Clearly I'm an idiot...

Hoobley

...as I cannot for the life of my figure out how to get the free trial!

 

I've just spent 20 minutes going round in circles.

 

Click Download Free Trial, Register, Choose country of residence, downloads for many countries... two choices then - either register (which creates the whole circular navigation above) or a page where I have to enter my credit card details, sign up for a subscription and purchase the game at which point I'll be able to download the 15GB client.

 

Is there some trickery here? Is there a free trial at all?

 

Could someone please assist me in trying out this game?

 

I feel very frustrated and quite stupid right now.

 

Not the best start ever, but I'm willing to persevere.

 

I appreciate any assistance that anyone may provide. Thank you.

catlana

Sorry, I have never done the free trial but I am bumping this so maybe someone who has will see it. Also this site is giving away some free copies of AoC at http://www.mmorpg.com/contests/aoc_game_promo.cfm . I hope you get the game going.

Sevenwind

Did you already get the trial key and just needing to download? You can download the game from mmorpg.com in the main section for AoC here (not the forums).

OR

You can register at fileplanet (NOT SUBSCRIBE) and get a key from there or see if that route is easier. Then you can download from mmorpg.com the client if you do not like the fileplanet que or download manager.

http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/age-of-conan/trial/

Hopefully that helps some.

Hoobley

Originally posted by Sevenwind


Did you already get the trial key and just needing to download? You can download the game from mmorpg.com in the main section for AoC here (not the forums).
OR
You can register at fileplanet (NOT SUBSCRIBE) and get a key from there or see if that route is easier. Then you can download from mmorpg.com the client if you do not like the fileplanet que or download manager.
http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/age-of-conan/trial/
Hopefully that helps some.

 

No I couldn't figure out how to get a key.

 

The only registration I could navigate to required me to purchase the game and enter the subscription period that I desired.

sanders01

 I think you have to put a subscription, but they wont charge you till the next month, so I'd advice canceling as soon as you put it in 

Hoobley

Originally posted by sanders01


 I think you have to put a subscription, but they wont charge you till the next month, so I'd advice canceling as soon as you put it in 

 

Ok, well I'll wait for someone to confirm this although it doesn't seem to be consistant with other MMO trials that I've seen in the past.

 

I've actually got a page open to purchase the collector's edition in my browser, although I'm not going to throw money away before trying this.

 

It's late for me so I'll check this thread again in the morning.

 

Thanks all for the responses so far.

Jack_Frost

Originally posted by sanders01


 I think you have to put a subscription, but they wont charge you till the next month, so I'd advice canceling as soon as you put it in 

 

I just did the trial...didnt have to put in any CC information at all. ( not even 2 weeks ago)

But it seems that AOC has stopped sending keys from their main site and I cant get any of the old trial keys from various other sites....so you may just be SOL OP

norton905

Yes, I had that same dilema when I was trying to set up my free trial.

You Actually have to set up with a trial subscription. They make you enter your credit card details, but they will not charge you until the second month. So you may want to cancel after that, or If you like it, just keep going.

You can download off of ur Funcom account for like 2.99$ or there are various other places.

Sevenwind

Then try the FILEPLANET link to get a key. You can download it from many places if you don't want to download it from fileplanet. Just register with fileplanet to get a key.

 

Hoobley

I'd like to offer some constructive critisism based off this experience.

 

The purpose of a trial is to entice new customers into trying and ultimately purchasing a product and the process should be as simple as possible;

 

Step 1;

Click 'Download Free Trial' button

Fill out your desired user name

Fill out your desired password

Confirm password

Enter CAPTCHA code

 

Step 2;

Go to email and confirm email address from link therein

 

Step 3:

Download the trial client

 

Step 4;

Try the game

 

I'm sorry, but I don't want to go chasing off all over the internet registering at this site and that to get a key to go and download from another site or pay $2.99 to download.

 

I certainly shouldn't have to 'make a purchase' to try the game and my billing instructions should never come into play until the end of the trial period where I should then be given the option to continue and pay.

 

As I stated in my OP, I felt frustrated and stupid when trying to obtain the trial client and this isn't the way that a company needs to make prospective customers feel if they wish to gain their patronage.

 

This title carries with it a certain amount of stigma and I feel that the process of accessing the trial will not help to elevate it to the level of subscribers that they require and assist in shaking off the poor impression of this title that seems to be so wide spread after a premature launch.

 

Here's one prospective customer who isn't willing to jump through all these hoops to give Funcom the opportunity to entice me into purchasing thier product.

 

Simplify the procedure, don't ask me to fill out my credit card details for a FREE TRIAL and then maybe I'll give them a chance to get at my money.

darkcircuit

I believe the reason that funcom choose to take this approach to trial accounts is to reduce the number of gold sellers in the game. If all it takes to set up a trial account is to provide a unique username and an email address not used for a trial account before then it is extremely easy for gold sellers to use trial accounts to spam the global channels with their crap. Granted they will probably get banned pretty quick but with such an easy sign up, whats to stop them signing up with a slightly different email address and start spamming again.

Im glad that funcom take this approach to make it more difficult for gold sellers and the like to use AoC, explains why I've only had one message from a gold seller in 2 months of playing

 

korat102

Silly question - Did You have cookies enabled? I normally keep them disabled and those forms always fail with no warning.

I had no problem getting my trial key to be honest, just registered (no card details or anything like that needed) and by the time the download was completed, the key was sitting in my inbox. Was about as easy as most other MMO trials I've started - and easier than some...

Hoobley

Originally posted by korat102


Silly question - Did You have cookies enabled? I normally keep them disabled and those forms always fail with no warning.
I had no problem getting my trial key to be honest, just registered (no card details or anything like that needed) and by the time the download was completed, the key was sitting in my inbox. Was about as easy as most other MMO trials I've started - and easier than some...

 

 

I've been back again since and tried again, I still either get stuck in that same loop or get asked for my credit card details.

 

I wonder if you'd be willing to take the time to post just what you did?

Hoobley

Originally posted by darkcircuit


I believe the reason that funcom choose to take this approach to trial accounts is to reduce the number of gold sellers in the game. If all it takes to set up a trial account is to provide a unique username and an email address not used for a trial account before then it is extremely easy for gold sellers to use trial accounts to spam the global channels with their crap. Granted they will probably get banned pretty quick but with such an easy sign up, whats to stop them signing up with a slightly different email address and start spamming again.
Im glad that funcom take this approach to make it more difficult for gold sellers and the like to use AoC, explains why I've only had one message from a gold seller in 2 months of playing
 

 

Valid point, but does it do more harm than good?

vinzone

I don't see where you are having a problem, I just signed up for the 7day trial just to see if it works.

All I did was go to www.ageofconan.com enter my birthday then when it got to the site clicked the link on the right that said free 7day trial. After you click that it should bring you www.ageofconan.com/trial/index.html there. Now just click where it says download free trial or free 7 day trial real big(they both lead to the same place) then you pick your country, skip the spot to enter a key and just choose the US 7 day trial at the bottom. Fill out all your info on the next page and submit you should recieve an email pretty much instantly, go click on the link in your email, log into the site it brings you to and there is the download link for the trial.

 

I just went through that twice and neither time saw anything about subscription or purchasing, Let me know if this works or if you are still having a problem.

Hoobley

Originally posted by vinzone


I don't see where you are having a problem, I just signed up for the 7day trial just to see if it works.
All I did was go to www.ageofconan.com enter my birthday then when it got to the site clicked the link on the right that said free 7day trial. After you click that it should bring you www.ageofconan.com/trial/index.html there. Now just click where it says download free trial or free 7 day trial real big(they both lead to the same place) then you pick your country, skip the spot to enter a key and just choose the US 7 day trial at the bottom. Fill out all your info on the next page and submit you should recieve an email pretty much instantly, go click on the link in your email, log into the site it brings you to and there is the download link for the trial.
 
I just went through that twice and neither time saw anything about subscription or purchasing, Let me know if this works or if you are still having a problem.

 

Thanks.

 

I followed the second link you provided and navigated to this page.

 

Seems I'm not retarded after all.

 

 

Otherwise I end up with this after following your instructions;

 

(this is just the US one, there are many countries listed).

vinzone

Wow thats pretty funny earlier when I tried the trial it was still active, but now its been replaced by the re-evaluation and trials are down temporarily. While this may be bad news for you, it's very good for me because now I get 14 days to try the game again on my characters instead of only a 7day trial that limits me to 1-20

Loke666

Here is a torrent also: thepiratebay.org/torrent/4184112/Age_of_Conan_EU_Early_Access_Client It will need some patching up time however but it still have enough seeders. It is the EU client however but torrents is a very nice way of getting a client down.

BrazilMerkin

Originally posted by darkcircuit


I believe the reason that funcom choose to take this approach to trial accounts is to reduce the number of gold sellers in the game. If all it takes to set up a trial account is to provide a unique username and an email address not used for a trial account before then it is extremely easy for gold sellers to use trial accounts to spam the global channels with their crap. Granted they will probably get banned pretty quick but with such an easy sign up, whats to stop them signing up with a slightly different email address and start spamming again.
Im glad that funcom take this approach to make it more difficult for gold sellers and the like to use AoC, explains why I've only had one message from a gold seller in 2 months of playing
 

 

I was under the impression trial accounts arent allowed to use the those chat channels for just that reason. Kinda makes all the other hoops redundant and just hinders legitimate customers.

Hoobley

I hope they regain the custom of thier old customers, because here's a prospective new one they won't be getting now.

 

On to the next one.

 

Good luck all.