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Free Weekend, why?
I do not play Rift and am not interested in playing it at this time. I do not follow the game either. It seems odd though that a game would have a free weekend this early on.
Is this common for MMOs now?
Anyone have any idea why they are doing this?
Sorry if this has already been covered.
“It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that's all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”
--John Ruskin
--John Ruskin
Comments
It's smart - you can play every other one of the 100+ MMORPGs available for free before spending a dime. Why would Rift be any different? Great - it's new...but who cares now? You're going to be able to find a MMORPG that's new to you without much looking around. The free weekend is better than free trials too because they are limited and thus exclusive and more desirable. It also ensures that new players have other new players to play with which helps build friendships and creates a more alive world.
Trion is doing this just how they should.
It's a pre-view weekend. They have a world event going on and want everyone to participate in it. Also they are using it to promote there game. It's not common, but it should be.
Exactly. It makes a lot of sense for any game on the market if they have any faith at all in their product being entertaining. Make it briefly available to everyone, generate extra feeback and publicity, get more players interested in it, and increase profit.
There are changing rooms and mirrors in clothing stores for a reason. Some of the better food markets will offer samples of new things for you to taste it and see if it's worth the purchase. You don't rent or buy a new apartment or house without seeing it first. Most of the places online where you can buy music or movies offer a trailer or preview first.
I think the only thing that doesn't make sense is why do companies release games without this approach? In my opinion, it's likely because they don't have faith in it and know they need to work on it a lot more before it's ready to sample. Trion has every reason to demo it early on because it's a very solid game right now.
If you dont follow the game, how did you know they have a free weekend? it must be working then.
When I said i had "time", i meant virtual time, i got no RL "time" for you.
I jumped on the free weekend and am loving the game. It is a smart marketing move as most people won't spend $50 on a game unless they can try it first. I personally don't buy games (MMO or single player) unless I can try them first. Even then some are still just as disappointing lol. But Rift did get me hooked on the game and I will be picking up a copy as soon as I get some extra money.
Why not?
Its just a way to give people who are "on the fence" A chance to like the game, as far as Trion are concerned if they have 40 people try it and of those 40 1 of them buys and sucbscribes well thats 1 more than if they had not had the free weekend.
Yeah, especially when they release a trial limited to lower levels or a specific area, because all they have to do is make that one particular area enjoyable for them to profit. I like that the entire game and features are accessible for Rift on these free weekends. The only nudge towards buying it was a window to buy it once you leave the beginner's area where you get your first three souls. Haven't seen an ad since, although the game already sold itself.
considering the background ad on this site right now is for the rift free weekend, its kinda hard to miss
I was not going to point out the obvious, glad you did though.
--John Ruskin
Short answer: To get more people playing. It's business. Nothing strange about that really.
i would consider it but im thinking the download will be huge + patches = long download ..so maybe you will get a days worth of play out of the free weekend..thats not even enuff to wet my noodle
Free week-ends keys are the way Trion is doing the Trial for players to get to taste Rift.
Some companies offer 7days...some 10 days.....Rift offer some week-ends....
Just marketing.
Think of it this way...
Why do some companies offer a free brake inspection or aligment inspection when they lose money doing it because have have to pay their employees to do it? It seems like bad business to just give something away, even though its not.
You'll see a whole lot more MMO companies doing this around summer vacation, well at least the smart ones will.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
I think for some people, it's just too little too late. I've known a handful of people that just went back to single-player games or other genres because that's what years of terrible MMOs and/or clones of other MMOs will do. I didn't hit that point yet, so trying out a new MMO that just improved upon a lot of previous features turned out to be pretty cool and enjoyable. I tell ya though, might have only taken another month or two at most for me to go to other genres or find better things to do with my time. I think most of us are sick and tired of half-finished crap, poorly disguised treadmills, and moneysinks, but if Trion continues to make good choices and SWTOR releases in a similar stable build, I'll be a happy MMO gamer again.
Edit: Tried to clarify my point lol
I personally did not like my experience in RIFT but they are doing a great job for marketing and trying to sell the game. It's a great idea and should be used more often. Let people test drive the car before the purchase.
I downloaded/patched the game in half an hour from the time I got my weekend code. Might take all day if you got dial-up or pretty slow broadband. Also keep in mind the trial goes until Monday, not Sunday and ends at 10:00 AM PST....that would be noon my time. Plenty of time to get some enjoyment...concidering i nailed down level 10 in just about 3 hours or so.
And to add to the stupidity about this game they took the servers off for quite a long time this "freebie weekend". They make people download 8,5 GB game code and when they try to login and play they can't because the servers are down. Priceless.
If it ain't dead you're not pressing 2 hard enough.
What is priceless is the same thing happened the first free weekend offer...and they extended it...my friend played until thursday night of that first free "weekend" and the downtime was negligible tbh. Pretty sure they will do the same this weekend if there was considerable downtime....that is if Trion's past excellent service is any indication. Granted..this is just me and a friends experience..so.
The free weekend offer worked too....the nearly 6 days my friend played on his free weekend key led to him purchasing the game.
As others have said, marketing. I also love the idea for trying before buying. If trion is confident that their game can appeal to people enough to let them try it first, then more power to them. There are other games out there that wouldn't do this because they know that people wont buy the game if they tried it first.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
they're doing it because they know they launched a solid product, and we all know why every other mmo doesn't do trials this early on. because before Rift every other MMO i played was a buggy mess at launch, people may not like Rift but you have to give them credit for launching a bug free game.
they have nothing to hide,they think as long as people get to try it for free they may buy it.its not for everyone thats for sure, but its better than having no trial and people buying it and then QQ about it on forums. hell all the chances people had to try this game i STILL saw idk how many trolls posting about it here how they got ripped off......idiots is all i can say.
The funny thing is - people will still try it and not like it, then about 1-2 weeks later buy it and whine about how they were mislead or something stupid like that.
How many people played the open beta (which was 95% the release version) and did just that. I agree with you. Idiots is what they are.
I'm guessing we'll see around a total of 2-3 of those "I was swindled" threads in about 3 weeks time. And about 8-12 different names in those threads saying they want their money back or had the charges reversed or some such thing (even after they tried the free weekend). And like roaches for ever 1 you see there are 5 more that you dont.
Think about it for a second - P.T. Barnum didnt become rich off of smart people.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
They realize people won't give up an account in WoW they put 1000 hours into unless they try out the other game for free first. Not only that, it gets those people who are on the fence about the genre to try it and if they like it, then they buy it.
It's a really smart move from a purely business standpoint and something that would increase not only sales for a particular game but sales for the MMO genre as a whole. I only got into MMO's because my brother got an accuont in WoW that I tried out, and he only got into MMO's because he tried out his friend's account. I played Guild Wars before that but would not have ever considered a subscription fee prior to those days.
To us who see other MMO's offering free trials only once its too late it may look odd, but it's really a smart move.
After trying it out for 2 weekends, I am close to buying it, but not yet.