution.
I recommend against setting up a master account because of my experience with this. I asked them just to undo the connection and they say they can't. So anyone who doesn't get it right just has to live with it according to them. Very disappointing.
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kirbysteel
kid, 12 years old
kid, 12 years old
Good for everyone 7- 100!
IT IS AWESOME! I guess the only thing bad would be you have to pay to go to new worlds.Still if you think, $10 for one month? You CAN go buy a DS WII XBOX game for around $29-$60 but it IS sort of cheap. For $50 you can get a 6 month subscription or tons of crowns. With the one month you can lvl up to around 21. My guy's name is Eric GhostStalker, add me to your friends ( I am in krockotopia right now (the second world) Over all it's a great game
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Wizard101Lover
kid, 12 years old
kid, 12 years old
LOVE IT OMG!!! WOOT!!!
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Kevin ...
parent
parent
Anyone who knows about it, should be able to play
Best game with fully moderated chat filters not even allowing the words: shoot, stupid, and dumb. No blood is envolved and it has no rude behavior. I heard of an 50 year old playing it so it is cool for ages 6-50. I am Kevin Thunderwalker level 50 Ice wizard.
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scooby625
kid, 13 years old
kid, 13 years old
I.........LOVE IT............ IT IS NOT FOR 2 YEAR OLDS..... WHY? BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW SQUAT ABOUT COMPUTERS
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dragonsrage99999
kid, 11 years old
kid, 11 years old
not bad
its the best game
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undergurl
kid, 12 years old
kid, 12 years old
Good
I like it but when I opened it up, during a battle soemthign would go wrong like soem scrip or would make me shurt it, down this happened everytime I got on.
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Importance of ...
parent of 11 and 12 year old
parent of 11 and 12 year old
The age rating is PERFECT
I am 32 years old and this is a game that I allow my children to play. At first I supervised their online sessions with the game, but gradually became totally convinced that the safety of the game itself is excellent. Not only that, but the game can prove to be educational in ceartain aspects as well. Overall a 5 out of 5!
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crissreviews
teen, 14 years old
teen, 14 years old
Fun game, until you meet the marketing
I tried this game because my little brother was playing it. We played together and had some fun. However, being used to chatting in MMOs I was a little turned off when I found out I had to subscribe to chat : ( But still It's lots of fun, but you know how if you don't pay they say it's the free trial that lasts forever? Well, that's half true. Eventually every single one of your quests will lead to areas you need to buy with in game money you get with real money. So yeah, you can enjoy a little PVP and fight some dungeons, but unless you pay you can't do anything else. Also, the areas get more and more expensive as you get further on. I spent a little money on this game myself, 750 crowns a place, 5 dollars for 2500 crowns, not bad. Then, I got to Krokotopia where every single place is 915 crowns, and I said "Heck no!" So play it because it's fun but DO NOT spend more than five bucks on it, you will regret it.
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Dad in Hampton
adult
adult
Parents Beware... these folks are crooks
I can't say it enough, do not let your kids get roped into this game... sure, there might be free content, but it will suck them in and encourage the kids to upgrade or purchase "crowns" for more play. Our 9 year old son was able to work through the subscription page and entered his sister's debt card information. He racked up almost $225 in charges before we discovered what he had done. It is impossible to call these folks and they only deal with customers via email... causing a frustrating back and fourth that yielded very little results. We tried to dispute the charges as unauthorized, but since it was a member of the family doing the charges, it didn't clear the charges. These folks are crooks... if your kids play this game, use caution and keep a close eye on them.
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beagles
adult
adult
It would be good for ppl over the age of 17. They might be able to figure it out.
No effence but I don't like Wizard101. When I try to make an acount the Birthdate Day and tear never show up. also, when I finally created an acount it wouldn't let me log in.
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bianca7788
adult
adult
Depending on how mature you are
Wizard101 is a nice game for kids 9+ depending on how mature they are, some players on this game find there way out of the " filtered " chat and say bad things, but if you have menu chat then you don't see the text chat. Safety is great, not worries about not being safe, you can't even say a number on there. Some adults/parents would say its " Violent " but blood is never shown and in my opinion I would say its not violent at all. People ask for gfs [ girlfriends] and bfs [ boy friends], very often which can get annoying.
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The Kid2234
parent of 11 year old
parent of 11 year old
e.g.Imagination rulls kids,teens,not so much
This game is great for a kid who has a big imagination for fantisy worlds and magical cretures so if any open minded kid is looking for a mistical game they might want to check it out and for teens it might be to kidish for you but still try it out.
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