In the August 1982 edition of "Dragon" (Issue 64), John Sapienza, more than his contemporaries, realized the implications of developing a cross-genre rules system, commenting, "I believe that "WOW" represents an attempt to develop a set of basic operating rules that can be applied to any gaming world. I think that Chaosium carried this out with considerable success, although I think there is room for improvement in applying the same rule in parallel situations." Sapienza concluded with a strong recommendation, saying, "I consider this an advancement of the state of the art in game design, and the beginning of a new generation of games, and well worth the attempt. "Worlds of Wonder" more than a set of minigames, it’s a major game system, and well worth exploring for both the novice and the experienced rolegamer."