Guild Wars 2

Okay I was very excited when I read that GW2 now allows free accounts with no game purchase necessary because I wanted to experience the game as it was when it launched in 2012. Players didn’t have gold, powerful weapons or armor and had to figure out how to play the game with only one bag. Now players have tons of gold, outfits, transmogs, specialty bags, gliding and other cool stuff.

But it was fun leveling a toon with no guild or connections, no items, gold or bag space. The classic GW2 game was challenging! Does my toon jump off the giant building in Queensdale? No? There is no gliding? I can’t craft or gather anything until I reach a certain level? Yes! This was how all players started off when GW2 originally launched. Exciting, challenging even felt like real adventuring! Couldn’t even kill a Skritt with my starting weapon! Ah five minutes taking one down struggling to survive!

Unlike my main account where all my toons are spoiled with fancy outfits, legendary weapons, cool gliders, never ending gathering tools and crafted gear!

However, as the title of this post states “Free Aint’t Free!” The free account is fun to play but toons are restricted on what they can do. Unlike classic GW2 (before Heart of Maguuma), toons can not use guild services, send mail, use the trading post or commune to receive hero points. Bummer! The free account is really to get friends and family to join because as soon as they discover how much fun GW2 is to play of course they will buy the expansion Heart of Maguuma and gain instant access to all the cool stuff and instant level their first toon to 80!

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

I am confused as to why you would think you would get what you wrote. The details are explained about what you get, can do and can’t do. Why on earth would you believe you would get the game as it was on release?

Of all the features you list as being unavailable in the vanilla game (as it was at launch), gliding is the only one you are correct on. What game were you playing?

Evolseed.9104:

The free account is really to get friends and family to join because as soon as they discover how much fun GW2 is to play of course they will buy the expansion Heart of Maguuma and gain instant access to all the cool stuff and instant level their first toon to 80!

That’s it’s purpose and as you have mentioned, it does that very well.

Evolseed.9104:

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

Both of those terms have connotations which confer far more restraints than the free account has.

I doubt people trying out GW2 on a free account expect the full game experience for free (even though they are getting almost all of it). Story wise and some MMO specific stuff not considered, the free account allows someone to play the entire base game without ever spending 1$. That’s free.

I find they have balanced the difference between free accounts and accounts wich have payed 1 time for the game (or 2 times when they have…like me, played GW2 before and wanted the Expansion) good…….

First of: You can do most things (not all things) with a free account, so you have a good look at what the game can give you and if it makes fun or not…..

Second: you must just pay….yeah it sound weird but: a game developer wants some money to have the financial medium to develop the game, and you ust just pay 1 time…since the old GW2 is in the HoT Expansion included (what has made a big discussion in the forums that time….)…maybe, when the next big Expansion hits…..then you need to pay a second time…(BUT: that is ok, for my taste, i play the game i find it good, i pay….i mean for login you get every episode for free….well at least when you login when it is aktive….you dont need to play the episodes, you simply log in…when you forgot to login during this time, well, then you pay 200 dia´s….but: considering other games, that wants you to pay for every new episode AND a monthly pay, just that you can play…GW2 is really fair.

Third: Considering you can not use the mail, well ok….but i know a game here in europe…well, it is called “free” but when you want to use….as a sample….the auction house…well then you need the membership……and not just for the first time like other games….no you need it every time you want to use the auction house….so GW2 is the vastly better game.

Fourth: well i have take a sneak peak in how to make a character…and oh boy i am happy that i am not a game developer, you can do so much wrong….and then you have to sreach for the mistake…and maybe make the whole model new….the textures are a pain….when you are not carefully you must do everything new….and for every LoD grade (Level of Detail) for a charakter you need a new simplified model……so i am happy that GW2 is such a great game and i can play it….

So…..i mean : the free version offers you most of the game like Cyninja said….and you can reach max lvl, what is also not for every “free version” possible in other games…so be happy with what you have, look at the Dev´s and maybe pay one time for the game when you find it great….

Many of the limitations on free to play are to prevent gold sellers, like map chat and not being able to send mail or items. This game has a responsiblity to protect against goldseller spam. You might not remember the free demo weekends by I do. They sucked for me. I’m glad these limitations are in place.

The free version of GW2 pretty much equals the $50 time limited trial version of subscription MMOs, except… you guessed it… its free. Calling it free isnt wrong. Its neither a starter version (veterans probably have more secondary accounts than new players) nor trial version.

If you want a ‘true vanilla’ experience that can be achieved by just buying a secondary HOT account…You wont have any “gold, outfits, transmogs, specialty bags, gliding and other cool stuff” at the early levels.

Can’t commune hero points?? Are you sure you weren’t just low level?

Cyninja.2954:

Evolseed.9104:

The free account is really to get friends and family to join because as soon as they discover how much fun GW2 is to play of course they will buy the expansion Heart of Maguuma and gain instant access to all the cool stuff and instant level their first toon to 80!

That’s it’s purpose and as you have mentioned, it does that very well.

Evolseed.9104:

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

Both of those terms have connotations which confer far more restraints than the free account has.

I doubt people trying out GW2 on a free account expect the full game experience for free (even though they are getting almost all of it). Story wise and some MMO specific stuff not considered, the free account allows someone to play the entire base game without ever spending 1$. That’s free.

Exactly. When I learn a game has 2 options: one free, one that involves money (either via a 1-time purchase or a subscription) I already know there is some difference. I probably do not know what the difference is but I know I am not giving the company $$ out of the goodness of my heart.

Words matter. If it were called a trial I would expect a full game that would expire. If it were called a starter set or such I would assume everyone went through that stage and it was something I had to do even if I knew I liked it before I downloaded it. FTP has its own bad connotations but it is the best term to use.

Evolseed.9104:

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

I understand the point you want to make, but there isn’t a nimble way to express the idea: you can play for free, but it costs to unlock the game’s optional features.

Both suggestions in the original post are also fraught with the same sort of confusion you’ve ascribed to “free account”:

• These aren’t “starter accounts” because the entire original game can be played without spending a dollar (or euro or pound): you can level to 80, finish the personal story, even build one of the original legendaries.
• These aren’t “trial accounts” as the term is used in the industry (for similar reasons).

The main issue is that the industry standard for “starter” or “trial” or “limited edition” has always been much more restricted than the GW2 model. With a game that is “pay once; play for free,” the concept of a free account is different.

So ANet could call it this version “Free Restricted” versus “HoT Unrestricted,” but those don’t run trippingly off the tongue (i.e. it’s not particularly good marketing).

And finally, I think nearly reasonable consumers already understand that “Free” is never going to mean “everything”.

In short, it might not be a great term to use, but it beats the alternatives.

Evolseed.9104:

Okay I was very excited when I read that GW2 now allows free accounts with no game purchase necessary because I wanted to experience the game as it was when it launched in 2012. Players didn’t have gold, powerful weapons or armor and had to figure out how to play the game with only one bag. Now players have tons of gold, outfits, transmogs, specialty bags, gliding and other cool stuff.

But it was fun leveling a toon with no guild or connections, no items, gold or bag space. The classic GW2 game was challenging! Does my toon jump off the giant building in Queensdale? No? There is no gliding? I can’t craft or gather anything until I reach a certain level? Yes! This was how all players started off when GW2 originally launched. Exciting, challenging even felt like real adventuring! Couldn’t even kill a Skritt with my starting weapon! Ah five minutes taking one down struggling to survive!

Unlike my main account where all my toons are spoiled with fancy outfits, legendary weapons, cool gliders, never ending gathering tools and crafted gear!

However, as the title of this post states “Free Aint’t Free!” The free account is fun to play but toons are restricted on what they can do. Unlike classic GW2 (before Heart of Maguuma), toons can not use guild services, send mail, use the trading post or commune to receive hero points. Bummer! The free account is really to get friends and family to join because as soon as they discover how much fun GW2 is to play of course they will buy the expansion Heart of Maguuma and gain instant access to all the cool stuff and instant level their first toon to 80!

I would consider renaming the “Free Account” to “Starter Account” or “Trial Account” because that’s what it really is and not a classic version of GW2 at launch that many dedicated players would love to experience all over again!

GW2 is running because Anet receives money to pay for the servers, personnel, etc. If you want all of the perks people get for paying, then what would be the incentive to pay? Doesn’t make sense.

Hmmm … another victim of the NPE?

Of course, free isn’t actually free. It never really is.

Tbh its a generous trial.

Don’t treat the free version as a full free game. Treat it like a trial. Because it pretty much is except for the fact that you can play as long as you want to.

I’m not sure what gave you the impression that free accounts would be just like the game was at launch, but I don’t think that was Anet’s intention.

Apart from the lack of a time limit it is a trial account. As other people have said many of the restrictions are to prevent gold sellers from using free accounts, but others (like having just 2 character slots) are to make it frustrating to play long-term so you have an incentive to buy the full game.

It was aimed at potential new players who wanted to try the game before they bought it – not existing players looking for nostalgia.

What game were you playing at launch? Because it clearly wasn’t GW2. We had multiple bag slots, everyone crafted better bags and some of the starting story missions rewarded them even. Gold wasn’t really that hard to get, people had giant stacks of gold as quickly as day 7. Sure we didn’t have gliders, it you could jump off that tower and survive just fine if you timed a leap or evade skill at the right time before hitting the ground.

Even without the trading post, the core game is still “completely free”. You can do literally anything by treating it as a single player RPG and farming everything yourself. Compared to other MMOs where their “free” restricts levels and stuff, GW2 is truly free.

not being able to to use the TP does make it a lot more like playing at launch.

Khisanth.2948:

not being able to to use the TP does make it a lot more like playing at launch.

That was a horrible 10-14 days.

free account serves as a teaser….