News Archive

Archive

This is where you will find all the old news and announcements after they fall off the Main Page! Just so you can browse back and see if there was anything you missed.

Wizard 101 Announcements

Limited Time 1 Year $60 Special

School's out but Wizard School is in! For a limited time only, Wizard101's one year subscription is available for only $60. Click here to learn more about the advantages of being a Subscriber or a Crowns player.

PvP Rankings

Did you make this list of the top 100 Player vs Player participants? To find out visit our Player vs Player Preview Season Page

Kingsisle Entertainment to Launch New Wizard101 World: Grizzleheim

Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. today officially revealed plans for Grizzleheim, a new 3D world to be added to the popular virtual world Wizard101.

The often silly characters and worlds of Wizard101 are influenced by literature; history and pop culture that give the game a depth and quality appreciated by adults, and make it enjoyable for families to play together. Safety features aimed at pre-teen players include a collaborative play style, a chat system with many options and a character name selector.

Inspired by Norse mythology, Grizzleheim is an airy, outdoor landscape of snowy mountains, glacial ridges and towering trees that is home to three new Wizard101 tribes - Bears, Wolves and Ravens. Players will first encounter the Viking Bears of Grizzleheim, great traders with the ability to travel the worlds of the Spiral, in the free-to-play areas of WizardCity. As student wizards adventure through subseq uent worlds, Grizzleheim will offer new quests, new locations to explore, new opponents and new Viking-themed decorative housing items interspersed throughout the mid and higher levels of the game.

Grizzleheim is expected to roll out beginning in June. As with other new content, the world will launch first on the Wizard101 test server, where subscribers will help beta test features before it goes live in the game. Wizard101 has an ESRB rating of E10+. Pre-paid gift cards are available at major U.S. retailers.

Housing in Wizard City

Beginning in the fantasy-inspired world of Wizard City, a turtle character named "Buxley Turtleton" is the Castles and Lands vendor who allows players to choose a type of Wizard City-themed house. Each world in the game will have a turtle character that sells the Castles and Lands which correspond to the world the player is in at that time.

Players can teleport to their own house or over to a friend’s house via their Friends List. Decorations can be obtained through many methods including in-game gold, PvP Arena Points, quest rewards, exploration, defeat of selected bosses, common or rare enemy drops and Crown (microtransaction) purchase. Features include:

• Three tiers of housing: Dorm, Modest Private and Luxury Private
• Two housing styles for each of five current worlds, beginning with Wizard City.
• Over 1,000 decorative housing items such as plants, statues, wall hangings, columns, pictures, furniture and more.
• Many variations, including more than 20 types of detailed wallpaper and flooring.

Housing can take some time to build, especially with the current demand. If you purchase housing and can not enter please wait another 15 minutes before trying again.

May 6th Downtime and Updates

Wizard101 will be offline Wednesday May 06 2009 starting at 3:00am Central US time until approximately 8:00am Central US time. Wizard101 will be offline for an extended period of time tonight so we can implement the much anticipated Castles & Lands housing feature, voiceovers for Marleybone, MooShu and Dragonspyre, and many other exciting updates.

To read all about what’s happening in this latest update to Wizard101, read our May Notes.

Ravenwood Bulletin

Volume IX of the Ravenwood Bulletin is available. This month Lady Oriel brings you the news for the month of May in the Spiral.

For more information, go to Wizard101.com and click Newsletter under the Wizard Society Banner.

Gift Cards now available (US)

PLANO, TEXAS - April 30, 2009 - Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment, Inc. has announced a gift card program for family-friendly hit game Wizard101® (www.wizard101.com), which recently surpassed two million unique users who have registered to play the game.

Starting today, $10 prepaid Wizard101 gift cards are available in 7-Eleven® stores nationwide. Purchasing through local outlets offers friends, family and fans of the 3D virtual world of Wizards and spell-casting more options for unlocking advanced game content.

Each card offers a limited edition collectible pet available upon redemption from one of four special sets: Protectors, Assistants, Adventurers, and Heroes. Pets from these sets will give players better powers such as increased accuracy, defense, damage, and a special spell card that can be used during duels.

In addition to the special abilities listed above, the gift card pets will be available in colors, patterns, and clothing that cannot be found anywhere else in the game. The first set, Protectors, are available now. Each month beginning in May, a new set will become available to gift card purchasers upon redemption.

May Test Realm

Test Realm Opens to Preview Housing in Wizard101

To our Subscribers and players who have made a Crowns purchase in the last 30 days, we invite you to test out some of our new features on the Wizard101 Test Realm.

We will be looking to you to test out the following additions to Wizard101: Housing - Housing and housing item vendors can be found in all the worlds of the Spiral. Decorate your house or your Dorm room! Voiceovers have been added for Marleybone, MooShu and Dragonspyre Tips will appear to alert you to any items you have received as a reward. Run Speed modifiers can be found on Crowns items and as boss drops. Markers can now be placed that will allow you to recall back to a marked location. New messaging for Dungeons when you enter and if you log out while inside. New messaging for Quest drops such as 'Collect Armor'. Boat and Balloon rides are now optional. Friend Requests show more information about the character. The ghosts have fled from Firecat Alley and Triton Avenue to be replaced with different creatures.

April Test Realm

Wizard101 Test Realm Opens for April As a special bonus for Subscribers of Wizard101, we have opened the Test Realm to allow you to get a sneak peek of what's coming in Wizard101 before it's released to everyone! You'll log into a new realm that only Subscribers can access. If you find any bugs in the Test Realm, please use the Bug Report button to let us know!

To access the Test Realm – go to Wizard101.com and log in to the website. Click the bright red banner at the top of any page to learn more about how you can be a game tester!

Features we need you to test: 1. New Quest helper system - If you're stuck on a quest, highlight it in your Quest Journal and click on the Yellow Arrow Button. You will see an arrow appear on your screen indicating direction and approximate number of steps to the destination for that quest.

2. Spring Holiday Items - Meet Eggbert in the Wizard City Shopping District and see what Wands he has for you this spring season.

3. Training Point Respec System for Crowns - yes that's right - you can sell back the Training points that you have spent. Remember this does not apply to your Primary School of Focus. See Mr Lincoln in Golem Court for more information.

4. More Player vs Player rewards available from Diego including a new pet!

5. New Best Friend Feature! Open your Friends Panel and you'll be seeing Stars! You can mark which Friends are your Best Friends! • Clicking on an empty Star fills it in. • Clicking on a filled in Star un-fills it. • When a Star is filled in, it sorts to the top of the Friends List immediately • If there are multiple people with filled in Stars, they sort to the top of the Friends List alphabetically. • If the Friends List is very long and a Star is filled in, the view should stay where it is in the list. • Names in the Friends List that have a filled in Star next to them should appear in Light Purple.

There are more features for you to discover and if you need information about how to log in to the Test Realm, see our Sneak Peek Page and the Subscribers only section of our Message Boards.

Thank you and see you in the Test Realm! ~Professor Greyrose.

March 26, 2009

Wizard101 Update and Downtime Wizard101 the game will have a big update tonight including the long overdue voice overs for quests in Wizard City and Krokotopia, Shared Item Bank, Deletion Protection and many other improvements.

Wizard101 the game will be offline starting at 3:00am Central US Time and lasting until approximately 4:30am Central US Time. To find out more about the updates being added at this time, please see our Patch Notes page.

Test Realm Reopens

Hello Young Wizards! As a special bonus for Subscribers, we have re-opened the Test Realm to allow you to get a sneak peek of what's coming in Wizard101 before it's released to everyone! Follow the instructions on this page, and you can log into a new realm that only Subscribers can access.

Downtime February 25

Wizard101 the game will be offline Wednesday February 25 2009 starting at 3am Central US Time and ending at approximately 3:45am Central US Time.

During this downtime you will be unable to log in to the game and players who are logged in will see a message telling them that they will need to log out of the game before it is brought down.

Due to recent interruptions in our website, Wizard101.com the website may also be taken down intermittently during this time period. Thank you for your patience while we ensure that Wizard101 is available to everyone.

Wizard101 Weekend Assignment February 20

Many of you have given us some GREAT feedback about what has affectionately become known as THE Fizzle Bug.

For those of you not familiar with this bug, its symptoms are round after round (particularly in PvP) of all players fizzling ALL their spells, including 100% wand spells. (Now I'm not referring to just a bad streak of fizzles, this is something that will affect the entire team for the remainder of the duel.)

We're pretty sure that we've cast a strong enough spell to rid ourselves of this Fizzle Bug once and for all, but just to be sure, I want all our Wizards to try to make this bug happen in any way you know.

That is your assignment for this weekend; see if you can catch THE Fizzle Bug. If you do, post on our Message Boards in this section. We're particularly interested in: 1. Realm 2. Area 3. Location Thank you! I hope none of you encounter this bug, and don't worry this is not an assignment that you can fail.

Hopefully Fixed!

The following issues should of been addressed in January 18'ths downtime. -Empty Friends Lists will be restored -We found the key to Grimcasters Tower in the Crucible so that door will now be unlocked. -Vika Markmaker has decided to join in on the duels once again. -Jing-han He has his memory back and will once again recall that he's given you a quest to complete. -Player vs Player teaming up issues will no longer lock players in a loop. You should be able to join matches and team up as normal And once again, thank you to our fans who have been dedicated to letting us know all they can about these issues so that we can quickly address them. You are what makes Wizard101 fun for everyone.

Wizard101 Downtime Feb 16

We're casting a REALLY big spell tonight to fix the problems with the Player vs Player matching and duels. Thank you to all our players who gave us feedback about the issues they were encountering. Wizard101 will be offline starting at 3am Central US time and ending approximately 4am Central US time. During this downtime players will not be able to log in to the game, and players who are in the game will need to log out. Thank you!

Wizard101 Downtime Feb 14

Wizard101 will be offline between 3am and approximately 4am Central US Time on February 14th. During this downtime, you will not be able to log in to the game. We apologize for this interruption, and thank you for your patience as we thwart the harmful spells that Malistaire cast on our Wizards today.

PVP & Other Updates

PvP Dueling Arena Opens for Free & Access Pass Players Feb 14th! With our newest changes, Free & Access Pass Players will be able to compete in practice matches for free OR ranked matches for a small fee of 80 Crowns. The Arena will not be available for Free or Access Pass Players until February 14th. Good luck in the Arena! There have been a lot more updates added, check out the Patch Notes page for full details.

Wizard101 Test Realm Available

The time has come for us to call on you, our subscribers, to adventure in the Test Realm. Starting February 6th, the Test Realm will re-open for you to explore new additions we have made to Wizard101.

Visit Valentina Heartsong in the Wizard City Shopping District, then see what new items Zeke has for sale in Wizard City and Dragonspyre! Meet a new student; Penny Dreadful, and find out how you can help her. Explore and adventure to find more additions to the worlds of the spiral.

Remember, if you find a bug in the Test Realm, just click the little bug report button in the upper left and fill out the form.

What you do in the Test Realm will not affect your live characters in any way.

For more information about who can play on the Test Realm, and how to access it, please visit our Sneak Peek Page.

All Announcements Courtesy of Wizard 101 Community Announcements

Wiki News

Wiki

As of Monday 9th February the Wiki link will be on the Wizard 101 Fanpage. This is awesome news - more than likely meaning more people will find the site, make use of everyone's hard work and possibly put in some of their own!

Great Work

We have now cleared over 2000 articles - this is absolutely awesome! A lot of work has gone into getting the information for Wizard City together and displayed, and finally the light at the end of the tunnel seems to glimmer in the distance - with this momentous task drawing to conclusion. It will take a couple more weeks to finish adding the final touches, and of course the information will probably continue to go up as rare items drop, and yearly events roll around. Fantastic efforts to everyone who has added information in this time - it is due to you that this site is quickly become a good resource for the game and I hope many of you stay with it as we move on to Krokotopia and beyond - maybe we can even catch up before too many more worlds get added!

FAQ Page

If you cannot find an answer within the wiki leave your question on the FAQ page. If you know the answer to question there or have more information to share on one of the questions please edit. Your help will be appreciated!!! The FAQ page will be checked by the Admins often.

Adding and Editing

If you wish to add a page, bravo, you will be helping everyone who uses this Wiki. A simple request however is to use the templates to ensure that it fits the look of the other pages and ensures your new page can be found. We generally do not delete content but may move it to a more suitable location, or merge it if it is pre-existing. If you wonder where something you have created has gone email the admins. Basic templates have been created for most sections, use templates by putting in saving - the template will then load and you can add your information into the loaded format! Templates currently exist for Locations, Items, Quests, NPC, Spells. There are also a lot of categories to help keep the data sorted and easy to find, if in doubt put it in the main category. If you wish to edit an existing page - feel free, this is what a wiki is about. Please do not delete another persons valuable addition unless you know it is wrong - it is better to move it to the discussion tab and wait for it to be validated by someone else than to be wrong yourself. Admins have a formidable task of keeping the information sorted, patrolling some of the vandalism that gets added and verifying facts. As well as adding their own pages. All assistance is appreciated - you can report problems, email them or leave a message on their user page - they will get to the issue as soon as possible. If you feel confident enough feel free to try fix the issue yourself, even if you make a mistake it is fairly easy for the admins to fix it later, the effort will be greatly appreciated and you will learn and do better next time. Most of all feel good in knowing you are improving the Wiki, and helping Wizards all across the Spiral.