January 11, 2018 October 6, 2018
Debunking Popular Beliefs:
The Economy Behind Mega Snack Plants
Thesis: Kingsisle should make new seeds with stronger mega snacks. They would profit from us buying the seeds and we would be satisfied because we could train pets faster. It’s a win-win situation.
If you’re lurking around social media, forums or YouTube you have probably already heard the statement above. Maybe not exactly like that, word for word, but a statement with the same meaning and maybe even an explanation. Usually, with these questions some desired answers appear. Why doesn’t KI give us stronger mega snacks? We will try to answer this question and hopefully clear up some confusion.
Disclaimer: The article is based around our economy knowledge and out-of-the-box thinking. The reasons stated below aren’t official KI reasons – these are just our thoughts – similar to a thesis we’re debunking.
Selling a Service vs Selling a Product
Selling a product is easy. You have a dishwasher and you’re trying to convince your customers with the product’s specifications. However, this alone isn’t always the best option when marketing a product. You need to find a way to sell this as a service. You have to create a NEED, a DESIRE for the product. So instead of selling a dishwasher, you’re selling the ability to wash dishes. But Jeremy, why are you explaining me this? I want to read about mega snacks, not the dishwashers…
The same logic applies to Wizard101. They’re not selling mega snacks because they give more xp to the pets. They’re selling Mega Snacks because people need them. Because they’ve created a desire for Mega snacks.
The main question is, what are KingsIsle selling? Products or services? Let’s ignore memberships because they are clearly a service. Instead, let’s focus on our case: seeds and mega snacks. They are a product of course. That’s true, but that’s not the main focus of the selling strategy. The main focus is pet training, which is a service they’re offering. A service which is creating a desire to continue stockpiling mega snacks.
Well, this and achieving the ultimate goal of having 999 of each Mega Snack in shared bank, but that’s a story for another time…
Pet Training as a Service
But Jeremy, people have already multiplied their seeds and are drowning in mega snacks. It makes sense to release new seeds with better mega snacks. After all, people don’t have a need to buy Couch Potatoes or Evil Magma Peas anymore. This is true. But Mega Snacks aren’t the only thing that is needed to train a pet.
There is another source of income. Things that are really cheap by themselves, but highly profitable when bought in masses. The energy elixir is the most known out of them, as well as hatching and timer resets.
We can return to previous section, when we were comparing selling the product vs selling the service. As long as KI will provide the constant need for pet training, elixirs by themselves will provide enough profit. Just think about it. Designing plants with stronger mega snacks would temporarly bring more profit, while selling elixirs provides a steady income.
Ways of Creating Pet Training Needs
There are a couple of ways to keep us busy and make us strive towards making new creations.
1. New Pets
Cute new pets are one thing that keeps us spending on mega snacks. It’s either because they have a cool card/card combination, because they look cute or simply because we want to stay in touch with new trends.
2. New Talents
Talents are the second reason why we keep on training. It could be because new talents appear. In addition, we may simply want to try something new. Perhaps there is a new power combination that few people know about? Or the latest example of a new energy talent – this created so many utility pets that had to be redone.
3. Meta Changes
Changes in the meta are another way that creates pet training needs. Sometimes it’s done by KI when they make changes to PvP (for example changes in the critical system). Other times it’s simply because players changed their play style. Maybe they decided to go offensive after having been defensive or the other way around. Meta changes require changes in play style and making a new pet is definitely a requirement here.
4. Accessibility to Mega Snacks and Gold
And here it is – the reason why it is good for KI to allow us to get so many mega snacks. Just like gold, having mega snacks in abundance gives us access to training pets without worrying too much. Careful planning isn’t as needed as it used to be. If a pet fails we can simply try again with the mega snacks we have left. This means people will be spending more on energy elixirs, because they don’t have to worry about their mega snacks anymore.
Knowing Where to Stop
Now, making stronger mega snacks would provide us with an even easier way to train more pets, but limits need to be known. We’re moving back to the previous section now with elixirs. Energy elixirs plays huge role in wizard101’s pet economy. Simply put, stronger mega snacks would mean less energy elixirs sold.
It all comes down to a circle, that starts with double gardening and pet xp rewards. Double gardening rewards fill us with loads of snacks and gold, which are a great encouragement to start creating/training pets. Another great encouragment for that are double pet xp rewards. Creating new pets leads to the sale of more elixirs. After a nice profitability, the circle starts again.
What Can be Done
So, what changes can be made here? What can be changed to add plants with stronger mega snacks without disrupting the current economy? I can see two possible solutions to this question:
- Make those stronger mega snacks consume double the energy. The end result (energy consumed vs xp gained) would be exactly the same with one little difference. Time spent for training the pet would be two times lower.
- Make stronger mega snacks consume normal energy, but add another level after an Ultra with another talent slot. This would create the need for extra energy elixirs – the ones that wouldn’t be bought at “old” levels due to faster progression with stronger mega snacks.
