10 Day Free Trial
I completely agree. I really want my friends to play this game with me but they’re not convinced that this game is worth 60 dollars. I think a 10 day free trial would be enough to convince them of how amazing this game is and I believe a lot of people will agree with me and you on a 10 day free trial. So anet can you guys please add a free trial.
I managed to get my best friend and her boyfriend to buy the game at the last free trial. I’m probably not going to find others to give other codes out, but another opportunity wouldn’t hurt Arenanet.
The problem with trial weekends is that a) you have too many people in at the same time (server stress) and b) a lot of people might not have time!
The 3 guys I invited didn’t play at all that weekend and even only 1 guy dowloaded it all the way.
They could easily produce other temporary servers where the trial-coders are limited too until they buy the game. I really don’t see a problem.
I think the OP has good intentions, however bots do not. Even a 3 day free trial, bot companies would just remake trial accounts constnatly to get their gold, without having to hack an account or buy the game (they would still hack accounts but still).
“I’m waiting for the staff to get off their lunch
break. I feel like they should be back by now..”
break. I feel like they should be back by now..”
There’s plenty of ways to discourage off accounts like that.
- No trading allowed until account goes active instead of trial
- Account validation (pretty normal)
- No guild invites – the 10 day trial is about the personal experience to commit
- No zone chat allowed (kill the spam). Keep it to local and whispers in the beginning. You can tell if the experience is worth buying it in the beginning, so use your global help after you go active)
(you could definitely keep going, but those would probably be enough to keep people from doing anything too weird – those on the back end of the game can always tell who’s playing the game and those who are just being fools and using the system as some ridiculous tool to sell things or spam)
Side note:
- 10 days helps because weekends aren’t open for everyone. Sometimes I have a hard time just playing on weekends because I work through the week and try to spend time with my kids, so I end up playing nights here and there. My friends have a similar schedule or actually work on the weekends, so they get discouraged from a weekend invite. Besides that, it kind of sucks to download that much data just to play a couple times during a weekend and then get cut off like that.
No, I’d opt for a 24 hour trial, that only counts down when you are logged in. This way you don’t have to worry about when you want to start the trial, it doesn’t matter. Though I’d put a limit that if you haven’t used your 24 hours after 2 weeks, the account is terminated.
- no access to trading
- no access to mailing
- no access to guilds
- no world vs. world (this should be reserved for those who bought the game, cause there is to much stress on it as it is).
- only limited access to 5 zones.
- no access to banks
- no access to map chat
- no access to personal story
BUT:
→ access to dungeons
→ access to SPvP
→ all classes available
→ all races available
→ ability to preview on TP, but not buy.
→ friends available, to allow for people to join in with their new-made friends when they do buy the game
(edited by Sirendor.1394)
Why would you not give testers access to the personal story? oO Seriously, what’s the point?
Personally, I’d opt for a 3-5 days trial, eliminating access to mail and trading, limited access to guilds, bank and mapchat.
Polka will never die
7 Day trial with heavy limitations (but not so heavy that it scares away players or heavily cripples the gameplay), I can get behind. Better yet give players the ability to send out invites, ideally this would create a quasi-responsibility-relationship so that might limit some botting and spamming.
I support this, but I am against any restrictions beyond a level cap. We want to attract players and let them sample the game, not show them a tease and force them to take certain things on faith. One of the reasons, for example, why I could never get into WoW was because I couldn’t form a party. I was playing with my -at that time- girlfriend and we were both on trail accounts, yet we couldn’t actually play together. That instantly killed any shot the game had of winning us over. I support a trial, but not with such foolish and meaningless restrictions.
Take away the ability to send items via mail, take away the ability to chat, and take away the ability to use the trading post. Problem solved.
I think the OP has good intentions, however bots do not. Even a 3 day free trial, bot companies would just remake trial accounts constnatly to get their gold, without having to hack an account or buy the game (they would still hack accounts but still).
Take away the ability to send items via mail, take away the ability to chat, and take away the ability to use the trading post. Problem solved.
No chat restrictions. Period. I don’t mean to attack, but that is probably the most insane and dumb idea I’ve ever heard. How in the heck to you expect to introduce new players to a social type game like a MMO if you deny them the ability to communicate and thereby socialize? That is just plain stupid no matter how you try to rationalize it.
No limit time free trial with
- max achieved level 15
- no map, local, guild chat only party chat allowed
- no mail sending, just receiving
- max amount of gold in inventory 50 silver
- max amount of gold in bank 1 gold
- no TP access other then home page with gems acquisitions (usable for upgrading to a full game)
I think this is enough for people to see how the game is in all 6 major cities + all 5 starter zones. Also, this will make the starter zones be full all the time giving the game a new look for new players who come in
Limiting your level to 15 will not stop you from going in other higher level zones but you will not stand a chance in there. Anyway there are a lot of things to do in all starter zones so you will not get bored even if you will just play those for fun
- no map, local, guild chat only party chat allowed
And how are you supposed to get a party together if you can’t say you’re looking for one in chat? How are you supposed to get a feel for the community, arguably the most important part of a MMO, if you can’t converse with them? Seriously, I need to know, what is with all the suggestions for limited chat access?
I think the OP has good intentions, however bots do not. Even a 3 day free trial, bot companies would just remake trial accounts constnatly to get their gold, without having to hack an account or buy the game (they would still hack accounts but still).
all of which can be prevented with restrictions. For a trial, nobody needs to do any kind of buying or selling on the TP, nor do they need to do any kind of sending/receiving mail to get a feel of the game to whether they want to buy it or not. Nor do they need any kind of /whisper to anyone that doesn’t have them on their friends list.
No chat restrictions. Period. I don’t mean to attack, but that is probably the most insane and dumb idea I’ve ever heard. How in the heck to you expect to introduce new players to a social type game like a MMO if you deny them the ability to communicate and thereby socialize? That is just plain stupid no matter how you try to rationalize it.
- no map, local, guild chat only party chat allowed
And how are you supposed to get a party together if you can’t say you’re looking for one in chat? How are you supposed to get a feel for the community, arguably the most important part of a MMO, if you can’t converse with them? Seriously, I need to know, what is with all the suggestions for limited chat access?
Collateral damage unfortunately. Give unrestricted chat access to trial accounts, and the chat and whispers will be spammed by the gold selling companies, making everyone put these people on ignore constantly, and ruining the game experience for paid customers.
It would be monumentally stupid to allow unrestricted access to chat in a trial because of gold spammers, and will ruin the game experience for people who bought the game. It is a far lesser evil, almost to the point being negligible, to have restricted access to chat for trials, most people can determine if they want to buy the game or not by just playing the game and not having to use the chat. They can see chat, and see what the other players are saying, they can get a feel of the community by observing only.
(edited by eisberg.2379)
No chat restrictions. Period. I don’t mean to attack, but that is probably the most insane and dumb idea I’ve ever heard. How in the heck to you expect to introduce new players to a social type game like a MMO if you deny them the ability to communicate and thereby socialize? That is just plain stupid no matter how you try to rationalize it.
- no map, local, guild chat only party chat allowed
And how are you supposed to get a party together if you can’t say you’re looking for one in chat? How are you supposed to get a feel for the community, arguably the most important part of a MMO, if you can’t converse with them? Seriously, I need to know, what is with all the suggestions for limited chat access?
Collateral damage unfortunately. Give unrestricted chat access to trial accounts, and the chat and whispers will be spammed by the gold selling companies, making everyone put these people on ignore constantly, and ruining the game experience for paid customers.
It would be monumentally stupid to allow unrestricted access to chat in a trial because of gold spammers, and will ruin the game experience for people who bought the game. It is a far lesser evil, almost to the point being negligible, to have restricted access to chat for trials, most people can determine if they want to buy the game or not by just playing the game and not having to use the chat. They can see chat, and see what the other players are saying, they can get a feel of the community by observing only.
I’d like to sum that up in one word, but sadly it would be blocked. Only clue; it starts with bull. That said I think my opinion on that can instead be summed up with one sentence.
It is wrong to punish the innocent for the potential crimes of another.
No chat restrictions. Period. I don’t mean to attack, but that is probably the most insane and dumb idea I’ve ever heard. How in the heck to you expect to introduce new players to a social type game like a MMO if you deny them the ability to communicate and thereby socialize? That is just plain stupid no matter how you try to rationalize it.
- no map, local, guild chat only party chat allowed
And how are you supposed to get a party together if you can’t say you’re looking for one in chat? How are you supposed to get a feel for the community, arguably the most important part of a MMO, if you can’t converse with them? Seriously, I need to know, what is with all the suggestions for limited chat access?
Collateral damage unfortunately. Give unrestricted chat access to trial accounts, and the chat and whispers will be spammed by the gold selling companies, making everyone put these people on ignore constantly, and ruining the game experience for paid customers.
It would be monumentally stupid to allow unrestricted access to chat in a trial because of gold spammers, and will ruin the game experience for people who bought the game. It is a far lesser evil, almost to the point being negligible, to have restricted access to chat for trials, most people can determine if they want to buy the game or not by just playing the game and not having to use the chat. They can see chat, and see what the other players are saying, they can get a feel of the community by observing only.
I’d like to sum that up in one word, but sadly it would be blocked. Only clue; it starts with bull. That said I think my opinion on that can instead be summed up with one sentence.
It is wrong to punish the innocent for the potential crimes of another.
Yes it is wrong, which is why restrictions are needed. No restrictions means all the customers who bought the game are going to be punished with spams. And it is far beyond a potential crime, there is years and years of data that shows that it is not a potential, it is a given fact that gold spammer will use trials to spam if there are no restrictions. There is no if about it, they will use it.
Sorry, but you do not punish the paying/paid players just so trial members can talk in chat.
This must be your first MMO, because any veteran MMO player will tell you what I just said, because they have seen it happen many many times over, other wise you would have not used the word “POTENTIAL” Heck, the gold spammers in WoW had to get creative in using trial accounts by making many level 1 characters dying in a way that spells out the gold selling website name. If they are willing to do that, what the heck do you think they would do with no chat/trade restrictions on trial accounts? It would punish the paid/paying players in a big way, and is not worth it to give trial players the ability to use chat/trade.
The only other compromise is that Trials get a server unto themselves. And if they decide to buy the game, they get to transfer their account to a non trial server of their own. On trial server there is no restrictions, other then no TP or mail since those are cross server, but they get full chat.
(edited by eisberg.2379)
Yes it is wrong, which is why restrictions are needed. No restrictions means all the customers who bought the game are going to be punished with spams. And it is far beyond a potential crime, there is years and years of data that shows that it is not a potential, it is a given fact that gold spammer will use trials to spam if there are no restrictions. There is no if about it, they will use it.
Sorry, but you do not punish the paying/paid players just so trial members can talk in chat.
This must be your first MMO, because any veteran MMO player will tell you what I just said, because they have seen it happen many many times over, other wise you would have not used the word “POTENTIAL” Heck, the gold spammers in WoW had to get creative in using trial accounts by making many level 1 characters dying in a way that spells out the gold selling website name. If they are willing to do that, what the heck do you think they would do with no chat/trade restrictions on trial accounts? It would punish the paid/paying players in a big way, and is not worth it to give trial players the ability to use chat/trade.
The only other compromise is that Trials get a server unto themselves. And if they decide to buy the game, they get to transfer their account to a non trial server of their own. On trial server there is no restrictions, other then no TP or mail since those are cross server, but they get full chat.
Firstly, I like how you keep using the phrase “paying customers” as if you are paying a subscription fee. Secondly I like how no one here is even considering an alternate method of addressing the spam issue beyond blocking chat. Hey, here is an idea; how about we restrict map chat for all players in general for a minimum of six months to prevent it. After all there is years of data to prove that if you let people post in chat a small percentage will use it to spam gold selling sites.
Alternative idea; create a database of flagged gold selling sites and auto block any post that includes those sites. Gold sellers will always find a way to post, be it using a trail or hacking accounts, but I think few will go through the trouble of creating an entirely new site for every bot. Or just instantly censor any chat post that includes a web site at all, same system they use for the profanity filter. This solves the problem for everyone, instead of just using free-trail players as a scapegoat for the next, inevitable, influx of gold sellers.
Yes it is wrong, which is why restrictions are needed. No restrictions means all the customers who bought the game are going to be punished with spams. And it is far beyond a potential crime, there is years and years of data that shows that it is not a potential, it is a given fact that gold spammer will use trials to spam if there are no restrictions. There is no if about it, they will use it.
Sorry, but you do not punish the paying/paid players just so trial members can talk in chat.
This must be your first MMO, because any veteran MMO player will tell you what I just said, because they have seen it happen many many times over, other wise you would have not used the word “POTENTIAL” Heck, the gold spammers in WoW had to get creative in using trial accounts by making many level 1 characters dying in a way that spells out the gold selling website name. If they are willing to do that, what the heck do you think they would do with no chat/trade restrictions on trial accounts? It would punish the paid/paying players in a big way, and is not worth it to give trial players the ability to use chat/trade.
The only other compromise is that Trials get a server unto themselves. And if they decide to buy the game, they get to transfer their account to a non trial server of their own. On trial server there is no restrictions, other then no TP or mail since those are cross server, but they get full chat.
Firstly, I like how you keep using the phrase “paying customers” as if you are paying a subscription fee. Secondly I like how no one here is even considering an alternate method of addressing the spam issue beyond blocking chat. Hey, here is an idea; how about we restrict map chat for all players in general for a minimum of six months to prevent it. After all there is years of data to prove that if you let people post in chat a small percentage will use it to spam gold selling sites.
Alternative idea; create a database of flagged gold selling sites and auto block any post that includes those sites. Gold sellers will always find a way to post, be it using a trail or hacking accounts, but I think few will go through the trouble of creating an entirely new site for every bot. Or just instantly censor any chat post that includes a web site at all, same system they use for the profanity filter. This solves the problem for everyone, instead of just using free-trail players as a scapegoat for the next, inevitable, influx of gold sellers.
Notice how I said “paid/paying” Did you forget that there are people who are paying money to Anet for the Gem store, guess what? They are paying customers, but I also used the Paid term as well, to include the people who are not using the Gem store. So far no one has come up with an alternate method that actually works, and developers have tried many many different methods, and all but chat/trade restrictions have worked. The rest of your first paragraph was nothing more then hyperbole.
As for your database system for chat filtering, other developers have done that as well in the last several years, and the spammers always get past it very easily, add spaces, use different characters that look the same, and numerous other ways that the developers cannot keep up on. Also they do not get nearly as many accounts through hacking as they would with having free trial accounts. Yes you are right, they will always figure out a way, but with trial accounts with no restrictions, it goes from a minor inconvenience to the paid/paying customers to an epidemic for them.
There is a reason why other developers have restricted chat/trade for trial account these days, or created trial servers, because all other methods they have tried have changed nothing, and so far trade/chat or trial servers have been the only effective method so far.
So you better come up with an idea that has not already been done, that would not create a minor inconvenience into an epidemic.
(edited by eisberg.2379)
@Arkham Creed.7358
Have you tried the GW1 trial? It is only 14h long over 14 days .
It has the same limitations I mentioned with the chat options except that you can be invited in a guild and chat there too.
Old players when they see you can’t talk they invite you in the party and talk to you there. They all know these limitations and if they want to help you out they invite you to their party where you can talk.
Yes, I agree with you that it is unfair to not let people chat, but for the techincal reason mentioned in the posts above, it is safer for any company to use these limitations.
Even AION has limitations with the chat for free to play players.
here are some details about its limitations if you are interested
http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/website/featuresdetails/
Other MMOs use even a harsh cut off for chat: you need to buy megapgones from cash-shop to be able to chat in world chat: one megaphone per sentence
and they are not cheap
Here is an example for that
http://jd.perfectworld.com/news/?p=344491
When you do a trial to a game you have your own personal posibility to try it with a person you already know: a relative (parent, brother sister, etc) or a friend / co-worker.
In this way you are both in the party from the same moment and learn the game together with the team chat unless you are using some VoIP programs.
+1 to the free trials. The more the merrier. Word of mouth and samples gets lots of business.
+1 to limited time free trials, with as few restrictions as possible. If you want someone to like a game, don’t cripple their experience with lots of limitations. The way Guild Wars 1 did the free trial was great and I think Guild Wars 2 should do it similarly.
Actually, EVE online has virtually unlimited 21-day trials. No chat restrictions, mild trade restrictions. Very little gold-seller spam.
Three components to their solution:
1) Right click on a person’s name in chat, select “Report ISK (gold) Spammer”, the person is immediately hidden from your chat retroactively, and I believe a certain number of such reports auto-hides from all player’s chats retroactively. Also, the bot is swiftly permabanned, IP block noted, etc.
2) Legal RL cash → ISK (gold) conversion. Much like GW2’s Gems→Gold conversion.
3) 1 harshly nerfs global spam, but personal mail-spam is still an issue, so they charge a small fee to message someone you don’t have as a friend/guild member/etc, this is a fee that’s significant to new trial players, but irrelevant to established players.
Basically, a decent trial is possible, if the devs are willing to put in the effort for spambot-fighting.
Btw, algorithms for spotting web-urls are easy, but it’s a bit tricker to spot obfuscated URLs commonly used by bots. eg. vv vv vv dot thisisnotagoldwebsite dot me, or other human-readable but not easily machine-readable obfuscations.