XP Block turned off

[Kearbear]

Would genuine newcomers to the game get a better experience of it, and hence be more likely to start paying subscriptions, if:

• They are put in BGs with F2P twinks, and 24 twinks who can gear to BiS as they don't get XP.
  

or

• They are put in BGs with F2P twinks, and 20-24s in enchanted heirlooms, who are forced to level.
  

Really it comes doen to how smart Bliz are when it comes to marketing.

I sincerely doubt that they're going to move the capped trials into xp-on games. Even from a marketing perspective, by the time someone has gotten to level 20 one would think they would have decided whether or not they were going to buy, and if they don't intend to purchase the game why would Blizz want to make them more comfortable with not paying for it? This compounded with the almost certain backlash they would get from paying players when they notice that there are twinks (albeit twinks gimped by trial restrictions) in their twink-less games.... I just can't see it happening.



Of course they might do it anyways, you'd just have to label me very surprised.

 

[Aradiel]

If they don't intend to pay for the game, why would they remove the time limit on trials? That is the real question. Blizz knew that people would "twink" at 20. Whatever restrictions there are, people will always push the limits of what's possible. Level 10 twinks were 100% fucking useless in 19s. They didn't do much damage and they gave no honor when you killed them. They were little more than ants. At least now the brackets mean max level get honor from the lowest level.

 

[Kearbear]

If they don't intend to pay for the game, why would they remove the time limit on trials?

Because if you have a limited amount of time to play, 10 days might not have been enough to get "hooked." Some people may not have started a trial for worry that something would come up and they wouldn't get to really get into it, and then their toons would be locked away until they could pay. Now the unlimited version allows prospective people to log in as much as they want when they have time so it can wave the restrictions in their faces going "wouldn't it be nice if you could check your mail...?" ect. I don't think the intention was for people to be able to enjoy themselves without buying a subscription... although I'm glad that thus far having fun without paying has not been a problem

... removing the time limit also lets them spam the "free to play" adds all over the place. : /

 

[Deadvulcano]

I spent the last few moment of my paid account on a warrior Skënderbeu which was geared/consumabled at least 2 times the power of every other toon in the leveling bracket. Unless the US side has changed a lot over the last 3 months or so, I expect watered down competition if f2p gets moved to xp-on.



Although I have no problem wearing less gear if I have to

 

[Aradiel]

You could always extend it to 20 days. Anyone taking longer than that would never get "hooked" on this game. I agree about the free to play aspect, and they hope that will attract people too.

 

[flux1]

From one of the blues themselves http://us.battle.net...319339?page=1#7 "The Starter Edition trial was simply not designed to be Free to play"



Despite them advertising it as free to play as long as you want, it seems internally they likely aren't happy with the turnover ratio of free accounts into paid subs. Either they just half assed the making of unlimited trials and forgot to turn of the xp eliminator option for 3 months, or saw it as something to chip away at to try and improve the number of subs.



If over time more stuff starts vanishing from free accounts we will see it was the later.

 

[Deadvulcano]

From one of the blues themselves http://us.battle.net...319339?page=1#7 "The Starter Edition trial was simply not designed to be Free to play"



Despite them advertising it as free to play as long as you want, it seems internally they likely aren't happy with the turnover ratio of free accounts into paid subs.

No, they were referring to ppl playing their old frozen accounts forever:

that blue quoted

can't play too up to level 20 for free forever? with a frozen account? and then when I pay, I get full access?

And said:

I've seen several threads where players have suggested that we place the same type of starter edition restrictions on a frozen account, but again, the system is not designed this way.



An MVP there said it best imo:

I think the problem is that you're viewing it from the perspective of having a full account and wanting to play without paying.



The point of the Starter Edition is to give someone an unlimited amount of time to try out the basic restricted portion of the game - so they don't feel pressured to try to play for 7, 10, or 14 days and then be locked out. Not everyone plays daily. Some people only have time for a couple hours on Saturday. For that guy, he's not really going to have enough time to sample the game between two Saturday sessions.



Yes, the Starter Edition is being used by players who don't want to or can't afford the monthly game time cost to be able to get their "WOW fix". That doesn't make it the purpose of the Starter Edition.

 

[Aradiel]

You have to question whether people that will only play an hour or two a week would even bother with this game.

 

[yasueh]

Only a complete idiot would 'design' a trial without a time restriction, and neglect to realise that they had also created free to play.



Bliz didn't design shit (like they'd spend time doing that for anything that isn't endgame or time wasting fluff). They just took the time limit off.

 

[Deadvulcano]

Comm fail



Bliz heard some addict asking to restart his frozen account so he can play for free with the limitations of the starter accounts.



Bliz says blah blah blah, its not a free to play game, the starter account is for new ppl to tryout the content. Blah Blah we get asked by old addicts to restart their accounts for free all the time, but once you've upgraded the account, taken the first hit, we "can't" put the restrictions back.



Some reasonable poster says hey man, I heard you were addicted to wow. You should make a new starter account like everyone else in your situation.



Addict says I hate my life without wow but I don't want to pay. Bliz should blah blah blah and give me my frozen account wowcrack for free. Unfortunately this individual is also suffering from cognitive disabilities.



Nothing to see here. More on the XP locking situation soon

 

[Kearbear]

Only a complete idiot would 'design' a trial without a time restriction, and neglect to realise that they had also created free to play.



Bliz didn't design shit (like they'd spend time doing that for anything that isn't endgame or time wasting fluff). They just took the time limit off.

Well Blizz definitely has some departmental mis-communication issue; they have an advertising department plastering the internet with banners about "free to play" wow, and then they have reps making statements about it not being meant to be a full free to play game : /



Whether they mean it to be free to play or not, you are correct in that as long as it is viable and entertaining to play (and twink >

) the trial, people will do it. Hopefully they won't consider it enough of a threat business wise to nerf it down to complete inviability.

You could always extend it to 20 days. Anyone taking longer than that would never get "hooked" on this game. I agree about the free to play aspect, and they hope that will attract people too.

Well that's the thing. Say you're a college student, for a 10 or 20 day trial you'd only activate one during a vacation when you could be guaranteed to have an uninterrupted few days to try it out. But with an unlimited trial you can do it any time, knowing that whenever you have time you can check it out without worrying about a heavy workload taking up all your time for a few days. It would still be there when your schedule freed up, whereas a limited time trial would not.



Of course it could be argued that someone with potentially limited free time wouldn't have enough time to play wow, but a lot of blizz's decisions lately make me think they're trying to reel in people who are only interested in playing for a few hours a week rather than marketing to the limited number of people who have a lot of time on their hands.

 

[yasueh]

Well Blizz definitely has some departmental mis-communication issue

Not to mention major issues when it comes to communicating with their customers.

Well that's the thing. Say you're a college student, for a 10 or 20 day trial you'd only activate one during a vacation when you could be guaranteed to have an uninterrupted few days to try it out. But with an unlimited trial you can do it any time, knowing that whenever you have time you can check it out without worrying about a heavy workload taking up all your time for a few days. It would still be there when your schedule freed up, whereas a limited time trial would not.



Of course it could be argued that someone with potentially limited free time wouldn't have enough time to play wow, but a lot of blizz's decisions lately make me think they're trying to reel in people who are only interested in playing for a few hours a week rather than marketing to the limited number of people who have a lot of time on their hands.

Then they could have kept the level 20 cap, and instead of having no time limit, or a higher time limit, they could of had a /played time limit.





Shit, they could sell the more casual players game time on the same principle.

 

[Kearbear]

Then they could have kept the level 20 cap, and instead of having no time limit, or a higher time limit, they could of had a /played time limit.

Yeah that would have made sense... my guess would be since they don't have the hourly game time option in existence they were simply too lazy to implement it

I've wondered why they didn't do hourly subs, would have made it a lot easier to play in college.

Not to mention major issues when it comes to communicating with their customers.

True that.

 

[Tinkerton]

Well that's the thing. Say you're a college student, for a 10 or 20 day trial you'd only activate one during a vacation when you could be guaranteed to have an uninterrupted few days to try it out. But with an unlimited trial you can do it any time, knowing that whenever you have time you can check it out without worrying about a heavy workload taking up all your time for a few days. It would still be there when your schedule freed up, whereas a limited time trial would not.



Of course it could be argued that someone with potentially limited free time wouldn't have enough time to play wow, but a lot of blizz's decisions lately make me think they're trying to reel in people who are only interested in playing for a few hours a week rather than marketing to the limited number of people who have a lot of time on their hands.

I agree with that, as with your previous post ('plaster the web with WoW F2P and wave paid advantages at ppl during play' - F2P and Freemium games often do that).



I know the 'can I get everything out of the trial time?' issue has kept me personally from trying games, as with my friends, as the time limit means checking agenda's etc. - which is also why 'word of mouth' is less effective than it could be (A checks out game X, plays a few days, 'cool game!', informs friend B, friend B has no time atm but will next weekend, A and B can try the game together for just 1 day). The current Blizz model tackles that.



Now of course a /played limit and time unit subscriptions (like Chinese WoW has from what I understand) may be better financially but it doesn't solve the agenda issue.



Also, one of the major complaints about WoW is that many servers are bereft of non-AI life in the first part of the game. A F2P option to a game makes the starter areas more lively (at least in theory) and thereby more attractive to a MMO audience.

on a warrior Skënderbeu which was geared/consumabled at least 2 times the power of every other toon in the leveling bracket.

Foreman Leggings combined with empty Craftable slots makes baby Murlocs cry ;P Seriously though, I had no idea the difference between Battlegroups could be that stark.

That includes whether they'd rather feed all the trial newbies to a just a few haters with 24s, or all the levelling alts of their beloved endgame raiders.

Considering they have no problems feeding them to the later in 10-14 and 15-19 (and feeding Rodney and co. newcomers etc. in general), a cynic might say it's more of a wonder they've denied them to 20-24 in the first place.

 

[hillkid101]

so mad about a change to a game you dont want to pay for.

 

[solvogero]

i think they turned off the block on f2p accounts just to make IAT's quest that much bigger of a pia

 

[Earlwing]

This times fookin' 20.

This times 12 trillion. Over 15 days played, just on earl, not to mention my 6 other toons >.<

 

[iaccidentallytwink]

i think they turned off the block on f2p accounts just to make IAT's quest that much bigger of a pia

my quest?

 

[Tinkerton]

my quest?

Your zany (and thoroughly wonderful) quest to get to level 21+ on a Starter account.

 

[pinochet]

I think part of the free forever change was meant to stop people from rerolling every ten days and screwing with their ability to analyze the success of their trials.