WIZARD TOURNAMENTS

Live Tournaments: The advantages of live tournaments are obvious. Ideally there would be numerous local live tournaments, leading eventually to a final “Tournament of Champions”. This is the pattern followed in Europe where it has been quite successful. However attempts to generate similar events in Canada and the USA have not worked out as well. The problem largely hinges on the distances and costs involved. Most entrants to tournaments are from areas within 200 miles of the location. Even more challenging is the cost and logistics of local tournaments. It is not unusual for a single event to cost upwards of $10,000 and to involve hundreds of hours of preparation and planning.
* Regardless of how many live tournaments are held there will always be players who will not attend even though they are avid online players.

Online Tournaments: The disadvantages of online tournaments are equally obvious. However there are a number of positives. Unlike live tournaments costs and logistics are manageable once the programs are in place. The main advantage is that online tournaments can potentially draw players from distant locations. By offering attractive prizes large numbers of players can be attracted.
* Regardless of the convenience and prizes offered by online tournaments there will always be players who will only play in face-to-face situations.

The current “World Tournaments” hosted by “Amigo” are limited to the countries of central Europe.
The push to provide reliable online play on “Facebook-Games” is designed to provide access to areas such as Latin America and Asia. The ultimate goal is to have a truly “World-wide “Wizard Tournament” accessible to all.

Wizard on Facebook: Updated June 13, 2015

ALAS:
The new Wizard on FACEBOOK continues to experience glitches.
It will not be ready in time for a Tournament to select reps for the PRAGUE finals.
"US GAMES" has decided to send 2 of its employees to represent the USA.
Consequently the proposed online tournament to select the 2 US reps is cancelled.
My apologies to those who registered.
I will provide an update on the selection of the 2 Canadian reps shortly.

Wizard on Facebook.
Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does.

A new programming house is taking on the task of completing the programing.
(It is 90% done)
Although they estimate the work will take 3 weeks to complete, they will not be able to get started on it until a month from now. So even if they keep on schedule the beta version will not be available until late in May, 2015.

WOW Review (World of Words)

This review of WOW may have escaped your attention.

http://casualgamerevolution.com/blog/2013/11/wow-world-of-words-review


Have you experienced the WOW sensation yet?

50 SHADES of DISMAY

Old Wizard Site.
I am trying to keep this operational but it is bogging down.
I believe the site is overwhelmed by the over 1,000 new registrations daily.
I suspect that these are 99.9% phishing expeditions generated by a computer.
Trying to manually delete them is a full time job.
I am now attempting to insert a "Prove you are a real person" gateway into the 'registration' process in an attempt to stop the deluge and free up some much needed space.

WIZARD on FACEBOOK
Another setback as the lead programmer has once again dropped out due to personal problems.
Each time this happens it takes a while for a new programmer to get 'up to speed' on what is gong on.
I receive apologies for delays but there is not much that I can do except soldier on and keep my fingers crossed.

Your Dismay
I understand players' frustrations with the current site. I am sure that many of you have either cut back on play or given up altogether. I can only hope that at some point the sun will break through and we can get back to playing "Wizard" without all of the frustration

WIZARD on FACEBOOK UPDATE

WIZARD on FACEBOOK UPDATE

Mid-February has come and gone,
We must await yet another dawn.
The developers say we are near.
But the truth is different I fear.

Wizard Card Game on "Facebook" games.

1. Recording Scores and Master Points.
Nothing is definite. We may adhere to the current system, may try a "points only" scheme, perhaps a hybrid system or even something quite radical. The time required to compute and compile the figures is a factor in the decision. Consequently much will depend on what the programmers are able to build into the system. If they can automate much of the calculations that will impact the decision so it is still a 'wait-and-see' sort of question.

2. System Used
The system being used to build the new program is a cross-platform game creation system named "Unity". The game system is written in C++ and C#.

3. Timing
Although mid-February  has been given as the latest update I do not expect the BETA program to be up and running at that time. When it does finally appear I plan to keep both the current site and the Facebook site open for business. When the Facebook game does appear it will not contain all of the required features. Some features such as the ability to host tournaments may have to be added once the basic game is stabilized. Transitioning will be problematic as the current "usernames" will not necessarily be available on the Facebook page. This is yet another problem with which we are struggling to resolve. (And of course finances are always a limiting factor.)