Looks like Blizzard is getting antsy about it's subscriber base starting to flop.
Indeed. I figured we'd see something like this in response to any kind of significant drop in subs. "Titan" aint gonna pay for itself
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Might be fun to log in now and again and do some low level pvp for old times sake much in the same way I play Warhammer . I doubt it would lure me back though much in the same way Warhammers t1 free2play does'nt . Too much has gone wrong with WoW now for it ever to be anything close to the game it once was . Cataclysm failed miserably to impress me and certainly did'nt offer a return to any kind of challenging gameplay . Blizzard proberbly wont admit this but I think privatly they were alarmed that they had a drop of half a million players in one month and I think they are expecting to see larger falls in the next couple of years with the release of new mmos . WoWs had an undeniably great run but it never was going to last forever . I would'nt be suprised in the coming years this free to play content was'nt extended further than level 20 . Tis the way things are going free to play is the future .
What is it about World of Warcraft that makes people think that a move like this is an indication that they're failing?
It's an extended free trial that goes to level 20 and which isn't timed. If a player wants to go above that, or get rid of the restrictions that are placed on them, they still have to buy the game and all the expansions and pay the regular sub fee that everyone else does. How is that anything like WoW failing or suddenly losing their stranglehold on the market?
TF2 just went free to play too. Does that mean Valve is about to fail as a company? Guess someone should get Gabe Newell on the phone to tell him the news.
WoW has reached market saturation. They can afford to give the first 20 levels away with some restrictions. Hell, they could give away the entire base game with some restrictions if they wanted to. This is just a way to get people to try it at their leisure. It's not the end of the world.
Oh, and I'm not currently playing any MMOs and have no desire to play WoW again. But I can see what they're doing, and it's not panicking.
There's a reason why blizz has always stated that Titan won't compete with WoW. WoW will be f2p by the time titan comes out...so they'll be in totally different markets
Well at least the level 19 twinked PVPers should be ecstatic about this.
Nope. Trial accounts cannot PvP from what I've read. You also cannot team with other trial players, but a paying account can invite you. In fact, there are so many limitations on the trial account it's laughable.
You can PVP...lol
"Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people." - Eleanor Roosevelt "Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security." -Norman Vincent Peale
I'm not a huge fan of WoW, but I have played it over the years. I think it's safe to say I won't be playing it again after hearing this news, however. Really, it's just a matter of time before they start milking the shit out of a cash shop, or some other form of micro-transaction, so I'd rather not be around to witness it. This whole F2P push is really disgusting, and I feel a bit sorry for those of you who think this trend is good for the creative nature of MMO's.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
It will be interesting to see what kind of limitations other than the level 20 cap they put on this. I usually get bored by level 20 anyway. Does anyone know if you can do this trial even if you have a frozen account? Does anyone have more info on the other limitations? I couldn't find any.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
It will be interesting to see what kind of limitations other than the level 20 cap they put on this. I usually get bored by level 20 anyway. Does anyone know if you can do this trial even if you have a frozen account? Does anyone have more info on the other limitations? I couldn't find any.
I have a frozen wow account battle.net. There was no problem attaching a free trial to it.
Off the top of my head, restrictions are:
no ah
no mail
no trading with players (sub or not)
can't whisper to anyone that doesn't have you as a friend
can't invite others into a party, but can be invited by a subscriber
level cap 20
gold cap 10
... that's all I can think of.
One thing that did surprise me was how dead the starting zones are on my server (a high-pop). I maybe saw 3 people.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
The only thing I hope is that they do not eventually make the game f2p and have in game cash but then again I could see that happening in 10 years if blizzard comes out with a WoW2 or another huge mmo
The only thing I hope is that they do not eventually make the game f2p and have in game cash but then again I could see that happening in 10 years if blizzard comes out with a WoW2 or another huge mmo
Will really depend on if they think they can milk a little more out of it when it truely starts to die.
Won't get me back on as I'm not a big fan of this model, one of the reasons I stopped play LotR.
There are too many places that the limited characters can go and be annoying for my paying character to have to put up with, sure some are trying but some will be there to cause grief for laughs.
That people really do not care what you think and just play a game they enjoy regardless of your opinion about it.
Anyhow this F2P - trailish seems to be to limited. One of the big reasons why so many people still play WoW is because of the social interaction with others they know. Limiting people from grouping and joining guilds seems therefor not a smart move.
To the people who say WoW should go F2P... WoW makes at least 5 times as much per user in NA/EU than any F2P game. Average income for a F2P game is like $2/user/month according to some GDC presentation i watched (because only like 1 in 10-20 F2P users ever pays even a cent).
They'd have to drop under 1 million subs to be seriously worth it to switch to F2P completly otherwise subs >> f2p.
Just because every crappy game that failed as a sub based game switched to F2P dosen't mean that succesfull ones should too, that's just retarded.
Is it me or are the banner ads on this site for WoW a bit misleading?
"Patch 4.2 now live. Play for free."
Uh... play an endless trial with considerable restrictions up to level 20 for free, still 65 levels away from pretty much any of the 4.2 content that was added to the game.
It will be interesting to see what kind of limitations other than the level 20 cap they put on this. I usually get bored by level 20 anyway. Does anyone know if you can do this trial even if you have a frozen account? Does anyone have more info on the other limitations? I couldn't find any.
I have a frozen wow account battle.net. There was no problem attaching a free trial to it.
Off the top of my head, restrictions are:
no ah
no mail
no trading with players (sub or not)
can't whisper to anyone that doesn't have you as a friend
can't invite others into a party, but can be invited by a subscriber
level cap 20
gold cap 10
... that's all I can think of.
One thing that did surprise me was how dead the starting zones are on my server (a high-pop). I maybe saw 3 people.
Ah so the expectation is that players want to solo the entire game? I can see why they don't want trial accounts to communicate, because of the commercial spam, but this is kind of silly to me. Ah well.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I was 'almost' ready to finaly give WOW a try. A nice slow 20 levels to feel out the game..sounds good so far.
What completly turned me off was the req. that I buy base, 3 expansions to stay in the game.
Not a chance ! If I liked the game I would buy the first campaign and if I got into it ( most seem to ) I would gladly buy the following editions. Truth is, 20 levels would be nice but NOT enough to commit to an $80 plus layout.
Comments
Indeed. I figured we'd see something like this in response to any kind of significant drop in subs. "Titan" aint gonna pay for itself
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Might be fun to log in now and again and do some low level pvp for old times sake much in the same way I play Warhammer . I doubt it would lure me back though much in the same way Warhammers t1 free2play does'nt . Too much has gone wrong with WoW now for it ever to be anything close to the game it once was . Cataclysm failed miserably to impress me and certainly did'nt offer a return to any kind of challenging gameplay . Blizzard proberbly wont admit this but I think privatly they were alarmed that they had a drop of half a million players in one month and I think they are expecting to see larger falls in the next couple of years with the release of new mmos . WoWs had an undeniably great run but it never was going to last forever . I would'nt be suprised in the coming years this free to play content was'nt extended further than level 20 . Tis the way things are going free to play is the future .
What is it about World of Warcraft that makes people think that a move like this is an indication that they're failing?
It's an extended free trial that goes to level 20 and which isn't timed. If a player wants to go above that, or get rid of the restrictions that are placed on them, they still have to buy the game and all the expansions and pay the regular sub fee that everyone else does. How is that anything like WoW failing or suddenly losing their stranglehold on the market?
TF2 just went free to play too. Does that mean Valve is about to fail as a company? Guess someone should get Gabe Newell on the phone to tell him the news.
WoW has reached market saturation. They can afford to give the first 20 levels away with some restrictions. Hell, they could give away the entire base game with some restrictions if they wanted to. This is just a way to get people to try it at their leisure. It's not the end of the world.
Oh, and I'm not currently playing any MMOs and have no desire to play WoW again. But I can see what they're doing, and it's not panicking.
There's a reason why blizz has always stated that Titan won't compete with WoW. WoW will be f2p by the time titan comes out...so they'll be in totally different markets
"Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security." -Norman Vincent Peale
increased trial by 5 levels, big deal.
blizzard is trying the waters guys, this is just the first step on full blown free to play model just as valve did with TF2
They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.Malcolm X
I'm not a huge fan of WoW, but I have played it over the years. I think it's safe to say I won't be playing it again after hearing this news, however. Really, it's just a matter of time before they start milking the shit out of a cash shop, or some other form of micro-transaction, so I'd rather not be around to witness it. This whole F2P push is really disgusting, and I feel a bit sorry for those of you who think this trend is good for the creative nature of MMO's.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
Maybe that and Toucan Sam, the diety of Froot Loops. If they had a gay love-child it would be that griffin.
Just make the 'vanilla diet caffiene free' WoW f2p. 1-60. No expansions. No restrictions.
they've already got gold sellers, griefers and bots out the ass. This won't make a difference in that regard.
Give it its own couple of servers, so the F2P plebs such as myself can't bother the paying community.
I don't like Wow enough to pay for it, but I might give it another chance if it switched to somethiing like that.
It will be interesting to see what kind of limitations other than the level 20 cap they put on this. I usually get bored by level 20 anyway. Does anyone know if you can do this trial even if you have a frozen account? Does anyone have more info on the other limitations? I couldn't find any.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I have a frozen wow account battle.net. There was no problem attaching a free trial to it.
Off the top of my head, restrictions are:
no ah
no mail
no trading with players (sub or not)
can't whisper to anyone that doesn't have you as a friend
can't invite others into a party, but can be invited by a subscriber
level cap 20
gold cap 10
... that's all I can think of.
One thing that did surprise me was how dead the starting zones are on my server (a high-pop). I maybe saw 3 people.
The only thing I hope is that they do not eventually make the game f2p and have in game cash but then again I could see that happening in 10 years if blizzard comes out with a WoW2 or another huge mmo
That's generally what happens with level-based games; they become top heavy.
--------
"Chemistry: 'We do stuff in lab that would be a felony in your garage.'"
The most awesomest after school special T-shirt:
Front: UNO Chemistry Club
Back: /\OH --> Bad Decisions
Will really depend on if they think they can milk a little more out of it when it truely starts to die.
Won't get me back on as I'm not a big fan of this model, one of the reasons I stopped play LotR.
There are too many places that the limited characters can go and be annoying for my paying character to have to put up with, sure some are trying but some will be there to cause grief for laughs.
That people really do not care what you think and just play a game they enjoy regardless of your opinion about it.
Anyhow this F2P - trailish seems to be to limited. One of the big reasons why so many people still play WoW is because of the social interaction with others they know. Limiting people from grouping and joining guilds seems therefor not a smart move.
To the people who say WoW should go F2P... WoW makes at least 5 times as much per user in NA/EU than any F2P game. Average income for a F2P game is like $2/user/month according to some GDC presentation i watched (because only like 1 in 10-20 F2P users ever pays even a cent).
They'd have to drop under 1 million subs to be seriously worth it to switch to F2P completly otherwise subs >> f2p.
Just because every crappy game that failed as a sub based game switched to F2P dosen't mean that succesfull ones should too, that's just retarded.
Is it me or are the banner ads on this site for WoW a bit misleading?
"Patch 4.2 now live. Play for free."
Uh... play an endless trial with considerable restrictions up to level 20 for free, still 65 levels away from pretty much any of the 4.2 content that was added to the game.
Sounds like typical F2P false advertising to me.
Ah so the expectation is that players want to solo the entire game? I can see why they don't want trial accounts to communicate, because of the commercial spam, but this is kind of silly to me. Ah well.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I was 'almost' ready to finaly give WOW a try. A nice slow 20 levels to feel out the game..sounds good so far.
What completly turned me off was the req. that I buy base, 3 expansions to stay in the game.
Not a chance ! If I liked the game I would buy the first campaign and if I got into it ( most seem to ) I would gladly buy the following editions. Truth is, 20 levels would be nice but NOT enough to commit to an $80 plus layout.
Hmm..GW2/ Skyrim anyone?