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Why people quit

AuthorMessage
Explorer
Jan 24, 2010
82
Hey,

I wanted to talk about quitters and why they abandon this game (or say they will). I think it's pretty obvious that this game went down when khrysalis came, and it wasn't tripling it's player base when azteca came. So Here's what made this game popular in 2010: The fact that it was an mmo for kids, the mini games and side activities were fun, the spell animations were pretty cool, and the worlds and art style were beautiful. So first of all, the quality of all those things will seem like it's going down if it's almost 9 years old. Secondly, people have grown up and are now interested in other stuff, all anyone talks about anymore is the best gear or what's broken. So naturally there will be some quitters. However it is not just them, the mini games have been neglected, the last one we got was fishing 3 years ago (if you can call it a mini game), there has not been a mini game added to the fairgrounds since Shortly after the game came out. On that note the rewards for them are not good for high level players. As for the worlds, the graphics have aged so there should be a graphics update where you can put it on ultra and it will look better (if your computer can handle it). However Polaris did not look great because it was just all ice, and mirage was all sand. Finally, the spells are not as creative as before (how does a myth wizard Fit an island in a room?). Some spells are OP, some are UP especially for ice, you get spells less frequently too and you use blades most of the battle. So I that's what I would like fixed.

Explorer
Dec 08, 2010
85
I'd like to throw in my two cents on this topic:

I haven't found there to be a drop in the player base at all. Though some people do leave, every MMORPG has people who move on and find other things to do. Quite frankly, every game in general has at least a few people who say they dislike it for reasons such as the ones listed above. But for the most part, we don't let aged graphics, old mini games, or other minor aspects deter us from playing the game (some may even say it adds to the game's unique charm). I have played this for around 8 years, and I still feel the same amazement that this game gave me as a kid. Although the game has changed over time, I believe that these changes have ultimately been for the better. Besides, Wizard101 won't be going anywhere for a long time; especially not from a mere few people saying they aren't fond of the direction it's going in, even though it leads to improvement for the game.

Explorer
Jul 25, 2010
87
indyjunior on Jul 23, 2017 wrote:
Hey,

I wanted to talk about quitters and why they abandon this game (or say they will). I think it's pretty obvious that this game went down when khrysalis came, and it wasn't tripling it's player base when azteca came. So Here's what made this game popular in 2010: The fact that it was an mmo for kids, the mini games and side activities were fun, the spell animations were pretty cool, and the worlds and art style were beautiful. So first of all, the quality of all those things will seem like it's going down if it's almost 9 years old. Secondly, people have grown up and are now interested in other stuff, all anyone talks about anymore is the best gear or what's broken. So naturally there will be some quitters. However it is not just them, the mini games have been neglected, the last one we got was fishing 3 years ago (if you can call it a mini game), there has not been a mini game added to the fairgrounds since Shortly after the game came out. On that note the rewards for them are not good for high level players. As for the worlds, the graphics have aged so there should be a graphics update where you can put it on ultra and it will look better (if your computer can handle it). However Polaris did not look great because it was just all ice, and mirage was all sand. Finally, the spells are not as creative as before (how does a myth wizard Fit an island in a room?). Some spells are OP, some are UP especially for ice, you get spells less frequently too and you use blades most of the battle. So I that's what I would like fixed.
I understand where you're coming from. A lot of players quit the game because it just gets boring after a while.
I'm on the verge of quitting as well, because there is a ton of backtracking in Avalon that just gets irritating, and you only level up if you play for 7 hours straight every day.
Sure, there are a few things that can keep my interest, but they are either unnecessary, boring, tedious, or unfair.
I wonder what this next update is adding.

Mastermind
Nov 08, 2015
396
indyjunior on Jul 23, 2017 wrote:
Hey,

I wanted to talk about quitters and why they abandon this game (or say they will). I think it's pretty obvious that this game went down when khrysalis came, and it wasn't tripling it's player base when azteca came. So Here's what made this game popular in 2010: The fact that it was an mmo for kids, the mini games and side activities were fun, the spell animations were pretty cool, and the worlds and art style were beautiful. So first of all, the quality of all those things will seem like it's going down if it's almost 9 years old. Secondly, people have grown up and are now interested in other stuff, all anyone talks about anymore is the best gear or what's broken. So naturally there will be some quitters. However it is not just them, the mini games have been neglected, the last one we got was fishing 3 years ago (if you can call it a mini game), there has not been a mini game added to the fairgrounds since Shortly after the game came out. On that note the rewards for them are not good for high level players. As for the worlds, the graphics have aged so there should be a graphics update where you can put it on ultra and it will look better (if your computer can handle it). However Polaris did not look great because it was just all ice, and mirage was all sand. Finally, the spells are not as creative as before (how does a myth wizard Fit an island in a room?). Some spells are OP, some are UP especially for ice, you get spells less frequently too and you use blades most of the battle. So I that's what I would like fixed.
In my opinion, people mostly started quitting in 2015. I thought the game was at its high point in 2013 and 2014 (Aquila and the Shadow Palace were legit PACKED to the brim with so many high levels farming), and it was so much fun meeting new people and making new friends. There was also so much content coming out then; practically every update was a new dungeon or new world back then. I would always have 3 pages of active people on my Friends List on, and there was always something to do.

I think the reason people started quitting is because KI severely decreased in content output starting in 2015. Just look at Update Notes if you don't believe me. That year started a trend in which we only get three updates per year, and two of them aren't even big or "major" as they were in the years past. KI now only releases a world in the Fall Update, and the other two updates have hardly any new content, leaving players with nothing to do so they just quit until November. Look at this year's Summer Update, there's legit no new content in it for us to do. Quality of life updates like this would have been minor changes years ago that would have come on a random Test Realm BETWEEN the major updates that were yet to be released.

Mastermind
Nov 08, 2015
396
smokey123443 on Jul 24, 2017 wrote:
I understand where you're coming from. A lot of players quit the game because it just gets boring after a while.
I'm on the verge of quitting as well, because there is a ton of backtracking in Avalon that just gets irritating, and you only level up if you play for 7 hours straight every day.
Sure, there are a few things that can keep my interest, but they are either unnecessary, boring, tedious, or unfair.
I wonder what this next update is adding.
The next update is adding Empyrea and the level cap is getting raised to 130.

Astrologist
Feb 28, 2014
1113
I'd like to add a few things to this topic. First I'd life to say this game was a lot busier before Khrysalis came out. Then people started to quit. I noticed that when I login everyday and find realms not full or crowded like they used to be. I was thinking what happened. This is what I gathered from unhappy players and read about it on youtube and Twitter. Too many limitations where to port to help your friends who's in a need of help ( "sorry, your friend is busy") and too much cheating from bosses. Attacking 3-4 times a round sometimes 2 even skipping turns is called cheating. It's a turn off by many players. Kids are known to pick up on that thinking it's ok to cheat while playing games in school, at home and with friends causing big problems in real life. Many say it's strategy but others say it's cheating specially Parents when they're the boss to their child who plays this game. We can have challenging battle without all that cheating. The chat system also have limitations. Many players don't care about communication laws. They want to talk to others specially fighting a hard battle for a successful win. Misspelled words don't go through causing frustrations. Banning, harsh muting accounts and the game is not allowed to keep track of birthdays so the person can never receive open chat on their 18th birthday regardless of the starting age under 13. All this causes people to leave the game. Lot of teens don't care about restrictions in this kind of game. They want to play.

Defender
Aug 25, 2014
164
Some of us just get burn out. My sister quit because she is bored with the game. Whether or not she'll come back, I don't know. Me personally, I need the break and I have been playing pirate101 more because that's what my sister moved back to and I enjoy playing with someone.

Explorer
Oct 01, 2011
71
Patrick Ravenbane on Jul 25, 2017 wrote:
I'd like to add a few things to this topic. First I'd life to say this game was a lot busier before Khrysalis came out. Then people started to quit. I noticed that when I login everyday and find realms not full or crowded like they used to be. I was thinking what happened. This is what I gathered from unhappy players and read about it on youtube and Twitter. Too many limitations where to port to help your friends who's in a need of help ( "sorry, your friend is busy") and too much cheating from bosses. Attacking 3-4 times a round sometimes 2 even skipping turns is called cheating. It's a turn off by many players. Kids are known to pick up on that thinking it's ok to cheat while playing games in school, at home and with friends causing big problems in real life. Many say it's strategy but others say it's cheating specially Parents when they're the boss to their child who plays this game. We can have challenging battle without all that cheating. The chat system also have limitations. Many players don't care about communication laws. They want to talk to others specially fighting a hard battle for a successful win. Misspelled words don't go through causing frustrations. Banning, harsh muting accounts and the game is not allowed to keep track of birthdays so the person can never receive open chat on their 18th birthday regardless of the starting age under 13. All this causes people to leave the game. Lot of teens don't care about restrictions in this kind of game. They want to play.
I get that the cheats can be sometimes overbearing, but most of them are simply in place to prevent boring boss fights, imagine if bosses didn't have cheats to remove feints, Bad jujus, dispels, sheilds, blades (these are the majority of cheats very few have actual attack cheats unless YOU use a certain spell) Jabberwock and Kravenly come to mind as the attacking cheats but fights like The Rat the damage cheat is part of the story which ADDS meaning to the fight

How would it be challenging? its basically 1) dispel spam, if they use star or moon or shadow, 2) Juju spam, if no death with you, 3) shield spam/weakness spam
Thus the only way to make it "hard" is to make bosses and monsters have stupid high health and have them hit really hard but now (due to the points above) they wont hit hard so they will just have LOADS of HP making it a boring spam fest with no real thinking involved.

If you have a solution to the problems stated above that does not cause a complete overhaul in the games systems I would love to hear it, but in my opinion the cheats make the fights unique and memorable

As for the "teaches kids to cheat" I would argue that it does the opposite, they get frustrated with the cheats which would cause a dislike of cheaters but also gives an immense sense of achievement knowing that they beat a cheater without cheating themselves.

If accounts weren't banned or muted and there was no chat restriction, this game would not be safe for children.
They have added easier communication for menu chat players.
I agree that if you are old enough to have a credit card then you should be able to get open chat, perhaps a solution could be any player with menu or text chat could have use of open chat when in a battle in a dungeon with the 4 other people that are with them, this can still be abused but less so by scammers hanging out in the commons.
Or even if menu chat just gains text chat in dungeons, at the very lest they can see all text chat in dungeons

Explorer
Jan 22, 2014
79
Daniel Ash Shield on Jul 24, 2017 wrote:
I'd like to throw in my two cents on this topic:

I haven't found there to be a drop in the player base at all. Though some people do leave, every MMORPG has people who move on and find other things to do. Quite frankly, every game in general has at least a few people who say they dislike it for reasons such as the ones listed above. But for the most part, we don't let aged graphics, old mini games, or other minor aspects deter us from playing the game (some may even say it adds to the game's unique charm). I have played this for around 8 years, and I still feel the same amazement that this game gave me as a kid. Although the game has changed over time, I believe that these changes have ultimately been for the better. Besides, Wizard101 won't be going anywhere for a long time; especially not from a mere few people saying they aren't fond of the direction it's going in, even though it leads to improvement for the game.
I like your two cents it has some good points.
Theres always haters but haters dont matter because theres plenty of people that love that game.
And whats this talk about old graphics? Theres people out there that love old graphics, me being one of them.
Sure there could be a new mini game added but honestly no one would play it because we have plenty of money to buy potions instead of playing mini games which takes time to fill our potion bottles.
There will be plenty more updates to come that could bring people back.
You know some of these people that have been playing for years upon years don't exactly have the urge to play since they are getting older. People grow out of things eventually!
Wizard101 has many more years to come even with people quitting

~Natalie lvl 84
~Natalie lvl 36

Delver
Jun 14, 2010
214
True, I feel the fan base has fallen over the past years. But overall I feel that the graphics and story particularly in the third arch are really good, when you look at it with a fan writer's perspective I would say the art style has improved with time and the story has never been this good.

Yeah there's a lot of broken things, pvp, various gear sets, some spells. But given the age of the game I feel Wizard101 was going to hit this point sooner or later.

As for new stuff, yeah I'm kind of wishing for a new mini game. Idk maybe a chess themed mini game, we already know of a game similar to chess that's mentioned in game which is Thane's Table. I also wish that KingsIlse would go back and maybe polish the graphics for some of the older worlds, like the ones in first story arc and maybe the beginning of the second story arc, and maybe revamp character customization/creation. What I wouldn't give for a nicer looking set of character faces/some new character faces.

Geographer
Sep 07, 2011
823
Khrysalis was my favorite world, and the latest arc is great. I think the game got better.

Players come and go for many reasons. Don't assume that the things you like or don't like motivate everyone else.

Survivor
May 31, 2015
2
I find that most people quit because they simply become bored with the game. Updates really aren't frequent; the last major update we received was in November. Many completed Mirage in a week or so, leaving them to wait again for another update. I know it may not be easy for KI to release frequent updates, but it seems that it is what they need to do.

Defender
Jul 27, 2010
172
I think that people usually quit out of boredom. After you reach max level and finish all the worlds, there really isn't much to do, other than PvP, which isn't for everyone. People might just quit halfway because they just got tired of the game (that's what my sister did). I think it's usually these max level people who quit, because there's just nothing to do. I have also played this game for many years, and every time I hop on to play, I never lose that feeling of excitement and wonder that I had from the very first time I played the game. The only time I don't play at all is when my membership ends and I can't renew it.

Astrologist
Feb 28, 2014
1113
Stealthhawk129 on Jul 26, 2017 wrote:
I get that the cheats can be sometimes overbearing, but most of them are simply in place to prevent boring boss fights, imagine if bosses didn't have cheats to remove feints, Bad jujus, dispels, sheilds, blades (these are the majority of cheats very few have actual attack cheats unless YOU use a certain spell) Jabberwock and Kravenly come to mind as the attacking cheats but fights like The Rat the damage cheat is part of the story which ADDS meaning to the fight

How would it be challenging? its basically 1) dispel spam, if they use star or moon or shadow, 2) Juju spam, if no death with you, 3) shield spam/weakness spam
Thus the only way to make it "hard" is to make bosses and monsters have stupid high health and have them hit really hard but now (due to the points above) they wont hit hard so they will just have LOADS of HP making it a boring spam fest with no real thinking involved.

If you have a solution to the problems stated above that does not cause a complete overhaul in the games systems I would love to hear it, but in my opinion the cheats make the fights unique and memorable

As for the "teaches kids to cheat" I would argue that it does the opposite, they get frustrated with the cheats which would cause a dislike of cheaters but also gives an immense sense of achievement knowing that they beat a cheater without cheating themselves.

If accounts weren't banned or muted and there was no chat restriction, this game would not be safe for children.
They have added easier communication for menu chat players.
I agree that if you are old enough to have a credit card then you should be able to get open chat, perhaps a solution could be any player with menu or text chat could have use of open chat when in a battle in a dungeon with the 4 other people that are with them, this can still be abused but less so by scammers hanging out in the commons.
Or even if menu chat just gains text chat in dungeons, at the very lest they can see all text chat in dungeons
I'm not going by what I want and don't want. I'm going by what I heard from unhappy players while playing and read on youtube and twitter from players. Again from my everyday life experience, kids and teens pick things up such as cheating from games ( monkey see, monkey do) thinking it's ok to cheat while playing games in real life causing problems. Parents of that child will find out where it's coming from and will lead to back To KI. Because parents are the boss of their child and pays for memberships or as long as the child lives in their house, that child will no longer play. Yes, I've heard it too often that parents do that. I also heard and seen people getting kicked out of role playing games for cheating the same way in real life. I'm thinking about Wizards101's future. I want this game to survive but people are starting to come forward and leaving the game do the cheating and restrictions. What my be ok for some, may be wrong and unfair to others. Again, lot people don't care. They want to play with convenience. Teachers and Parents don't care what others and KI think about what is or isn't cheating. At the end, unhappiness will win. I do have solutions for battles to be challenging without the cheating and I commented on a few topics about that. I think one of them are on about cheating bosses topic but I'm not a game maker or KI. That's they're problem to solve. People can rant all they want on my 2 posts about this topic. It's not going to change the minds of real life.

Armiger
Feb 25, 2009
2425
You also have to remember that School will be starting in less than a month for many players. A lot of them will disable their subs during the year since they have very little time to play.

Defender
May 30, 2010
168
I think a lot of people get burn out. Sometimes it is not a game everyone likes. Heck, the last two "big" updates have been extra things like fishing which some people do not like or like monstrology which in my opinion should have been with the worlds a long time ago. Yes I know people like monstrology, I just do not and believe if it started early like near when the game was created it would have done better. What they should be doing? More tv ad and youtube ads. That may put more people in the game and bring more people from the gaming community on youtube. Or have us make the ad for you. Maybe having muliple people traveling to the different worlds using some spells and end with the wizard101 things that they did with their old commenial. Also I believe that the test releam should stay until most people like it and anything that they found that is gliched or wrong like spelling or voices and they actually fixed. For what I seen they do not really change anything expect maybe a few gliches like the 118 pet quest where you can get people to come with you to get your pet. Yes, you can not make everyone happy but you should make major happy.
Please I do not want this game to die.
My life is strong
Have no fear myth is here

Delver
Dec 30, 2012
291
Personally, I believe the game gets so repetitive to the point where people get tired of how bland it becomes and quit. It's to be expected with any game, but the fact that there's about three type of quests (Defeat and Collect, Pick up and Collect, and just Defeat) for 16 worlds (Counting Aquila) is repetitive to the point where the game begins to feel like a chore. This is why I play the game in short bursts of one month every now and then. In fact, my subscription is about to run out this month and I don't know if I'll renew it for awhile because I'm already feeling fatigued from this game again.

Armiger
Feb 25, 2009
2425
God life wizard on Jul 26, 2017 wrote:
I think a lot of people get burn out. Sometimes it is not a game everyone likes. Heck, the last two "big" updates have been extra things like fishing which some people do not like or like monstrology which in my opinion should have been with the worlds a long time ago. Yes I know people like monstrology, I just do not and believe if it started early like near when the game was created it would have done better. What they should be doing? More tv ad and youtube ads. That may put more people in the game and bring more people from the gaming community on youtube. Or have us make the ad for you. Maybe having muliple people traveling to the different worlds using some spells and end with the wizard101 things that they did with their old commenial. Also I believe that the test releam should stay until most people like it and anything that they found that is gliched or wrong like spelling or voices and they actually fixed. For what I seen they do not really change anything expect maybe a few gliches like the 118 pet quest where you can get people to come with you to get your pet. Yes, you can not make everyone happy but you should make major happy.
Please I do not want this game to die.
My life is strong
Have no fear myth is here
KI does have commercials and they do show quite often on specific Children's channels.

Sometimes the developers get their ideas for additions from the players and fishing was one of them.

As for monstrology, yes, many do like it, personally, I don't. But that goes with a lot of things in an online game. You may or may not like something but not everything is required to progress in the game.

Test realm used to run from the time it was open for as much as 2 weeks or more without being shut down on weekends. But KI staff don't want to work on weekends and frankly, I don't blame them. They have families too.

Sometimes the player base pushes KI for more and if you have ever noticed, within a couple of months of a new world release, they want more. It takes time to create the desired worlds. If KI takes more time to work things out, MAYBE there would be fewer glitches like there used to be. Making everything tie in and work takes time. Give KI time to get it as close to right as possible.