massively multiplayer online role-playing game
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.
As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...
Wizard101
''Wizard101'' is a 2008 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by KingsIsle Entertainment. Players take on the role of student wizards who must save the Spiral, the fictional universe in which the game is ...
,'' set in the same
fictional universe
A fictional universe, also known as an imagined universe or a constructed universe, is the internally consistent fictional setting used in a narrative or a work of art. This concept is most commonly associated with works of fantasy and scie ...
of the “Spiral”. The player assumes the role of a pirate, who, after being rescued from a prison ship, begins searching for pieces of a map that could take them to the mythical, long-lost world of
El Dorado
El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...
. The player is in a race to reach it with Kane, the game’s
main antagonist
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.turn-based combat system similar to those used in
board game
A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
s.
Overview
The fictional universe of the Spiral is divided into several worlds, each consisting of multiple areas. The worlds of the Spiral are islands suspended in midair within spheroid atmospheres. The first world in the game, Skull Island, is a cluster of
jungle
jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century.
Etymology
The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...
islands which serves as a
pirate haven
Pirate havens or Pirate coves are ports or harbors that are a safe place for pirates to repair their vessels, resupply, recruit, spend their plunder, avoid capture, and/or lie in wait for merchant ships to pass by. The areas have governments that ...
. Ships in the game sail and make port in midair. The open skies between islands are referred to as “Skyways”.
The game's content is divided into numerous "Books", which are further subdivided into individual "Chapters". Players may purchase access to all areas related to a given Chapter using "Crowns", the game's premium currency. Purchasing a membership grants unlimited access to all Chapters for a limited time. Upon character creation, players are given free access to "Introduction" and to "Prologue Part 1", the first Book.
Side activities in the Spiral include Practice PvP (
player versus player
Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents and is usually of ...
), Ranked PvP, a nautical gauntlet, training pets, pet sparring, and housing.
Characters
Players can interact with, trade with, fight, and obtain quests from different NPCs located throughout the worlds of the Spiral. Companions can serve the player in combat and also provide
comic relief
Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...
during the story.
''Pirate101'' has several types of in-game characters. Two
non-player characters
A non-player character (NPC) is a Character (arts), character in a game that is not controlled by a Player (game), player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaste ...
(NPCs) in the game, Boochbeard and Mr Gandry, serve as the player's voiceover guide when the player encounters certain aspects of the game for the first time, such as being defeated in combat. They appear in the game’s prologue, with the player never physically encountering or observing them again.
The Armada is an army of humanoid clockwork pirates who invade and dominate many worlds of the Spiral. It is led by Kane, Supreme Commander of the Armada, a
superintelligent
A superintelligence is a hypothetical agent that possesses intelligence surpassing that of the brightest and most gifted human minds. "Superintelligence" may also refer to a property of advanced problem-solving systems that excel in specific area ...
humanoid clockwork whose primary goals are to reach El Dorado, make himself immortal, and then proceed to destroy the Spiral in order to recreate it in his image.
Plot
The game opens with the player character, a young pirate orphan, being recused and then escaping from an Armada-operated prison ship in Skull Island. The first section of the game involves the player completing various quests for Captain Avery, an extremely wealthy retired pirate who is the owner and steward of the entire Skyway. The player does quests for Avery in order to earn their keep, eventually being sent on a quest to discover pieces of a map that could lead them to
El Dorado
El Dorado () is a mythical city of gold supposedly located somewhere in South America. The king of this city was said to be so rich that he would cover himself from head to foot in gold dust – either daily or on certain ceremonial occasions � ...
, a long-lost world made entirely of gold. The Armada, meanwhile, is racing the player to obtain the same map pieces.
The player travels to various worlds of the Spiral—such as the
imperial China
The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...
-themed MooShu and the
American frontier
The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the Geography of the United States, geography, History of the United States, history, Folklore of the United States, folklore, and Cultur ...
-themed Cool Ranch—in search of the map pieces. Eventually, after the player collects three of the seven map pieces and the Armada collect two, the player confronts and defeats the Armada leader Kane, although his greatest creation Queen escapes, and the player receives a message from their parents' ghosts telling them to abandon their quest for El Dorado, and that they are proud of them for saving the Spiral.
A second arc of the game (still in development) starts with the player rescuing
Sinbad
Sinbad the Sailor (; or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle. He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the early Abbasid Caliphate (8th and 9th centuries A.D.). In the course of seven voyages throughout the sea ...
(who then joins their crew) and performing various adventures with him, until it is interrupted by another message from their parents warning vaguely about a shadow coming for El Dorado, and revealing that their previous message was a forgery. The player then travels to two different underworlds (
Tartarus
In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; ) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's '' Gorgias'' (), souls are judged after ...
and
Duat
The Duat or Tuat (Ancient Egyptian: Hieroglyph: 𓇽 romanized: dwꜣt) is a concept in ancient Egyptian mythology involving death. It is most often seen as a realm where people go after they die. Due to linguistic shifts within Ancient Egypt, th ...
) in order to investigate what is happening to their parents, eventually revealing another enemy racing them to El Dorado, who leaves them an ominous warning.
Companions
Depending on the
class
Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...
chosen for the player's character, as well as other choices made in character creation, different companions will be assigned to the player. For example, if a player chooses the Witchdoctor class, they will fight alongside Kan Po of the MooShu Five and Mormo of the Kraken Skulls Five. If they choose "shipwrecked" as their parent's death in character creation, the player will be able to fight alongside Lucky Jack Russell of the Presidio Five. Other companions are reserved for one class only. There are currently, however, nine major companions that all players have the capacity to gain access to as they progress through the story. These companions are prominent enough to shape the plot directly, and many have their own story lines within 'promotion quests.' After the completion of these quests, involved companions often gain a new title, outfit, ability, or some combination thereof. Companions have the ability to aid the player in combat.
Payment model
The game offers a choice of either subscription or "free-to-play" with
microtransactions
Microtransaction (mtx) refers to a business model where users can purchase in-game virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions ...
. Free-to-play customers can purchase access to different Chapters of content using in-game currency called Crowns. Players who purchase a subscription may adventure through all playable worlds and are also able to gain access to various miscellaneous benefits.
Player interaction
Players may duel each other in open arenas known as the "Brawlin' Hall" and the "Spar Chamber", which allows for up to four players on two opposing teams to participate in
player-versus-player
Player versus player (PvP) is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players. This is often compared to player versus environment (PvE), in which the game itself controls its players' opponents and is usually of ...
combat. Most houses in the game also come with duel arenas as well, in which the number of players who can fight at once varies depending on the house.
Players can also participate in a trading system of
Doubloons
The doubloon (from Spanish ''doblón'', or "double", i.e. ''double escudo'') was a two-'' escudo'' gold coin worth approximately four Spanish dollars or 32 '' reales'', and weighing 6.766 grams (0.218 troy ounce) of 22-karat gold (or 0.917 fine; ...
, which are powers that may be used once within a battle. Doubloons can be reorganized in the ability interface and may be discarded during battle in order to draw newer Doubloons. Pirates can trade equipment, housing items, mounts, or pets. A system of pet morphing is also available for players.
Loot drops are provided by chests which appear at the end of battles, the combined loot of which is distributed equally among the players who won the battle.
Online safety features
Due to its young core audience, ''Pirate101'' restricts player interaction more than other games in the massively multiplayer online genre. Parents must activate controls for players under 13, including allowing interaction with other players in the world. There are three different types of chat: menu chat, open chat, and text chat. At the most restricted level, players select from a menu of predefined phrases, and players using this option can only see menu chat from other players. At the next level, players may type what they want, as long as the words are available in the game's dictionary. If a word is not present in the dictionary, or part of a forbidden phrase, such as asking another player's age, it will not be visible. The official game forums are filtered and moderated.
Other features have been designed with a preteen audience in mind; for example, defeated opponents in combat disintegrate or vanish bloodlessly. Character names are restricted to a preselected list from which players must choose. The game does include the use of weapons such as guns and magic; however, the guns shoot electricity rather than bullets. Also, the enemies in player versus enemy combat are not depicted as human: each world has its own type of enemy, i.e., the Bison and Birds of Cool Ranch, or the Dogs and Cats of Marleybone.
Reception
According to a KingsIsle Entertainment press release, ''Pirate101'' had five million registered users in October 2013, matching the first year success of ''
Wizard101
''Wizard101'' is a 2008 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by KingsIsle Entertainment. Players take on the role of student wizards who must save the Spiral, the fictional universe in which the game is ...
''. In a review of the game, Suzie Ford of MMORPG noted the game's bright aesthetics and commended its use of strategic turn-based gameplay; however, she considered the micromanagement of units overwhelming for kids, making the combat system too complicated for children. Nick Tylwalk of
GameZebo
''Gamezebo'' (sometimes stylized ''GameZebo'') is a website which reports on and reviews video games. Founded in 2005 by Joel Brodie, it was billed as the first website to solely cover casual games and expanded its scope to social games in 20 ...
said that the helpful interface makes combat very clear and is of great assistance to children. Karen Bryan of Massively said that KingsIsle Entertainment had succeeded in making a complex enough system to challenge players without over-complicating it.
Two months after the release of ''Pirate101'', the game won the Player's Choice Award for Game of the Year from MMORPG with 27.8% of the vote, edging out ''
Guild Wars 2
''Guild Wars 2'' is a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSoft. Set in the fantasy world of Tyria, the core game follows the re-emergence of Destiny's Edge, a disbanded guild dedi ...