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DnL free to try: The last scam.
indiramourn
Member UncommonPosts: 884
And the final step; which we all knew would happen eventually. DnL is free to try--without a click and buy account.
http://www.darkandlight.com/en_discovery-mode.html
If you've ever wanted to see how pitiful the results of a "short bus" group of MMORPG developers could be, here's your chance. 
Comments
Oh how silly of me. There is nothing free about this, note from the official forums:
Choose the way you want to play:
FREEDOM CARD
Without Subscription
Use Game Credits as you wish
Learn recipes for items from Companion level
Equip your avatar with objects from Companion level
Enter the new Dark and Light realms
Choose your Game Credit option:
15 Game Credits for 9.99
30 Game Credits for 19.99
45 Game Credits for 29.99
No Game Credits for now. I do not need to unsubscribe.
Your game account will be credited in-game with your game credits as soon as payment is received.
Freedom mode allows you to play Dark and Light without subscription for one year from the date of your last Game Credits purchase. You don't need to unsubscribe and no fee will be collected during this year. MASTER SUBSCRIPTION
With Subscription
Start one year of access to the game
No level or gameplay limitation
Choose your subscription plan:
9.99 every month
26.97 every three months
47.94 every six months
Please Note: You are signing up for a game subscription. Your credit card will be charged recurrently at the beginning of each game time period until you cancel the subscription (anniversary date of subscription - Legal month = 30 days). Subscriptions may be cancelled at any time.
Choose your billing currency:
$ (USD) € (EUR)
Prices in Euro include local VAT.
Read and accept our Terms of Service and End User License Agreement:
I have read and I agree to the Terms of Service and End User License Agreement
That is what they call free? This message appears when you try to activate the "free" mode. So this is just another scam.
It's all about the fantasy baby!
www.solsticeserver.com
Well their website does quite clearly say it's free to try up to level 10, so if that's the message you get when you try to access 'discovery mode'...
Personally the accounts of this game have all been so bad that I wouldn't waste download bandwidth on it - but I think they'd have a better chance taking a leaf out of Anarchy Online's books. Make the game free to a higher level that equates to a month or two of gameplay just to get players in the game. An MMO without players is going to have a hard time attracting new subscriptions.
Welll shooot, they COULD make it free.......
(but not really free cuz you still have to pay but thats just a pesky little thing so just ignore that part - they will bill ya anyway anytime they want for whatever amount they want so really its no big deal and shouldnt be pointed out - they like the word "free" but dont understand its meaning)
,,,,,,but if they made it free to a higher level that equates to a month or two of gameplay -- welp --- the poor sap would still be sitting there with charges all over his account even though he still cant log in or if he DOES manage to log in, he cant play cuz his armor fell apart and the NPCs are broken and the level 1 mobs tear his arse up ........soooooo..
they would have to make it "free" (word used in its correct context here) for ohhh, lessee....how long has it been? Free for over a year as they still have not figured out the horrible gamestopping bugs that were there last Dec 05.
Well ok my suggestion assumed they sort out their kleptomaniacal tendencies and actually produce a functional game. If ever they manage that then making the game completely free to play for 25 levels would probably help to build the paying playerbase.
It also wouldn't hurt for someone with a better command of English and html to redesign their website. It's all so third-rate. I could do better than what they've produced and I'm a total amateur. Could those skills pages be any more annoying to navigate?
If they do somehow have a small chance somehow they better do something more bold than this "free trial" pretty quick. There are many games coming out in the next 2 years. On their "suckboards" the people said they were still asked to pay when they tried the free trial. Apparently you have to reset some passwords to get the free trial to work. Even that was made complicated.
I agree with you about their website. It is very unprofessional just as everything is with their setup. This is not a download-and-go game. You have to jump through hoops to get to the "playing" part...
I entirely agree
I just got an email about this and what Indira found is just well, you know ... popcorn please?
Now that I am in Winter Break, I guess I can focus on the couple of Betas I am gonna be testing.
______________________________
My Sager 5760 Review
No access fees, no subscription...
Discover the world of Ganareth for free*!
*Up to level 10
Sounds like illegal and false advertising. An activation key is an item allowing you access, or an access fee. Sorta like Blockbusters "no late fee" by changing the name.
Why doesn't this game just die?
The first 10 levels really are free to try. I bit the bullet and tried it. No credit card details or anything like that handed over.
But the billing info screen is misleading and prompts you to fork over money, even though you don't need to to play the first 10 levels. It's hard to guess whether this is incompetence or an attempt to scam people into following the prompts until they've authorised payment. There really should be information about 'discovery mode' on the billing screen. The fact that there isn't is a problem since a lot of free trials require credit card validation and it is conceivable that players might unwittingly authorise payment.
Which, having now played those first 10 levels, I know would be a tragedy.
The lag, outdated graphics, bugs and level 55 mobs spawning in the noob area aside, I did get a few cheap laughs. Someone needs to raid the dev's offices and confiscate their thesaurus. I thought the quest NPC who told me to see someone to "enclose" my training was odd, but...
... there was this other quest NPC who told me to come back and "solicitate" him any time. I know the French have a fairly casual attitude towards adult relations but I really hope that was an unintentional translation error.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
I miss DAoC
http://razorwire.warcry.com/news/view/67168-Dark-and-Light-stops-charging-still-not-worth-playing
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
There is no need to input any credit card details etc...
p.s. They are lame couse they left that checkbox there.
Futilez[Do You Have What It Takes ?]
YEAH THE FRICKEN DOWNLOAD IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW THAT ITS NOT EVEN WORTH IT..
WHAT A JOKE (fricken 3kbs bull crap) and i have high speed cable...
The point that no credit card details need to be given had been made (by me no less) - I was trying to point out the irony in Briansho's little joke.
The download via DnL's download system was godawful. But they do provide a link further down the page directly to the file. Using a download manager the download speed was decent. I had it in a few hours.
If trying the discovery mode, do not fall for the registratin page, you don't have to enter any credit card info or anything. The registration page is very misleading.
Now, on to the fun stuff. You have to download it for 2 days, then you can eventually (after locking up a few times) download the patch for a few hours. The patch will fail to install a couple times, the client will lock up a few times. Then you will eventually get to a real error windows. msvcr80.dll. Load up a handy dandy xml editor or notepad and create a manifest file to get around it. DO NOT FOLLOW THE DEVS "WORKAROUND" ON THIER SITE. They say to manually copy the beta version of msvcr80.dll to you system32 directory, this is horrible advice!
After that, if you have an ATI video card, the game still won't load. Back to the xml editor. add some more dlls in there, fire up visual studios if you have it and do some tweaking, and ultimatly you will get to the liscence agreement screen. Here it will lock up if you have IE7 installed. No workaround, no way around it except to uninstall IE7. I havn't done this yet, decided it wasn't worh it, if the loader is this buggy I can only imagine the game.
Just my $0.666
Wow, sounds like the download and installation isn't very flexible. I didn't use their downloader and had it in about 3 or 4 hours. And once I had it installed for me without any problems. If it's any consolation I'm now tearing my hair out trying to download the Vanguard beta client
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
I am so happy I never bought the game. I am a little upset though. I told several of my friends about the game when I first read about it and they all bought the pioneer package. A couple of them managed to get their money back and their click and buy accounts deleted, but others just let them have their money.
I hate to say it this way, but I won't be playing any games made by French Devs.
My 2¢