I'm a crowns player and one thing I find a bit annoying and rather disrespectful is that despite the amount of money spent, a month after the last purchase, I get treated as though I haven't spent any money at all. Yes, I still have access to the areas I've purchased, but seeing the 'upgrade now' button, not being able to report people who are cussing up storms, being sent to the free ki games site after exiting the game, etc, is rather insulting. To a certain degree, I can understand the logic behind it, but this happens regardless of how much or how little has been spent. I would like to think that if I buy 60k crowns vs 2,500 crowns, that a month later I won't be treated like that.
So here are a couple of ideas to cover this.
First, when someone buys crowns, if they spend over a certain amount, then the amount of time before being treated like a 'free player' will be extended based on the amount spent. For example, let's say that someone buys the $25 crowns package. Instead of a 30 day period of being treated like a paying player, they get 60 days. For the 30k crowns, perhaps 75 days and for the 60k crowns, 120 days. (For those spending under $25, the usual 30 day timer would apply). Also, when doing one of the purchases ($25 or more), it should extend the time by that amount and not be a set timer from that moment of purchase. ie, if I buy 30k crowns and then a couple of weeks later buy another 30k crowns, it should add 75 days to my remaining time and not be set for 75 days from that point.
KI, please keep in mind that crowns players pay to play as well and aren't just free players. It's a snub to pay money and then be treated like it wasn't enough.
Another idea I had, which could increase revenue for KI, is to have a mini-membership. The benefits of this mini-membership over free-play would be some of the benefits of a membership such as increased friends list and backpack, shorter times and a 'member' status. Something like $3/month or $24/year. This mini-membership would NOT grant access to zones that aren't free and would not give ranked PVP/pet races. It would be to supplement crowns players with a some of the perks of a membership, but to get anywhere in the game (like Krokotopia for example), the player would still have to buy that zone with crowns.
As for being able to report people, I'm making another topic about that.
Although your idea was rather nice, why not buy a 1 year membership? A 1 year membership is cheaper then the original cost of 60,000 crowns AND you'll only have to renew that membership once a year. That'll save you loads of money and you won't constantly run out of crowns then have to wait to the end of the month or so to continue and buy more areas. I was once a Pay-By-Zone player in which I as paying for each paid area but then I eventually gotten a 1 year membership and I loved having the membership ever since. I still don't even have to renew it until about 2 months from now. The original cost of 60,000 crowns is $80 while a 1 year membership is $79.95 (Well, the 1 year membership is only $0.05 cheaper but that's still about the same amount of money you would normally spend for 60,000 crowns). And plus, as a member, you get benefits such as (I got this directly from Wizard101.com):
Access to ALL worlds
Ranked PvP matches
Ranked Derby races
Castles & Lands
Advanced Crafting
Message Boards
More Chat options*
Gifting capabilities*
True Friends*
Faster Energy regen
Larger backpack
Larger friends list
Faster Crafting timers
Well, if you don't want to take my advice of getting an membership, well, your idea IS a good idea thou so yea... I do remember having a window show up every single time I logged off and that DOES get really annoying at times so I don't blame you for complaining about that. But I do have to say, your idea about a "mini-membership" doesn't make any sense if it doesn't grant you access to paid areas. What about, instead of that mini-membership not granting you access to paid areas, what about that mini-membership actually cutting the price of paid areas in half? Like, if an area costed 1,000 crowns, with that mini-membership, it would only cost 500 crowns instead. Still consider my advice on a membership thou if you'll like. If you don't want to, then ignore it all together and just focus on what I've said down here below the benefits of a membership
Although your idea was rather nice, why not buy a 1 year membership? A 1 year membership is cheaper then the original cost of 60,000 crowns AND you'll only have to renew that membership once a year. That'll save you loads of money and you won't constantly run out of crowns then have to wait to the end of the month or so to continue and buy more areas. I was once a Pay-By-Zone player in which I as paying for each paid area but then I eventually gotten a 1 year membership and I loved having the membership ever since. I still don't even have to renew it until about 2 months from now. The original cost of 60,000 crowns is $80 while a 1 year membership is $79.95 (Well, the 1 year membership is only $0.05 cheaper but that's still about the same amount of money you would normally spend for 60,000 crowns). And plus, as a member, you get benefits such as (I got this directly from Wizard101.com):
Access to ALL worlds
Ranked PvP matches
Ranked Derby races
Castles & Lands
Advanced Crafting
Message Boards
More Chat options*
Gifting capabilities*
True Friends*
Faster Energy regen
Larger backpack
Larger friends list
Faster Crafting timers
Well, if you don't want to take my advice of getting an membership, well, your idea IS a good idea thou so yea... I do remember having a window show up every single time I logged off and that DOES get really annoying at times so I don't blame you for complaining about that. But I do have to say, your idea about a "mini-membership" doesn't make any sense if it doesn't grant you access to paid areas. What about, instead of that mini-membership not granting you access to paid areas, what about that mini-membership actually cutting the price of paid areas in half? Like, if an area costed 1,000 crowns, with that mini-membership, it would only cost 500 crowns instead. Still consider my advice on a membership thou if you'll like. If you don't want to, then ignore it all together and just focus on what I've said down here below the benefits of a membership
In the long run, it's cheaper to buy zones as you need them. The grand total cost of all areas comes out to a little more than two years worth of membership, and those areas don't expire. Therefore, suggesting a yearly membership is bad advice unless the player is only looking for something to occupy their time for a year or two tops. Once you hit the three year mark, you've spent more (not including my mini-membership idea). For simplicity, let's say it's $80 either way (membership or crowns), not worrying about that little nickel. Total cost of the game, when buying zones, comes out to 130,395 crowns. Minimum cost to get that is $185 ($80 + $80 + $25 to get a total of 133,750 crowns). Truly, once you hit the end of the fourth month of your third year (28 months total), you've spent more in membership than in crowns. That's because membership comes out to $6.67/month and 28 months comes up to over $186. Add in my mini-membership idea and yes, it would take over three years before buying zones comes out cheaper as a consumer, but to get those extra little benefits of a membership (not including the ranked PVP/derby) would be worth it.
The idea of a mini-membership is to be a supplement to being a crowns player, not to modify it. By cutting the cost in half (your idea of what it should do), that would greatly reduce income for K.I. My hope for the mini-membership idea is a way for crowns players to get a few added benefits while appeasing to the business side of K.I. After all, as with any other business, they are trying to make a profit, so we need to keep that in mind.
Not modifying the playing by crowns option is also why I mentioned about not including the ranked PVP/races as part of the mini-membership. Yes, that works against me, as I do plan to do those at some point, but again I'm trying to propose an idea that balanced for both the consumer as well as the business. If this idea is to have any hope of becoming a reality, then it has to be beneficial to the company somehow.
i'm still waiting for permanent pvp passes for crowns and i don't mean just buy it and then your done you have to buy permanent novice pvp to do ranked pvp for levels 1 though 5 and archmage pvp to rank as level 80 to 89 that way to play the full game you still have to buy more as they release more levels just like you have to buy more areas as they release them oh and permanent dorms message boards access for crowns