Free Account Restrictions??

AyeshaBelladonna

Free Accounts now cannot talk in guild chat or even Zone chat. WHY? How exactly are new players testing the game out supposed to ask questions? get opinions on content? I don't know if ZOS realizes or not, but social interaction is a big draw in ESO. Getting a feel for the community, getting player feedback, etc. This is a ridiculous thing to have restricted just because its a free trial account. If this is ZOS's way of reducing people exploiting guild bank unlocks then why not simply disable the free account ability to join guilds? Why limit being able to simply talk to people?

Turelus

Most MMO games which offer free access accouts have restrictions because of abuse of the accounts.

Whilst it's not ideal the goal is for someone to test the gameplay, if they like it they can pay and get full account power .

virtus753

Was this implemented in the past couple of hours? I had a new player on the free trial speaking in one of my guild chats earlier today, just about three hours or so ago, so it wasn’t restricted then.

I would suggest filing a ticket with Support. By the time they get to it with all this new traffic plus Scalebreaker releasing on console, the trial event may well be over, but at least it’s worth a shot.

AyeshaBelladonna

Turelus wrote: »

Most MMO games which offer free access accouts have restrictions because of abuse of the accounts.

Whilst it's not ideal the goal is for someone to test the gameplay, if they like it they can pay and get full account power .

ESO has been out 5 yrs and we have NEVER needed to mute new players before and restrict them like this. Why all of a sudden now? There are things you can restrict without shooting yourself in the foot on the social aspect. Seriously, they can Join. A. Guild...... and not talk in it???? Come on. Whats the point then even of letting them join the guild? they can't "experience" guilds in any real way if they can't talk.

Tommy_The_Gun

Eso F2P stress test
(I do hope I am terribly wrong though...)

AyeshaBelladonna

This is an MMO. Social aspect is a HUGE part of the buying decision for MANY people. Not being able to actually test that out is ridiculous. Think for a minute about how many new people a day (if you PvE in zones and have chat even on) ask questions? ask opinions? need a hand figuring out the basics? New and returning players both. if the object is to get people to buy, don't you think your community is a huge selling point? In ESO it should be, and in my experience it usually is.

AyeshaBelladonna

virtus753 wrote: »

Was this implemented in the past couple of hours? I had a new player on the free trial speaking in one of my guild chats earlier today, just about three hours or so ago, so it wasn’t restricted then.

I would suggest filing a ticket with Support. By the time they get to it with all this new traffic plus Scalebreaker releasing on console, the trial event may well be over, but at least it’s worth a shot.

yeah, i literally just tried it after someone mentioned it to me because their cousin was trying it out and couldn't talk. I typed and the chat box says "Disabled for Trial Accounts" or something like that. same for Zone chat. So PC/NA at least as of the last hour or two- it's broken. also, did they have a preexisting free account? this was a brand new free account created. I wonder if it's specific to those and the older free acts are exempt?

virtus753

AyeshaBelladonna wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

Was this implemented in the past couple of hours? I had a new player on the free trial speaking in one of my guild chats earlier today, just about three hours or so ago, so it wasn’t restricted then.

I would suggest filing a ticket with Support. By the time they get to it with all this new traffic plus Scalebreaker releasing on console, the trial event may well be over, but at least it’s worth a shot.

yeah, i literally just tried it after someone mentioned it to me because their cousin was trying it out and couldn't talk. I typed and the chat box says "Disabled for Trial Accounts" or something like that. same for Zone chat. So PC/NA at least as of the last hour or two- it's broken. also, did they have a preexisting free account? this was a brand new free account created. I wonder if it's specific to those and the older free acts are exempt?

According to the person in my guild, it was brand-new today, never been created before. I’ll see if I can catch them on tomorrow and ask whether they can still use the guild chat channel.

AyeshaBelladonna

Berenhir wrote: »

Probably just too stupid to use the chat window

yeah, thats a mature response. I've been playing since the game launch tyvm. i went and tested this myself after someone notified me of the issue. It tells you in your chat window that this action is restricted for trial accounts. If you have nothing actually constructive to add to the discussion- kindly go troll elsewhere.

AyeshaBelladonna

virtus753 wrote: »

AyeshaBelladonna wrote: »

virtus753 wrote: »

Was this implemented in the past couple of hours? I had a new player on the free trial speaking in one of my guild chats earlier today, just about three hours or so ago, so it wasn’t restricted then.

I would suggest filing a ticket with Support. By the time they get to it with all this new traffic plus Scalebreaker releasing on console, the trial event may well be over, but at least it’s worth a shot.

yeah, i literally just tried it after someone mentioned it to me because their cousin was trying it out and couldn't talk. I typed and the chat box says "Disabled for Trial Accounts" or something like that. same for Zone chat. So PC/NA at least as of the last hour or two- it's broken. also, did they have a preexisting free account? this was a brand new free account created. I wonder if it's specific to those and the older free acts are exempt?

According to the person in my guild, it was brand-new today, never been created before. I’ll see if I can catch them on tomorrow and ask whether they can still use the guild chat channel.

Please do! I would def like to know if this was an unintended bug! If it is, it may not get solved this Trial- but would at least give an explanation i can pass on to the other Trial folks so they can either try again or at least rest assured we care ebnough to try helping get to the bottom of this and might buy the game anyways!

MLGProPlayer

This might be to prevent griefing. Otherwise, banned players and trolls could flood zone chat with homophobic/sexist/racist/etc. comments, and ZOS support would have a lot of work on their hands cleaning things up.

AyeshaBelladonna

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

This might be to prevent griefing. Otherwise, banned players and trolls could flood zone chat with homophobic/sexist/racist/etc. comments, and ZOS support would have a lot of work on their hands cleaning things up.

hmm... i could see that being a consideration- but then why wait almost 6 years to do so? We have free eso trials a few times a year and never needed this before. Seems odd choice.

commodore64

No-one talks in guild chat and have you seen zone chat? They don't want to scare them off before they sub.

RouDeR

As far as i know there is no such thing as Free account in ESO, you can register as many accounts as you want, but if you do not buy any version of the game, you will be unable to log in

AyeshaBelladonna

commodore64 wrote: »

No-one talks in guild chat and have you seen zone chat? They don't want to scare them off before they sub.

see, and that i could understand, except they can SEE zone chat. lol just not participate in it.

AyeshaBelladonna

RouDeR wrote: »

As far as i know there is no such thing as Free account in ESO, you can register as many accounts as you want, but if you do not buy any version of the game, you will be unable to log in

This would be incorrect. ESO periodically has Free Trial weeks/weekends and it has been this way basically since the game launched. there are a couple a year. Go to the Announcements page on the site and you will see there is one such event going on right now till Sept 3rd.

Inaya

Just another thing you can thank trolls and troublemakers for. If trial accounts were allowed to use chats there would definitely be people who make these accounts soley to cause trouble. Evero trial in every MMO I've tried has been this way.

Edited for horrible typing

VaranisArano

Weird. Every past free trial event, the starter zone(s) are filled with new players asking how they get a horse, what they are supposed to be doing, is Morrowind the main quest, and so on.

AyeshaBelladonna

Inaya wrote: »

Just another thing you can thank trolls and troublemakers for. If trial accounts were allowed to use chats there would definitely be people who make these accounts soley to cause trouble. Evero trial in every MMO I've tried has been this way.

Edited for horrible typing

Weird thing is- we are at 5.5yrs now.... free trials of eso have been around since the start basically.... we have never needed restrictions like this on them before. I don't get why now all of a sudden. It's not like we had any massive d**chbaggery last Trial or anything to explain it. A vast majority of regular players never read the announcements so Free Trial people asking in zone about stuff usually helped us reg players to remember to all friends and family too about the trial going on lol. I mean, it was free word of mouth advertising and now we're all going to be basically oblivious to the free trials if this is how it's going to be. So it's tying our hands being able to help the new folks get a real feel for the game AND it cuts down on us helping zos advertise. seems like a loss all around loss for ZOS.