Wizard101 Today: Is the “Free to Play” RPG Still Relevant in 2022?
Still a magical game, but now with a new not-so-magical money grabbing strategy.
Kingsisle Entertainment, $9.99 a month plus frequent attempts to sell you in game purchases, ESRB Rating E10+, Runs on PC/Mac. Release Date: Sept. 2nd, 2008. Review Date: Feb. 24th, 2022.
by Jonathan DellaGatta
Eighteen magical worlds. An army of shadow creatures trying to capture you. Powerful spells to fend them off. If you had the opportunity to become the most powerful wizard of all, why wouldn’t you do it?
With a bunch of hard-core, first-person multiplayer RPGs flooding the market, parents are constantly faced with the struggle of what games their kids should be exposed to. Wizard101 is not only a game your entire family might enjoy, it’s a title that a lot of games designed for adults could learn something from, even now in 2022, fourteen years after its creation.
Created by Kingsisle Entertainment in 2008, the game offers simple turn-based gameplay as you play the role of a young wizard enrolling in a magical school known as “Ravenwood.”
Upon downloading the game, you are asked personality questions that determine your affinity for any of the seven schools available — fire, ice, storm, death, myth, life, or balance. Like any classic RPG, each type has its pros and cons when defeating all types of enemies. Some schools offer more support roles — life focuses on healing, whereas schools like storm act as your damage dealer. As you complete quests in different worlds with an engaging storyline for all ages, you level up and gain more powerful spells. This includes unlocking a shadow school and an astral school.
As with many games on the market today, Wizard101 is “free-to-play,” but the number of quests and spells you are able to get is limited. It’s basically a free trial and has been that way since its inception.
With a total of 18 worlds to explore, each with different quests and creatures, you are only able to explore only part of the first world, Wizard City, with the free trial. Users have been constantly advocating to make the entire first world free, especially with all the content available. To combat this, Kingsisle has been adding content that users can do regardless of membership status, and updating the graphics of the first world.
A membership to access the rest of the world is available for $9.99 a month, a bit less than a typical streaming service like Netflix.
Is it worth the cost? I think so since there is always something to do, even if you have explored all of the worlds. There is PVP (player vs. player combat), fishing, gardening, pets, housing decorations, and side quests. And since it’s an MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game), you can do all of these things with friends or people you don’t know.
However, in addition to the subscription, there is an option to pay for an exclusive currency known as “crowns”, where you can buy special content that is not dropped by defeating enemies in the game. Kingsisle tries enticing you to buy crowns even from the startup screen.
Ultimately, Wizard101 is a thrilling, easy-to-play MMORPG that focuses on entertaining any age. Two of the things Wizard101 does well are offering simple yet powerful gameplay, and the ability to play with friends. In addition, the graphics are aesthetically pleasing, and there is a huge plethora of content with the membership.
However, to make sure that the game stays relevant for new players in the future, they can do with quite a few changes to the amount of free content you can access before hitting a paywall, focusing more on the content instead of purchases, and adding more benefits to having a membership.
So, is “Free to Play” RPG Still Relevant in 2022? I think so but it doesn’t have to be so in your face when it comes to getting more money from you.
Jonathan DellaGatta is a senior Design & Creative Technology student at The College of New Jersey. Jonathan’s main interests and knowledge involve casual gameplay for a variety of platforms.
