Not necessarily. While it was originally intended for kids, the playerbase has now grown up. What once were kids playing it, are now older people playing either for nostalgia, or because they never stopped playing. If I were to guess, this game probably has less kids in it than other big games like tf2 or overwatch. And while the difficulty can be pretty easy at times, it has it's challenging moments, which will be covered later in the guide.

This game is NOT dead. The devs care very much for this game, and are constantly pumping out quality updates and new worlds. The playerbase is big enough for there to always be people online for you to talk to, and for there to always be someone able to help you out. While the playerbase isn't huge per say, it is alive and well.

Membership in wizard101 allows you complete and total access to every feature in the game. Without membership, sadly, there is almost nothing you can do in the game without getting bored within an hour. Once membership is paid for, there is almost nothing locked behind a paywall. All worlds, areas, and other features are completely free. While there are still some forms of loot boxes and in game purchases, most are purely cosmetic, and all the best/ needed gear in the game can be obtained with nothing more than a membership, and a little bit of hard work. Member features that are not included with the free to play version include:
-access to all game locations
-ranked pvp
-access to castle ownership -advanced crafting
-open chat (if you set your account to be 18+)
-more backpack slots
-larger friends list
-"event" bonuses

"Well I don't know what any of that means! How is that going to help me?"
Don't worry, I will be covering each of the benefits and explaining just how much membership will unlock for you. I will also be describing late/ endgame content, because gameplay vastly changes after the first few worlds, and it is important to know what the future holds when you're considering buying a membership.

Without any argument, the biggest perk, and best reason to invest in a membership. Having access to all locations will allow you to go into every section of the game. This of course means that you can level up to the (current) max of level 130. Getting to that point in the game can take as little as a month, or as long as 6 or 7 months! It all depends on your playstyle. One thing is for certain though, there is absolutely no shortage of content in this game. I have played this game for around 7 years now, and I have yet to get bored of it. The different classes make going through all the worlds a different experience each time.




While some see lots of content as a good thing, it could also be viewed as a negative by some. Because there is so much content, it is very unlikely that you will finish the games story line before your membership expires, and you will most likely have to pay for membership at least 2 more times before you finish the game. One months worth of membership will give you time to finish the first arc of the game, which by the end of, you will be around level 45. There are currently 3 different arcs in the game, the third not yet finished.

This perk might be a big deal to some, but to most this isn't that important. The PVP in wizard101 is toxic. However PVP is the only part of the game that is toxic, for the most part. It is full of sore losers who will almost always blame your win on luck, and always blame their win on pure skill. I personally steer clear of PVP, but it does have it's plus sides. The ranking system is fun, and it's a good challenge to boost yourself all the way up from private to warlord. People who are high ranking in PVP get access to exclusive shop items like cool mounts and gear, that they can flaunt around PVE, like a cool trophy. The PVP is not the most balanced, and can sometimes be frustrating, but there are those who thoroughly enjoy it, and will spend the majority of their time playing it. You will not miss out on anything if you decide to skip over PVP altogether though, as there is no real requirements that you face against other players.

Pretty much useless, but cool. Basically just means that you get to purchase your own in game castle(don't worry, it's with in game currency) The castles are very cool, and are all designed very well. They are a fun aspect of the game, and you can spend hours decorating your castle and making how you want it. This is not one of the major parts of membership.

Crafting is a major part of the game that membership gives you access to. I find crafting a particularly fun aspect of the game. When crafting, you get the chance to craft gear that is normally better than gear you can get anywhere else, but you have to search for ingredients. Ingredients can either be found out in the wild, or in the wizard city bazaar. The bazaar is one of my most favorite parts of this game. It allows players to sell their items, or buy other items that other players sold. There is always a race to get the rare ingredients from the bazaar first, and it always feels good when you get the item you've been looking for from the bazaar.

A key feature of a multiplayer game like this should NOT be blocked behind a paywall. But here we are... If you have your account set to 18+ years old, you gain access to (almost) unrestricted chat, with filters that are extremely easy to get around. this feature is almost necessary to play the game with. Make a new account and buy membership on that if you're not sure if you said you were 18+. It's that important. While you can talk if you said you were under 18, there is a filter that is applied to your chat, and it heavily limits what you can communicate. For example, all numbers are filtered out of the chat.

I shouldn't need to explain why extra backpack slots are handy. You get a lot of items in this game, the extra backpack space is probably one of the most useful things you will be getting with membership. The friends list also receives extra slots, which is always nice. You may not be coming into this game expecting to make friends, but you're probably wrong if you say you wont. The wizard101 community is easily the nicest community in any game I have ever seen. I have made countless friends in this game, and still talk to many of them to this day. If you ask me, the community alone makes it worth playing this game.

These are events that occasionally happen for members. Events such as double xp for your pets, or double rewards from gardening, or other small things like that. These things are not so helpful to the point that they can make you op or level up too easily, but just enough to be very helpful at times.
There is normally always one going on, they just shuffle the benefits out at random times of the month.

Yes, the game does allow microtransactions even if you are a member. The Crowns shop allows you to buy different items, houses, pets, or other things. 90% of the items in the crowns shop are useless, and can be obtained through normal gameplay. DO NOT BUY HOUSES OR PETS IN THE CROWNS SHOP as they can easily be obtained with gold.
The biggest thing that the crowns shop has to offer, however, is packs. Packs are basically loot boxes. All having a chance to drop an exclusive spell or exclusive gear that is very good. While all spells can either be crafted or obtained as a rare drop, it is either extremely hard to do, or extremely rare to get as a drop. Packs are often used as the easy way out to get a spell, but since they can be obtained without buying crowns, i have no complaints.

However, the gear that some packs can give you are exclusive to the packs, and can not be obtained anywhere else at all. This gear is normally very good, and sometimes even incorporated into the meta. While it is good gear, it is not necessary to buy any packs, and you can just as easily beat the game without spending any crowns. You will not suffer from other players having this gear either, since the game is primarily PVE, and you are not going up against people who spend more money so they can be better than you.

As for PVP, the best PVP gear is obtained through the PVP shop, rather than the crowns shop. PVP gear is obtained after you rank up enough in PVP. The gear however can only be worn during PVP, and not PVE, so ranking up is not a way to get around spending crowns for the best gear. But don't think that packs are the only way to get good and reliable gear, lots of great gear can be obtained through crafting or dungeons, and is just as good, if not better, than crowns gear.

This game is easy to learn, but there are many things about this game that can be confusing to someone. Since the community is generally very nice, you can almost always go to the commons and ask a question, and someone will normally do their best to explain it to you. While there aren't too many things you should be confused about, there will probably be a few times where you want to know what something does or how to get past a certain point. There will also almost always be people willing to come and help you out with a boss if you are playing alone and struggling with one.

Wizard101 is not a particularly difficult game. The game falls on the more casual side of things, and generally wont even require your full attention. Wizard101 is a good game to play while watching a tv show or chatting with a friend. I have had great times just playing this game and having conversations with friends on this game. However, endgame can get a little bit difficult. By the end of the second arc, there are some very challenging fights that require four people, and require you to communicate and have a plan. You will Not get through this game if you try to solo everything. Teamwork is required, especially if you want to do dungeons and get good gear. I highly recommend playing this game through with a friend, and if you don't have one willing to play, it's easy to make a questing friend in game, I promise!

As stated earlier, make sure that your profile is 18+, as it really does matter if you want to talk with other players. Also, if you and a friend plan to get membership, there is a family plan that lowers the price by $3 when multiple people sign up for it. It's worth it if you can find a way to split the cost. Also make sure that you have played the free parts of the game first, and are sure that you want to get a membership, as the first part is a somewhat accurate depiction of what the game will be like.

Wizard101 membership is $10 a month, and adds many things to the game. I recommend playing the first part of the game and seeing if you like the playstyle, and if you do, at least get membership once. membership has been worth it for me, and has helped me have countless hours of fun playtime, and make many great new friends. This game is one of the more casual MMOS out there, so if you are always wanting to play an MMO but are intimidated by all the competitiveness of them, this game is perfect for you! Add me if there are any questions you have, and I'd be happy to answer some for you if I left anything out!