During the holidays, we’re running a contest through our “12 Days of the Spiral“. The question is – what has Wizard101 or Pirate101 meant to you and/or your family in the past year? Today we have our sixth winner! Read how Wizard101 helped Jessica SkySong live life to the fullest while she was recovering from an injury.
“Hey Mom, how are all your little wizard friends today?” asks my 25-year old son, mocking me ever so gently. Little does he know how Wizard101 has been a lifesaver for me this past year.
When torn cartilage and tendons in my hip sidelined me over twelve months ago, making me a virtual prisoner in my own home, I turned to Wizard101 while I awaited surgery. What a difference this game has made to my mood and outlook! I may be immobilized in real life, trapped on a couch, but my wizardly self gets to run, jump and “fly” in a virtual world. There are times when, after playing for an extended period of time, I close my eyes to sleep and feel myself “flying” over the cobblestones in Olde Town. Now that’s magical!
In fact, it’s Wizard101 that has enabled me to “continue” my usual activities of daily living, brightening my mood. Rather than fretting that I can’t tend to my real garden, I putter in my virtual gardens, where the pests are easier to deal with and harvests never disappoint. Unable to finish home improvement projects, I now decorate my wizard homes instead…and doesn’t that make me feel like a little girl again, playing with doll houses! How precious and rare is an activity that can make us feel young? I can no longer sit at my sewing machine, but here in Wizard101 I get to craft and “stitch” to my heart’s content. Best of all I don’t have to wait for real-world friends to return from work to socialize; I can find adult wizard friends—-some half a world away– almost any time of the night or day, ready for questing and bantering (And yes, Virginia, there are adult wizards in the Spiral!).
This Christmas I won’t be able to make the long trip home to distribute gifts to family. Instead I’ll be dusting off my wizard’s Santa suit and sleigh, ready to take my spot on the Commons and delight in gifting some unsuspecting wizards in my KI family. Wizard101 is more than a game to me now; it’s a much-needed distraction when TV bores me and pain interferes with sleeping or reading, a way to socialize I never thought possible (many thanks to all my “little wizard friends”!), a surrogate family, an outlet for creativity, a window onto a world where I can feel something like my old self again—even if I am wearing a goofy hat and riding a dragon! Many thanks, KI, for keeping me sane during some tough times.
Jessica SkySong
Level 93 Life Wizard
During the holidays, we’re running a contest through our “12 Days of the Spiral“. The question is – what has Wizard101 or Pirate101 meant to you and/or your family in the past year? Today we have our fifth winner! Read how Wizard101 helped this young Wizard connect with her new step-father and step-sister.
Wizard101 has been a great way for my new step sister and I to bond. We have always been close, but I still didn’t feel very comfortable being around her so much. She had a lap top, and my mom had let me use her lap top for things like going on YouTube and other online games, but she never let me download things.
Once my step sister and her dad started to stay at my house really often, I started to think about the game that I played when I was younger, and wanted to play it again now. I told my sister about Wizard101 and asked her if she had ever played it. She said yes, so I then begged my mom to let me download it. Eventually, I convinced her. I remembered my original account’s username and password, but I thought I would like to start out fresh and I made a whole new account. And from that account came the new me, Scarlet ThunderThief.
I was so happy to get my account, but I wanted to talk to my sister when she was not around. I knew that I could just use menu chat, but I wanted text chat instead. I did not like my new step dad very much at this point, and I was worried that I never would. Eventually, my sister also wanted to talk to people without menu chat, and we both knew that if we had our parent’s permission we could get text chat! She asked her dad if she could get crowns and he said yes. I was a little disappointed because I knew my mom couldn’t afford to get me crowns at that time…
“Daddy, could you get her some too?” My sister said, hugging me and looking at her dad.
“Sure, why not!” he said, pulling my lap top to him, which I already had the Wizard101 website pulled up. After he added crowns to my account, I asked my mom if I could get text chat, and my sister asked her dad the same thing. They both said yes and I was overjoyed to hear that not only would I be able to unlock more areas for quests, but I would also be able to make new friends! Me and my sister immediately got on our computers and started to make friends. Eventually, we both had our friends lists full, and we had some really good friends. With how much we played together, I started to trust my sister more and feel like I could talk to her without holding back.
I am very glad that this one, multi-player game has brought not only me and my sister together, but now I like my step dad better than before! I cannot imagine how long it would take me and my sister to bond without this wonderful game. And now it is time for me to get my sister’s lap top charger, even though she doesn’t need it right now! ☺
Scarlet ThunderThief
Level 20 Death Wizard
During the holidays, we’re running a contest through our “12 Days of the Spiral“. The question is – what has Wizard101 or Pirate101 meant to you and/or your family in the past year? Today we have our fourth winner! Read how Wizard101 helped this family through a tough time.
When most people think about the word family, the ideas of parents and siblings come to mind. Sometimes grandparents may be included or maybe a distant cousin. In my life, my family consists of not only my nuclear family but my extended family as well. Growing up a predominantly Hispanic household, it was never unusual to have aunts/uncles and 25 cousins around for every family function. I wouldn’t change anything about my family. It may be loud and crowded at times but I love them dearly. But like anything in life, time changes things. Some of my family moved to a different cities, some have gone to college and some are no longer with us in body but are in spirit.
When I stumbled across Wizard 101, my family had just suffered a terrible setback. We lost both my grandparents on my mother’s side to cirrhosis in less than a year. We were all brokenhearted and I decided to leave college to help my parents. Needless to say it was a hard year for all of us. I spent hours poured out on my computer, trying to forget the pain and heartache that I was feeling from losing two significant people in my life. Wizard 101 acted as an outlet for me to live in another world and allowed me to escape my real one. Well time moved on and my family began to heal but I continued to play the game.
My younger cousin Jared however was not adjusting well without my grandparents. He had problems in school, trouble concentrating, and reading difficulties. I began to tutor him in reading after school. It went nowhere. He wasn’t interested in any part of reading. He needed something to grab his attention. That is when I decided to make him a Wizard 101 account. He was amazed by the game and couldn’t wait to play. I set some ground rules though. He could play as long as he read his quests out loud to me. After all, he couldn’t do much without knowing what to do or get in the game without reading. Before long, Jared ended up progressing to a whole new reading level in class, all with the help from Wizard 101. His teacher and my aunt were absolutely floored when they saw his immediate improvement and Jared now actually enjoys reading. That is when my family began to take an interest in the game as well. I’d show my cousins all the new spells I attained, new worlds and soon my cousins and siblings began to play.
As I stated earlier, my family is close still but we are further apart. Wizard 101 has allowed us to stay close and catch up while still having a great time playing. To most, Wizard 101 might just be a game. To my family, it healed us from terrible loss. It helped my younger cousin Jared read and catch up with the rest of his peers. It has brought us closer even if we are far apart. I’m able to stay in contact with cousins from all parts of the USA and my siblings away at college. This year, Wizard 101 has been nothing short of a blessing to my family and I. I can’t imagine this year without the game. It has given us so much joy, relief and happiness over these past couple of months and years and we are so grateful that it is still going strong. Thank you KingsIsle for making our family grow and keeping us connected.
Samantha RubyDreamer
During the holidays, we’re running a contest through our “12 Days of the Spiral“. The question is – what has Wizard101 or Pirate101 meant to you and/or your family in the past year? Today we have our third winner! Read about what KingsIsle games have meant to their family.
I started playing Wizard101 nearly six years ago. After playing for about six months, my then six year old autistic son started taking an interest in it. At first I thought he may not be quite old enough for it as at that time he would get scared very easily. He began just watching me play and one day ask if he could make a character. His first character he named “Reid Boom- Wraith”
He chose the Balance School.
At first he needed help with the combat, and sometimes just operating the mouse and the direction keys. Although I most certainly don’t want him to have an over abundance of computer time, I saw that he was able to focus for longer periods of time and not just while playing Wizard101. I feel that just finding an interest for him was key in reaching him. He loves to talk about the game, and WOW – he can recall details like you would never imagine.
When we heard Pirate101 was coming out we were both extremely excited. We have both been playing Pirate101 since the test realm came out. We love the companions, the ships, and all the other little surprises Pirate has to offer.
I was impressed with the detail that my son could recall with Wizard 101 but with Pirate101… Holy Cow! He can act out each and every companion’s moves, dialect, grunts and equipment use to perfection. He loves to quiz me as he acts out their moves.
I have a difficult time keeping them all straight as he has characters belonging to every school. Yikes!
I am so grateful to KingsIsle for creating games that families can play together, but more so due to the tremendous amount of progress my now 9 1/2 year old son has had with his focus and social skills due in part to your wonderful and detailed games. We now can play on separate computers, so we can help each other. My son has made a game out of leveling up before I do.
See, I like to do the side quests to level up and gain more gold and loot… but not my son. He feels that if he just does the main story line quests, the companion training quests and the quests where he acquires further companions he will win the leveling up game. We also have a “Who can gain the most Companions” contest. My son can now play on his own and handle most combat on his own.
Thank you for making such an impact on our family and more importantly on a young autistic boy whom a few years ago, could not carry on a conversation about anything.
Ruthless Olivia Morgan and Fearless Finnigan Cog
Level 56 Swashbuckler and Level 65 Privateer
During the holidays, we’re running a contest through our “12 Days of the Spiral“. The question is – what has Wizard101 or Pirate101 meant to you and/or your family in the past year? Today we have our second winner! Read about how playing Wizard101 helped their family.
My husband and I started playing Wizard101 when we were looking for a MMORPG that was less expensive, less time consuming and more family oriented than other ones we played. We found all that and more in Wizard101. We were so excited that the game was freetoplay, because we were in college and with our daughter just being born our finances did not allow us to spend money on gaming.
Our daughter required a lot of attention in the first years we started playing, but we found that we could play after she went to bed and still be able to make significant progress in the game. When we decided to spend money on the game, we decided that we would purchase the zones with Crowns. It was a perfect way to control how much money we were spending on gaming. We were at a time in our life that our availability to play and financial ability to play was very unpredictable. It was so great to be able to have the option to subscribe or purchase. KingsIsle was also very accommodating when we had to stop playing for quite a long time. After a whirlwind year of moving across the country, starting new jobs, and setting up our new home we were able to turn on the game and everything was just as we left it. It was so comforting to see something so familiar when everything else was so new.
This year our daughter was able to join us in the game, she just turned six but was five years old when she started playing. It is so very rare to find a place so kid friendly yet so extremely entertaining for adults at the same time. Just hearing the excitement in her voice and seeing the joy it brings her to be able to join Mommy and Daddy on quests is great. The parental controls are topnotch. We have absolutely no fear that she will ever be exposed to any unsavory content or people.
Our daughter is learning from the game as well. We have her read the quests save coins for items she wants to buy and make decisions on what spells to use to make the enemies disappear. One of our daughters favorite things to do and Mommy’s too is to garden. She gets so excited every time she has to care for her plants. She knows all the names of the pests and the appropriate spells to use to dispatch them. She loves it when she is able to harvest the plants and will excitedly tell us every item that they have dropped for her. Sharing time with our daughter doing something that is so entertaining and cost effective is great. While it is great to go on outdoor adventures most are very costly and time consuming. We are able to turn on the game go on an exciting adventure and have that quality time whenever we want without leaving the comfort of our home.
Thank you KingsIsle for creating a safe entertaining amazing world where we can spend time as a family!
Leesha LifeGiver
Level 71 Life Wizard
KingsIsle Blog 