Veteran Edition account (6.1 update)

[Zemmix]

I get what you're saying, but that kind of diminishes the point. The whole point I feel that Bashiok was obviously getting at, is instead of just having it so you can play a trial when youre not subbed, you can play your main account with trial restrictions, then resub when you want, and that this trial state is for when you have run out, to play in the mean time.

 

[Tom Ganks]

I'll try to be clearer. Maybe my comment was too flippant.

You are assuming that WoW accounts will consider all characters level 20 and under as trial whether subscribed or not.
I am suggesting the likelihood that once you subscribe, veteran trials become part of a paid account. Afterwards it doesn't matter what level they are at. Once you unsubscribe, you will no longer have access to those formerly trial characters. It will now again be considered a veteran account where you can create NEW trials with the usual restrictions. To me this makes a lot more sense than what others are hoping for. We will see.

I see what you're saying but f2p is f2p. Veteran and Trials is like first class and coach. We will have differences, but were all on the same flight.

 

[PepeLePewPew]

I don't think they intended trials to be played indefinitely. Just as I'm certain they'd prefer veteran trials to subscribe. It's not described as a f2p option.

Your approach to trial, the same as most on this forum myself included, is playing trial as f2p. That is not Blizzard's intention and if considered at all is likely something this change is aimed at reversing. Trial as a try-out before buying, not a holding pen for f2p. Mind, I'm not criticizing trial twinkers (I've been one myself and don't find the game worth paying for). I doubt seriously that they are catering to chronic trial players, which is what you're suggesting. They want you to subscribe.

This post if for you too I suppose Robo. Trial is trial, and neither is f2p.

 

[Bop]

I don't think they intended trials to be played indefinitely. Just as I'm certain they'd prefer veteran trials to subscribe. It's not described as a f2p option.

Your approach to trial, the same as most on this forum myself included, is playing trial as f2p. That is not Blizzard's intention and if considered at all is likely something this change is aimed at reversing. Trial as a try-out before buying, not a holding pen for f2p. Mind, I'm not criticizing trial twinkers (I've been one myself and don't find the game worth paying for). I doubt seriously that they are catering to chronic trial players, which is what you're suggesting. They want you to subscribe.

This post if for you too I suppose Robo. Trial is trial, and neither is f2p.

They have issued the statement that we will be allowed to stay in guilds after our subscription runs out.

That tells me with a decent amount of certainty that we will have access to at least our pre-20 P2P toons after our subscription runs out.

Why would they talk about us as being Trials with Guild Privileges unless we had access to toons that were once P2P.

 

[PepeLePewPew]

Guild privileges gives you access to join a guild your p2p's belong to, chat with old friends (I would assume) and get encouraged to subscribe. It does not give you access to play your non-trial characters. That was made very clear.

Staying in the guild after unsubbing does not imply access.

Again, I could be completely wrong. But I don't see any indication in what's been said so far to support the hopes that veteran trials will be playable as super-trials once a subscription expires.

 

[Bop]

Guild privileges gives you access to join a guild your p2p's belong to, chat with old friends (I would assume) and get encouraged to subscribe. It does not give you access to play your non-trial characters. That was made very clear.

Staying in the guild after unsubbing does not imply access.

Again, I could be completely wrong. But I don't see any indication in what's been said so far to support the hopes that veteran trials will be playable as super-trials once a subscription expires.

Your reservations are logical, I understand that.

At the very least though that would imply that you could

join a guild your p2p's belong to

, which would be a fairly positive change and potentially community building to have F2P Twinks in a guild.

I realize that the F2P Addon already kind of allows this, but the option to participate in guild activities and receive guild passives could be extremely helpful.

 

[Kincaide]

Yeah I think Pepe is making a valid interpretation of the evidence we've been given, I think that the rest of us happen to be making a different interpretation. Which is why I accepted the bet rather than saying "na na na you're wrong" (besides the fact that doing so would be unseemly!) and it's entirely possible that when your paid time lapses, all the character you had during your paid time will be locked no matter their level but that you'll be allowed to make new characters on that account with starter edition restrictions. In fact doing it that way would solve some of Blizzard's problems of for example what do you do with level <21 characters with more than 10 gold, or <21 characters who are XP locked. So Pepe's point of view has some logical merit. I just happen to have a different point of view because I want so much for the other stance to be true because it would be great for us, so I'm willing to take that bet. Who knows. We certainly can't say that Pepe's argument is without merit. I just hope it turns out to be the other case.

Edit: Oh but I was going to say, Pepe, I think it's safe to say that everyone expressing an opinion in this thread is implicitly speculating, so don't worry too much if people say that veteran accounts "are" this or "will be" that. We all know that we don't know things for certain, this whole thread is couched in terms of the hypothetical.

 

[Faerondil]

From Bashiok

01/15/2015 02:44 PMPosted by Sevaryn
Would I be able to log into my characters that are level 21 and above?


No.

I think if the intention was anything other than you have access to any character on your p2p account level 20 and under, he would have said much more than just 'no' to this question.

Edit: https://mobile.twitter.com/Bashiok/status/555856348340973568

 

[Rollop]

Again, I could be completely wrong. But I don't see any indication in what's been said so far to support the hopes that veteran trials will be playable as super-trials once a subscription expires.

On the flip side nothing has been stated claiming you can't. In fact, quite the opposite both here

https://mobile.twitter.com/Bashiok/status/555857040422105088/actions

and here

In 6.1 we’ll effectively revert lapsed accounts into a Starter Edition “mode”, with all of the same restrictions. The one difference being that your sub-level 20 characters will be able to join a guild if any of your other characters are still in that guild.

Which is why people are making the assumptions they are. Nothing has been said about not allowing sub 20 characters to be playable for any reason what so ever. Yet. Time will tell.

 

[Jva]

Pure speculation of course. But if I get it right there is a chance that 19s can become some sort of f2p bracket. I highly doubt that they would automatically turn xp back on on xp locked characters when your sub ran out. That would give 19s a chance to get BIS while subbed and than playing the game for free since they would still be locked at lvl 19.
All you guys that enjoy f2p pvp wouldnt have to deal with 29s anymore and could play BGs as 19s in the 19s bracket where everyone got same gear, enchants, abilities etc. Much competition and activity inc.

But again, pure speculation.

 

[Kincaide]

Pure speculation of course. But if I get it right there is a chance that 19s can become some sort of f2p bracket. I highly doubt that they would automatically turn xp back on on xp locked characters when your sub ran out. That would give 19s a chance to get BIS while subbed and than playing the game for free since they would still be locked at lvl 19.
All you guys that enjoy f2p pvp wouldnt have to deal with 29s anymore and could play BGs as 19s in the 19s bracket where everyone got same gear, enchants, abilities etc. Much competition and activity inc.

But again, pure speculation.

I would certainly try it out, in fact I have a few 19s that I was building waaayy back in the day. Hm I wonder if any of them have grandfathered gear...

Anyway, one speculation I had on the XP-on XP-off question was this: As F2Ps we simply don't have access to the NPC who turns XP on or off. But I wonder if perhaps whichever state your character is in (XP on or off) when the subscription lapses, is the state your character will be stuck in until you re-subscribe and are allowed to interact with that NPC again. If that were the case, then you would be able to lock yourself before the subscription expires and be just fine while you're in sub-off mode.

 

[PepeLePewPew]

The one difference being that your sub-level 20 characters will be able to join a guild if any of your other characters are still in that guild.

This refers to unguilded sub-20's which hints at newly created characters, but only hints. Overall, I think they are being unnecessarily obtuse about the whole thing and in a bad way. They surely know the answers to some of the questions being asked if it's to be implemented in 6.1. The hoped for interpretation is vastly more complex and involved than the alternative I suggest (another reason to be skeptical considering it's just a patch).

 

[Faerondil]

Anyway, one speculation I had on the XP-on XP-off question was this: As F2Ps we simply don't have access to the NPC who turns XP on or off. But I wonder if perhaps whichever state your character is in (XP on or off) when the subscription lapses, is the state your character will be stuck in until you re-subscribe and are allowed to interact with that NPC again. If that were the case, then you would be able to lock yourself before the subscription expires and be just fine while you're in sub-off mode.

That depends on how they wrote the code or whatever that forced XP back on for f2ps who had locked at 19 using the xp eliminator NPCs back in 2011 and if that code is imported into how they are setting up the veteran account.

 

[Kincaide]

That depends on how they wrote the code or whatever that forced XP back on for f2ps who had locked at 19 using the xp eliminator NPCs back in 2011 and if that code is imported into how they are setting up the veteran account.

I'm really hoping that some 19s will be able to make a good argument to Blizzard, if that happens, why it's not fair to do that. I mean if you are a paying customer, and you have your XP locked on five characters, and you have to let your subscription lapse for one month in order to buy formula to feed your baby, and when you come back to the game you find that all those characters have had their XP turned back on and you have to pay 50 gold to turn them off again, that's just wrong.

At least that's what my argument would be.

 

[Jva]

I'm really hoping that some 19s will be able to make a good argument to Blizzard, if that happens, why it's not fair to do that. I mean if you are a paying customer, and you have your XP locked on five characters, and you have to let your subscription lapse for one month in order to buy formula to feed your baby, and when you come back to the game you find that all those characters have had their XP turned back on and you have to pay 50 gold to turn them off again, that's just wrong.

At least that's what my argument would be.

That would force someone who locks his xp before the sub runs out to even have that 10g to lock it again after resubbing. Not much I know, but still.... I dont see that this is going to happen.

 

[Rollop]

This refers to unguilded sub-20's which hints at newly created characters, but only hints. Overall, I think they are being unnecessarily obtuse about the whole thing and in a bad way. They surely know the answers to some of the questions being asked if it's to be implemented in 6.1. The hoped for interpretation is vastly more complex and involved than the alternative I suggest (another reason to be skeptical considering it's just a patch).

You can look at the code and try to gleam something from it. But if i understand it correctly, here's what we're looking at.

Access to lapsed accounts
Access to guilds, under the stipulation of having a character already in the guild you want to join
Access ONLY to 20 and below characters.

This is all we know, that and the new strings of code datamined here MMO-Champion - World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

I agree, I think they are being obtuse on purpose, so as to not acknowledge how worthless this change really is, how awful the free version of wow really is etc. The guild "restriction lift" is bound to fail simply because of the metric fuck ton of restrictions already placed on starter accounts. You and I and most twinks will figure it out, because we already know the system. But i doubt most returning players will even know how to navigate it.

 

[Kincaide]

The easiest way to think of this Pepe (and everyone), as I have expressed over on my other thread, is that all accounts are exactly the same, they just have an "I am currently paying" mode, and an "I am not currently paying" mode. Even the ability to join guilds is explained in this model, as an account that you would traditionally think of as "f2p" in the past, simply has no characters in guilds, thus has no guilds to join while in pay-off mode.

 

[PepeLePewPew]

It's not that simple. I don't want to comment much on your other thread.

Consider one of the few confirmations we have gotten: besides guild access, ALL restrictions are identical to current restrictions on starter accounts, which will still exist and is what new players will use to try-before-buying. (this refutes some of the broad claims you make in your other thread btw).

Hence, the confusion about a large number of variable situations (even with the XPon/off quandary answered RIGHT THERE). The complexities abound when it comes to lower level twinks. So many predictions are being made based on restrictions changing when it has been stated they are not. Blanket statements seem a bit premature when we don't know if much will in reality be altered at all (other than an added encouragement to subscribe).

 

[Xenophon]

seeing as you guys and gals like to speculate so much, here are some new strings in the PTR:

REACTIVATE_ACCOUNT_NOW:: Reactivate Now
VETERAN_FEATURE_2:: Reunite with your friends!
VETERAN_FEATURE_3:: Revive your hero
VETERAN_FEATURE_1:: Continue where you left off!

That last one is tantalizing. I "left off" with a couple heroic-geared level 90s.

6.1 PTR: Build 19480 - Garrison Missions, New Toys, Alchemy Savage Blood Transmute, and More - Wowhead News

 

[PepeLePewPew]

Reactivate = Resubscribe
Is that not obvious?

but the misinformation will flow. oh, that 'other' thread.

At least it should be clear by 6.1's release to prevent potentially lost 20's to upgrades. Or else March could be a very interesting month. Auto-linked trials is all this is, or I'll eat my hat.