My Background-

I used to play Wizard101 with family and friends, but the only person I actually know who "finished" the game is my Uncle, who could afford to play as an adult and put upwards of 1000 dollars into the game. I played with him but never got a single wizard past 23 as every single one of my quests I could get was locked behind a paywall. You have a great game that people will love to play if they don't hit a paywall before they even leave the first world. I am 19 now, I was around 10 when I started playing. I loved the game and still do, but am sad to see the exclusionary and slowly dying player base of the game. 

How should a new paywall be implemented?

Having a paywall in the game is not a bad idea, but really, before you even get past WIZARD CITY you hit it? That's absolutely crazy now that there are 13 worlds in total that I know of and new content is STILL being added. The first arc of the game being free would be a massive pull for many old, and new players, with having anything extra like Zafaria-Empyrea for DLCs like in other popular games.

How should those who have already paid to be handled?

After asking community members in a Reddit post linking to this petition, one of the biggest problems of any kind of paywall switch would be to the current player base who have already spent loads of money on the game. My solution to that would be to gift all or a certain amount of those crowns back to the player. Kingsisle already has the money, and the current player base would revolt if their needs aren't met. 

-----Important-----

These gifted back crowns would be non-transferable to any other account or person, in that way Kingsisle doesn't lose money from potential players if current users wanted to gift crowns to friends for aesthetics/ dlcs. 

If for some reason that is not an option, there could also be the addition of new content, aesthetics, or stories that only the OG player base could access (unless bought by a new player, basically a DLC that is given to those who have already paid.) This idea would cost money and time for Kingsisle while giving back crowns to the community (and probably raising the price for aesthetic items) 

Can't people just get the membership?

Wizard101's player base is growing older and older, with those people having virtually no problems with paying 10$ a month, but with free-to-play games all over the internet, Wizard101 cannot compete without a rehaul of the paywall and membership systems. If you want kids to play this game then you cannot stop them halfway through their first world, I stopped playing when I first hit the wall and was only able to get past the paywall after my uncle, who showed me this game gave me a free membership for a month. Yet a lot of parents would never consider subscribing to membership with their own card but may be fine with one-time purchases here and there. If people spend time to get through the first arc, there is a much better chance that they would come back when they have the money vs going onto another game that is truly free to play or just a one-time purchase (in the case of games like Skyrim, Minecraft, etc.)

What about accessories?

Not only that but the items, accessories, and homes, really just aesthetic item prices could be increased to compensate for the missing revenue from people progressing the game, whereas if the number of players increases that may not even be necessary to the influx of cash from said new players buying the 20-50 dollar packs you see in GameStop, Walmart, etc. 

Is Wizard101 Dead?

Wizard 101 has a steady player base of around 200-300 people per day but that pales in comparison to competitors like Neopets, Roblox, etc. If an advertisement campaign ran to former and new players alike saying that the paywall had been lifted, people would FLOCK back to this game in droves to play the game and see its apparently new content that was behind a paywall for them before. 

Cross-platform

It is my understanding Wizard 101 is already trying to get onto Nintendo systems but they could grow even larger on Xbox/ Playstation. 

My hopes

That not just the devs of the game, but active players, and upper management of Kingsisle take a look at this and realize the opportunity that is being squandered here is massive.