I have been playing MMOG's since 1996 and I really love Wizard 101. I realize the great thoughts that already went into this game ,e.g stabilizing the economy, no exploits that really hurt players, and the appropriate separation due to allowing parents to not expose kids to menu chat. Now if there where just a few more things and this game would be almost perfect.Here a a few items that I thing would make this game better, safer and more successful than it already is. Please read to the end, the points are not sorted by importance.
Housing:
I have a problem with having to buy my housing just from a little picture, It would be great if there was a model of every kind of house in the game for players to visit , that would make it easier for players to decide which one to buy.I have looked on you tube and it is still not the same as if you could get a tour, after all, some of us can not afford the massive amounts of crowns/gold that the housing costs and I did buy a house which I would not have bought if I had been able to get a tour. Than , increase the resale value of houses.I do understand you guys need to make a lot of money from gift cards and crown buying but some players just do not have this luxury, so give them something back for their hard work. making gold in the the game is hard work, specially if you want a nice big house. Second, I can have lots of different characters, however I can not bring them to my house , so that they can contribute to decorating . I do not want you to increase the bank space, that is what my other char's dorm room is for, but it should be that all my little wizards should be able to come to my main house and place items they have found. Sooner or later even the largest house runs out of space and I will have to buy a new one.There you go, still an improvement but no major loss of revenue.
IngameTrading:
Players should be able to trade amongst themselves more, especially reagents for crafting. Many of us players are working parents with very little time to play, and since at this point crafting is the only thing I have left in the game I do not want to spend 5 hours to look for Scrap Iron. It would be a good thing to be able to trade reagents, and not just treasure cards.
Combat Frustrations:
Another thing that really bothers me is when I am fighting and random players can just walk up into my fight and draw more creatures , therefore costing me time and sometimes death , when those players decide to flee.Some have made it a "game" or an annoying habit to do just that.It is a kind of exploit that has cost me a lot of grief. Some players just stand one the sidelines and wait till I have almost killed the boss, than join , others will join and just stand there collecting as many pips and than just wait for the right time to kill the boss.yet others will just come and draw monsters in and flee to leave you to die.Wouldn't you find this very frustrating too?This could be easily remedied by making a pop up menu when players want to enter a fight in progress that are not invited and the person who started the fight should be able to have the option to allow or deny the player participation.
One more thought, some players have a little more reasoning and gaming etiquette , being polite enough to ask before joining a fight. There should be at least one server that only allows players over the age of 18. You guys market this game for ages 10- 100 but you see, specially now that school is out that young players play late at night and very early in the morning, this used to be my saving grace. Not anymore.
Privacy:
Please make it that if a friends wants to port to me without me asking first, let me be the boss and decide if I want company or not, this is especially when I am at my house. The ignore feature was a very nice addition , but could be refined by adding this one feature. When you have a good heart and allow lots of young as well as low level players on your list , it is really a hassle to put them all on ignore. My house is my sanctum, I do not want anybody to be able to go there without my permission. Allow me to know if somebody is trying to port to me and than decide if I want company!
Experience Points Ratio:
One more comes to mind, this is about exp points and damage ratio. All players should get the same amount of exp points for a boss battle . That would discourage the problem mentioned above, about boss hunters who will just stand there and collect pips until you got the boss down and than deliver the final blow.
Reporting Misconduct:
Last but not least, a player should have the ability to report other players for gross misconduct, this is currently just possible if this person is friended, hey my friends wouldn't be my friends if I didn't know for sure that they are good team mates, if not I can simply remove them from my list, but I am powerless over players that do certain things to frustrate other players . Please think about this one, add a report player button , regardless of friend status. I realize this will cost you more in staffing ,but after all isn't player satisfaction the main goal here? We play games to get away from our lives , if just for a few hours and if we have to deal with grief, anger or frustration, what is the point? I would be willing to volunteer some time as a game master , observing a conflict and than making the appropriate choice following your preset guide lines. A 48 hour game suspension should be enough to discourage this behavior.But you do not have to implement this if you add the features that I suggested above. Wizard 101 is a huge success, I hope you guys keep up the good work and the great improvements and keep adding worlds , Grizzleheim was a great addition but just not very challenging and too small.You do not want your players to get bored now, do you?Oh yes, raise the level cap soon, I am getting bored :-) Oh, I still have 200 scrap irons to collect , fun , fun!!!
Players, please feel free to post your opinions about these issues and add any improvements that you thought of and anything that bothers you in the game and causes you frustration. Please do not make this threat into a war zone, rather give the guys that work so hard to make this a better gaming experience some real and useful input.
