also, a MOO player class that has all the capabilities of a programmer but operates outside the permission system.

Wizards can recycle objects at will, toad and newt players, put a room within a room within a room within their pocket ... they can do everything that does not violate the MOO server consistency rules (which means that they cannot , e.g. put something into itself or make an object the child of its children).


Other duties/powers of the wizards include shutting down the MOO, forcing a database dump, blacklisting abusive sites ...
Every MOO comes with a pre-made wizard, object #2.

Sociologically speaking, wizards are the mothers and fathers of the MOO, and players in general will come crying to them for just about everything.
This keeps happening until some attempt at social reform is done - usually with mixed success, witness LambdaMOO.

One of the nine major classes In Dungeons & Dragons.

Masters of Arcane magics this class is one of the favored classes in the game. This is one of the prime classes.

Major Details:

Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition / Player Classes

In a MUCK, wizards are players with a special flag set on their database object.

They serve a similar purpose as they do in
MOOs (see that writeup under wizard). They can get around most permissions checking, and set their MUF or MPI code to do so. As in a MOO, a wizard can also force a server database save, shutdown, or restart.

On some MUCK servers (most notably GlowMUCK, NeonMUCK, and ProtoMUCK) there are multiple wizard levels, each with different levels of control. (Typically called Boy, Archwizard, Wizard, and Mage or W4, W3, ...)

On most MUCKs most wizards powers are limited, especially in the area of creation and control of other wizards and low-level manipulation of the database, and total power is reserved for the special #1 (a database number) wizard character, also known as God or on MUCKs with multiple wizard levels the Man.

within epsilon of = W = Wizard Book

wizard n.

1. Transitively, a person who knows how a complex piece of software or hardware works (that is, who groks it); esp. someone who can find and fix bugs quickly in an emergency. Someone is a hacker if he or she has general hacking ability, but is a wizard with respect to something only if he or she has specific detailed knowledge of that thing. A good hacker could become a wizard for something given the time to study it. 2. The term `wizard' is also used intransitively of someone who has extremely high-level hacking or problem-solving ability. 3. A person who is permitted to do things forbidden to ordinary people; one who has wheel privileges on a system. 4. A Unix expert, esp. a Unix systems programmer. This usage is well enough established that `Unix Wizard' is a recognized job title at some corporations and to most headhunters. See guru, lord high fixer. See also deep magic, heavy wizardry, incantation, magic, mutter, rain dance, voodoo programming, wave a dead chicken.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Atari 2600 Game
Produced by: Atari
Model Number: n/a
Rarity: P Prototype
Year of Release: ?
Programmer: Chris Crawford

Wizard was a prototype game for the Atari 2600. The basic concept is to move your little stick figure around a big red maze, while avoiding the oddly shaped enemies.

This game is emulated by all the popular Atari 2600 emulators (Z26, Stella, etc), but there is little reason to bother playing it, because it isn't really that fun.

Collectors Information

This game was never finished and exists only in prototype form. I am unable to put a value on it at this time.

Author: John Varley
ISBN: 0441900674
Paperback: 372 pages
Publisher: Ace Books
Genre: Science Fiction

Spoiler-Safe (Probably) Story Synopsis

Warning!! Though I intend to keep the secrets of the second book, it is possible that spoilers for the first book may exist, as the three books are tied rather closely together. Read with caution if you have not read the first one and still intend to.

So, remember all those folks you met in the first book of the Gaean Trilogy? Many of them return (as well as some new faces) for this book, the second and my favorite of the three.

Chris'fer Minor is an incredibly unlucky guy, and he's got a major, psychotic problem. Occasionally, he becomes a completely different person, an angry, sexually aggressive, violent person, though his normal attitude is very laid-back (how could you not be laid-back with a name like Chris'fer?), and is always surprised to find himself with new wounds received from a jealous boyfriend, or to wake up in a city jail for beating a man close to death for looking at him funny. Fortunately for him, a planet exists, out near Saturn, that is run by a god keen on giving miracles to those who deserve them. The planet is named Gaea--named so because that is the name of the god who runs the place--and she's perfectly willing to break normal rules of physics and medicine to cure the sick, aid the poor, and defend the righteous, so long as they give a good show.

Anyway, he convinces the nice Titanide with the shitting-in-public faux pas issue to send him off to Gaea to get himself a miracle cure.

We also get to meet Robin the Nine-fingered, a member of the Coven, a religious sect that bought up some floating cans out in the LaGrange points near the Moon to practice their witchery and lesbianness. These women are of the belief that men are useful for nothing, save the production of semen. Given a few more years, they're pretty sure they'll have that taken care of, too. In any event, Robin, one of the short women (a practical joke from Earth; the sperm sent to the Coven was all from short men), has a form of epilepsy which makes it difficult for her to deal with life, the shakes disabling her for long periods of time. She sends off for the Miracle Cure, and is accepted--off she goes, taking her python Nasu, an ill-tempted but obedient giant fucking snake.

Varley sets this second book a couple decades ahead of the first one, and explains a few very dramatic things. First and foremost, Cirocco Jones has been named the Wizard of Gaea, to act as God's Hand on Earth, as it were. She can talk with god directly, can speak all the languages spoken on the Great Wheel, and acts almost without any direct involvement of the deity. But there are a few quirks. First, the Titanides (in an effort to keep the population of the freely-screwing centaurs down) can no longer reproduce without the direct action of Rocky. Her spit activates the rear-fertilized eggs that have to be implanted in the frontal ovaries for actual birth to occur. Rear-sex, they call it, happens all the time between friends (all Titanides have a rear penis, one that looks very human, but is the size of a horse's, and an anterior vagina) and after such an activity, an un-activated egg pops out a couple days later. Most Titanides just save these as keepsakes, good memories, until they eventually decay after a couple years. In order for pregnancy to occur, that golf-ball-sized egg must be put in Cirocco Jones's mouth, and then crammed in the frontal vagina (Titanides' sex is determined by the frontal genitals--either one or the other). Well, Rocky's not too keen on this, having to be the last say on who does and who does not procreate among the folk she cares for so deeply.

So, Rocky (with Gaby beside her) spends the first half of this book setting out feelers (when she's not utterly drunk on Titanide liquor, the stress of playing God getting to be too much for her) among the "regional brains" of Gaea. After all, Gaea is a big place--you can't expect her to run everything, so each zone in her wheel gets its own brain (save for one, Rhea, who is dead, and Oceanus, who doesn't really care to do anything in favor of Gaea, given that he waged war against her several hundred thousand years ago), and Cirocco is the only person alive who can talk to them without risking immediate death. So, she just might be interested in planting the seeds of revolution, if the regional minds see it as appropriate...

My favorite of the trilogy, I give Wizard two human thumbs and a Titanide hoof up. The storyline is continuous, without too much of the mind-numbing detail that can occasionally bog down SF authors interested in describing a new world. Varley attacks the reader with a near-constant barrage of new ideas, which, moments after you're used to them, he shatters with a whole new revelation.

The Gaean Trilogy
Titan | Wizard | Demon


Written for The Bookworm Turns: An Everything Literary Quest.

Wizard is a trump trick-taking card game variation of Oh Hell! from U.S. Games Systems, Inc. for 3-6 players. The deck consists of 60 cards:

Object of the Game
The object of the game is to correctly predict how many tricks you will take each round. A player receives points for being correct and loses points for being incorrect. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Dealing
The game begins by choosing the first dealer with your favorite dealer selection method. In the first round, one card is dealt to each player. In the second round, two cards are dealt to each player, three cards in the third round, and so on. After the deal, the dealer turns up the next card to determine the trump suit. If the dealer turns up a Wizard, he or she chooses the trump suit for that round. If a Jester is turned up, there is no trump for the round. The deal passes to the left after each round. In the final deal, when all cards are dealt, there is no card available to determine trump and therefore is no trump for the round.

Bidding
Starting with the player to the left of the dealer, each player states the number of tricks he or she will take in that round, which can range from zero to the total number of cards in a player’s hand. The scorekeeper records the bid for each player. The total number of tricks may or may not equal the number of tricks available.

Bidding Variations

  • Hidden Bid: All players reveal their bid simultaneously.
  • Delayed Reveal Bid: All players unalterably record their bid but do not reveal it until after the entire round has been played.
  • Screw the Dealer: The dealer, as the last bidder of the round, may not place a bid that will make the total number of tricks bid for the round equal to the total number of tricks available.

Playing
The play begins to the player to the left of the dealer. He or she may lead with any card. The play continues clockwise and must follow suit when possible. The exceptions to this rule are with the Wizard or Jester cards. These may be played at any time, even if the player is able to follow the led suit.

A trick is won in four ways:

  1. by the first Wizard played
  2. if no Wizard is played, by the highest trump played
  3. if no trump is played, by the highest card of the led suit
  4. if the trick consists entirely Jesters, by the first Jester played
The winner of the trick leads the following trick.

Wizards and Jesters
If the lead player plays a Wizard, it automatically wins the trick and the other players may play any card they wish without regard for suit, including another Wizard. If a Wizard is played mid-round, the first card played is still the led suit and the subsequent cards played must follow as such. If the lead player plays a Jester, it is a null card. The next player determines the suit for the round. Jesters always lose except if only Jesters are played for a round, in which case the first Jester played wins the trick.

Scoring
If a player correctly predicts the number of tricks he or she would take, he or she receives 20 points plus 10 additional points for each trick taken: 20 points for correctly predicting 0 tricks, 30 points for correctly predicting 1 trick, 40 points for correctly predicting 2 tricks, and so on. If a player incorrectly predicts the tricks he or she would take, he or she loses 10 points for each trick over or under his or her bid.

Length of Game The game continues until the round in which all 60 cards are dealt. This will be at the 20th round for 3 players, the 15th round for 4 players, the 12th round for 5 players, and the 12th round for 6 players.

Obtaining Wizard
Wizard is available at many game stores for about $8 - $12, depending on whether you get the regular or deluxe version, which includes individual bid indicator wheels. The game is also relatively easy to make on your own. Simply get two identical decks of cards and designate 8 cards from one deck as the Wizards and Jesters.

Hey, isn’t this game exactly like Oh Hell? Why did you bother noding this/why should I bother buying or making Wizard?
Well, yes, they are quite similar. I have played both and I prefer the wild card aspect of the Wizards and Jesters that enhances the ability to mess up the plans of your fellow players. This adds an extra element of fun and/or torture to the game. I also prefer the scoring for Wizard, but of course, you can always change the scoring method to your satisfaction.

A wizard is a common tool in modern computer applications that acts like a small Expert System. Seen as annoying by many experienced users, wizards are meant to help new and unexperienced users complete tasks such as formatting a Word document or Excel file, burning a CD, setting up an internet connection or whatever other task that would be otherwise above the heads of a basic end-user. They exist to support users who do not have the training or time/inclination to play with software for hours on end. Microsoft is especially inclined to using wizards to simplify the process of using their software into steps that monkeys versed in English could accomplish. Many other application development companies have included wizards into their products to simplify tasks that would be tedious or overly complex and can be handled by optimization software instead.

Wizards are a simplification of the tools that are provided by the program, set up by programmers to use those tools quickly and simply so that the general user don't get bogged down in learning how to upload a double column Ap-J format and not screw it up by hitting backspace too many times. There is a philosophical clash here with many mid to high range computer users who are used to play with programs and learning their secrets. Wizards try to present themselves to the user, as anyone who has tried to remove Clippy can visualize, and this presentation annoys some who think that this is an attempt on the part of the people who made the program to impede their learning of it.

Wiz"ard (?), n. [Probably from wise + -ard.]

1.

A wise man; a sage.

[Obs.]

See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards [Magi] haste with odors sweet! Milton.

2.

One devoted to the black art; a magician; a conjurer; a sorcerer; an enchanter.

The wily wizard must be caught. Dryden.

 

© Webster 1913.


Wiz"ard, a.

1.

Enchanting; charming.

Collins.

2.

Haunted by wizards.

Where Deva spreads her wizard stream. Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.

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