Not Really F2P

Feeling a little down from all the blood, death and assassinations in the Age of Conan, I thought a little change of pace would be good. So I downloaded Wizard 101 again.

Wizard 101 is a cute, Harry Potter-like game which is about as far away from Age of Conan as you can get. More importantly, it’s free-to-play (F2P). However after playing to level 10 on my wizard, I discovered one thing. It really isn’t F2P.

This is why I say that. A huge area in Wizard 101 is unavailable to players unless you pay for it. Now I know bills must be paid by the developers but there are F2P games out there, like Maplestory, which open all areas in the game to all players. Revenue is generated through sales in the item shops for better weapons, armors, housing items etc.

Wizard 101 is not like that. At my level, at least 2 of the quest areas are closed to me. This means that I have quests I can’t complete unless I get into those areas. And I can’t get into those areas unless I subscribe for it.

Which means Wizard 101 isn’t really free! I don’t really mind because I don’t really play the game that much but calling the game F2P is misleading. We really need a new term for games like this.