HAPPY 2010! Reflections and Projections?

Happy 2010!


I hope you all made it to midnight last night! I napped a bit between 10:00 and 11:00, but I woke up to ring in the new year with the family for the last hour! We did the traditional banging of the pots and pans at midnight. :-) I'm sure our quiet neighbors were ecstatic about it.

Amazingly enough, when I look back at Jan 1, 2009 I see that Amber had just finished up her level 30 spell quest and unlocked Regenerate. Spooky. Just last night Molly (the healer alt on the other account) unlocked regenerate.

2009 was full of Wizard101 win.

So as is tradition with the coming and going of the new year, it is time to reflect on all that 2009 was and all that 2010 (and beyond) could be. Here's my quick break down of some cool moments in 2009:

- On January 18th, KI threw the activate Dragonspyre Switch.
- On February 12th, KI made PVP rock, added silver chests, hit a million players, and started the Friendship Festival for Valentines day.
- On March 7th, I began my first attempt at answering questions about Wizard101.
- On March 25th, KI institutes voice overs and the shared bank.
- On April 12th, KI hits us with that yellow arrow we all love so much. We also FINALLY got our level 48 spells, training points buyback option, and eggbert (the magical dragon gifting vendor)
- On April 26th, I start my first housing item of the day from the test realm.
- On May 6th, Housing goes live.
- On June 19th, I kick off my (still unfinished) player trading cards project.
- On July 1st, Grizzleheim and crafting go live.
- On July 2nd, Diapermancer days begin!
- On July 4th, I propose that it would be nice to have maps of all the regeant nodes, which inspires this thread on Central on July 5th by Evil Theurgists.
- On July 25th, Heck freezes over and my wife starts playing Wizard101.
(July was a fantastic month for me!)
- On September 2nd, Wizard101 turns 1 year old!
- On September 16th, KI gives us a new fountain in Wizard City to celebrate 5 million players.
- On October 16th, Mounts and the crown shop go live.
- On October 29th, Ravenwood Radio hits the pavement running.
(November?)
- On December 14th, School housing and a few cosmetic updates are put in the game.

It was indeed a very cool year dear readers.

And now we turn our eyes to the future, and let me do so through a question from our friend Kestrel:

It's me, Kestrel. I was wondering what you think about something. How long will Wizard101 last? Will it still be around when I have kids? Will it be as played as it is now? Will they ever make it for macs? Thanks.

Wizard101 is going to be around for a long time I think. To lift a metaphor I read from one of the twitters from the Austin GDC . . . No one is playing Madden '99 anymore (football game from 1999), yet people are still playing Everquest, which was released the same year. Yes, other MMOs have come and gone in the same period of time that Everquest has survived in, but Everquest is a good example of the lasting power of MMO video games. If Kingsisle can keep growing this MMO, then I think you'll see it continue to thrive. Everquest has released 16 expansions to their game to keep players playing the game (some weren't the best of expansions, but hey . . . that's a lot of additional content to pour into a game).

If Wizard101 does manage to stick around until you have kids (I don't know how many years away that is), then it will most likely be a larger world that ends up having a weird look about it. What I mean is, when I look at Everquest, it's this weird mesh of new and old graphics throughout the world. Some parts look new and updated and some look . . . well . . . more pixalated with more seams, old school yo. Wizard101 is already starting to look like this and it's only 1 year old. Grizzleheim looks lush and has interesting world layouts . . . monsters have more awesome death animations. Mooshu is flat compared to the awesomeness of Grizzleheim.

I think you'll always have a sense of "card game" in Wizard101 with battle animations. I think you'll continue to see improvements in the GUI though. GUI? Oh yeah, that's geek speak for "Graphical User Interface." That's the buttons and compass and look of the "user interface" that you use to play the game. So, probably the way you interact with the game will evolve. Touch screens may change a lot of things in the computer world in the next 10 years. You can already see KI tweaking with the GUI with the look of the new crowns shop.

Will it ever be made for macs? I don't think so at this point. That's just me saying that though. I don't have any official word on it or anything like that. I just don't think it's a priority for them. From what I hear you *can* run Wizard101 on a Mac, but you basically have to install Windows on the Mac to do it. Meh. That kind of defeats the purpose of having a mac. There's more about that here. If I was a Mac fanatic, I'd be on that thread trying to raise more holy war. Maybe you'll get your wish!

I think 2010 will definitely bring us 5 more levels and a new world or two.

Leave your 2010 predictions for Wizard101 here! Let's see if they come true!

Happy dueling!