wizard 101

I've enjoyed playing pc games for as long as there have been personal computers. I also enjoy online games, and I've been playing Wizard 101 occasionally for a few years already.  It might seem strange that I enjoy playing this pc game designed for kids, but it turns out that a lot of old people do.  Trinity University completed a study of 35,000 players of Wizard 101 where they found a few interesting results:

• adults over age 50 play more hours per week than the younger crowd
• two-thirds of players under age 50 were male
• two-thirds of players over age 50 were female
• older females were more likely to have high-level characters

What I like about Wizard 101 is the cooperative gameplay, the low stress combat that doesn't require much keyboard or mouse usage, and definitely the not-to-be-missed funny animations. (I laughed out loud the first time I saw the three ninja pigs.)  It has gardening for players who enjoy that sort of thing, and I certainly do.  It has pets and mounts too, for even more adorable animations.  Sometimes they sell special charity pets or mounts.  I bought a Fa-La-La-La-Llama mount for my main character, Keelan the Storm Magic wizard, during last year's Christmas charity event.  You can see us pictured on the right.

The pets even get their own fairground where you can use them to play mini-games that challenge your memory and spatial awareness.  You can also use your pet to play Grub Guardian, a web browser "tower" game.  Honestly, though, the rewards are really weak for the amount of time it takes to complete a web game.  You get better rewards just playing within the main game itself.

Technically, Wizard 101 is a free-to-play game, but you quickly discover that you need to pay for access to most of the game's territories.  I find that it's most economical to wait until they have sales for purchases, then buy online game money to spend on unlocking new territories.  This game is a "card" game where you choose the kinds of action cards that go into your deck.  During combat, the deck is randomly shuffled, then you choose from the available cards which action your character will perform that turn. 

What I dislike about the game, though, is that too many of the kids are greedy little beggars who pester you for all kinds of stuff.  I've had to turn off Friends invites to avoid the spam from players begging for gifts.

And that's why I'm hoping to find other adults who would like to play this game with me.  I've reached a mid-point level of the game where it's too difficult to play solo and too difficult to find groups.  Other players have already advanced to other regions of the game, leaving my play areas comparatively empty.

Does anyone out there want to pick a "game night" to play an easy and fun online card game?  :)