National Parenting Publications Awards honors Wizard101

The family friendly MMO, Wizard101 was recently named an Honors Award winner in the 2009 National Parenting Publications Awards (NAPPA) Children’s Products competition. Full results were announced November 1, 2009, in more than 40 regional parenting magazines across the country and online at Parenthood.com. This award recognizes video games available for children that are safe and fun.

“This multi-player online adventure game encourages social activity and collaboration among players,” said NAPPA judge Alex Chisholm. “While other online fantasy games may be too mature for some kids, Wizard101 hits a nice balance among fun, adventure and competition as players are summoned to help save Wizard City.”

Congrats to the makers of this game, which is in fact something safe and fun you can play with your children. You can learn more about Wizard101 by visiting www.wizard101.com.

Wizard101 celebrates one year of service and five millionth player milestones

 Wizard101, the magic-themed Massively Multi-player Online game from KingsIsle Entertainment, celebrates its one-year anniversary this month. KingsIsle Entertainment says that since its launch a year ago the game has garnered five million registered players worldwide. That’s a pretty impressive number for a game and a company that isn’t necessarily considered brand name. It probably didn’t hurt that KingsIsle has been doing targeted marketing for the game on some of the most popular children’s television networks including Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network since its launch. It also doesn’t hurt that the game doesn’t suck and is fun to play for both kids and adults.

As part of its one year celebration, several decorations are being added to the game this month as well as a special surprise for all players to be revealed at a later date. Wizard101 combines collectible trading card game-based combat with the social interaction of an online multiplayer game and a parental control system that allows adults to restrict communications options for younger players, while allowing more freedom to older players.

You can learn more about the game by visiting www.Wizard101.com.

Wizard101 gets ‘largest expansion to date’

KingsIsle has released what it calls “the largest expansion to date” for its family friendly MMO Wizard101. In addition to a new world called Grizzleheim, the expansion also introduces crafting to the game, as well as a Bazaar and several new community features.

Players are now able to craft hundreds of new items, including hats, robes, staves, furniture and Treasure Cards. First, Wizards have to obtain crafting tables for their houses or dorm rooms, and then collect the recipes, reagents, and ingredients necessary to make the new items through exploration, shopping, or defeating enemies. There are five tiers of advancement for crafters, and any player may choose to become a crafter although many recipes and ingredients will be found in areas accessible only to subscribers.

In addition to Grizzleheim and crafting, players may now visit the new Bazaar in Olde Town where they may buy items sold by other players and sell items in exchange for gold. Run by a new NPC trader named Elik Silverfist, prices for each item will adjust depending on how many of that item are on hand.

New updates to community features include adventure grouping for up to four players across zones and pen chat, an option available only to players over age 18 with a validated credit card.

The Rundown: Dec. 19, 2008

Today on The Rundown Sega reveals the return of OutRun, Metal Gear Online gets a demo, Nintendo gets dedicated at Times Square Toys R Us, and Lips to get more songs. Read on..

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The Rundown: Dec. 15, 2008

2008 is slowly fading to black. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Here’s today’s news..

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The Rundown: Dec. 5, 2008

Fun Fact: Christian Bale, tough guy caped crusader in The Dark Knight and humanity’s last hope in the upcoming Terminator Salvation, played the dancing and prancing newspaper boy, Jack ‘Cowboy’ Kelly in the 1992 musical Newsies. Kind of puts his tough guy persona into question… Here’s all today’s lesser stories..

Remains of the Day
CD Projekt co-founders, Michal Kicinski and Marcin Iwinski, have been named Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year and will represent Poland in the world’s final competition in Monte Carlo next June. “Entrepreneur of the Year” is an international initiative promoting the best entrepreneurs around the world, with more than 10,000 candidates each year. The contest has been organized annually since 1986 and over 30 countries participate. In the United States, where the competition was born, the Ernst & Young awards are often referred to as the business Oscars.

CD Projekt earned this honor by being the largest games distributor in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, with more than 135million PLN (approx. $43 million) in annual revenue. But to the rest of the world, the company is know best for its excellent action RPG, The Witcher. The company also recently launched the classic DRM-free games site, Good Old Games.

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Wizard101 Offers Family Plan

While Wizard101 is an MMO and social online world mostly geared towards tweens, KingsIsle is trying to bring families together with a special family plan. Best described as Harry Potter meets Yu-Gi-Oh!, Wizard101 is free-to-play, with advanced play content and features available at the general subscription rate of $9.95 per month.

The new family subscription plan lets family members to purchase multiple accounts charged to the same credit card at the rate of $6.95 per month for each account. So if you want to drag your mom or dad, brother or sister into the game, now you can and you’ll get a discount to boot.

If you are interested in learning more about the game, check out www.wizard101.com.