Do you agree with a free 7 Days Trial and Recruit a Friend bonuses?

Makkir

I have had two friends ask about the PC version of ESO and if there is a free trial to try the game out. I think a focus of ours as a community and responsibility as a "good" gaming citizen is to try bringing new players to the game. I think not only offering a free 7 day Trial to the game (Can easily disable trade stores, general chat, and other features if you fear Farmer abuse), but also encouraging players to recruit fellow gamers by offering in game cosmetic rewards like other MMOs do (Mounts, pets, titles, etc). Please take a moment of your time to express your feelings on this subject so we can bring some more visibility to it.

snackrat

No to one, yes to the other (explain)

Oof. I know where that would go - people 'recruiting' themselves, buying copies for second, third, fourth accounts to they can get the bonuses.
I even did it myself once in WoW, because it was the only way to get a flying mount that supported a friend.

No thanks. If it does happen, the rewards should serve NO special purpose (eg pets) and/or be available to normal players through alternative means (rare drop, chain rewards, or even, yes: Crown store).

Menegroth

Yes!

I don't see a problem with people buying multiple copies of the game in order to get the bonuses they want (desperatedly sometimes). It's their money and they can even use it to light their fireplace if they want to.

But the 7 day trial is a terrific idea to increase the numbers on PC. The game is pretty expensive as it is outside the US and EU and a 7 day trial would go a long way to convince people it is worth the investment.

*Edit*
To clarify: when I say bonuses I mean mounts, pets and titles, like OP said.

Acrolas

Honestly, I'm all for the public test server being available to everyone for free, and then wiping the player data every week.

BigM

No to both (explain)

Tell me if am wrong but has there ever been a game that is B2P that had trial? I know they would have a small demo, which may be possible on consoles but for PC/MAC never believe there has been one!

Also a 7 day trial could lead to bots making a come back. That I do not want to see. It ruined the game first couple of weeks.

Makkir

Yes!

BigM wrote: »

Tell me if am wrong but has there ever been a game that is B2P that had trial? I know they would have a small demo, which may be possible on consoles but for PC/MAC never believe there has been one!

Also a 7 day trial could lead to bots making a come back. That I do not want to see. It ruined the game first couple of weeks.

With the limitations that could be implemented in a trial you can't really let things like gold farmers and bots become a deciding factor (refer to my OP). I mean, they could just enable the tutorial as their "trial."

Onto your first point, WoW doesn't "require" a subscription anymore and absolutely has a 7 day trial.

Makkir

Yes!

snackrat wrote: »

Oof. I know where that would go - people 'recruiting' themselves, buying copies for second, third, fourth accounts to they can get the bonuses.
I even did it myself once in WoW, because it was the only way to get a flying mount that supported a friend.

No thanks. If it does happen, the rewards should serve NO special purpose (eg pets) and/or be available to normal players through alternative means (rare drop, chain rewards, or even, yes: Crown store).

Why does any of that matter in the first place? I can buy multiple accounts right now if I want more than 8 characters. As long as the rewards are cosmetic what difference does it make who is paying for the account? All the revenue goes to the same company, and revenue is mandatory if you want to continue playing ESO...

BigM

No to both (explain)

Makkir wrote: »

BigM wrote: »

Tell me if am wrong but has there ever been a game that is B2P that had trial? I know they would have a small demo, which may be possible on consoles but for PC/MAC never believe there has been one!

Also a 7 day trial could lead to bots making a come back. That I do not want to see. It ruined the game first couple of weeks.

With the limitations that could be implemented in a trial you can't really let things like gold farmers and bots become a deciding factor (refer to my OP). I mean, they could just enable the tutorial as their "trial."

Onto your first point, WoW doesn't "require" a subscription anymore and absolutely has a 7 day trial.

Point taken on first point. On second please don't compare this game to WoW a game out 10 years and slowly losing players. This one is going strong and much better at this point in time to WoW.

Oh before anyone says it, at this point in time with WoW they had just as many problems if not even more than ESOTU has now.

Makkir

Yes!

BigM wrote: »

Point taken on first point. On second please don't compare this game to WoW a game out 10 years and slowly losing players. This one is going strong and much better at this point in time to WoW.

Oh before anyone says it, at this point in time with WoW they had just as many problems if not even more than ESOTU has now.

The premise is to increase player base. Any move to do so is a good move.

I am a bit taken back with the comment in bold above, because certainly on the PC version populations are steadily declining, not increasing. Outside of guessing no one really knows how many subscribers are around after 1 year....but we do know WoW (http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/) had roughly 2 million at this point. Sure, we will see a short lived spike with the release of Imperial City as most games that release content updates do, but we could certainly welcome a push for new players.

BigM

No to both (explain)

Makkir wrote: »

BigM wrote: »

Point taken on first point. On second please don't compare this game to WoW a game out 10 years and slowly losing players. This one is going strong and much better at this point in time to WoW.

Oh before anyone says it, at this point in time with WoW they had just as many problems if not even more than ESOTU has now.

The premise is to increase player base. Any move to do so is a good move.

I am a bit taken back with the comment in bold above, because certainly on the PC version populations are steadily declining, not increasing. Outside of guessing no one really knows how many subscribers are around after 1 year....but we do know WoW (http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/) had roughly 2 million at this point. Sure, we will see a short lived spike with the release of Imperial City as most games that release content updates do, but we could certainly welcome a push for new players.

Maybe you missed it you can NOT compare a 10 year old game to a new released game still going thru growing pains. WoW was exactly like this at launch and maybe even worse at times. WoW had so many issues and people saying they were going to quit it isn't even funny. So if you do want to compare WoW to ESOTU at least compare their launch to this one.

In 10 years ESOTU will have multiple updates and changes it will not even look or run like it does now.

Makkir

Yes!

Alright well you started the comparison game.

"Tell me if am wrong but has there ever been a game that is B2P that had trial? I know they would have a small demo, which may be possible on consoles but for PC/MAC never believe there has been one!"

We shouldn't be comparing anyway, has nothing to do with anything...Why should it even matter if another "B2P" has a trial?

newtinmpls

If I really wanted to introduce the game to my friends, I'd say come over and watch me play, and maybe let them roll up a character and play it for a bit.

BigM

No to both (explain)

@Makkir if you don't need a sub for WoW anymore can you please tell me why I can't play any of my characters over level 20?

I still think some kind of demo may work for ESOTU but 7 day trial just seems like it wouldn't work with a B2P game.

Makkir

Yes!

BigM wrote: »

@Makkir if you don't need a sub for WoW anymore can you please tell me why I can't play any of my characters over level 20?

No clue. You can buy in game tokens though with gold which grant you 30 days of play time. Hence, no sub needed.

Makkir

Yes!

newtinmpls wrote: »

If I really wanted to introduce the game to my friends, I'd say come over and watch me play, and maybe let them roll up a character and play it for a bit.

You know what they say about assumptions? Some of us grown ups have friends that live half way across the country. At no point did I imply my friends live nearby and come over after school to drink mountain dew and play video games...

BigM

No to both (explain)

Makkir wrote: »

BigM wrote: »

@Makkir if you don't need a sub for WoW anymore can you please tell me why I can't play any of my characters over level 20?

No clue. You can buy in game tokens though with gold which grant you 30 days of play time. Hence, no sub needed.

You do realize Blizzard still gets money one way or another. Plus to get that token you need to sub first then add it once bought. So if you are trying to say WoW is F2P you are wrong.

But the topic is about a free trial I still haven't seen one B2P game that did 7 day trials, demos yes.

Makkir

Yes!

Not sure why you want to argue but I am simply making a statement that is true: You don't need a sub to play WoW.
It is what it is. It's a black and white statement, no need to paint any colors into it. And no need to add any extra straws to this discussion...the fact other B2P games do or not have a free trial really has nothing to do with anything.

BigM

No to both (explain)

Makkir wrote: »

Not sure why you want to argue but I am simply making a statement that is true: You don't need a sub to play WoW.
It is what it is. It's a black and white statement, no need to paint any colors into it. And no need to add any extra straws to this discussion...the fact other B2P games do or not have a free trial really has nothing to do with anything.

You can play to level 20 with starter edition then you have to pay, with all 7 day restrictions, so what they have done is take the 7 day trial made it a starter edition and give you to level 20. Tokens can be bought for real money then put on AH for gold. Once person buys token he can only add it as a 30 day sub.

Plus am not arguing, sorry if you think I am. I just don't think there is a B2P game that has ever done 7 day trials. Like I said am more worried about gold sellers with it than anything else. But could you see ESOTU playing 7 days with no mail no trading ect. it just wouldn't work IMHO!

Menegroth

Yes!

For the record, Guild Wars 2 is a B2P game and has offered free trials along with up to 75% discounts of their base game. Last year, it was a full week trial.

Still, I agree with @Makkir. Wheter other B2P games had done this before or not has no weight in a discussion about if ESO should or should not do it.

BigM

No to both (explain)

Menegroth wrote: »

For the record, Guild Wars 2 is a B2P game and has offered free trials along with up to 75% discounts of their base game. Last year, it was a full week trial.

Still, I agree with @Makkir. Wheter other B2P games had done this before or not has no weight in a discussion about if ESO should or should not do it.

You almost had me there because I just bought GW2 couple of months ago looked everywhere for a trial and they never had one. They had 1 long week trial and they say they will never do it again because it was a bad idea. So thanks just proved my point it just won't work for ESOTU!

Plus tell you the truth ESOTU doesn't have problems getting players it's keeping them until they fix all the issues.

Menegroth

Yes!

BigM wrote: »

You almost had me there because I just bought GW2 couple of months ago looked everywhere for a trial and they never had one. They had 1 long week trial and they say they will never do it again because it was a bad idea. So thanks just proved my point it just won't work for ESOTU!

Plus tell you the truth ESOTU doesn't have problems getting players it's keeping them until they fix all the issues.

Care to provide a link to where ArenaNet said they won't do it again because it was a bad idea?
What you most likely saw were player opinions on the event, not the companie's. The event brought a lot of new players to the game, so it was sucessful regardless of what players themselves felt about it.

And as was said before, why does it matter if any other game did it before? It has absolutely no bearing to this discussion.

Makkir

Yes!

When the next major update happens with Imperial City they will likely have another one of those Welcome Back Weekends.

Saturn

No to both (explain)

It's unnecessary I believe, since the game does not have a subscription needed to play it.

Makkir

Yes!

Saturn wrote: »

It's unnecessary I believe, since the game does not have a subscription needed to play it.

Wow.




You realize you DO need to drop like 70 bucks on the game though, right?

Sausage

Yes!

Give exclusive free trial offer to EA's Origin for 6 month or so, thats gonna be one hell of a PR stunt. We know theres tons of MMO players due to SWTOR.

wrlifeboil

No to both (explain)

Makkir wrote: »

I have had two friends ask about the PC version of ESO and if there is a free trial to try the game out. I think a focus of ours as a community and responsibility as a "good" gaming citizen is to try bringing new players to the game. I think not only offering a free 7 day Trial to the game (Can easily disable trade stores, general chat, and other features if you fear Farmer abuse), but also encouraging players to recruit fellow gamers by offering in game cosmetic rewards like other MMOs do (Mounts, pets, titles, etc). Please take a moment of your time to express your feelings on this subject so we can bring some more visibility to it.

If forum users who vote Yes don't have to explain why they voted yes, I don't see why those who vote No should have to explain.

Xjcon

It's already buy to play, why ask them to give away their game to spammers and gold sellers?

wrlifeboil

No to both (explain)

BigM wrote: »

Makkir wrote: »

BigM wrote: »

Tell me if am wrong but has there ever been a game that is B2P that had trial? I know they would have a small demo, which may be possible on consoles but for PC/MAC never believe there has been one!

Also a 7 day trial could lead to bots making a come back. That I do not want to see. It ruined the game first couple of weeks.

With the limitations that could be implemented in a trial you can't really let things like gold farmers and bots become a deciding factor (refer to my OP). I mean, they could just enable the tutorial as their "trial."

Onto your first point, WoW doesn't "require" a subscription anymore and absolutely has a 7 day trial.

Point taken on first point. On second please don't compare this game to WoW a game out 10 years and slowly losing players. This one is going strong and much better at this point in time to WoW.

Oh before anyone says it, at this point in time with WoW they had just as many problems if not even more than ESOTU has now.

At the one year old mark at the end of 2005, WoW had 5.5 million paid subscribers.

With more than 20 times more paid subscribers than in ESOTU (just a guess), of course WoW would have had "as many problems if not even more than ESOTU has now."

KerinKor

No to both (explain)

Not at this time, no, far too early in the life of the console release for this kind of promo.

KerinKor

No to both (explain)

BigM wrote: »

Point taken on first point. On second please don't compare this game to WoW a game out 10 years and slowly losing players. This one is going strong and much better at this point in time to WoW.

Two comments:

1) Yes, WOW's figures are down from their 11-12M height, hardly surprising especially with modern gamer's attnetion spans that at times are less than a goldfish .. even so, at the current 7M they're still nogh on double their nearest competitor (FFXIV claims >4M, it's certainly well above 3M) and LIGHT YEARS AHEAD of ESO with numbers ZOS can't even dream of ever having.

2) IN spite of the 'problem' you think WOW has THEY haven't had to go pay-two-win to survive.

As for suggesting ESO is better off than WOW at the same point in its history, someone already posted the 1-year point so please read and learn:

http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/

Ace_of_Destiny

I won't vote, due to not playing this on PC, however as a former Long-Time PC User I will say...

Trials are good. They can "hook" great numbers of players that would otherwise never try a game. And, if done correctly, they only help a game in the long run.

"Recruit-a-friend"...I always saw these as a "scheme". However, they can also be very effective if a game is looking to just temporarily boost sales....to get through a "rough quarter".

Just my $0.02