Vice President of Marketing Fred Howard talks with us about the new in-game quest featuring actress and singer Selena Gomez, the upcoming Celestia update and the game's two-year anniversary.

There is a lot happening in the kid-friendly world of Wizard101. The game celebrated its two-year anniversary earlier this month, and a new in-game quest featuring singer and actress Selena Gomez just launched today to promote her new album and pave the way for the release of the game's upcoming Celestia world. We decided to reach out to KingsIsle Entertainment for an update on all of these milestones, and Vice President of Marketing Fred Howard answered the call.

Howard talked with us about all sorts of things, from what it was like working with the star of Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place" (see why her cameo in the game is a good fit?) to all of the new content that's coming with the launch of the new Celestia world. The update will include an increased level cap, introduce a brand new story arc, and allow players to swim for the first time.

Howard also tells us what additions we can expect to see in the future for Wizard101. Keep reading for all the details!

ZAM: Congratulations on reaching the two-year mark! How does it feel to hit two years with Wizard101?

Fred Howard: First of all, thank you! It's actually incredible. It's kind of funny because it's been two years since launch and on some levels it feels like it's gone by in the blink of an eye, and on others it feels like it's been much much longer because of all that's happened and all that we've accomplished. It has that dual feeling, but all of it has been pretty incredible.

ZAM: Let's talk a little about Wizard101 two years ago and now. What are some of your fondest memories from the time surrounding launch day?

Fred: When you look at a launch day, there's obviously excitement, as well as some anxiety and a frantic push to get everything you want to get done in a short amount of time. We always felt very strongly, I'd even say knew internally, that Wizard101 was going to be an amazing product, but before you really hit launch, you just don't have that validation from the marketplace. So there's a little bit of excitement and anxiety coming from that. That feeling is very different two years later where we have had a tremendous amount of success and we've seen a great uptick from our core audience of 8 to 14.

We also saw something that we very much intentionally went after, but is not easy to achieve, which is hitting a cross-generational success and creating a property that is really classified as family entertainment. The game has such mass appeal to a younger audience, a middle-aged audience, and an older audience, and to see that come to fruition is really an amazing thing.

ZAM: When you're creating content for the game, are you thinking about children first and other generations second? Or are you always trying to think how you can target it toward a wide age group?

Fred: We thought safety first while designing Wizard101 because I think it's a critical aspect in any online property. But once we really had that one under the belt, we think fun first. We very much have fun internally, and it's one of the core focuses for everything that we do, whether it's in the game design, the execution in the game, or the marketing efforts. The next level to that is knowing that fun does have different components and different executions across different age barriers. That is very much a conscious thought in how we do things. A younger audience will find some aspects of the game hysterical and completely miss certain aspects that the older generation is chuckling at.

Eric Bloom, the lead singer of Blue Oyster Cult, stumbled on our game about a year ago and loved it. He wrote an article that we were at the time unaware of that got published on Massive Online Gamer and the whole premise of his article was that you think Wizard101 is for a younger audience, and it is, but it's also for an older audience. He ended up loving the game so much that he took a studio tour and helped co-design a quest in the game titled "Does a Bear Sit in the Woods?" Again, kids will say "sure, a bear sits in the woods" and adults will chuckle at it. He did the voice-over for a viking bear in the quest.

ZAM: He's a big MMO fan, too.

Fred: Yeah, he's a huge MMO player. One of the interesting things that we've seen is a convergence of different segments that have all really enjoyed Wizard101. We've had a tremendous success with our core audience, which is the younger demographic, but we've also seen huge success with what I call the adult casual gamer, or the traditional non-gamer. We see a large number of parents who will log into the game to check it out and make sure it's safe for their child. They hop in for 15 minutes to see what Wizard101 is, and the next thing you know you have parents playing family game night with their kids and relatives in Wizard101.

We've also had a surprising success from adult hardcore gamers who are willing to give us a try. That's our biggest hurdle. A lot of them will say, "that's a kid's game, I'm not playing that. I play World of Warcraft, I play Age of Conan, I play Lord of the Rings Online," and not check us out. But those that do find an in-depth MMO experience that's just a little more casual and light-hearted. You don't have to go on a four-hour raid every Wednesday night. You can hop in Wizard101 and play for half an hour and enjoy it.