For this week’s Critical Play, I chose to play Wizard101. The game’s initial target audience was children aged 8-14, but it has found to attract older teenagers and adults as well. Wizard101 was created by KingsIsle Entertainment, and the co-creators were J. Todd Coleman and Josef T. Hall. Wizard101 is a multiplayer online role-playing game and its focus is on allowing players to level up as wizards and combat enemies while making new friends. What makes the world of Wizard101 captivating is the narrative opportunity for a player to replace Headmaster Ambrose’s role and the formal use of exploration through movement, combat, and achievement badges.
The narrative power of animating the player’s character is a key element to why player’s would want to play Wizard101. Not only is the player able to fight monsters by choosing the card they want to select, they are also able to see the animations get carried out. For instance, the image below shows the first fight a player will have with a monster.
Battle scene
The ability for the player to see a fight carried out in 3d instead of a black and white “win lose” allows for the player to treat the world as if it were real. As seen in our previous readings on architecture in games, creating spaces in which players feel welcomed and intrigued by increases their desire to explore and play the game, thus inviting players to actually care about the world they are in.
Secondly, at the start of the game, the player is introduced to the leading character – Headmaster Ambrose.
Landing animation
The Headmaster states the possibility for the player to replace his role in the Kingdom. This sets an early and important tone to the player about the final goal they are in the game for. This immediately increases the player’s affinity towards the game and allows for the player to invest in the game. The bite-sized narrative tab also allows for the player to be guided through this wizardry process and generates a balanced pace at which the player can explore the world around them. This removes the initial friction of a player discovering the mechanics of the game and enables them to quickly immerse themselves into the role of a wizard.
The formal elements which guide Wizard101 also make the game enticing. Firstly, the player is able to explore the world through movement using the arrows on their computers. Gifting the player agency to explore the world in their own time and desire allows for the relationship between the player and the world to grow naturally. Furthermore, the guiding arrows, as presented below, provide a gentle nudge which directs the player towards the mini-goals they have to achieve.
Guiding arrow at the bottom of the screen
The mechanic of allowing a player to choose their target enemies for combat alongside the unlocking of achievement badges also increase personalization within the game, thus increasing the player’s affection towards the world they are in. Exploring uncovered territory by looking at a map such as the one below also allows for worldbuilding games to mimic the nature of Walking Sims, where discovery leads the game experience. Now why is this personalization relevant? Games where players are able to create meaning in their own worlds are often those that stick. Consider Minecraft for example. Players do not primarily go into Minecraft because they want to carve dirt blocks, but because they want to use the dirt blocks to build their own home within the world. Similarly, players in Wizard101 are not in the game to only fight monsters, but to engage with the world around them and make connections which makes the world theirs.
Although Wizard101 does a good job in using narrative and formal elements to personalize the game experience, their design of allowing players to choose a character type and name is comparatively shallow.
There is only a total of 20 skins!
Players are unable to mix and match hairstyles, costumes, skin colors, accessibility features… Everything is predetermined, yet the game gives the impression that there are many choices to choose from. Furthermore, there is a lack within the range of genders and body sizes which are presented. This is especially relevant to Wizard101 because this is the first impression that players get when they play the game. If players are being deterred from the first step, they cannot get to the meat of the game (the combat and exploration mentioned above), which would be a pity. Therefore, more diversification in character building is necessary for the game to be playable by all. One way in which the personalization of the game can be improved is by making the character selection process more intimate. For example, players are prompted to pick options that best describe themselves, such as their favorite activities, their personality, etc.. Wizard101 could ask more of those questions and then ultimately generate a skin which best describes that combination. This removes the triviality of picking a skin all the while keeping the experience of being assigned a skin highly personal.
