On Saturday, September 17th, there was an emergency at the MMORPG Wizard101 (PC, also Steam). The servers had to be temporarily shut down. Apparently, a disgruntled employee used the MMORPG to vent his frustration over server messages. He defamed the company and spoke in an inappropriate manner about body parts of his boss.
Trigger Warning: This post contains some swear words and insults.
What kind of game is this?
- Wizard101 is an MMORPG that was released in 2008. It is somewhat reminiscent of Harry Potter. In January 2021, the German company Gamigo acquired the developer KingIsle Entertainment.
- Players take on the role of students at the ‘Ravenwood School of Magic Arts’, learning spells and fighting against enemies.
- The game is primarily aimed at a young audience: There is a special protective measure for children under 13 years old.
4 Hours Server Down Due to “Unexpected Issue”
This was the server down: On Saturday, September 17th, at 4 AM our time, the servers were taken down due to an “unexpected issue”.
4 hours later, the servers came back up: The studio apologized for the problems, spoke about a “temporary fix” and assured that an investigation would be initiated on how to “solve the issue in the long term”.
What kind of messages were there exactly? What sounds like there was a trivial, minor server issue apparently was a furious employee, who sent confusing messages to all players through system messages for hours. For example, he wrote:
- “The next world is my boss’s asshole”
- “the game is shit”
- Or simply: “Dicks and Balls”
But there were also other messages such as: “Come to Room 102 and I’ll beat you up”. In one message, the user quoted the series Breaking Bad:
Ultimately, the employee apparently got in trouble, as can be gleaned from the messages:
- “The wizard police is after me”
- “fuck”
Where did the protest come from? There were some serious system messages such as:
- “King Isles is the worst company I’ve ever worked for”
It is simulated that an employee named Brad is summoned to the office by his boss. Or that a “rogue employee” who has gone rogue has been captured.
The tweets seem to tell the story that the employee “Brad” frantically gained access to system messages to vent his frustrations.
How is this being discussed by players? There are mixed opinions:
- On one hand, some find it simply funny that someone would do such a thing and regret having missed the action
- Others say, however: That children reading this language is not okay
- There is also consensus: No matter who the person was, after this appearance, they are likely to have a hard time finding a new job in the gaming industry
Overall, the crisis management of KingIsle Entertainment is considered difficult, dismissing it as an “unexpected issue” – one wishes for a concrete statement. Twitter users are now also interested in how the working conditions for employees are, that such a protest occurs.
Wizard101 is from 2008 – players can build deep relationships with MMORPGs they play for a long time:
