Gift the Game Idea

Defatank · July 11

I know as soon as some of you see the title your answer is NO! but hear me out for a minute. I have an idea on how we could get more people into playing ESO and nothing beats "free" right and get some neat little rewards too.

What if ZOS gave us the ability to send an email invite to our friends that would allow them to create an account giving them access to the base game for 1 week completely free with some restrictions.

1. You can only email 10 people per month and you must have at least 1 level 50 character to be eligible to invite.
1a. You can invite the same email address once every 6 months. Things get updated and change and maybe they just need another free shot at trying it with new updates.

2. Nothing can be traded to or from the free account unless that person buys the game.
2a. We don't need people making alt accounts just to mule items around for free.
3. The free account can only talk in group and whisper. (No Zone, Say, Yell or Guild)
3a. This is to prevent bot accounts from spamming Zone.
4. The free account would have a quick idle disconnect timer. (If inactive for 3 min the account would be disconnected and just tapping W every few seconds would not keep you logged in, actual activity would be necessary to stay logged in)
4a. This is to prevent people from making free accounts to multi box and sit in Cyrodiil on enemy alliances to watch what is going on.

Now for some perks

1. If the free account achieves the following below... they can purchase the base game for $4.99 otherwise the base game is $19.99.
1a. Reach character level 20.
2b. Logs at least 30 hours of game play.
3c. Complete at least 50 quest.
2. If the free account purchases the base game and upgrades to the content pass within 1 week of the end of the free week both the free account and the account that invited the free account receives 2000 crowns.
3. If the free account purchases the premium content pass within the free week both the free account and the account that invited the free account receives 3000 crowns and 1 month of ESO+.

What's your guys thoughts on this? Personally I think it would be a nice little addition to the game and those we play games with to just be like "Hey bro jump in some ESO with me its completely free to try out for a week, no risk and if you like it we both can get some perks", but the goal is to absolutely keep it to where its intended for live bodies that we are inviting and it not be used as a tool to create "alt accounts". What are some other perks you could think of that could go here? Cool exclusive mounts / pets / dyes / costumes for inviting and milestones? Maybe having the ability to invite more people per month with more successful accounts that buy into the game?

Thank you,
Defatank

SilverBride · July 11

I don't like the idea because it could be used to make free accounts for gold sellers to use to advertise.

Defatank · July 11

SilverBride wrote: »

I don't like the idea because it could be used to make free accounts for gold sellers to use to advertise.

*shrug*

I mean if you're grouping up with bot / gold selling accounts I guess this applies? I can kind of see the whispering potentially being used to just send messages to anyone they see running around the game? But the only reason I included whispering was in case of messaging your friend that invited you. But we could easily turn whispering off too and make it to where the free account only has access to group chat and that is it. Its really hard to spam group chat for gold selling

EDIT: Or better yet, the free account can only whisper those that are on their friends list.

tsaescishoeshiner · July 11

Not sure about the exact implementation, but I think a referral program like that could be nice. I don't think they would give away Crowns or ESO+, but maybe Seals of Endeavor or a unique pet/mount or some Crown Crates (based on previous promotional rewards).

Defatank · July 11

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Not sure about the exact implementation, but I think a referral program like that could be nice. I don't think they would give away Crowns or ESO+, but maybe Seals of Endeavor or a unique pet/mount or some Crown Crates (based on previous promotional rewards).

Ohhh I didn't even thinking about seals of endeavor. That would be a really good item to use as rewards for sure! My thought behind ESO+ being a potential reward is for those people who dont sub to ESO+ it lets them get a piece of the pie for having ESO+ for recruiting and someone dropping some bigger bucks on the game to play and making that decision within the free week, thats kind of a big decision to make off something free when it comes to a MMO that you're maybe not sure you're going to commit to. But for those who are like absolutely love it and want in there giving them ESO+ they would be like wow these benefits are actually really nice and that could drive up the people subscribing to ESO+ as well which I'm sure ZOS would love.

Maybe the frequency that you are eligible for the free month of ESO+ might need to be adjusted? Like if you have been given ESO+ free for 1 mo in the past 6 mo you get an additional 1500 crowns or maybe endeavors instead of more ESO+ free months? but still allow the free account to get the benefits of ESO+ for making that big decision within the free week, if that all makes sense?

scrappy1342 · July 11

Defatank wrote: »

But we could easily turn whispering off too and make it to where the free account only has access to group chat and that is it. Its really hard to spam group chat for gold selling

EDIT: Or better yet, the free account can only whisper those that are on their friends list.

it would have to be this because otherwise someone will come up with some sort of addon to send whispers to everyone around them and then you aren't able to just turn off zone chat to not see these things. yeah, sure, you can run around "offline," but then your friends can't whisper you either.

i think zos would be more likely to go for seals of endeavor as rewards rather than crowns. i could see more ppl using this for making alt accounts than legitimately bringing in more ppl. not sure if that matters where the money comes from, whether it comes from an existing person or a new person. one could argue that if the one person quits, then that's multiple accounts worth of income lost. but who's to say a legit newcomer is going to stay? but the point there... is that crowns are transferable, as seals are not. and of course they keep making it harder and harder to gift crowns. i don't think this situation would help that one

SilverBride · July 12

Why should there be rewards for giving 5 people free accounts every month? Crowns, seals, exclusive mounts, pets, dyes, costumes for giving and getting something for free?

Absolutely not.

Cooperharley · July 12

SilverBride wrote: »

Why should there be rewards for giving 5 people free accounts every month? Crowns, seals, exclusive mounts, pets, dyes, costumes for giving and getting something for free?

Absolutely not.

WoW utilizes a recruit-a-friend system with cool mounts and cosmetics akin to this and the community supports it. I think there's a cool idea in here - maybe some different implementation and some ZOS polish, but i'd be open to this. It'd be cool to get some buddies to try the game and get a cool mount out of it!

valenwood_vegan · July 12

Idk I'd rather they spend time working on rewards for like, playing the game and accomplishing stuff in the game.

SilverBride · July 12

I hope they never do anything like this because it could cause a lot of conflict. I don't even care about mounts etc., but it would be extremely unfair to those that do but don't know enough people to recruit. I can't see anything good coming from it.

valenwood_vegan · July 12

I mean, some sort of refer-a-friend program with a modest incentive seems fine to me, but if we're getting to where it's like crowns and unique mounts and crates and free eso plus... I mean lol people who support the game for years barely get a chance to earn nice stuff like this most of the time.

Defatank · July 12

SilverBride wrote: »

Why should there be rewards for giving 5 people free accounts every month? Crowns, seals, exclusive mounts, pets, dyes, costumes for giving and getting something for free?

Absolutely not.

Giving someone a free account would not yield any rewards to either player its only if the free account chooses to buy the game under circumstances I mentioned in the original post.

The entire point of this type of system is someone may absolutely love the game and have friends that they want to introduce to the game but their friends may be skeptical to buy into it. This type of system would allow them to get into the game with 0 risk, try the game out and should they actually like it they can buy and THEN both accounts would be rewarded for picking up a new player.

As its been mentioned in the original post and some of the replies the system of course will attempted to be used for other purposes which again that is not the intent of this system and that is why the restrictions are in place to prevent players from making "alt accounts" for free and benefiting from it, gold sellers abusing it to advertise etc which I believe the solutions that has been mentioned in the post would absolutely prevent these things from happening. So far I'm not really seeing a negative from having a system like this in place given that the proper restrictions are in place to prevent misuse. I believe most people would be happy to new players joining the game yea?

SilverBride · July 12

I stand by my opinion that it would not be fair to players that don't have a lot of friends and family to invite.

And what message does it send to potential players if we have to lure them with exclusive items? The game itself being fun and successful should be enough reason to try it.

Cooperharley · July 12

SilverBride wrote: »

I stand by my opinion that it would not be fair to players that don't have a lot of friends and family to invite.

And what message does it send to potential players if we have to lure them with exclusive items? The game itself being fun and successful should be enough reason to try it.

There's no luring lol...

You're bringing friends to the game and you get a mount out of it. Virtually every MMO does this and it affects nothing in regard to the negatives you're stating - those seem self-perceived..

SilverBride · July 12

I stand by my opinion.

Defatank · July 12

I'll be your friend SilverBride

SilverBride · July 12

Defatank wrote: »

I'll be your friend SilverBride

But you are already playing!

Liukke · July 12

It just makes no sense...the game shouldn't become more "accessible".
It just needs to become better, have bugs (historic bugs) fixed, then people, lots of people, will naturally come in like crazy.

It's the ABC of any commercial product, if you undersell it you might have a first influx (reminds me of all the casuals throwing big numbers with the subclass) but then it will fall once again, it's never a cure.

What you ask for is to...spread the word? Of what, of a seriously unbalanced game that has some serious issues?
The population didn't dwindle for no reason...this game has dozens of hours of lore (albeit the latest few chapters are victims of heinous writing), a very warm community (yeah, despite the usual people, the in-game community here is one of the best) that still hangs on and graphics that are still enjoyable, and definitely up to par to other MMOs out there.

Never cure the symptoms, cure the disease.

I understand the enthusiasm but that's a recipe for disaster, in my opinion the entry cost still makes people consider it a "product" and not a f2p casual time.
Plus this whole referral system is so cheap, let's spam the heck out of the game and get crowns so that now everybody considers the ESO community a nice spamfest

kevkj · July 12

Imagine being upset that other people have friends to invite to their game.

That said, a referral system might be good to add but I'm not too sure about the exact implementation you have suggested.

SilverBride · July 12

kevkj wrote: »

Imagine being upset that other people have friends to invite to their game.

I just think that if they ever consider something like this, it should be something that more players would be able to accomplish. I personally would never do it because the last thing I want are bright and loud mounts. But a lot of players enjoy them and they shouldn't be left out because they don't have as big a social circle as some others.