The Website

History of the Website
Wizard's first website appeared on the internet in 1997. It cost $500 and was controlled using "Microsoft Front Page". It served its primary purpose of getting Wizard on the internet and raising the game's public image. However the long term goal was always to have the game of Wizard available for play online. After considerable discussion an agreement was struck with "Pogo.com" in 2000. Pogo's popular game site regularly has 100,000 plus gamers on at any one time. It was anticipated that many would discover Wizard when it was introduced on the site. The agreement called for a one-time payment of $5000 US to "U.S. Games" and Pogo would program the game at their own expense and have exclusive rights to Wizard on the internet for 10 years. Unfortunately "Pogo" was bought out by "A&E" and the new owners lost interest in the deal. At this juncture Ken Fisher decided to bite the bullet and pay to get Wizard programmed and onto the web. The company selected to program Wizard for internet play was "Roamerzone/Adventurous" located in Pennsylvania. The company was selected because the principals of the firm, Victor Lawson and Vic Lawson (BiggerBrat) are enthusiastic Wizard players. For a combination of cash and shares valued at $10,000 U.S. the game was programmed and on June 6, 2002 (16 years after Wizard's debut) the webmaster, Steve Allen became the first member to register on the site.
The website as introduced was full-featured and enabled players all the options and nuances available in the real-life version. In addition the automatic scoring and other features such as the convenient use of the 2 alternative bidding systems actually made the online version superior. Another advantage provided by the online version was the ability to host online tournaments without many of the logistic problems posed by live tournaments.
On January 27, 2003 the total membership stood at 760 and the site was ranked as number 3,601,491 in popularity on the “Alexa” rating site. By September of that year membership had risen to 2015 and Wizard was ranked at 58,388 in popularity. At the beginning of 2005 membership stood at over 6,000 members. The site has undergone many changes but most are in the area of refinements and or additional forums. Due to the demand by players for a system of ranking the daily play which would reward skilful play rather than frequent play, a radical new scoring system was introduced on March 1, 2005. The new system deducts points for players that do not do well in games. To accumulate a high score a player had to not only play frequently but also to win frequently.

"Top 10" Scoring System
SCORE....three....four....five....six

1st.........+2........+3.....+4.....+5

2nd........zero.....+1.....+2.....+3

3rd.........-2.........-1....zero....+1

4th.....................-3.....-2.......-1

5th.............................-4.......-3

6th.......................................-5

Currently the Top 10 list of players who earn the highest number of points is restarted every 2 months. All players begin the session with zero points and gain points based on their placement in games played online. At the end of the 2-month session of online play Master Points are awarded to the Top 10 players. The top player receives 10 Master Points, the second place player 9 points and so on down to 1 point for the 10th place player.

The names of players who have finished at No.1 in the "Top 10" sessions to date are shown below.

The "Number One" of the "Top 10"
2002 Winter...... wizard
2003 Spring...... wizard
2003 Summer... BiggerBrat
2003 Autumn....NortonHooterton
2004 Jan-Feb....NortonHooterton
2004 Mar-Apr.... Fizzwiz
2004 May-June..Fizzwiz
2004 July-Aug....Fizzwiz
2004 Sept-Oct...Fizzwiz
2004 Nov-Dec....trapizoid
2005 Jan-Feb.....trapizoid
2005 Mar-Apr.....Mr. Wizard
2005 May-June...1 Mr. Wizard
2005 July-Aug....1 Piasa Gene
2005 Sept-Oct....1 Piasa Gene
2005 Nov-Dec......1. fizzwiz1
2006 Jan-Feb......1 fizzwiz1
2006 Mar-Apr......1 fizzwiz1
2006 May.............1 fizzwiz1
2006 June............1 fizzwiz1
2006 July..............1 fizzwiz1
2006 August.........1 deanna


The website has done yeoman service but there are a number of major changes that members have requested. They include:
(a) A simpler, more intuitive method of joining a game.
(b) Artificial intelligence to replace players.
(c) The ability to continue another game without reloading
(d) The ability of all members to act as host.

In 2005 at a cost of approximately $10,000 Canadian, RomerZone the original design company provided an upgrade that added the following features:
- Virtual Host
- Ability to watch a game in progress.
- Ability to boot a player.
- Ability to rejoin a game if dropped.

The Virtual Host failed to solve the Hosting problem and consequently in 2006 RoamerZone began work on an all-new Web-based version of Wizard.
Work on programming Wizard Junior also began in 2006.

Nice article. If you don't mind i'll use this for my research about websites. Thanks!

Regards,
Mary Ash
http://creditrapide.org