Show and Tell Contest Winners!

Tell us your story about how Wizard101 has brought your family closer together, or created additional family bonding.

Gap Between Two Homes Is Bridged By One Game
by Richard

My kids are part of a two home family. They spent part of their time at their mother’s home and part of their time at their dad’s home. That makes time with my kids more precious and more challenging.

We always enjoyed playing games together and sharing stories afterward. This is true for sport games, board games, and electronic games. This is easier when we are physically together. But when apart, the good quality options are limited.

When I stumbled across Wizard101, I knew I had found an incredible opportunity for improving together time with my kids, and hence my relationship with them. I found a kid friendly and safe environment that we could interact together, when we are not together. And one that the kids enjoyed immensely! Not to mention, I did too (with such witty writing on the story line)!!

We have been playing Wizard101 (and now Pirate101) since early 2009. We have created so many in-game stories over the years that we continue to share outside the game (and yes, we have a well rounded life outside the game). I cannot find the words to express how much I appreciate the KingsIsle gaming environments and how much it has enriched the lives within our family. Thank you KingsIsle.

The Magical Gang of Four
by William

How HASN’T Wizard101 brought my boys and I closer? We started playing after seeing an ad on Saturday morning TV. Being a long-time MMO player, I was open to giving it a try together to see if it was fun and safe. We mastered a few streets, unlocked a few more, and soon were subscribed as a family account. We are all different magic-schools, and usually play in different shifts, and soon our mealtimes became “debriefings” about our adventures. Then the most fun was planning and playing big dungeons together, helping each other whenever one of us was stuck. We have been playing since the 1-year anniversary and have seen a lot of new zones added (grizzelheim, celestia, etc.) and new things to do (crafting, pet racing, gardening) and have had a lot to talk about. In addition, my middle son has learned how to calmly handle being “defeated”, while I have learned how to “learn” from my oldest since he is higher level than I am! Wizard101 has been a wonderful experience and I look forward to my youngest enrolling in the Ravenwood School of the Magical Arts.

Play Time is Family Time
by Donna

I am sixty-two years old. During the years my oldest son went to college, got a job and moved away from home, the natural life changes resulted in our seeing and contacting each other less and less and gradually drifting apart. I discovered Wizard101 over a year ago, forgive the memory blanking out but do not recall just how much over a year it was. My son enjoys gaming and taking a chance, I got him a membership to try as a gift. He was skeptical however did try it and enjoyed it. We played together, chatting back and forth, for many months, growing closer and delighting in the gaming time together. We both completed the existing worlds at the time. When Pirate101 came out, we both got a membership there and play and talk almost daily. Unquestionably, the games are both a relaxing activity we mutually enjoy and look forward to spending time with each other. The games have indeed become a means for strengthening the family bond with my oldest son.

Tell us your story about how Wizard101 has furthered your learning or taught you something meaningful.

Behavior charts and wizard 101
by Michele

We use wizard 101 as part of an enrichment tool for our school day.

We have wizard 101 money that we created and printed out. The kids earn crowns for completing their work, putting their things away, and doing their best on their assignments. They then use the crowns to buy computer time to play Wizard 101. We use a chart to keep track of the dollars they earn. The chart contains a pocket with a gobbler on it to hold any crowns that are lost. There is also a pocket with a silver chest to hold crowns that can be earned and a bank to hold crowns already won.

The kids trade crowns for different denominations. Like 5 single crowns for a 5 dollar crown bill so while we are working on responsibility they are also learning math and how to work with money.

They both play Wizard 101 online and offline. They role play being their favorite characters offline and have gotten their friends into the game as well.

My kids are 8 and 9 years old and are in 1st and 2nd grade.

Meaningful Math Madness!
by Albert

OK. Here it is straight away: Wizard101 is very fun, and at the same time has sharpened and given insight to 2 skills. Wizard101 has given all of us an opportunity to think strategically, and apply it to our everyday lives. Wizard101 has also made the concepts of percentages, fractions, and ratios very real for my children (10, 12, and 13 years old).

All of us here like to PVP, and to be successful at PVP, you must have a plan and a strategy. Wizard101 has inadvertently taught my young children to stretch their minds and formulate plans and strategies for their PVP battles (like chess). PVP offers excellent opportunity to learn to plan and strategize, and to develop goals and milestones. The relationship between goals and milestones are now applied to their strategies with their school work, manipulation of Dad and Mom, and other objectives they want to accomplish.

Wizard101 has also turned us all into walking calculators, by understanding exactly how much damage a 40% death blade, coupled with a 35% Spirit blade, and the base damage will do on an opponent with 35% resistance, or how much Fortify at 15% and Weakness at 30% will reduce the incoming damage from a heavily Bladed Ice attack. This understanding of percentages and fractions has made them grasp everyday occurrences like how much will that new X-box game costs with a 25% discount and 6.5% sales tax. Math has come alive in this house!

inestimable gains in estimating
by James

My son and I play Pirate101 together. He is in 8th grade and has learned about estimating numbers in school, but just simple estimations,not anything about odds. Pirate101 is teaching him to keep mental track of approximate average damage his units can do and the average likely-hood that they will do more or less (miss, or critical hit for example), so he can try and predict how many characters to have attack a single enemy without wasting attacks in overkill.

This kind of mentally estimating the best attack pattern may seem like second nature to adults, but it has been a wonderful experience watching him learn it in a fun way that didn’t even feel like learning. He started doing it on his own, and often verbalizes his estimations, asking me to attack specific enemies with my various characters as well (he is keeping rough track of about a dozen characters abilities based on their levels, and estimating the best attack combos based on enemy health… and all within the half minute timer we get for each turn.)

He doesn’t estimate perfectly every time, no one can, but he HAS gotten excellent at it, and it makes me proud.

Tell us how KingsIsle’s games have driven creativity in you or your family members.

A Mother, A Pirate and her Diary
by Laura Davis

Ever since Pirate101 has come out, I decided to write and keep a journal about my Pirate’s exploits. I save this journal and snapshots of the game for my son. He’s very young, but when he gets a little older, I plan on using it as a bedtime story to get him to sleep. I’ll be doing the same with Wizard101. But for now, The tales of Scarlet are still incomplete! Every good story needs to have a great ending before another one can begin.

My Mini Pirates
by chrisit greer

Dear KingsIsle: I have two wonderful boys ages eight and four. They are absolutely crazy about pirates 101. My oldest son recently lost his front tooth and my husband who enjoys woodworking was shocked when Aaron went to him and said I wish I had a treasure chest to put my tooth in for the toothfairy. My husband and son handcrafted a small treasure chest. I even got my four year old to help me bejewel the outside. It was great fun making the chest and a perfect family project inspired by pirates 101. My son carefully placed his tooth in the treasure chest and put it by his pillow. In the morning the toothfairy had left lots of booty in the treasure chest!:)

Best Homecoming Parade Ever!
by Kim

I am a creative person by nature, I love drawing, painting, decorating, and all around basic crafting. Pirate101 and Wizard101 definitely gave me a fantastic idea for my town’s school homecoming parade. Our schools mascot is, well, not the coolest or fiercest looking. So maybe turning him into a pirate for the day would give him an edge. No one had any idea that I was getting my inspiration from a mmo game. After I explained to them about the wonderful P101 and W101 games, they were all more interested in playing rather than building. But with the help of many, we managed to fashion a fairly large P101 inspired battleship float. There were other ship floats in the parade, but what made ours so special was that ours were full of wizard passengers. Several of us were dressed as wizards, with wands, staffs, lots of magic (sparkly glitter), and colorful fogs. We even had a pretend witches pot brewing the other team’s mascot just for laughs.

Showcasing Creativity Inspired by Wizard101 and Pirate101 Winners

Art by AluraRB
by Alura RoseBlade
Deacon from Pirate101


One-Eyed Jack Is An Old Softie!
by Tracy Hite
One-Eyed Jack knitted by Sierra Starsong


w101 papercraft models
by Amanda Hensley
papercraft models

Grand Prize Winner... Amanda Hensley and the Wizard101 Papercraft Models

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