For Wiz101's target market, you'd be surprised how long the free content can entertain -- it's limitless, really.  My niece (who showed me the game at XMAS) is still playing for free to this day.  She enjoys rolling characters and fighting mobs.  Her younger sister does the same.

I have not tried Free Realms yet, so I cannot speak to the post topic... however, Wiz101 can be considered a F2P game for much of its target market... in my opinion. 

They're pretty much going nuts adding content.  Another BIG patch:

https://www.wizard101.com/site/home2/wizard101/page_8ad6a404207fb2fd012091e57197060f

Enjoy!

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!

Straight from the Community Mgr (Kiersten Samwell) in an interview:

"As for Wizard101, one of the most requested features is a shared bank between characters on the same account, and I'm authorized to tell you that feature is coming within the next few weeks. This will allow all the characters on one account login to share the same bank, which means that Life robe you found with your Storm Wizard can be passed on to your Life Wizard, and Crowns items can be handed down to your other characters as you grow out of them."
 

Read the full interview here.

Hi Kamyn,

No more areas will open for the "free" content.  You are pretty much limited to Unicorn Way and the Golem Tower... basically...

Some tweaks... the level imbalance was quite bad before the patch.  Anyway, read on:

https://www.wizard101.com/site/posts/list/3322.ftl

New minigame, and a boat load of other stuff.  Arena betting is out.  Check out the details here:

https://www.wizard101.com/site/posts/list/3104.ftl

I must apologize for some inaccuracies - there was some confusion over the versions of the article I sent to MMORPG.com.  Sadly, you got the wrong version - it is more my fault than MMORPG.com's fault.

As far as going into a detailed look at combat and such - the article was supposed to be named "Day 1 in Wizard City"... apparently, that got lost in translation as well.  So, consider the article as a "Day 1" primer, and it should hopefeully make more sense. 

I usually don't post in my article threads, but I felt like my article somewhat got mangled on it's way through (again - my fault).

I guess I view Wiz101 much like I do Pirates of the Caribbean online -- yeah, you can play it forever for free, but you might not be satifisied with that... Some people consider that "free" (myself included).  At least I didn't have to buy a box...

@Loke666: Wow, glad to see another Neverwinter (AOL) vet around on the internet! 

SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc) was the company that brought us Pools of Radiance and the "gold box" games... very good stuff.  

I remember racking up $113 one month playing Neverwinter on AOL... yeah, they used to charge by the HOUR... ouch!   

I was going to say something about Atlantica... but, I forget. 

The items in the mall are more for convienence, rather than artifacts of great power. 

My next correspondent article will discuss the mall in detail... should be up in a week or so

@Matutino - thanks for reading! 

When every monster in the fight has the same melee *and* magic abilities (or ranged and magic), then the tactical options become flat -- ie: yer just gonna kill them all with no consideration to anything but their hitpoints.  (unless it's a mixed group, with some low MDef and some low PDef enemies)...

That's all I was really talking about... when you fight other players, the tactical decisions are pretty amazing and fun... not the case with most PvE, because the enemies in one fight are rarely varied.

Hope that helps! 

And a bonus for buying the adventurer's packs... I guess they weren't selling too well:

http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/news/notice_view.asp?list_seq=860

Was kinda hoping they'd rethink that decision...

oh well!

Must have been part of the maintenance last night...

I dunno how I feel "philosophically" about taking away event items like that... kinda disappointed tho.

By "vague", I mean "no concrete info at all and maybe a candidate for update vapor-ware"...

Anyway, enjoy:

http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/ATForum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=7936&posts=8&start=1

I was in a town the other day and one of those "wandering" npcs mentioned some reward when you have the book completed...

dunno how long that'll take!  (nor do I know what the reward is)

All mercenaries have an Action Power rating which is sometimes hinted at in the Mercenary Game info section.  (ie - Vikings have a "low" action power, which means they regenerate Action Points slowly)

Mercs in your front line regen AP's somewhat faster than the middle line, and the middle line slightly faster than the back line... but, the difference is quite small.

So far, I have not encountered any items to increase AP... I really think it's all dependant upon the merc. 

Keep in mind, it's been years since I've looked at guild wars... but, I remember paying $49.99 for a box. 

Most F2P games only require a free download... no risk. 

(of course, that doesn't answer your question) 

The *info* on the sailor is available, but the mercenary herself is not... the quest to get her starts in the Caribbean - which is a zone that was removed before open beta...

So, once we can sail to the new world, we should be able to get our sailors! 

Here.

No character wipe (as promised)

Item mall is now open for browsing.

Enjoy!