What a rip off.  Pay 10 dollars a month to subscribe and still not have full access to everything in the game.  The game is fun but if you want me to fork out 10 dollars a month to pay, which I don't mind doing, you better not also expect me to fork out more cash to buy crowns in order to buy certain items, weapons, armor, and pets.  Total scam as far as I'm concerned.

It's not a rip-off.  When you subscribe, you have access to all worlds, quests and rewards.  You have the ability to play through every level of the entire game for as long as you subscribe.  That's what you pay for with a subscription and that's what you get.  If, for example, you were required to pay crowns to unlock the ability to use an item--even though you are a subscriber-- that a mob dropped in battle or that you received as the completion reward for a quest, then you'd have definite cause to complain.  That's not the case, though. There's nothing you can buy for Crowns that you can't live without.  As a subscriber, you aren't required to buy anything extra in order to be competitive or to unlock certain content.  The only extras you can buy are things you WANT:

• Zeke's gear - this is my only issue with the cash shop - you can buy the same items for gold, but they're ridiculously expensive.  On my level 15 wizard, I barely have 3k gold and I've never bought anything.  The low level items from Zeke are substantially better than any gear you would aqcuire through normal game play, but they are definitely not required.  Also, it's my understanding that the Zeke's gear isn't necessarily better than normally acquired drops/quest reward items as you get higher in level.  If that's the case, the only real benefit to buying these items is to save time (convenience) in acquiring gear.  *Caveat - now that hte PVP arenas are open, I do question whether nor not PVPers will need Zeke's gear in order to stay competitive.  If so, then I do have issues with this.
• Special event pets - I was able to get both my pioneer dragon and storm beetle from the crowns KingsIsle gave me in honor of going live and reaching 1 million subscribers - I didn't need to buy crowns to get them
• Holiday items and pets - Great example of what should be in a cash shop!  Fun, cute items and pets, available only for a limited time.  They're basically collector items that don't affect game play.  Regardless, even non-Crown customers can get some special holiday items. For example, I received multiple Black Cat cards and a pumpkin mask for doing quests.  I didn't have to buy them.

Ultimately, KingsIsle has done a great job of implementing a hybrid revenue model that allows regular players to pay a low, monthly subscription rate, casual players to pay solely in crowns, or hard-core collectors to pay a combination of  subscription (for play) and crowns (for collector's items).  YOU have the choice to pay as little or as much as YOU want.  As such, it's not a ripoff.

~Ripper

Here's a tip if you want to avoid buying crowns for that leet gear: buy the same gear from the "normal" shops and play with the colors. 

Depending on your school, you could wind up paying less than $15k for a $30k+ item!

There are perhaps two logically separate sides to the cash shop in Wizard101.

1.  Cash shop instead of a subscription.  If you pay $10/month, you get unlimited access to all of the content in the game until your subscription expires.  This is the typical business model for many games.

Instead of a subscription, you can pay crowns to get permanent unlimited access to regions as you go along.  It's $80 to unlock everything, and that will give you permanent access to all of the content in the game except for the pvp arena.

That's $80 instead of a subscription, so you'd be able to play the game just like if you had a subscription, except without paying the monthly fee.  It's a business model analogus to that of Guild Wars.

Ranked matches will still cost additional crowns, which comes to a pro-rated 16 cents per match if you buy crowns in the smallest increment, or less than 11 cents per match in the largest increment.  PvP matches are no additional charge for people with an active subscription.

I really don't see how this could be objectionable.  Most likely it's the other side that's upsetting to you.

2.  Cash shop instead of paying in-game gold.  Everything that is in the cash shop is also available in normal shops for in-game gold.  That's not, buy it from a player who charges exorbitant prices because he had to pay real life money, as with some other games.  It's exactly the same item, created in unlimited quantities at a fixed rate by paying in-game gold to an NPC shopkeeper.  The company isn't desperate to get you to buy from the cash shop, as they get plenty of money from a subscription.

Neither is that a system where in order to avoid the cash shop, it would take exorbitant amounts of farming.  Right now, the highest level crown gear in the game requires level 35.  If you save your money, you'll probably have enough to buy a full set the moment you hit level 35--though you might not have made it to Mooshu by then, which is where you buy it.  They'll soon implement a level 45 set of crown gear.  If you save your money and don't buy other stuff at lower levels, you should have quite a bit more than the cost of a full set of level 45 crown gear by the time you hit level 45.  If you spent a lot at lower levels, then maybe you'd have to wait a few more levels to get the top level crown gear.

The cost of crown gear if you pay in gold rises roughly linearly in the level.  The amount of gold you get in the normal course of leveling rises faster than this.  This makes buying crown gear with gold seem exorbitantly expensive when you're low level, but by the time you're high level, it doesn't seem that expensive--and you've really got nothing else to spend gold on, anyway.

You do need the full set of crown gear to be viable for PvP, as it is far and away the best gear in the game.  However, you don't need to have crown gear at the lower levels, as low levels aren't viable for PvP anyway, regardless of their gear.  If PvP viability is the concern, then you can save your money and buy the highest level set of crown gear and be set.

So why would anyone pay crowns for the crown gear?  One reason is that it lets them wear crown gear when they're lower level, and thus be stronger in lower level content.  A level 20 in crown gear has a significant advantage over a level 20 in other gear.  When you're level 50 and wearing gear that requires at least level 45, it doesn't matter what you wore at level 20.

The other reason to pay crowns for crown gear is to get fluff gear.  There's fancy looking Halloween gear, Christmas gear, Valentine's Day gear, and coming soon, St. Patrick's Day gear.  You can buy the gear with gold instead of crowns, but if you want to buy all of the fluff gear and the functional crown gear, that could leave you short on gold, especially if you're lower level.  The high level crown gear will still be there when you get high level, but the seasonal holiday gear could be gone.

So let me get this straight?  EVERYTHING that you buy with crowns can also be bought with gold?  if that's the case then I don't have a problem with it.

I haven't personally checked all of the no-stat fluff gear, but among gear that gives stats, yes, everything can be bought with gold.

There are also treasure card (one time use cards that are slightly stronger than normal cards) packs that you can buy with crowns, and I'm not sure if you can buy those directly with gold.  You can buy individual treasure cards directly with gold, but I'm not sure if that includes everything in the treasure card pack.  This is partially because I don't know what cards the packs can give, and partially because I haven't been to Dragonspyre to know whether more cards can be purchased directly with gold there.  There are a number of treasure cards that mobs can drop that cannot be purchased in the library.

Regardless, the cards for which it looks like a treasure card would be nice in some cases are generally low level things that can be purchased in the Wizard City or Krokotopia libraries.  A card that deals damage outside your class usually isn't useful, because it can't take advantage of power pips.  A card of your class that deals damage can be approximated by applying a buyable tough treasure card to a card you already have; indeed, this latter approach would usually give you a card better than the treasure card.

 Where can you buy the special holidy items for gold?  I wasn't able to find any of them. 

~Ripper

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Originally posted by rhinok
 
 Where can you buy the special holidy items for gold?  I wasn't able to find any of them. 
~Ripper

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... and an awesome explaination there Quizzical.

I just wish they allowed you to find folks easier when you know a name... having to make meeting arrangements on a board is a pain. heh

... oh, and since the shared bank is coming, I am happy and sad... Happy because I can pass gear on to my other characters, and sad, because that is less slots per character... I am a pack rat =P

Originally posted by lliberty

 

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Originally posted by rhinok
 
 Where can you buy the special holidy items for gold?  I wasn't able to find any of them. 
~Ripper

 

 

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From what I heard, they show up only for the Holiday in question ... and I believe, since they are fluff items, can only be bought with crowns? (I am looking forward to St. Patrick's Day myself.)
 

 

That's what I thought and why I think of them as limited edition collectors items.  Thanks for confirming. 

~Ripper