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Overpriced Crown Zone Pricing For Aquila

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Sep 01, 2011
16
Good day –
I don't want to seem unappreciative of the small reduction in the crown pricing for the newly release of Aquila I also want to thank you for what seems, that you actually tend to listen to the player base that takes time to come here & your BIGGEST fan site to voice there opinions.

What you are missing is that the players who do take time to go & find these & other message boards to let you know how they feel about the changes/new content are not casual gamers in any sense of the term.

It is those casual gamers that will wait for the release only to be hit with the sticker shock that they will get once they access Aquila & attempt to try & purchase this extension of Wizard City.

It is those casual gamers that will not be buying or renting these zones cause of the very high pricing that you decided to release to the masses rather than heed the constructive opinions from the more intermediate/hardcore gamers that let you know the price was still not fair.

It is those casual gamers that will now find their way to these and other message boards to let you know that they are not happy with a 99% price increase in crown zone pricing as compared to other previously released zones of the same wizarding levels.

This was your chance to gain some good ground with your player base & be proactive by offering a fair crown zone price based on previous zone pricing rather than your interpretation of what constitutes “Great Drops in gear.” Since there are so many options to the gear available it is extremely subjective to assume that both the crafted & dropped gear will appeal to everyone. That time for gaining that good ground with your player base has now passed with the release of the pricing as it is.

It would have made better business sense to appeal to a majority of your crown/access players that would have purchase the Crown pricing for Aquila zones at a 20-30% increase rather than find that a 99% increase was just too steep & now you are faced with the minority that will either rent or purchase at these ridiculous prices.

In the end, maybe you really are not listening to the player base that takes the time to find this & other message boards for this family game. This of course is not just my opinion, but you can find other opinions like mine HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

- Christo
The Assistance Specialists


Survivor
Mar 04, 2012
41
While I do not disagree with the sentiment, I do have to question your math. As KI has pointed out at multiple occasions, Aquila is not a new world, it is the addition to an existing zone. There is no precedent for this in the previous zone pricing, and the closest similar addition would be waterworks, which from the zone price list did not cost anything for those who had already purchased the underwater zone.

If you did consider this a new world, which the graphics would justify, it would be rather skimpy, with a single hub with no basic structures as found in other hubs and three instance dungeons. The play in these dungeons is not different in magnitude from other large dungeons, such as any of the end world dungeons.

On the other hand, I am sure KI is aware of this issue, as it dominated the test forums to the point where most of the actual testing issue were eclipsed. And they have a marketing department who sets the prices, who probably have some basis for setting the prices where they are. As this topic seems to have been done to death already, perhaps it should be left with those who feel they are not getting a value for the price or do not have the money to spend should simply not buy. Although if the cost of maintaining the system has gone up to the point where new prices need to be disproportionately increased, it may be time to consider increasing zone purchase prices for new buyers.

Survivor
Sep 01, 2011
16
Aurboth on Aug 4, 2013 wrote:
While I do not disagree with the sentiment, I do have to question your math. As KI has pointed out at multiple occasions, Aquila is not a new world, it is the addition to an existing zone. There is no precedent for this in the previous zone pricing, and the closest similar addition would be waterworks, which from the zone price list did not cost anything for those who had already purchased the underwater zone.

If you did consider this a new world, which the graphics would justify, it would be rather skimpy, with a single hub with no basic structures as found in other hubs and three instance dungeons. The play in these dungeons is not different in magnitude from other large dungeons, such as any of the end world dungeons.

On the other hand, I am sure KI is aware of this issue, as it dominated the test forums to the point where most of the actual testing issue were eclipsed. And they have a marketing department who sets the prices, who probably have some basis for setting the prices where they are. As this topic seems to have been done to death already, perhaps it should be left with those who feel they are not getting a value for the price or do not have the money to spend should simply not buy. Although if the cost of maintaining the system has gone up to the point where new prices need to be disproportionately increased, it may be time to consider increasing zone purchase prices for new buyers.
The math is based on previously released zone pricing of equivalent wizarding levels. Being an extension to an existing world and NOT a new world should suggest that pricing should be the same or less for zones in that world, than what you would pay for a new world.

This is also not in line with any increases that have previously been introduced to the crown/access player base.
Wizard City - To - Krokotopia = 22% increase in zone pricing (750/915)
Krokotopia - To - Marleybone/Mooshu/Dragonspyre = 31% increase in zone pricing (915/1200)
Dragonspyre - To - Celestia/Zafaria/Avalon = 41 % increase in zone pricing (1200/1695)
Avalon - To - Azteca = 18% increase in zone pricing (1695/1995)

Now if you take into account Wysteria is very similar to Aquila as it is a very small side world with a big lvl 60 dungeon in Tower of the Helephant. The 3 zones that were for level 20 wizards was released at 1000 crowns per zone. That in relation to other zones of equivalent wizarding levels, this was a 9% increase in zone pricing (915 of Krokotopia/1000 for Wysteria). So how is it that Crowns/Access players should have to accept a 99% increase based on the above numbers??

Yes, I have decided NOT to buy Aquila as have many, many other players that are in the same boat. But I already know that KI is going to make this unnecessary extension become necessary for either main story line questing or spell quests, just like it has done previously with Grizzleheim/Wintertusk.

In a previous post I made on profitability of a price reduction vs the prices that have been released.
For this example, lets say there are 1 million Crowns/Access players -
- If 1/3 of the crowns/access players purchase this extension at the current price of 9735 for all 3 areas = 3.24 billion crowns spent.

- If they had lowered the pricing to a 17% (1200+1695+1995= 4890x17% = 5725) increase rather than the 99% increase and 2/3 of that 1 million players would have purchased = 3.82 billion crowns spent.

Seems that could have made more on crowns if they had lowered the pricing AND AT THE SAME TIME, kept the crown/access player base happy. Just better business sense....

Historian
May 06, 2009
633
You really are just gonna take this thing to death aren't you? This Aquila pricing debate is becoming really, no, extremely irritating to me. I'm tired about this and I'm only getting angrier. But I guess I'm crazy enough to voice my own opinion anyway...
To put the record straight to anyone, I'm a Crowns player, playing this game for the past 4+ years (about Grizzlehiem's release). I only buy subscription now for posting purposes (though supposedly, players who bought Crowns or pre-pad within 30 days prior are able to use the Message Boards). I have also yet to buy Aquila, but I'm leaning to buying them (please don't try to persuade me).

This Aquila pricing debate, retaliation, whatever-you-want-to-call-it needs to come to end already. Obviously, from the links I read on your post, and from seeing your constant posts, the Player's side is not going to give way anytime soon. KI needs to go ahead and reduce the prices even lower it would seem. After the ridiculous flame war with Azteca, the dissappointment in Tourneys, I'm at my limit with tolerance for anymore tension within this community (but I'm almost positive the final world for the 2nd arc will bring pure torture one way or another).

That being said, my original stand on this is that I was content with the pricing. 9735 is about close to Grizzlehiem, and considering it's giving a ton of good gear (which I'm sure people against Aquila will only point out the bad parts of the gear), I thought that outwayed the size. I really wanted to play Aquila, enjoy the new content and just have fun with some of my friends or try for some of the new gear, pets, reagents whatever. That's all! I could care less on how frequently they could or could not be dropped. I just like MOST things KI does (not all). The story, the art, the puns and funnies, everything game-play wise. Pricing has never been a problem for me. But apparently, according to the player base, if I were buy these new, I'm just a sheep sitting backing letting KI do whatever they please, buying into their greedy palms, until the prices are almost astronomical. Well...thanks so much for killing my fun with that update. I really appreciated it.

People continuely compare Aquila to other zones and Waterworks which I sometimes feel you can't do. Here's the deal with Waterworks. It came inclusive with Crab Alley's return expansion. Crab Alley was meant for LEVEL 12's. Waterworks was just an inclusion for a later time for those level 60's. It may have been better to just split the Zones. As for the other zones, please tell me where in MooShu, Zafaria, and Azteca I can find gear, pets, smooth graphics and super rare reagents that exceed what's in Aquila. Aquila's price is based off of rewards, not continued content, or graphics, which the other zones you mentioned are. In this case, I simply feel that prices of other zones to Aquila's price needs to be on the same ground, in this case, drops.

[continued]

Historian
May 06, 2009
633
Christo Deathgiver on Aug 2, 2013 wrote:
Good day –
I don't want to seem unappreciative of the small reduction in the crown pricing for the newly release of Aquila I also want to thank you for what seems, that you actually tend to listen to the player base that takes time to come here & your BIGGEST fan site to voice there opinions.

What you are missing is that the players who do take time to go & find these & other message boards to let you know how they feel about the changes/new content are not casual gamers in any sense of the term.

It is those casual gamers that will wait for the release only to be hit with the sticker shock that they will get once they access Aquila & attempt to try & purchase this extension of Wizard City.

It is those casual gamers that will not be buying or renting these zones cause of the very high pricing that you decided to release to the masses rather than heed the constructive opinions from the more intermediate/hardcore gamers that let you know the price was still not fair.

It is those casual gamers that will now find their way to these and other message boards to let you know that they are not happy with a 99% price increase in crown zone pricing as compared to other previously released zones of the same wizarding levels.

This was your chance to gain some good ground with your player base & be proactive by offering a fair crown zone price based on previous zone pricing rather than your interpretation of what constitutes “Great Drops in gear.” Since there are so many options to the gear available it is extremely subjective to assume that both the crafted & dropped gear will appeal to everyone. That time for gaining that good ground with your player base has now passed with the release of the pricing as it is.

It would have made better business sense to appeal to a majority of your crown/access players that would have purchase the Crown pricing for Aquila zones at a 20-30% increase rather than find that a 99% increase was just too steep & now you are faced with the minority that will either rent or purchase at these ridiculous prices.

In the end, maybe you really are not listening to the player base that takes the time to find this & other message boards for this family game. This of course is not just my opinion, but you can find other opinions like mine HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

- Christo
The Assistance Specialists

Yes, a 99% increase is a jump from 17%. I honestly don't see why it HAS to be a 20-30% increase though. For whatever reasons, KI has proven to me Aquila just has to priced high. I don't see why that has to be, but if it went live with the current pricing it was in Test Realm, it must be. Ok? So honestly, I could and would deal with a 40-55% increase. Meeting in the middle with a 45% increase on 1200, 1695, and 1995, the new prices are (slightly modified from the mathmatical appearance) 1745, 2460, and 2895 for a max total of 7100. I can live with this.

I can see a 5735 price tag on all of Aquila, just from looking at it (no gear or content included), but seeing as KI just has to have high priced, and now including drops that you can't find anywhere else (including the reagents KI said they weren't putting into drops), a 6000-7500 price tag to me is reasonable. I'm not going to talk much about renting right now, as it seems very few people understand the concept. All I see is, some people buy a side world, but won't use it ever again and feel the wasted their money or just aren't into this content for the drops. In that case, KI made it so that all your players (all your do players get access when renting a Zone) can do the Zone once, get-'er-done, and never do it again without spending a Wysteria or Grizzlehiem price tag.

Similar to Grizzlehiem and Wintertusk, until KI makes some kind of incentive or obligation to do the world with a pet or spell card, Aquila is not on the top of my list to do. School is starting soon, and I need to be focused on that right now. Plus, for right now, I'm not willing to spend on Aquila as I don't want to spend on it just yet. At a later date when I do have funds and when the complaints over it have died down, then I will get pretty much all of it, like I did with Grizzlehiem and Wintertusk. But nothing in Aquila tells me I need to have it now, maybe later.

I do believe KI is listening and does listen (I've seen it from time to time. It's small stuff, but they do listen). As much as you'd like KI to be proactive and avoid any of what we're doing right now, I think it's more of reactive company. As uneffective as it is, KI has proven itself many times to respond to feedback after it goes live. I guess, in a buisness sense, it gives them reason to spend money to fix or improve this in order to bring out more money making features. But Wizard101 is still young and so is KI, believe it or not. Maybe in another 4 years they'll be better prepared. That or this is just want they do.

I think KI will lower the prices for this world at some point. What they will do is mark them down to that reasonable price. Then, just like the inconvenience that happened in Azteca where players could not enter a zone and KI gave all effect players 30,000 crowns, all players would bought the older prices of Aquila will be give X about of crowns as compensation from KI free of charge via the community support team.

Historian
May 06, 2009
633
Christo Deathgiver on Aug 5, 2013 wrote:
The math is based on previously released zone pricing of equivalent wizarding levels. Being an extension to an existing world and NOT a new world should suggest that pricing should be the same or less for zones in that world, than what you would pay for a new world.

This is also not in line with any increases that have previously been introduced to the crown/access player base.
Wizard City - To - Krokotopia = 22% increase in zone pricing (750/915)
Krokotopia - To - Marleybone/Mooshu/Dragonspyre = 31% increase in zone pricing (915/1200)
Dragonspyre - To - Celestia/Zafaria/Avalon = 41 % increase in zone pricing (1200/1695)
Avalon - To - Azteca = 18% increase in zone pricing (1695/1995)

Now if you take into account Wysteria is very similar to Aquila as it is a very small side world with a big lvl 60 dungeon in Tower of the Helephant. The 3 zones that were for level 20 wizards was released at 1000 crowns per zone. That in relation to other zones of equivalent wizarding levels, this was a 9% increase in zone pricing (915 of Krokotopia/1000 for Wysteria). So how is it that Crowns/Access players should have to accept a 99% increase based on the above numbers??

Yes, I have decided NOT to buy Aquila as have many, many other players that are in the same boat. But I already know that KI is going to make this unnecessary extension become necessary for either main story line questing or spell quests, just like it has done previously with Grizzleheim/Wintertusk.

In a previous post I made on profitability of a price reduction vs the prices that have been released.
For this example, lets say there are 1 million Crowns/Access players -
- If 1/3 of the crowns/access players purchase this extension at the current price of 9735 for all 3 areas = 3.24 billion crowns spent.

- If they had lowered the pricing to a 17% (1200+1695+1995= 4890x17% = 5725) increase rather than the 99% increase and 2/3 of that 1 million players would have purchased = 3.82 billion crowns spent.

Seems that could have made more on crowns if they had lowered the pricing AND AT THE SAME TIME, kept the crown/access player base happy. Just better business sense....
For this example, lets say there are 1 million Crowns/Access players -
- If 1/3 of the crowns/access players purchase this extension at the current price of 9735 for all 3 areas = 3.24 billion crowns spent.

- If they had lowered the pricing to a 17% (1200+1695+1995= 4890x17% = 5725) increase rather than the 99% increase and 2/3 of that 1 million players would have purchased = 3.82 billion crowns spent.


From your example, if there are more Members than Crowns players, and KI did come out with the lower price, what guarantees that players would still buy Aquila at the lower price? Also why is the second option no 1/3 like the first option (I'm not much of a math person and I don't get the reasoning behind this example)? When I look at, I still see a possiblity that even with a lower price KI could still not entice people to buy Aquila. They could still brush it off and call it not worth it. This really has nothng to do with any of my other claims, I'm just curious for your answer.

The only reason I say this is because I remember there wasn't much interest with Grizzlehiem when it arrived (if I remember correctly). It was priced very high but it was a leap from Dragonspyre. It wasn't truly until Wintertusk came around and the spell requirements for it arised for people to atcually come and do it. Aquila could end up the same way at a lower price. Of course, I'm expecting and accepting I could be wrong on this.

I want to say, I think it was a bad decision to clump all these really good drops and potential farming grounds into these single areas; it's all Waterworks again. These all give reason for a high price because it has powerful rewards in one area, nowhere else, that you could come back to farm over and over. It may have been better to place some of this stuff in a current zone. If they'd spread the gear out or placed it in multiple places as potential drops, the price does not need to be so high.
But had KI put some of this gear as drops in Azteca, or any other world, they wouldn't make any money, because some people have already boughten/done these places and you're not making anything on improving something that people have already spent on (drop and reward-wise, not questing wise). You can't force them to pay again for the areas and you can't give them their money back if you do something the price because you'll, possibly, have to refund them thus losing money (I'm speaking on the terms of improving the drops of a current world. Do not get this confused with Aquila). This is my understanding of why KI prefers to make more side worlds than placing new gear in a finished world.

Whatever becomes of Aquila in the future, I just hope it will get better, a little brighter, and lead to a happier outlook.

Survivor
Sep 01, 2011
16
For someone that is "irritated" & getting "angrier" over this topic, 3 posts to get out frustration. Gotta love it

Accepting this price as it has been released without coming here to voice my displeasure, only paves the way for KI to keep increasing zone pricing in the future at these levels (99% vs. the 18-41% previous increases). I am glad to hear that you feel "Content" with the pricing as is, but you are 1 player. I am a family account of 6 separate accounts. They as well love the game for the same reasons you do, so my plight is multiplied by 6 & why I have decided to take this stand. None of my posts on this subject have I claimed KI, greedy or such, but, I have been asking them to be more reasonable as double the price is just too steep of an increase & I consider myself a hardcore player. I can only imagine from the responses that I have seen that your casual gamers, that play for the relaxation aspect, will just not understand. Pricing does not have to be on the same grounds as the worlds/levels mentioned, but the increase in price should be relevant to those worlds/level that were mentioned.

20-30% was never a hard number, but in my experience of sales haggling, it is always best to start with the lowest number that will get looked at rather than asking for rock bottom like 750c (similar to WW). I know that KI needs to be profitable with all of their releases and why I started at the point I did.

There is no guarantee more players will buy at the lower price. But I do know that more people would be apt to buy a candy bar that was $1 over the same candy bar that is $1.5 or $2. Then the company & the player base could both be happy. I wish they would have taken the proactive steps to avoid refunds of any type, but it is what it is. So if the drops were worth farming as some have claimed, one would be more inclined to buy if it was $1 candy bar. My perception, is based on the responses I have seen, more said they would buy at 5k-7k crown price.

Survivor
Sep 01, 2011
16
<continued>
There has been more interest in Aquila than GH. Biggest reason why is that GH was lvl20-40 and was released after many players had already hit the lvl 50 cap. Aquila offers something a lot different since it has functions for lvl 30, lvl 70 and lvl 90.

I completely agree with you observation on having sooo many drops in one location. Was a little baffled that Trail of Spheres in Celestia and Mirror Lake in Zafaria offered some pretty decent Crown drops, but then once you got to Ghosts of Avalon/Keep of Ganelon, nothing.... Then again with Xibalba... Nothing again... Both of those would have been a perfect opportunity to "Spread the wealth" on drops similar to what is offered in Aquila. Butt then again, that may have gone into KI's thought process and why "They Feel" that the price is just and warranted.

On top of all of this, in the most recent letter from the producer, it has been suggested that there is more on the horizon:
"Finally some clues as to what's to come:
1. Our 5th birthday will bring a major flashback for our earliest players, but with a tiwst - not to mention a lot of fun for everyone.
2 Something new and spooky this way comes -->
3. What you find in the next major world after Azteca will rock Wizard101 and things will never be the same."

More reason for me not to spend our families crowns on this extension and save them for the "next major world". But if the price was reasonable as I had suggested, I would buy both as I am positive that many others would have as well.

In the long run, I really like Aquila and have 2 accounts that are still subscriptions that will complete it, but once those memberships expire, I am heavily leaning on making those access accounts as well...

Survivor
Aug 03, 2012
20
Christo Deathgiver on Aug 2, 2013 wrote:
Good day –
I don't want to seem unappreciative of the small reduction in the crown pricing for the newly release of Aquila I also want to thank you for what seems, that you actually tend to listen to the player base that takes time to come here & your BIGGEST fan site to voice there opinions.

What you are missing is that the players who do take time to go & find these & other message boards to let you know how they feel about the changes/new content are not casual gamers in any sense of the term.

It is those casual gamers that will wait for the release only to be hit with the sticker shock that they will get once they access Aquila & attempt to try & purchase this extension of Wizard City.

It is those casual gamers that will not be buying or renting these zones cause of the very high pricing that you decided to release to the masses rather than heed the constructive opinions from the more intermediate/hardcore gamers that let you know the price was still not fair.

It is those casual gamers that will now find their way to these and other message boards to let you know that they are not happy with a 99% price increase in crown zone pricing as compared to other previously released zones of the same wizarding levels.

This was your chance to gain some good ground with your player base & be proactive by offering a fair crown zone price based on previous zone pricing rather than your interpretation of what constitutes “Great Drops in gear.” Since there are so many options to the gear available it is extremely subjective to assume that both the crafted & dropped gear will appeal to everyone. That time for gaining that good ground with your player base has now passed with the release of the pricing as it is.

It would have made better business sense to appeal to a majority of your crown/access players that would have purchase the Crown pricing for Aquila zones at a 20-30% increase rather than find that a 99% increase was just too steep & now you are faced with the minority that will either rent or purchase at these ridiculous prices.

In the end, maybe you really are not listening to the player base that takes the time to find this & other message boards for this family game. This of course is not just my opinion, but you can find other opinions like mine HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

- Christo
The Assistance Specialists

They apparently had some data that would suggest that they can maximize their profits by marketing this price point. They can always lower it if they do not get the response they expected, but it would be hard to increase the price.

Survivor
Sep 01, 2011
16
RED DEATH on Aug 6, 2013 wrote:
They apparently had some data that would suggest that they can maximize their profits by marketing this price point. They can always lower it if they do not get the response they expected, but it would be hard to increase the price.
Not sure what marketing data they used since the vast majority of Crowns/Access players did not have:

- Access to the Test Realm, unless they have made a crown purchase of at least $6 in the last 30 days, where they would have seen the pricing and had the opportunity to voice their opinions.

- Access to the Test Realm Message Boards as this portion of the "Official" Message boards is for members only, again restricting those players from voicing their opinions.

- Access to the any other part of the message board unless they have made a crown purchase of at least $6 in the last 30 days, and yes, once again restricting those players from voicing their opinions.

So testing out Crown Zone pricing that is for the players, that can not access those Zone areas to test... Yes that is Marketing101

But, I do hope they see the errors of their ways and once again reduce the pricing to a more reasonable level. :)

- Christo
The Assistance Specialists

Historian
May 06, 2009
633
Christo Deathgiver on Aug 6, 2013 wrote:
<continued>
There has been more interest in Aquila than GH. Biggest reason why is that GH was lvl20-40 and was released after many players had already hit the lvl 50 cap. Aquila offers something a lot different since it has functions for lvl 30, lvl 70 and lvl 90.

I completely agree with you observation on having sooo many drops in one location. Was a little baffled that Trail of Spheres in Celestia and Mirror Lake in Zafaria offered some pretty decent Crown drops, but then once you got to Ghosts of Avalon/Keep of Ganelon, nothing.... Then again with Xibalba... Nothing again... Both of those would have been a perfect opportunity to "Spread the wealth" on drops similar to what is offered in Aquila. Butt then again, that may have gone into KI's thought process and why "They Feel" that the price is just and warranted.

On top of all of this, in the most recent letter from the producer, it has been suggested that there is more on the horizon:
"Finally some clues as to what's to come:
1. Our 5th birthday will bring a major flashback for our earliest players, but with a tiwst - not to mention a lot of fun for everyone.
2 Something new and spooky this way comes -->
3. What you find in the next major world after Azteca will rock Wizard101 and things will never be the same."

More reason for me not to spend our families crowns on this extension and save them for the "next major world". But if the price was reasonable as I had suggested, I would buy both as I am positive that many others would have as well.

In the long run, I really like Aquila and have 2 accounts that are still subscriptions that will complete it, but once those memberships expire, I am heavily leaning on making those access accounts as well...
I'm a bit of a talker, and there were many thoughts I had to say to really level off that big frustration. It really wasn't until the third post did I finally calm down so yeah...

I feel a bit better about what you're saying now. I can respect your stand and it makes more sense to me. I can still deal with the current pricing, it's just KI won't see me purchasing these areas anytime soon (not never). It kinda just hangs on the Wizard101 central raffle for me right now. But had it been lower, I'd probably would have boughten it by now, but this has been the first time ever has pricing been an issue since, well, ever really. I mean a notice of many crowns items have come up, but for the most part, no one cared to much on how much the areas cost, because they were fair, fair-ish, or we could spend it without loosing an arm and a leg. I've been just holding off for a little. If a price drops comes around, awesome and I'll just leave it there.

I have mixed feelings on your point about accepting these prices. On one hand, I'd say accepting it doesn't pave a way for KI to just leap with the prices because Aquila is a side area. It's not necessary to do it, and anyone can just brush it off and be uneffected. You can't do that with main content. Had Aquila been a main world, then I could agree with you 101% (pun intended). But since it's not, and prices are based off of Rewards primarily (and a smidge of graphics), I don't see how KI could take this and just give us a 3995 slap-in-the-face price tag for the next World Zones.
On the other hand, Aquila in a way could be a test for KI and see if doing this kind of pricing can eventually price these areas at or close to the 3500 per area price. It would just hinge on player feed back. Seeing as they had to reduce the prices once and has been met with heavy backlash, I'd say this was a failed test. But at the same time, many Wizards are willing to pay the price anyway, so I think it's all on whose the bigger side (Oh, gosh! No more player divides!).

"What you find in the next major world after Azteca will rock Wizard101 and things will never be the same."

When I read this (for one I was super excited about it), especial "What you find in the next major world after Azteca will rock Wizard101..."I more saw that this World would be something huge, amazing, and completely mind-blowing for Wizard101. Graphically. Story-wise. Maybe even in rewards, crafting, etc. Things are just going to be things we never thought possible. And when they say "things will never be the same", I feel that's more story inclined, as things between us, Merle Ambrose, Morganthe, Ravenwood, and the Spiral will never be the same. I don't think this has much to do with a rocked out pricing or directly correlating to pricing. If anything, the prices could remain at 1995, but I could see 2495, 2695, or 2995 prices (Pirate101 is currently is at a 2999 price for 3-4 piecs of a Chapters 13 and 14 so) for a 11000-15000 total.

Survivor
Mar 25, 2011
29
I agree even though I have 53 crowns. But I also think that the prices for the actual crowns are pricy, especially in Grub Guardian.
Joshua GoldGem

Geographer
Nov 26, 2011
860
Christo Deathgiver on Aug 2, 2013 wrote:
Good day –
I don't want to seem unappreciative of the small reduction in the crown pricing for the newly release of Aquila I also want to thank you for what seems, that you actually tend to listen to the player base that takes time to come here & your BIGGEST fan site to voice there opinions.

What you are missing is that the players who do take time to go & find these & other message boards to let you know how they feel about the changes/new content are not casual gamers in any sense of the term.

It is those casual gamers that will wait for the release only to be hit with the sticker shock that they will get once they access Aquila & attempt to try & purchase this extension of Wizard City.

It is those casual gamers that will not be buying or renting these zones cause of the very high pricing that you decided to release to the masses rather than heed the constructive opinions from the more intermediate/hardcore gamers that let you know the price was still not fair.

It is those casual gamers that will now find their way to these and other message boards to let you know that they are not happy with a 99% price increase in crown zone pricing as compared to other previously released zones of the same wizarding levels.

This was your chance to gain some good ground with your player base & be proactive by offering a fair crown zone price based on previous zone pricing rather than your interpretation of what constitutes “Great Drops in gear.” Since there are so many options to the gear available it is extremely subjective to assume that both the crafted & dropped gear will appeal to everyone. That time for gaining that good ground with your player base has now passed with the release of the pricing as it is.

It would have made better business sense to appeal to a majority of your crown/access players that would have purchase the Crown pricing for Aquila zones at a 20-30% increase rather than find that a 99% increase was just too steep & now you are faced with the minority that will either rent or purchase at these ridiculous prices.

In the end, maybe you really are not listening to the player base that takes the time to find this & other message boards for this family game. This of course is not just my opinion, but you can find other opinions like mine HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

- Christo
The Assistance Specialists

I completely agree. The prices should just be reduced to 1450, 1850, 2450 or something similar to that.

Survivor
Sep 01, 2011
16
"It kinda just hangs on the Wizard101 central raffle for me right now."
How Sad that soundsm that you are waiting on winning the Lottery to pay for these dungeons... Me too by the way, but will probably still save those crowns for the next new world. :P

"I have mixed feelings on your point about accepting these prices."
They have already tested this with adding Tournaments that members have to pay crowns for. This is the Crowns player test in my opinion... Aquila is definitely busy, but the vast majority of those players are members and not crowns players...

As for future pricing, Since there was no increase in pricing from Zafaria to Avalon, I am hoping there will be no price increase from Azteca to this New world... But IF and I mean IF they did raise pricing, I am hoping they stick to the 18% increase from Zafaria/Avalon to Azteca and charge 2350 crowns per zone/6 zones for a total of 14100 crowns.

Historian
May 06, 2009
633
Christo Deathgiver on Aug 8, 2013 wrote:
"It kinda just hangs on the Wizard101 central raffle for me right now."
How Sad that soundsm that you are waiting on winning the Lottery to pay for these dungeons... Me too by the way, but will probably still save those crowns for the next new world. :P

"I have mixed feelings on your point about accepting these prices."
They have already tested this with adding Tournaments that members have to pay crowns for. This is the Crowns player test in my opinion... Aquila is definitely busy, but the vast majority of those players are members and not crowns players...

As for future pricing, Since there was no increase in pricing from Zafaria to Avalon, I am hoping there will be no price increase from Azteca to this New world... But IF and I mean IF they did raise pricing, I am hoping they stick to the 18% increase from Zafaria/Avalon to Azteca and charge 2350 crowns per zone/6 zones for a total of 14100 crowns.
Lol I'm not so much waiting and hoping that somehow I end up with a large amount of crowns to pay for Aquila (but 50,000 crowns would be AWESOME), but due to the tension in the message boards over Aquila, I would prefer to hold it off for awhile and see what happens. I'm using this raffle as a way to wait things out and see what happens. If I get a lot of crowns, I'll see it worth it to buy Aquila, since I didn't pay anything on it, and save anything else for the next world. If I come up short, then oh well (I've learn to not rely on contests and random things.) I'll just buy Aquila when my endless amount of low level friends are busting my doors down to help them with Aquila or when I have nothing else to do.

Here's the thing I gotta say about Tourneys and this Members gotta pay for it (and I'll probably make a post about this in the PvP section). Tournaments to me are there own thing, just based off of Ranked PvP. However, unlike Ranked PvP, Tourneys do not increase your PvP Rank. They don't help you become Warlord and they can't take you down to being a Private or a lower rank. They do nothing for you. The only things that rank in Tourneys is the ranks that decide if what position you'll be in based off your wins. That's it.
Then at the end of it, you can gain a boat load of Arena Tickets at the end of every event, plus some extra goodies. I love this about PvP Tournaments. I typically end up in 12th to 11th Position which lands me 325-375 arena tickets. So when I'm not a Member, with 2500 for $5 I can do 3 Tourneys and end up with over 900 Arena Tickets.
Yet, Members, from what I hear, they want a possibility of 1250 Arena Tickets, a Housing Trophy Item, 4 timed matches galore, and possibly good rewards all free of charge. I don't agree with that. I could take another price reduction and now Non-members can by the 499 price and members only 250 (about a day pass price in Ranked PvP for Non-members) but I can't see Members going free for this and all these rewards. It's like saying Crowns players have to pay for Packs, yet Members get as many as they want free of charge. Nnnno. Had Tournaments had an effect on your Rank, then I'd cut Member some slack because they can do Ranked PvP for free that increases or decreases their Rank. But this is one of the few times in PvP (and maybe the game with the exception of Crown Shop Items) has Crowns players and Members been on the same ground; using Crowns. It kinda shows we're all in the same boat and no one's above one another.


I don't feel there will be a major price increase for the next world, if any. We might just run 1995 for a while like with the 1200 (Krokotopia to Dragonspyre) price and the 1695 (Celestia to Avalon) price. It's a small increase between stories that then goes on for a short consistent time. That's what typically happens. But a 18% increase wouldn't be horrendous (I'd prefer something like that later though ) .

Survivor
May 17, 2009
5
i do really agree that aquila is at least a little overpriced, compared to the rest of the game, i think the whole thing should come down like a thousand crowns or so, for each area. great job though.