Extracurricular Activities: Badges

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of playing an MMO is knowing what to do when you have finished the story. With Wizard101, this is less of a problem than some games. We have a nice, long main storyline in the Malistaire adventure, as well as the first chapter in a second storyline -Celestia- and a parallel story, recently added onto, in Grizzleheim and Wintertusk. We also have a large multitude of side quests in all seven worlds, as well as extra-special challenges such as Briskbreeze and the Waterworks. Throughout all this, we have spell-quests which earn us new spells, and work to level up and earn the necessary experience and training points for other spells. This is enough to keep us going for several months, but it is eventually exhausted. That is where the “extracurricular” activities come in. As Wizard101 continues to grow and develop, Kingsisle is able to put in place more and different activities to keep us entertained while waiting for a continuation of our story, or, in some cases, a new one altogether. The original extracurricular activity was PVP. Although certainly the most immersive and engaging of all the activities, I, for some reason, find I have little interest in it myself, and am not in the position to write on it. One may also spend time farming for gear or furniture, but this is not something unique in any way to Wizard101, nor something put officially in place by KI. This leaves four other “official” activities for one to engage in upon “completing” a character: Crafting, Pets, Gardening, and Badges. It is these which I will discuss over the next few days. (Know that when I say "extracurricular activities," I mean only the four "official" ones mentioned above, no others.)

First up, Badges. I mean Creature badges- which you earn for defeating a certain number of a certain type of Creature. The simplest of the extracurricular options put in place for us by KI, accumulating badges is a particularly favorite pastime of mine. I have fond memories of running around the Excavation Site in Krokotopia's Chamber of Fire, defeating Charmed Slaves to get my Krok Thrasher, Hunter, and Slayer badges. It is the only one of the four extracurricular activities which employs the main focus of the game- defeating enemies using a card-dueling system. At the same time, you are visiting worlds and areas in the game that you may not have visited in a long time, or, if they early zones, such as Cyclops Lane (great for Giant badges) or the Royal Hall, may have a certain degree of sentimental value. Or maybe you just really like that particular area, and are always eager to visit it. (For me it's the Marleybone neighborhoods.) In other words, accumulating badges allows you to explore and re-discover the Spiral, not only by way of seeing the sights, as Crafting sometimes allows, but also by defeating Mobs which you may have not encountered in ages. You are fully immersed in the area, and, as a result, fully immersed in the game itself. And Badges are the only extracurricular activity which allow for this full immersion. Pets are restricted to the Pet Pavilion and Derby Tracks, Gardening to your Castles and/or Dorms and the Commons areas of some worlds. There is, however, one major drawback to Badges- monotomy. Defeating the same types of Mobs over and over again can become tedious relatively quickly, and because the rewards are not particularly great like with farming, you will tire of it faster. Sure you can switch Mobs, or switch areas, or defeat the occasional Boss, but in the end, you won't be able to go for much longer than twenty minutes, half an hour at the most. Of course, if done for twenty minutes each day, working on Badges can be a fun, if simple, extracurricular activity.

Until next time, Ponder on!