I read in another post on the forum that we cannot battle players of our own level due to people having to wait too long. Then you need to implement an option for people to choose to wait or to go ahead and unfairly battle, because you just lost my husband do to that nonsense. And as a result you will end up loosing me and our daughter too because we now cannot play as a family.
The whole situation was severely messed up when he was in the arena. And how will kids react to all the time loosing battles because people who we PAY REAL MONEY to play this site to do not put the time into correcting the programming and having an option to get into a battle immediately or wait for a fair fight, even if it takes awhile.
We both became very addicted to this game very quickly, and have both easily spent 50 hours each on it in the last week, and I know for a fact more than 100 dollars, to get premium for all three of our accounts, 30,000 crowns between the three of us and more. I understand it is a young site undergoing a lot of developing still, but I would appreciate it if this complaint was handled in a timely and professional manner please.
Needless to say, we both are just very disappointed with some of the programming, not just in the arena. But the fizzles in battle are ridiculous. I understand that when throwing a punch in real life you don't always hit, but 2 or 3 or 4 in a row? Outrageous! It is frustrating and certainly does not make me want to play another few hours when I loose eight battles in a row due to fizzles.
Also, what is with cards randomly coming around in the deck? Is there a reasonable or logical explanation behind this? If so I'd like to hear it, but from my standpoint, I know what cards are in MY deck, as I put them there yes? Why on earth is it set so that if you are in need of a Healing Pixie, you get 5 Flares and a Shield instead. It is unbelievably irritating to me to know exactly which card I want to play and to not have it come up sometimes even once in battle. When I pick my deck out, I want EVERY card in MY deck to show up for me so I can cast which spells I want to because I'm paying with MY real money. I do not want a computer randomly generating my battles for me when I have bought/won/earned the cards in the deck. It infuriates me to no end, and I am ready to quit as well because of this.
I will certainly give the creators of this game the benefit of the doubt of changing these things or at the very least, acknowledging this post and giving me logical and reasonable explanations. Because as two adults who play the game, and do for the very most part like it a lot and who are willing to spend money on recreational things that we can do as a family (we have 3 computers in the home and we do like to play together) these to me are very illogical decisions to make on how the game is run.
As a whole it is very interesting, I WANT to keep playing and keep paying, but the battling experiences in the game (which practically make up the game) are frustrating, irritating, and down right, well I am not trying to be mean but they are downright ridiculous. (My husband as I am typing this is giving it ONE last try and has already had 7 fizzles and has only had 10 rounds so far.) And as a result of the lack of quality in the battle programming and decisions I am ready to quit too and turn my daughter elsewhere as well. There is just no excuse for the battle quality to be this poor.
I am imploring you to fix this issue as quickly as possible, and respond to this post as well because like I said, it is fun and we don't want to give up on it yet but something needs to be done about this.
Let me say something in response to this. By no means am I speaking for the administrators here, and by no means am I attacking you in any form or any way.
As far as PvP goes, I have not tried it out, nor have I had any interest in it as of yet. So, I wont say anything about that.
As of the PvE issue you have, well, I dont know where to even start.
By paying a subscription to this game, you simply stating to Wizard101 that you are playing this game. I am sure you would not have subscribed to Wizard101 if you did not think you'd like it. (I am sure you were aware of the trial Wizard101 offers, and even the commercials mention the free trial.)
You cannot simply subscribe to Wizard101, or ANY game for that matter, and then expect the game to revolve around YOU. (That is what your post certainly seems to be implying.) The game has been programmed this way for a reason, tested and tweaked, by THOUSANDS of players in Wizard101.
As for the fizzle rate, various threads have been made about it, and I am very sure that the Wizard101 staff is fully aware of most of the complaints about the battles. It is not like Wizard101 will never ever change/add/take away anything in the future, they will ALWAYS be trying to improve it, and change it for the better, and ballance it more.
If I were part of the Wizard101 staff, I would say that the impression you are making of yourslf is not entirely the best. And certainly would not be threatened by 3 people leaving the Wizard101 community because they cannot play in God-mode, or have to wait a period before being able to PvP.
To help clarify the card battles, the whole point of dueling with cards in a deck is to implement strategy. Strategies your deck a bit more, find newer ways of improving the way cards come up in your deck, and maybe you'll win a few more battles.
Fizzled cards shuffle randomly back into your deck, and while you do lose the mana, your pip points stay in tact.
I just want to say, take a deep breath, calm down a bit, perhaps play a REAL card game with your family instead of spending the time in front of a computer. A lot of things were changed in this game that have had hundreds of complaints before. Perhaps so will the PvP and the fizzle system.
Life is too short to be angry and furious, and that simply ends up shortening your life-span.
I spend real money too on this game. There are a lot of things that I might not like about this game. But I let the Wizard101 staff know with my own threads and posts (in a friendly manner) and eventually, who knows, something might change for the better. :-P
I havent found a problem with the cards in battle, just like any card game you shuffle your deck and hold 8 cards ( i am guessing that is how many we can hold in our virtual hands ).
As for PvP the main problem is that people will go afk once they join a battle so while they arnt there the battle fills up and when it is time to confirm the person isnt there so they all have to wait a minute before he gets booted out of the team. ( sometime long, people think that when your team is all ready and it isnt going something is broke then they leave and renter the the team thinking they are fixing it )
Can't battle your own level? Is that new? I played PVP just a couple of days ago and was pretty sure it let me set the level of the opponents I was waning to battle. It did take a long time to get a battle, but it was because everyone on there only wantrd to battle their friends. It was very hard to find random battles with other players.
As for the deck and cards. Haven't you ever played a card game? Poker? Rummy? Yeah, I know what cards are in a deck, but they have to be shuffled and then handed out. What fun would poker be if you knew you were gonna get handed 4 aces everytime? Just like in power, you have to discard the ones you don't want to use to try and get handed somethign useful.
As a Myth player, fizzles almost ran me off early in the game. I really think that the chance is of succes is far lower than the 70% listed on some of those cards. It wasn't uncommon for me to fizzle 4 straight rounds, but I rarely lost multiple battles in a row as a result.. Anyway, I stuck it out to get to a higher level and found items that increase my chances and fizzles have decreased greatly.
Hey belauteur, i am sorry but i have to tell you that you should change your way of talking. First of all you do not have more or less to say depending on the amount of money you spend for the game. The problem with the unfair level system in Arena some other Persons already mentioned too and i think and hope KI will react to this but there is no need to "threat" with quitting. Ok and i totally disagree with the rest of your post, there is already another fizzling thread and it is necessary, of course its bad if it happens that often in a row but happens, you still can win battles, healing spells do not have without reason the highest accuracy. The card system means that you get random cards and thats even more important, how boring would it be to get the right cards all the time? There would be even less strategy, you have to deal with the cards you get like in all card games! Poker, Magic the gathering ... thats important. Greetings Duncan OwlHeart
My husband and I went in to do arenas last night and we decided on doing the 2vs 2 we are level 15 and let me tell you what it was not pretty! We kept getting paired up against the level 40 plus that have never ending cards and the ridicules comments from the other players taunting and mocking us was out of control. They need to match people and put a level cap on the Treasure Cards.
As for the fizzes my husband and I figured this one out accuracy is your best friend you will take some hits on the Hit points but it greatly helps, we spent a lot on the crowns and bought the wrong gear but its a lesson we wont forget.
Also certain classes do fizz a lot more then others I also was frustrated with my Lighting/Fire wizard I kept getting so may fizzes I put him aside and re-rolled even with the accuracy gear.
I also agree with the decks somewhat it is very frustrating for the decks they are to random but then again it is a card game so not sure on this, I have yet to figure out this one or figure out how come when you go into a instance all mobs only hit one player and not the rest, so I agree some what here, but it is very frustrating.
OK, fizzles, they are based on chances of success per individual card and are balanced against damage dealt. It sounds like you are a storm student. Be careful to balance your secondary school cards against your weaknesses and you should be fine.
This is a card based game much like magic the gathering or pokemon. Yes you have a healing card in your deck but its random as to whats comes up. You could even compare it to blackjack. You know that ace is in the deck, but that doesnt mean you can dig through and pull it out.
WOW first thread I read this morning and it put me in shock. A litle too much venom.
I have not played the arena so have no coment on that. But since I know there are problems I am staying away from it til it works better.
As for the card game for that is really what it is just that we have characters acting out the spells. If you really need a pixie put in in your gold cards. I only carry the amount of gold cards I will need for that battle and maybe an extra multi hit and big hit card.
Having fizzles is frustrating but it is part of the game. This is also partly a game of chance. So now when you got a big hit you are saying please no fizzle please no fizzle. And when it doesn't and you kill the enemy you put your hands in the air (with a great relief) and say YEAH! WOOT!
And if not you slump in despair. It adds the neccessary unknown to keep some of the game fresh.
I have been playing since beta the game is still new not even a year out of beta till September.
Sorry you get so upset but now with the housing you can go find the bosses and battle to try an get drops that are not sold in the stores and some that are.
Maybe you would be better doing this until they fix the areana area.
Ok, not being rude, but if you want control over which spell you can cast and when, and the ability to pvp against whomever you wish at any time you wish, may I suggest a game like EverQuest?
As for Wizard101, I can only speak from my own experiences, and that of my son and nieces and nephew.
I started out playing a Life Wizard. I chose Myth as secondary. As a rule of thumb, I rarely fizzled. Of course, there were the times I would, but usually it wasn't bad or frustrating.
Then I created a Storm wizard, and made Fire my secondary. Wow. What a change! I was fizzling so much that I actually turned the computer off one day and didn't play again for 2 days. It was frustrating. Then I thought "Hey, I'm a (insert age over 35 here) year old woman, I know better" and logged back in. And then noticed that all of the storm attack cards I had were 70% accuracy. That meant, to me, that 70% of the time, the card would work, and 30% of the time it would not. Ok, how can I fix that. Start looking at accuracy. Oh look! There's this neat spell that gives me (or whomever I cast it on) a 10% accuracy boost against my next storm card. So I incorporated that into my deck. I also went to the library in Wizard City and bought a bunch of Keen Eyes treausre card, and created a bunch of storm treasure cards over time, adding 10% accuracy to them. So now I can get a deck full of storm cards that have 80% accuracy. Add in the storm accuracy card, and it raises card potential to90% accuracy, which is pretty darn good. Less frustration.
It is frustrating to not get the card you want. I get that. But if you think logically a little, you can get around that. Again, using my Storm Wizard as an example. When I go to battle, I make sure my treasure cards are either keen eyes (to increase accuracy) or the storm treasure cards I already made, and then the other half of my cards I use for heals. Pixies or the Fairy. That way, when I choose to draw a treasure card, I have a 50% chance of getting either one.
I am constantly, and I do mean constantly, removing cards from my hand.
Say I am battling a myth (which is weak against storm). My first hand, I draw 2 shield cards to protect me against storm, 2 fairies, and the remainder are 1 pip attacks. I may remove all cards but one of the one pip storm cards and 1 of the fairies. And not click draw. This way, next round, I have those two cards (or one if I used the 1 pip card), and get fresh cards for the rest. Or I may click draw for treasure cards once or twice. I keep doing this, and eventually, and quickly, I tend to get the cards I am looking for.
This is a game. I've spent more then you over the past two months of playing. I get frustrated. My money, to me, is just as valuable as yours is to you. In fact, I view my money as more valuable, because I'm a single mother raising a child who has special needs. Money is tight, but this, to me and my son, is a wonderful form of entertainment, that is safe for my family.
If you and your husband feel that threatening to leave and take your money and accounts elsewhere, then perhaps the game you are playing isn't the best for you.
also, maybe trying a different class would be helpful?
Oh, and on that scenario about needing a heal card? As I stated above, I play a Life Wizard,w hich has heal cards. My deck gives me the ability to have 4 of each life in my deck (space providing). I keep 4 of each heal card I have (and as a level 50, I have them all). And guess what? There are battles when I get no heal cards for like 3 turns. It's frustrating, but comical also. It happens. It's that proverbial "luck of the draw".
Okay I do play cards, I love to play Peanuts (ever heard of it? I hope so, it's all about random shuffling) I am almost a master at poker and various forms of it (thank the college days) and I grew up on playing Gin Rummy with my mother. I am a very experienced card player, so honestly I DO know how random it can be. That being said, we are talking about spells here. Yes, they are listed on cards to show what the spells do. But they are spells none the less.
Can someone please explain to me how in "real" wizardry (well, as real as it can get being a make-believe profession) that other wizards in movies or story books even, never use cards? They don't, they know their spells, they've gone to wizard school or whatever else, and they cast their spells based on what they learned in wizardry school. It's knowledge based, not chance based. Unless I missed a famous wizard in history that has to pull out his little spell deck and read of the card that he randomly pulls to cast said spell then please let me know.
And please don't tell me that that helps strategy. Strategy is using your wits to place together a specific move or series of moves. How can you use strategy when you've got two faeries and three shields you don't need? That's just forcing you to make a choice you wish you didn't have to make, that's not strategy. And it doesn't matter how you put together the deck from what I tried, it all still comes up at random.
As far as the fizzles... THAT is the explanation I was wanting! If the chances of a spell fizzling diminish the more you cast that spell or the higher level you get fine, I can understand that, that stays true to the fundamental logic of wizardry. That I can accept, as long as the fizzle rate goes no higher than the percentage on the card (which in my experience so far it doesn't). But that at least makes sense.
And don't tell me that the mods won't care about my complaint. Mod or no mod, I'm sure the OWNERS of the company, maybe not the employees but I can't speak for them, will most certainly care what I have to say if it will make the playing quality better. I am not asking them to make the game revolve around me, where did you even get that idea? I am wanting them, like I said in my first post, to take other people into consideration (I am OBVIOUSLY not the only one that feels the way battles are held in the arena needs to change, not for US but to appease everyone, which I KNOW will take time to do the programming.) I am asking them to take both sides into consideration, those wanting to wait and those wanting to go in immediately and battle. I said please change it or at least OFFER A REASONABLE OR LOGICAL EXPLINATION behind the way things are run. That is my willingness to listen, understand and accept that some things are just the way of the game. And I am not trying to be rude or anything either but if you decide to reply to my posts please hone in your comprehension skills just a little more so you can make responses that actually make sense to what I originally posted.
And before anyone replies to my posts please at least grasp the sense of what I am saying, thank you. :-)
And last but not least, do not presume to know anything about my family. My husband and I are getting ready to go on a 2 week vacation to florida and go to Orlando, Adventure Island, Bush Gardens... and more. We have a whole itinerary of things planned to do. We have about 6 different board games in the house, a football, frisbee, xbox, and more. We do not spend all our time online. We just so happened to have discovered this game about a week ago because of our daughter and became completely addicted to it because it is a fun little game. And yes, I do feel the need to mention HOW much we spend on it. Because yes, the COMPANY will care. What I am asking for is very reasonable and within their doing.
I work for a company that is all about customer service, and they recently ran off a bunch of statistics and numbers etc. Do I personally care when someone makes a complaint and threatens to leave the business? Most of the time not really, as long as I keep my job. But according to my employers it is my job to care, because yes, even that little 100 dollars is money in their pockets, and my word of mouth is more business for them. This is my personal experience from money-makers and business men/women in many different companies speaking, and I am not making presumptions as to what KI wants either but for the most part the business side of it holds true. No company wants to loose business, not even 2 people or 1 person for that matter. So don't presume to think the owners won't care about loosing me as a customer. And if you do fine, and if you work in a business that doesn't care about loosing customers, no matter how many, fine.
But I'm giving my opnion to the makers of the game and someone who can do something about it, not to someone who will make uneducated statements about my personal life. ;)
And as far as over reacting, I'll say it one more time. I DO LIKE THE GAME, for those of you who haven't gotten that before. But I'm giving my feedback about what I like and don't like, to the moderators and people who can do something about it. If you don't like the way I play or the way I talk, good for you. ;) But I have EVERY right to be doing and saying and playing and everything else exactly as I am, just as much as you, please keep that in mind also before replying.
Valid complaints, and certainly, I hope no business is run like some suggest this should be here.
I see people writing that you should take your business elsewhere because you have a complaint you want answered, and even other games suggested. I see pretentious replies with smilies and such, but I am a business owner, and I have to say, it's responses like these that prove that there are leaders, owners, and followers and buyers.
It appears some here would rather feel good about towing the line and not ruffling feathers, than trying to get someone's attention to change something they feel like could be changed.
I would bet that KI would take a paying customer seriously. That said, some things cannot, and will not be changed. Fizzles, the way the cards play at random....I imagine those wont be curtailed enough. The fizzles say they are based on percentage, but I have a spell that is 70% success rate, but fizzles 80% of the time. No exaggeration. Something is fundamentally wrong there, and it should be addressed.
I have been extremely upset here too, and other games I sometimes play. It's cool, and it's the way it is. Don't feel down about the snotty and pretentious replies you've been getting by the masses here. Keep playing this, have fun, and if you enjoy it, enjoy it. Don't let the sillies here ruin it by blindly running to the aid of a company that doesn't need it, so that they may feel vicariously like they are a part of something greater than they are.
As a person who suggested an alternate game, it wasn't because I'm a follower. I'm not. But the original poster had very specific complaints. Such as the arena, and it seemed, the fizzling was more important.
I don't see KI changing the fizzle rates. The Arena issue may be something they are working on, but the fizzles seem here to stay.
It did get me wondering last night though. I have a Storm wizard, which fizzles a LOT. My niece has a storm wizard, and I made an agreement with her to get through certain content for her. Playing her storm wizard, she almost never fizzled. Got me wondering, that perhaps the 70% success rate is not just for that particular character. Makes sense that 70% of the time, the cast will not fizzle. So if you cast the first Storm card you get 100 times, your success rate should be in the neighborhood of 70 times.
Likewise, on my Life wizard, the cards, on average, have a 90% rate. Yet I fizzle on those frequently enough that it leads me to believe I just have bad luck :-)
This is a game at the end of the day. No one in the game cares if we are a 10 year old, or a 60 year old with 10 granchildren. No one in the game cares if I spent 200 dollars in the past two months on 4 accounts and crowns for them, or if a person on my friends list still has the "trial" account.
I'm sure KI cares about $100. Any business does. My suggesting they may not care if they lose 3 accounts boils down to this. Change the entire game play to keep 3 accounts, and spend untold amount of money in design changes and salaries to make said changes, or simply continue what they are doing, and know that you will lose customers because, quite frankly, you can't please all people all of the time.
I have personally dealt with KI's customer service on the phone. They are quite professional, helpful, and very friendly. They were very intent on helping me fix my problem. Even when they were sure they had the issue fixed, they still wanted to make sure I wasn't having that specific problem. All for a $10 charge that I made very clear I could make using one of the gift cards when they arrived at Rite-Aid.
I certainly don't care about "kowtowing" to anyone or any company. I'm too old to keep my business with a company I'm not happy with. My money is hard earned and quite valuable to me, so I want a specific level of service when I have problems, and I usually have no problem with most companies.
but I also am not going to demand that changes be made, and boast about the amount of money I've spent and how I will take that business elsewhere if the changes aren't made and I don't get an answer.
KI, I'm sure, reads all our suggestions and complaints. They also, no doubt, have a plan in place already for upcoming updates, such as new content, new items, etc. So changing the entire card system for a person who signed up and paid for the game knowing it was based on cards wouldn't rate as top priority on my radar. Many others as well. Hence suggestion for another game that doesn't utilize cards, and once you've learned a spell, you can cast it, assuming you have the magical power/ability to do so (And I suggested EverQuest only because I played that game for 8 years, so have experience with it).
Good luck to the original poster in finding a game they like, or in staying with Wizard101. And good luck with the upcoming vacation.
And especially good luck with the threats to cancel the accounts if a response and change isn't made to their satisfaction. You often find owners of businesses would rather lose a person like that than deal with them, because once you change a lot of things to suit them, they will find more to be unhappy with, an expect it again. When you already have thousands upon thousands of customers, and just opened up an avenue for an entirely new, previously untouched segment (via the gift cards), I think the loss of three accounts isn't that huge.
Try this out (and yes i have on my own). If you have a card that says 70% success rate, every time you cast that card keep track of the successes and fizzles. you'll be surprised at the numbers you come up with. It's really elementary mathematics.
70% = 7 out of 10 or 70% = 70 out of 100
I bet you will not succeed anywhere near these rates.
This is my fourth online game I've played over the past twelve years and have noticed that the newer games all seem to have some sort of success rate to something in the game that is no where near what the system tells you it is suppose to be. My personal opinion is that it is not accurate to get you to pay more R/L money for those things that get it closer to the actual rate. Hence with Wizard101 the easiest way to get clothing items that have increased precision is to buy them with crowns. Yes you can buy them with gold but they are grossly over priced. Either way just remember it is a business: A) your opinions count. B) they are trying to turn a profit.
Good Luck and please post your test results as I would like to compare mine to yours.
OK, i tried to explain this. In movies wizards do know their spells but this is a card based game like pokemon or magic the gathering. That is the method that this mmog has used for combat. there are other mmog that use different methods out there. I understand your frustration and would never tell anyone to just leave, but I would also not ask a company to change the entire core of their product to suit me. This is a quest based, card based game. There are other games that use little stones for magic and others that you simply know your spells.
As for not replying without understanding your post, I do understand your post, and at the risk of sounding rude, dont post without understanding the game.
BTW i am a parent and my wife and children all play, the grade schoolers and the teen. We switched from the other MMOGs to this because it is simplified yet fun and it is turn based card fighting, which makes it easier for the youngest to learn the game.
I think you may have misinterpreted the percentages on the cards as well. The card has a 70% chance of work, each time, not it works 70% of the time. You have to look at the card as an individual item. Its ability to work is not dependent on past or future results but the odds that were given to that card that it will work at that time in space.
A quarter has a 50% chance of coming up heads, but if you flip a coin 100 times you wont get 50 heads and 50 tails. the percentage of success is not trend based. Unfortunately that cannot be tracked without access to the game code because it is a one time event. Consider role playing games and their funny dice. there is a set of dice to roll for percentages. w101 works much the same way. lets take a storm card, 70% chance of success. If your computer "rolls the dice" to see if it works, the result of the roll can be from 1 to 70.
I've been bouncing around the forums, every once in awhile finding some point I feel the need to argue because I think it is important. Figure I'll toss a hat into this.
Fizzle rates. This isn't something that is "fixable". It is a mathmatical formula and if they are smart, they did it as simple as the random number generating command in most computer languages and then setting the conditions for the resulsts based on the number value. Which means they can adjust the fizzle thresholds, but then they are changing the card entirely, nothing broken.
Random cards. They had a few paths to go. Either they could either give you everything at once, or do the random shuffle that they currently have. If they gave you everything at once, battles would be simple. Short of upping the fizzle rate or making the boss's lethally effecient, most gamers would never have a challange. You know the damage out put of your cards, you know what they can do, if you have initiative you can make sure you heal exactly when you want to and never have to worry about dieing short of your own miscalculations. And you'd find walk throughs online to tell you what to pack in your decks at each level. Doesn't have much replayability. Or they do this, where sometimes it's best to trim your deck down to 10 cards, because they are all you need to win a fight and this way you'll get them. Would it be nice to include the "tutoring cards" from magic, to search for a card you need from your deck? Yes, and it might be a good idea to propose those style of cards, but to give full access to all your spells at once, that is a different game, not a modification to this one.
On one other note, the making choices you don't want to make, yes that is part of any strategy. Everyone has a plan, until they get hit. If the game was battle by numbers, then your opponent wouldn't matter. Your adapting to your opponents moves as they are to you. You both don't have full control over what you can do at any point, so you both need to think on your feet, decide what is most important, what move you need to make of the ones you can make and most importantly, should you hold one one more turn to try and get the perfection or is what you have good enough for now. That is battle stragety.
As far as businesses, how they run and what they will listen to? Yes, 90% of online business are actually going to look at these responses, that used to be my job for another company. If you give good logical improvements, they will look into implementing them, maybe even make it something to push for the next update. However, unless this company is five people in an office building the CEO's will never read this. Your messages are going to get filtered through people who are getting messages from nine year olds threatening to call the internet police on them, or claiming to be someone famous so they should get free stuff. Start typing in caps and ranting, promise you they will skim over it and dismiss it, because they seen dozens of pointless e-mails or post. Typing more then a word in caps makes it look like a teenager or younger is typing it. Threaten to walk from a game, yes, they are concerned about losing people, but combine it with the "fix it or else" feeling of the first post. It comes accross as someone stamping their feet and holding their breathe. They don't want people to leave the game, but they won't bend over backwards and change everything for a handleful of people.
Got ideas for improvements, go post them in the lab. Don't expect changes that upheave the flow of the game, your 6.99 a month and maybe 200 more you've spent on crowns is no where near the 30+ an hour they have to pay each programmer to revamp the whole system, unless over half the player base is demanding it.
Long thread here, and I haven't read the whole thing. I'm sure there are many valid points to address, but I only specifically wanted to address the fizzles one a little more in depth.
First off, let me say that I've been playing games for a very long time, and have played a very wide range of games. In fact, the way I found this game is that I used to play a game that some of the developers ran many years ago (over 10 years ago now). As far as game mechanics, these guys know what they are doing. The game in some ways is better thought out than many many other games I've played (of all ways, shapes, and forms). Of course there are bugs, but for the most part, if there is a mechanic in the game, there is a reason for it.
So the reason for the fizzles rate, I guess I can't say the "exact" reason for it, but here are somethings to keep in mind. As in all games, balance is key. What I mean by balance is that you can't have one school more powerful than all the others. That would truly be "unfair." So what you do, is to try to make them "balanced," so that each has strengths and weaknesses. As another poster mentioned, storm has the worst accuracy. Their spells (other than the auto-hit spells) have accuracy in the 70% range. But, what is their strength? Let's look at some level 2 cards and compare:
What???? Why is the storm card so much more powerful? It averages 265 damage, while the ice card only averages 175 damage. Well, one factor that helps balance these schools out is the accuracy rate, the abysmal 70% accuracy of storm vs the mediocre ice accuracy of 80%. That accounts for part of it. But then, the life spell also averages 175 damage, and has 90% accuracy! So what's going on there? Well, the ice school gives you a higher base hit point level, as well as access to some relatively better defensive gear in the ice-only line of equipment. So, while I couldn't say that each school is "precisely" balanced, it is a very well thought out system which largely seems to me to be pretty well balanced. And hence, fizzles are a very important part of the balance in the game (that is, if one wants to avoid making only one school where all the spells are the same). As another poster mentioned, if you hate fizzles, try a higher accuracy school, perhaps life (90%), death or balance (85%), or possible ice or myth (80%). The spells won't pack quite as much punch as the low accuracy schools (storm - 70%, and fire - 75%), but that's part of the balance in the game.
There are also good answers to your pvp question, including the difference between ranked and unranked games, and how one creates unranked games that will be more "fair" matches. If no one else gives a satisfactory explanation perhaps I will go into some detail on that one as well..
I also wanted to add, again regarding fizzles, that retaining your pips is also a part of the game balance. In general, how much damage/healing/stuff you can do is more limited by the number of pips you have than anything else. That's what prevents someone from casting stormzilla repeatedly and doing 700 pts of dmg every round. If you are using a lot of cards with a low accuracy, then one way to that takes that into account is to put more high pip cards in your stack. That way if you are at 2 pips and fizzle, then next round you can cast a 3 pip spell (etc).
I guess my main thesis would be that, this game from what I have seen has very good balance, and the mechanics are there for a reason. It may take some thinking as to why it is designed the way it is, but that's part of the joy of gaming, in my opinion. Trying to figure out how precisely everything works, and making the most of that knowledge.
As has already been pointed out, this game isn't a movie or a book. It is based on a card game. Have you ever played Monopoly on your X-box? Same thing here, you are playing a card game on your computer. Just because you don't have the cards in your hand, doesn't mean it isn't a card game. Yeah, a wizard in a book or movie will pull out the spell he needs because that is what the storyline calls for... but this is a card game! so deal with the cards that you get dealt.
You said you have only been playing for about a week?! and you have already spent $100?! How is that possible?! Are you all buyiing every crown item offered?
Also, you say that it is you, your husband and child... well, that is 3 people, yet you say there is only 2 upset customers... how does that work out?
As has already been pointed out, this game isn't a movie or a book. It is based on a card game. Have you ever played Monopoly on your X-box? Same thing here, you are playing a card game on your computer. Just because you don't have the cards in your hand, doesn't mean it isn't a card game. Yeah, a wizard in a book or movie will pull out the spell he needs because that is what the storyline calls for... but this is a card game! so deal with the cards that you get dealt.
You said you have only been playing for about a week?! and you have already spent $100?! How is that possible?! Are you all buyiing every crown item offered?
Also, you say that it is you, your husband and child... well, that is 3 people, yet you say there is only 2 upset customers... how does that work out?
Why wouldn't it be possible for her to have spent $100 only after a week of gameplay? I know my family and I sure did on our first week of gameplay. I think some of the responses to the original OP are getting rather silly. This is exactly the reason why I no longer allow my kids to post on this forum. It's a guarantee that the same select group of people (many of them adults), who tend to dominate this board, will have something negative to say about any post that doesn't speak of KI or Wizard 101 in a good light. Is it really necessary to make people feel unwelcome?
I don't think the above posters are trying to make anyone feel bad. I think what they are trying to do is point out the fact that the original poster was not being very practical in their thinking. For every item the original poster was upset about, there are probably an equal number of people or more that like the way things are done. I really like the random nature of the cards, I like the thrill that goes along with unexpected fizzles, and I am sure I am not the only one.
Are there things KI needs to work on? Of course there are, but coming to the message boards and giving ultimatums is not an effective way of getting things changed. What if everyone came here and threatened to leave because they didn't like some aspect of the game? What if I disliked the original posters or anyone elses favorite part of the game, should I demand it is changed? Should I threaten to quit if it isn't changed? I don't like pink robes, should I threaten to leave unless they ban the color pink?
If there is something you don't like, maybe presenting a well thought out alternative that is balanced and fair that retains the spirit of the original game is better than just something be changed because you personally don't like it.
I don't think the above posters are trying to make anyone feel bad. I think what they are trying to do is point out the fact that the original poster was not being very practical in their thinking. For every item the original poster was upset about, there are probably an equal number of people or more that like the way things are done. I really like the random nature of the cards, I like the thrill that goes along with unexpected fizzles, and I am sure I am not the only one.
Are there things KI needs to work on? Of course there are, but coming to the message boards and giving ultimatums is not an effective way of getting things changed. What if everyone came here and threatened to leave because they didn't like some aspect of the game? What if I disliked the original posters or anyone elses favorite part of the game, should I demand it is changed? Should I threaten to quit if it isn't changed? I don't like pink robes, should I threaten to leave unless they ban the color pink?
If there is something you don't like, maybe presenting a well thought out alternative that is balanced and fair that retains the spirit of the original game is better than just something be changed because you personally don't like it.
While I agree that some of the things the OP is asking for regarding the game mechanics can't be changed and is the flavor of the entire game, I'm not going to pick her post apart for merely expressing her frustrations of the game. I'm certainly not going to make her feel bad by telling her to take her business elsewhere, or to curb her tone, or question how she chooses to spend her money. Kindly disagree, but is it really necessary to lecture anyone for not enjoying the core aspects of the game simply because their opinion is not a common convention among the rest of the community?
As has already been pointed out, this game isn't a movie or a book. It is based on a card game. Have you ever played Monopoly on your X-box? Same thing here, you are playing a card game on your computer. Just because you don't have the cards in your hand, doesn't mean it isn't a card game. Yeah, a wizard in a book or movie will pull out the spell he needs because that is what the storyline calls for... but this is a card game! so deal with the cards that you get dealt.
You said you have only been playing for about a week?! and you have already spent $100?! How is that possible?! Are you all buyiing every crown item offered?
Also, you say that it is you, your husband and child... well, that is 3 people, yet you say there is only 2 upset customers... how does that work out?
Why wouldn't it be possible for her to have spent $100 only after a week of gameplay? I know my family and I sure did on our first week of gameplay. I think some of the responses to the original OP are getting rather silly. This is exactly the reason why I no longer allow my kids to post on this forum. It's a guarantee that the same select group of people (many of them adults), who tend to dominate this board, will have something negative to say about any post that doesn't speak of KI or Wizard 101 in a good light. Is it really necessary to make people feel unwelcome?
I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad, but to spend $100 on a game in a one week time period seems a little overboard considering that they don't seem to like the game. It seems they jumped in without looking and now realize they've spent a lot of money on something that isn't set up to their liking. I'm thinking they should have played for a week or two to see if they liked the game well enough before spending $100. Besides, so many things that you buy with crowns can be found for free or paid for with gold. From their original post, they just put out the vibe that they're spending x ammt of dollars and therefore the game should be fitted to their liking or they're going to take their ball and go home. If you read some of my other posts, you'd see that I agreed with them early on about the fizzle rate and how frustrating it is for young wizards, but I stuck it out for more than a week and improved my wizard and decreased my fizzles and feel they should give it more time.
Ambrose has access to all the spells in the world because he is a wizard. We are student wizards. Our command of the ley lines or what have you is perhaps a notch or two below mastery.
As has been said, every TCG game or similar for the 15+ years they've been around (probably much longer but I don't really know my history) has been based on the principle of strategy restrained by chance, which in turn hinges on strategic planning.
Apart from the fact that it's rooted in tradition, it also solves an age-old problem in MMOs - an important solution especially because of the game's very young audience. If you have grouped with strangers (or even friends) in just about any other MMO, you have probably seen players express disappointment and even give each other (or you) attitude about your performance in battle. Why didn't you heal me? Don't you know how to manage threat? What sort of a battle mage are you, anyway? And so on. For a player without text chat capability, this might simply mean their teammates send "lol" in menu chat and flee. There is no way to prevent people from somehow expressing their frustration (nor should there be), and there's no way to prevent the player who made the mistake from feeling the sting.
What Wizard 101 does is remove the sting entirely, by making that frustration impossible. Introducing a TCG system into team combat simply destroys this problem top to bottom. Since you never know what spells are available to your teammates, you cannot reasonably criticize them for failure to use a certain ability at the right time. This shelters the game's younger players from the drama and nastiness that rears its head in almost every other online RPG. Do not think for a moment that this is merely a pleasant accident.
Finally, bear in mind that games like these may be your only chance in life to truly enjoy a crushing defeat and laugh at your own demise. If you're not having fun losing, I suggest you cultivate a taste for it now, because you're missing out on half the game.
