Enter the wonderfully weird world of MagiQuest.
reckon booking a holiday at a water car park this summer and bumping into groups of thaumaturgist and Wiccan run through resort hallways while waving sceptre at bulwark , communing with talking treasure chest , and dodging flying dragon blasts from video recording silver screen .
This is the existence of MagiQuest , an interactive game that ’s partscavenger search , part video recording game , part cosplay experience , and full - time warmth for some of its teen and adult devotees at 20Great Wolf Lodgeresorts across the US . While the resort’smain attractiveness is its piss park , MagiQuest has take on a sprightliness of its own . Since the plot ’s introduction at the resort in 2008 , more than 5.8 million people have enter the world of MagiQuest , with 833,000 playing in 2021 alone .
Originally design for young small fry to play with help from parent , the game has since been embraced by teenager and grownup , many of whom have been bury in the game for more than a decade .
MagiQuest Pigeon Forge
“ I ’ve been playing MagiQuest since about 2010 , ” enjoin Abbie Duncan , years 19 . She continues to flirt every few months “ because of how interesting the traditional knowledge is to me , how replayable the game is , and the awesome residential district I ’ve been a part of . I ’ve made lots of friends through MagiQuest and they ’ve all become some of my preferred mass ! ”
“ No other attraction has this level of interactivity on the scale that MagiQuest achieves ” says James Litchford , 20 , who ’s play for more than 15 years . For him , MagiQuest has “ masterfully translated the questing game musical genre into real life . ”
So just what is this game , and why are people so passionate about it ? And what in the world does it have to do with a body of water park ?
MagiQuest Pigeon Forge
MagiQuest is a combination lively action and video - based challenge in which player essay to complete a seeking by gathering wizardly runes and practical hoarded wealth , eventually overcome a dragon or other scourge in a last showdown . histrion are armed with their own unequaled “ magic ” wand which emit signal that interact with stations spread around multiple floors of hallways , lobby , and common area of the resort ( but not actually inside the water common ) .
Video screen display actors or animated creatures who give clues to send players scamper around the hotel in hunting of stations to come on the pursuit up to the last battle . This direct to the incongruous scenes of some client walking the hallways from the water park in dripping swimsuits and towels , while others dressed in capes , wizard hats , and logotype T - shirts rush through the same hallway , waving their wands at glow crystal and growling gnomes .
The plot , break by Creative Kingdoms in 2004 , is one of many attracter ( like arcade , ropes courses , and mini golf game ) mean to add on the water Mungo Park and encourage longer stays at the refuge . But MagiQuest prove so pop that Great Wolf Lodge actually purchased Creative Kingdoms in 2010 . The biz has since been update with new quests and scenarios , with the late edition presently rolling out across the nation .
MagiQuest Pigeon Forge
MagiQuest “ run from early in the morning until around 11 post-mortem examination at Nox , ” articulate Jordan Itkowitz , the corporal conductor for Creative Kingdoms / MagiQuest . “ We see most activity in the evening , after guests are done with the water system park for the mean solar day , and often see kids start play as soon as the plot comes on in the morning time to eat up the secret plan and become Master Magi before it ’s time to go home . ” On a recent sojourn to a Great Wolf Lodge , I go steady tiddler line up six deep to await their fight with the terminal dragon , some begging parents to stay prospicient ( or riposte again ) to permit them finish up their quest .
Adult gamers ( and kids with tolerant parents ) bribe the most upgraded wand , with “ toppers ” adding additional powers and cheat code to serve gain . The MagiQuest workshop at each terminus also betray an array of costumes and accessories and features a leaderboard showing who has collected the most treasure or experience points that solar day , week , and all - time , encouraging more repeat visits .
While designed as a water park supplement to entertain Thomas Kyd at the hotel , MagiQuest has become an attraction of its own for kids , teens , and grownup alike . enthusiast like Litchford and Duncan typically make for on solar day trip to the stamping ground , completely eschewing the piss park and hotel stays .
MagiQuest Pigeon Forge
And MagiQuesters have developed their own biotic community , too . Fanatic participant share game story onfan Wiki page , swap strategy tips , share opinions , meme and fan art on aMagiQuest subredditandDiscord Server , andproduce videosabout their adventures . Some masses have evenhacked their MagiQuest wandsto use for at - home base mechanisation .
Why the enduring exuberance for the secret plan ? accord to Itkowitz , “ MagiQuest resonates because it ’s an interactional adventure game that takes home beyond the screen . Players love the sense of freedom and discovery that comes from completing their seeking . ”
For someone who ’s played the game for the bulk of his life , Litchford says “ After so many years of being a Magi , I ’ve experienced almost everything that is playable an absurd amount of times . So latterly I ’ve bask bringing newfangled players to locations to receive the game for the first clip . go out hoi polloi ’s reaction to this biz I ’ve loved all my life is one of the skillful feelings in the world . ”
While theDungeons & Dragons - stylequests would seem to come across more with boys , Duncan says MagiQuest is an equal opportunity adventure . “ When I was younger I thought I was the only girl who played MagiQuest or the only little girl who was obsessed with the game , but I was very , very wrong … There are a ton of amazing women that I ’ve come across who are highly tortuous in the biotic community and game as well ! ”
If you ’re curious about MagiQuest , playing the plot is as simple-minded as going to a Great Wolf Lodge location , buy a recyclable wandat their fund ( $ 20-$25 ) , and pay about $ 17 - 20 to activate it for each secret plan . Package deals are available with rooms as well . item-by-item seeking segment take 30 minute to an hour , with the full risky venture taking a mean solar day or two of gameplay ( although some experts can complete it in a affair of hours ) .
MagiQuest is proffer at all 20 ( and shortly to be 23)Great Wolf Lodge locationsin 19 State Department and Niagara Falls , Canada , as well as at astand - alone locationin Pigeon Forge , Tennessee . Three different rendering and multiple expansion modules of the secret plan can be launch at various locations , with the original “ Legacy ” game most popular among recollective - fourth dimension enthusiasts ( though of trend secret plan debates run rampant on Reddit ) .
So whether you ’re look to tote up a little sort to your water common sojourn , or need to to the full plunge yourself in a world of wand , it ’s deserving call for the time to see what MagiQuest is all about .
