Parent reviews for Wizard 101

I started playing this game when I was 11 years old, in september 2009. I was one of the happy children to be able to play the Golden Days games: ToonTown, Club Penguing, Wizard101. Even now, as an adult, I play at least 50 hours per year, just to remember the old days. The game is all about a student of magical arts at "Ravenwood" (similar to Happy Potter at Hogwards). It has card-game-based combat where players summon fantastical creatures such as unicorns, cyclops etc to defeat enemies (you can compare this to evil monsters in cartoons; nothing scary) and complete a storyline in multiple steps (called Quests). The game is fully narrated and the graphics are similar to cartoons (and it's like controlling a character in a cartoon). The game has a free trial period where the player can access multiple areas of the game, but they need to move on to paid areas in about 1 hour or so. The player has to pay $9.95/month (or less if more months are purchased at once and during sales) to continue playing or zones can be purchased individually (this is more expensive). What is bad is the in-game shop where players can spend money to get unknown items and power-ups. Some stuff can also be unlocked with in-game currency that is free and obtained in game. The premium currency (the one you buy) can be even earned by completing daily trivia quizzes ($0.2 per day and it takes about 5-10 minutes). The game is very good for children, as long as you, as a parent, only pay for the monthly membership. As a parent, you have complete control over what the child can and cannot do. I recommend setting up the account with an adult's age and disable open chat from the account settings (this will enforce a chat filter so the kid cannot say or see bad words or disclose information such as full name and address). 10/10 Game. I totally recommend this. Pirate101 is also a good alternative, which is like Wizard101's sister game. You also pay less if you have membership on both games or have more than one child account with membership on either game ($6.95/month per game).

Warning, this Long review is written by a player who just started playing again for a week, after more then 10 years, as an European adult. TLDR Review: I'm currently really enjoying my current content, with several in dept mechanics and grind elements that can keep someone entertained for years, on a game thats clearly marketed towards a younger audience. However, considering i'm currently playing under a membership & a total of +- 20k crowns spend in the game, i don't think this game wallet friendly at all, if subscription services are a no-go for your morale code. This game can also be very time-consuming. My advice: Buy a monthly membership for the holidays, and after those are over, make good deals with your kids on when, how, and how long they are allowed to play this game, who's gonna pay for the subscription service, or how they can ''earn'' an area', to teach them the value of money. Start review: i have to talk about the con's first, because they are seriously glaring in my eyes,. 1: Total costs are unaffordable for small-wallet families, if you don't like to be tied to a monthly subscription service. The game, base prize wise, is so expensive, that i wouldn't ever recommend ever buying the ''expansion'' worlds one at the time, and just go for the membership of either 1 month at the time ($10) or 12 months ($80, currently as low as $60 due an ongoing sale as time of writing) . That is, unless if you and/or your child are planning to play this game for more then 3 years. DISCLAIMER: Prizes named in this article are WITHOUT ADDED TAXES, SINCE THAT'S HOW MOTHERCOMPANY KINGSISLE CHOOSES TO DISPLAY THEIR IN-GAME PURCHASES. Price tags are as of September 15th, 2021. Mothercompany Kingsisle recently re-promoted the game by giving temporary free access to the first 2 worlds completely (Wizard City + Krokotopia). This free access ended around the period of 13th of september. These two worlds alone already have a value of $30+ in in-game currency, called Crowns. The real price is more close to 40 dollars, since the prizes for in-game currency are, as already mentioned, without added tax. The total prize of unlocking all the area's, without the high level optional dungeons worlds ''tale of 4 dungeons'' and ''aquilla'' (total value 18.685), comes at a grand total of 162.390 Crowns as of September 2021. Sounds a lot? Probably because it is a lot. Converted to the highest value of crown per $ (the 80.000 C/ 100$ pack), this amount compared to an earthly value of $205 USD. With the earlier dungeon worlds included, This it then becomes equivalent to C181.075, or +-245 dollars, with about 1.8k C left to spare, which can be used for the ranked player vs player game-modes, which, you guessed it, also costs a small amount of crowns per session. That fact aside, to ''break even'' on your purchase, you need to play the game for more then 4 years on a permanent sale bundle (or 3 years under the non-sale price tag). Fully purchasing this game is a long investment, with adviced buys of 100 bucks at the time. Hence why a membership is very appealing. 2: prices for fundamental/expensive Items/pets/mounts that are able to be purchased with the every day currency called gold can shoot through the roof. The most exclusive pets/mounts that help permanently in your play experience costs between 50 and 100k gold for mounts/pets, and 5k to 100k for items. This is an amount that can be grinded in a week or 2 for higher level players, but for lower level players, expect to be saving for at least a month straight, if you are unlucky, if you are lucky however, you can get mounts for free with the fishing system, but look up youtube videos for that. Imagine doing that several times, and you can see why i called this game ''time consuming''. 3: In game purchases are very tempting, due to their literal time-saving ability. E.G: Mounts save an amount of time to travel from point a to b by 40%. Aside from a select few 40% mounts that can be bought with gold, most mounts cost between 5k and 15k crowns, price difference between them include 1p vs 2player mounts, and estetics. You can also earn this privilege traveltime with rental mounts, which can be bought with much smaller amount of golds, renting them for 7 playing days equals more often than not for a substantial amount of the costs of a permanent mount. 1 day mounts can be found in loot or bought for smaller amounts of gold, but they only give an 20% less traveltime, opposed to 40%. In game crown purchases can literally save you a month of grinding, and another month of travelling times. 4: The game forces you to choose what you can do with earnable in game, making it almost too tempting to skip this mechanic by using micro transactions. Currently, im experiencing the following problem: I got 45k in-game gold. hypothetical i buy only a membership pass, giving me temporary free access to all available worlds. Currently in this scenario, i would be level 35 (equavalent to a low-lvl player just finishing Marleybone, the third world of the game on a moderate to high speed) I want a the pet that matches my class. I can get this by breeding a lesser pet currenty in my inventory with this. The best pet for my class is offered to breed with by the system of volunteers for a total of 75k gold at the cheapest, and 105k at the most expensive. I have a +- 50% chance to get the pet i want, but if i don't get it, i have to try again saving this money, or ask a player with the right pet if they in their grace of their heart want to breed with me, which is, consdering its an 10+year old game, not an easy feat to accomplish 2: I want a mount to reduce my traveltime: the cheapest in game permanent mount being able to purchased with gold is a broom, which costs 50k gold. 3: i want the best equipment, so i can make my experience grinding mobs and bosses easier, this costs about 15k every 10-15 levels, depending on your gear/drops. 4: i like the fishing system in the game, however, lvl 2 fishing spells costs 10 to 20k gold each to unlock, for all the schools and utility spells, thats more than 100k gold. On the long term this investment is worth it, in order to earn gold more easely, but on the short term, this can be a difficult sum to accomplish 5: i want a house: the cheapest house costs several thousands, a royal house? tens of thousands. 6: how much you think loot dropped by mobs or bosses can be sold for? Unlucky? about 50 gold tops, lucky? few hundreds to few thousands. Roughly: my budget is 45k, what budget do i need to be the very best ''freemium'' player at that moment? More or less 200k, without the optional stuff like fishing/housing, 350k with the optional stuff, at the luckiest. See the problem here/why people just buy crowns and do in store purchases? Only if you do some youtube searches on f.e the fishing system, you can circumvent these roadblocks, but does your 7 year old son also think of that? Pro's: 1: In-dept mechanics and story line. This is a game that can keep you busy for several years with all the grinding and levels of play one can choose from, if you like a challenge. 2: good on an educational level: teaches strategy, good/evil moral codes, reaction and intelligence games and value of money to time. 3: great to play with family and friends. Makes it significantly easier in gaming experience with a partner in crime. Also discount for family members if you buy a membership. 4: items are transferable between characters on the same account, and can be traded between players, or to npcs. Got class-specific items you can't use, no need to thrash them. 5: has a relative harsh chat filter, which i know some parents love, even some numbers are prohibited. With experience you can work around it and have normal conversations tho. This game has a lot of things going for it. The graphics and gameplay, despite being completely unchanged compared to 10 years ago, still don't feel annoying to play with if you are a fan of the nostalgic era of mmo pc gaming (2004-2011). While it's on the cheaper side when you are thinking of subscriptions, this game is dangerous when it comes to in-game purchases, and for the player/family who doesn't know if they play the same game for more then a year.

I started playing this game with my daughter over 12 years ago. she was 14 at the time my son was 5. when he was about 9 he started playing and my daughter outgrew it. When my son turned 14 he stopped playing as did I. this year my son is 18 and he asked me to play again with him. we love this game. it is good quality time together. the game doesn't lose its charm. I have spent a considerable amount of money by choice to get things in the game which i love that is an option. My son makes purchases as well with his money. I hope this game never goes away.

Complaints about other players being verbally abusive toward my child were met with curt responses such as, "Ignore them" with no indication that any effort would be made to penalize the offensive player. To make matters worse, the reply was a long time in coming.

I played wizard 101 as a babysitter to an 8 year old boy when the game was new. The game (and it's players) have changed drastically. Many on there are now the young kids who played when the game started and are typically in college or college age. Most are not friendly, helpful or nice. Also there is an extremely large amount of profanity used in the game. There is a whole system to misspelling words to get around the filter system for cursing and it is used a LOT. Under different ownership, the game has massive game glitch problems making the game both frustrating as it malfunctions as well a waste of time. Customer support for Kings Isle is horrible and often rude, if they even answer you at all. Find a good game with a good company backing it . They also have a "no refund" policy which is why they act aloof. Once they have your money, they treat customers horrible. Prepaying for membership is like asking for a beating.

Wizard101's organizational structure is substandard for any company. You can expect ZERO technical support when you experience gaming problems and substandard customer service when you have a problem with your account, debit/credit cards, and/or billing problems. Furthermore, there are NO organizational contact phone numbers. This should be a major red flag. I STRONGLY caution all parents! This company advocates "gambling" and extorts exorbitant amounts of money from people, under the "umbrella" that everything is completely a "random numbers game." You will find your children constantly asking for more money to dump into this game. DO NOT fall into this money pit. In order for your children to merely be able to be competitive (let alone excel) in this game, you will end up sinking a lot of money and time into this game. ***Just in case you question the accuracy of this review, I have been an active player for at least 10 years. If you are wondering why I still play, it's because I have given their company too much money already to just up and quit. Furthermore, I have no idea whom is providing the "official reviews" for this game, but clearly they are not being provided (or treated) the same technical support/customer service as the majority of average users. The company will pander to whomever will offer them free publicity and advertising.

I have been playing this game off and on with my oldest kids (now in college) since 2009. As my younger two got older, they joined in the fun. Pros: -Lots of different ways to play including: questing, gardening, fishing, crafting, and pvp. -Free to play to see how you like it -Pay to play has two options, a subscription or by zone. Memberships are best if you are going to play regularly for a year or two and then stop. By zone is great if you are like me and my kids, it costs more but once you buy a zone to play in all the characters on that account have access to it. This has allowed us to play on and off for 11 years with out having to have to restart a membership each time we want to hop on and play. Either way, this game is a pretty good value for a MMORPG where it isn't uncommon to have to pay $20/month plus additional money for expansions. -Good way to learn about budgeting money - both with pretend gold used in the game and with Crowns which are purchased with real money. For instance, my kids wanted to purchase a mount to make travel within the game faster. Permanent Mounts cost crowns (~$4-$12 in real life money). They get to chose how to spend their allowance money. -Develops critical thinking skills. Having a hard time defeating a boss? The game forces you to think of different ways of approaching the problem. -Develops math skills. Some math will be more advanced than what a 10 year old can do, but eventually they will realize that battles are easier if you can figure out how to defeat a boss as quickly as possible and that involves crunching numbers. -Family fun. During the pandemic my kids and I spent more than a few evenings sitting around the dining table on our laptops playing W101 together, although this does involve everyone having their own account-which we do. -Safety. Chat filters allow you to control how much your kids can see what other people are saying. The most strict controls are very restrictive and are effective in preventing kids seeing anything that could be deemed offensive or inappropriate. The downside is that it can make it difficult for advanced group gameplay. Even after removing all chat filters there are still restrictions on what can be said. Can these restrictions be worked around? Sure, to an extent. -Writers are pretty darn clever. Lots of pop culture references that will go right over the heads of kids but can be funny to us parents or grandparents that play. Cons -Some potty humor/fart/barf references -Temptation to spend real money in the game- yeah there are a lot of ways to make things easier by spending money, but none of it is necessary. But while no parent likes to have to tell their kid "no", kids are going to have to learn that they cant buy everything they want. -The occasional "mean" kid. Pretty easy to avoid as you can just switch worlds, unfriend them, or block them. The restrictions on text make mean things pretty tame. "Noob" is tossed around but that will be the case with any MMORPG.

I'm currently in college (21 years old) and I've been playing this game on and off since I was 9/10 years old. I absolutely love and adore this game. The developers are always trying to improve this game. Ignore the other comments who say that KI is a scam. I bought a year membership, but then I was hit with a lot of fees from the co-op I lived in for a year, so I emailed them saying I really need the money back and will buy a membership another time when I'm more financially comfortable, and they actually returned my money! I emailed because I was desperate, but I really didn't think I would get it back. If you come across any nasty players and your child is on the younger side, don't give them text chat. Personally, I've never come across anyone rude, someone trolled me once but that was about it and I've been playing for years. Just hanging out with the wrong crowd. Ignore and move on, just like people in the real world. If you find the world challenging, go back and do side quests to level up some more. If you're a higher level and need farm/craft for some gear, but find it really tedious and annoying? Yes, it's a grind, but so are other video games??? I swear some people are just really salty and just love to hate. Whatever, you're all missing out and I highly recommend this game! Don't let all the negative reviews stop you. It's free to play and if you decide to keep playing, you can buy a membership which is only $10 a month. It's worth it in my opinion. The animation, storyline, soundtracks, fun hobbies like gardening, fishing, crafting, etc, the people you meet (real friends I made thanks to this game), etc etc etc. Hope y'all have a good time! :)

I created my account in June of 2009, which was not quite a year after the game went live in September of 2008. I was 10 at the time of my account creation, and I’ve played on and off for the past 11 years. Whenever I “quit” or lose interest, I always end up missing it and going back. I’m addicted to collecting all of the badges the game offers, which is basically achievements for defeating a certain number of an enemy or completing certain quests. Back when I made my account, I wasn’t allowed to get membership. My parents would only buy me areas at a time with crowns, and although I wanted a membership I was perfectly happy with the areas I had access to. If you want to buy a membership, I don’t think the price is bad at all. I pay by-the-month, because I know I’ll eventually lose interest in the game again and can just cancel the monthly $10 whenever I want to. If you hang out in the commons area, there is most of the time players hanging out with a chip on their shoulder thinking they’re better than everyone else. If you wanna avoid them, just use the less populated realms/servers. I like to avoid Ambrose and Bernie so I hardly have to encounter the teenagers who think they’re hot stuff and think being mean and bullying is fun. If I ever do come across someone like that, I just ignore them so I don’t have to see their annoying messages. Plus, if they’re trying to goad you and you don’t reply it just pisses them off which I think is pretty funny. If you’re looking for a kid game, I’d say this game is alright, but I do remember encountering a predator on here when I was around 13 asking me to describe what I was wearing and if I could take my clothes off. It was pretty scary for me at the time lol. Also avoid the PVP arena or make sure your chat is turned off in the PVP area because people can get NASTY when they lose. If you don’t want to see trash talk there is a setting you can change that lets you not be able to talk or see other people talking during PVP. The story of the game itself is really fun, and I think more of the players should actually pay attention to the storyline, especially the OG one (Wizard City-Dragonspyre). The worlds themselves are super cool too. My favorite world is Avalon, which is themed around knights, castles and the renaissance. There’s also an atlantis world, aztec world, and egyptian world which are all really cool. It’s easy to avoid other people in this game if you really don’t wanna interact with others. I think many different kinds of people can find enjoyment and stuff to do here. Things I would change, though, is I think KI needs to make all of the first world (Wizard City) free, and maybe even part of the second world, or the side worlds (Grizzleheim and Wysteria). I think the paywall is too much sometimes, and the free areas aren’t enough for new players to get a feel of what the game is really like. It’s still an overall great game, in my opinion! Just wish KI would actually listen to its playerbase instead of asking their 8 year old children what they think would be cool in a game and implementing it (which.... really happened. lol.) -Emma Jadeheart, lvl 130 Balance Wizard!

the drop rates are ridiculously low and not good at all. the game is full of pay to win players and it is geared toward them. if you do not spend real money, the game works against you. they reduced to lives of the bosses but increased the cheats so much you don't stand a chance unless you spend money to buy henchmen. it used to be my fav way to spend my free time, but it is so frustrating now i cant stand it.