Were any traits cultural or societal? What traits subscribed to/deviated from a genre stereotype? Was doing so beneficial, or potentially harmful?
The game was released in 2008 by KingsIsle Entertainment, Wizard 101 is a multiplayer online role-playing game aimed primarily at younger audiences. Players take on the role of a student attending Ravenwood School of Magical Arts, where they study different schools of magic before travelling through various worlds to defeat the evil wizard Malistaire. These stereotypes make the game world immediately recognisable and accessible to younger players. This is because it simplifies cultures and character roles meaning that they create a intuitive learning experience rather than reinforcing harmful real-world stereotypes particularly in the theme of medieval wizardry and typical fantastical wizards.
The game is built around a wizarding society where magic schools influence a character’s identity and role in society. These classes may show how a society is organised due to its institutions within the game, the roles of the professors/students and the hierarchy that is embedded. The magic schools act like an educational and social system as they influence what skills a wizard learns, how others perceive them and the role they often play in groups. I played the game as a ice wizard and found them to be the wizard with the most health and therefore act as a tank. The player was immediately labelled as the ‘chosen hero,’ which is a common stereotype within games such as this one, there is immediately a wise mentor which is the headmaster you meet at the start of the game and a tragic villain who you also meet at the beginning of the game. This stereotype also motivates the player immediately.
These are common roles within a game that makes it easy for players to identify with the protagonist. The wise old mentor provides advice and gives quests throughout the game which is a typical fantasy archetype, and lastly the tragic villain who is Malistaire has a backstory which gives the antagonist more depth than a purely evil villain. While these are typical archetypes I believe that it is not necessarily positive or negative – it is a way that the designer is able to shape the game and be able to make the game functional and self explanatory for new players. The educational hierarchy mirrors real world schools with professors acting as authority figures and students progressing through learning. This societal structure makes the game immediately understandable as the targeted players are already familiar with schools.
As for the cultural aspect of the game, Ravenwood and Wizard city are inspired by medieval Europe with castles, stone buildings, towers and robes this is evidenced straight away at the beginning of the game when the player is first spawned. Furthermore, there is a strong traditional wizard culture with students attending magical academy, who wear robes and use wands which reflects the classic wizard-school tradition popularised in fantasy literature. I believe that this isn’t a harmful cultural stereotype as it helps the player be able to escape their reality into a fantasy that they expect from the games name which contains the word ‘wizard’. Furthermore, I think that the setting also helps build the game’s magical atmosphere instead of having a magically realistic environment such as Harry Potter.
However, Wizard 101 also slightly deviates from traditional RPG conventions. Unlike many RPGs, which ask players to choose a class or race, Wizard101 assigns a magical school through a personality quiz at the beginning of the game. Although each school still follows familiar fantasy class stereotypes, this system makes players feel less restricted by predetermined choices. As a result, the stereotypes are based on gameplay roles rather than race, gender or culture, making them less likely to reinforce harmful real-world assumptions while still helping players understand their role within the game.
