You can keep playing, but after a while all quests will have some area to go to that requires membership or purchase with crowns. I think it'd get boring really quickly if you can only stay in part of the first world. Like you can still level by defeating monsters etc but it's obv much slower and also not that interesting after a while. I first played Wizard101 7-8 years ago, when I had no way of donating anything to anywhere and I think I played it for about a month back then. I reached the part where I'd have to pay to finish quests in certain areas and then I just dropped it with the thought of 'well I did have fun that month, that's enough for me' :)
now I rediscovered it and just got a membership cause it did change a lot in those years and I really like playing it now. I could still lose interest in a month or so and then I'd cancel my membership and not consider the money a loss cause I play it so much right now o;
so it all depends on how you see it and whether you're ok with casually exploring a game or skipping it altogether knowing its eventually pay to play. To each their own ~
As for the raffle, winners have been drawn!
1. Queen's rabbit ears (cool gray) - Sanssouci
2. 50k

- JosieQ
3. 100 Donuts - Lady River
congrats to the winners, and good luck to everyone else in future raffles!