Guild Wars 2

I would suggest a trial-key system for Guild Wars 2. Thus far we have seen a limited number of trials and I think it would be great to have a way to let our friends experience Guild Wars 2 before buying it. The idea of having trials is pretty obvious so I will cut straight to how I think it could be implemented.

A valid GW2 account (one that has a purchased GW2 serial) would have X number of invites.
The user could send invites by several possibly methods, including:

• Entering their friends email address so the system could send them an automatic invite.
• Entering their friends account name (name.####) – this would require the ability to create an “empty” account that would not have access to any games until given a trial or full serial key. Said account would have limited permissions to prevent any potential abuse.
• A trial-key could be generated and given to a friend where they would enter said key during the registration process.

Now then. Each generated trial key, through any of the methods above, would be linked to the users account (obviously.) In the event abuse occurs, the main account could be subject to punishment by various means for various reasons. Due to the nature of a trial system, there are inhertent risks such as additional spam accounts, selling trial keys and other things I will not specify.

In order to prevent such abuses, there are a number of things that could be implemented to help reduce said risks, including:

• Limiting accounts abilities to enable the trial system, such as account age or combined characters’ age, gameplay activity, and so on.
• Limiting what a trial account can do. Limit the use of in-game mail, trading post access, private messaging and so on. I did say limit and not prevent.
• Limit forum posting access through various means as spam control. This could involve content scanning and forcing the first several posts to undergo a moderating & approval process.

A number of things I can see as issues so far include the number of keys that one could generate, how often “trial key slots” on an account can be recreated after being used and expiring, what courses of action should be taken in cases of abuse and so on. Please discuss this idea and offer additions, changes and general criticism as you see fit.

PS. I am aware that there have been a limited number of trials in the past, however, I am unfamiliar with how they worked and I am also unsure if there have been similar suggestions, so keep this in mind while replying. I have searched this subforum and have not found anything to warrant not posting this suggestion.

I agree, I was suggesting GW2 as the next game for my fc, but most didn’t like the idea because they would have to buy the game before even trying it. :/

I understand the good intentions behind it but trial keys always turn into easy access for gold farmers/ chat spam/ trouble makers. I would be fine with implementation, but only if in the event a trial account was found to be in violation of the EULA, then the account which initiated the trial was also held responsible. Trial account permanently closed and the host account dealt with as seen fit.

I think a free trial is a good idea especially if it was a permanent thing instead of during fixed dates/times. I had a few friends who were interested in the last free trial but couldn’t do it on the one weekend it was available.

But this method seems more complicated than it needs to be IMO. Why not just use the same approach as they did before where anyone who is interested can go to the GW2 website and sign up (and anyone who wants to invite a friend can send a link to that page)?

(I also don’t understand why one of the options is to enter your friends account name. If they have an account already they don’t need a free trial. Unless you mean you create an account for someone and choose their display name for them. That would definitely be subject to abuse. I can imagine a lot of people thinking it’s funny to invite their friend and stick them with a name like “noob 4 life” or even something that violates the TOS and will get them banned.)

They also had precautions to stop gold sellers during past trials. I can’t remember the full list but they couldn’t talk in map chat, couldn’t send or receive gold or items in mail, couldn’t use guild banks and couldn’t use the trading post. Which both means they can’t be used by gold sellers and gives people who want to keep playing long-term a great incentive to buy the game to remove the restrictions.

Misa.6908:

I agree, I was suggesting GW2 as the next game for my fc, but most didn’t like the idea because they would have to buy the game before even trying it. :/

At the risk of sounding like an old man, I gotta say this just baffles my mind. I remember back when all we got was the box art, some screenshots on the back, and maybe a review in a magazine to base our purchasing decisions on.

Oh, also barging into the home of friends who already have the game, eating all their food, and backseat driving as we watch them play. Good times, good times.

Pandaman.4758:

Misa.6908:

I agree, I was suggesting GW2 as the next game for my fc, but most didn’t like the idea because they would have to buy the game before even trying it. :/

At the risk of sounding like an old man, I gotta say this just baffles my mind. I remember back when all we got was the box art, some screenshots on the back, and maybe a review in a magazine to base our purchasing decisions on.

Oh, also barging into the home of friends who already have the game, eating all their food, and backseat driving as we watch them play. Good times, good times.

Yea I like this idea, Misa you have the game invite your fc and have a game night let them try it and you might get them to play.

Pandaman.4758:

Misa.6908:

I agree, I was suggesting GW2 as the next game for my fc, but most didn’t like the idea because they would have to buy the game before even trying it. :/

At the risk of sounding like an old man, I gotta say this just baffles my mind. I remember back when all we got was the box art, some screenshots on the back, and maybe a review in a magazine to base our purchasing decisions on.

Oh, also barging into the home of friends who already have the game, eating all their food, and backseat driving as we watch them play. Good times, good times.

If you were playing on PC you also got demos of games with magazines or on floppy discs from friends. Doom basically caught on entirely because of it’s shareware version (and a lot of office workers “repurposing” their LAN).

Isn’t GW2’s refund policy something like a month?

Buy game.
Get a refund if you don’t like it.

Same benefits without having to deal with stuff like being abused by gold sellers.