ESO should have a permanent "Free Trial"

Fhritz

I think ESO should - and even need - a permanent Free Trial. Not the "free week" we are used to, but a real "Free" part. It should encourage people to test this game more frequently, and eventually boost up the "new" player base. Something like "Normal only non dlc + base game w/o Morrowind + lvl 50 cap (no cp)" should allow more people to test the game, because most of the time when I want to bring some friends or even random people the fact that they either need to wait MONTHS for a free week or have to buy the base game (It cost almost nothing, but that's not the point) retain a lot of people.

What are your thought ?

ankeor

I don't want 13 year olds in this game. [snip]

[edited for rude/insulting comment]

zelaminator

No thank you.. yes we would see more players, but that is not always a good thing

Fhritz

ankeor wrote: »

I don't want 13 year olds in this game. [snip]

I know, and I thought the same at first. But honestly, ESO is really special, and I don't think every 13 Y/O will stick to it. And actually I think it'll bring more mature people and eventually bring a "fresh air" into the game !

[edited to remove quote]

Fhritz

zelaminator wrote: »

No thank you.. yes we would see more players, but that is not always a good thing

Why ? Can you explain, I'm curious to know why you don't want this ^^

BlueRaven

I would be worried about bots.

Lady_Galadhiel

No.

Fhritz

BlueRaven wrote: »

I would be worried about bots.

Sure ! But I think there's some way to "block" free-bots by not allowing free people to join guild

ApoAlaia

Permanent free trial = mischief heaven.

No thanks.

There a 1001 undesirable things that can be done with unlimited access to free accounts, however limited you might think they are.

Fhritz

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Permanent free trial = mischief heaven.

No thanks.

There a 1001 undesirable things that can be done with unlimited access to free accounts, however limited you might think they are.

Of courses, but there's always some solutions. It work for a lot of game, why it shouldn't work for ESO ? ^^

ApoAlaia

Fhritz wrote: »

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Permanent free trial = mischief heaven.

No thanks.

There a 1001 undesirable things that can be done with unlimited access to free accounts, however limited you might think they are.

Of courses, but there's always some solutions. It work for a lot of game, why it shouldn't work for ESO ? ^^

Because based on previous performance by ZOS I have no confidence on them being able to plug the mischief in any way that is not upsetting to everyone.

They will either ignore bot trains in starter areas like they have done on consoles for god knows how long - just to put an example - or they will introduce ham-fisted measures that spoils things for everyone.

In my case is not a matter of viability, is a matter of confidence (or lack thereof).

jackiemanuel

Bots already infest the starter zones on console. Hard pass on free to play. It would suck taint.

KingofAnnwn

With the cost of the base game being as low as I've seen it. I think it's pointless to have a free version.

Fhritz

KingofAnnwn wrote: »

With the cost of the base game being as low as I've seen it. I think it's pointless to have a free version.

As I've said before, even if it cost almost nothing, it actually retains some people. It's like the "Mobile effect" : even if the game worth 0.99$ if it's on mobile way less people will buy it, and this concept is almost the same for every game (and that's why game F2P or with a free trial tend to be a better success than those without one)

JKorr

Fhritz wrote: »

KingofAnnwn wrote: »

With the cost of the base game being as low as I've seen it. I think it's pointless to have a free version.

As I've said before, even if it cost almost nothing, it actually retains some people. It's like the "Mobile effect" : even if the game worth 0.99$ if it's on mobile way less people will buy it, and this concept is almost the same for every game (and that's why game F2P or with a free trial tend to be a better success than those without one)

No, not a good idea.

The possibilities of how this could be abused are too many to count. Memories of the early days of the game, where long trains of characters named "Asdfjkl" and "QWERTYU" wearing coldharbor jammies lined up in long trains in front of a quest-giver, turned in a quest to get gold, and then suicided to oblivion three steps later are still traumatic, and that was when a sub was required. Completely free to level 50, even with only original game zones available is too open to abuse.

How would not allowing "free" accounts to join guilds make any difference at all? There are people who have ESO+ and don't want to join a guild. If someone has unlimited "free" accounts, findings way to bot and sell gold will happen. It takes ZOS too long to respond to some issues; and then when they do the people abusing whatever it was start screaming about how ZOS ruined the game. Like when the "You can only delete 3 characters a day" rule was made. Many rants and complaints, but it stopped the "Asdfjkl;" bot trains..

The whole issue of immature underage trolls is a whole other thing. Its bad enough when there's a free trial in the "summer vacation" time period. All free all the time would allow even more unpleasantness for people who actually want to play the game.

DinoZavr

@Fhritz
free "expendable" accounts first of all mean:
- tons of bots
- plenty of trade scams (the majority of "WTB/WTS tons of Crowns" in base game zones chat during free trials are scams)
- abundance of swearing, harassment, hate speech, death treats and such
(if one account of TOS violator banned, they immediately start anew (and it does not take much to vary hardware parameters and IP to make game think it is launched on a yet unknown system)).

Fhritz wrote: »

I know, and I thought the same at first. But honestly, ESO is really special, and I don't think every 13 Y/O will stick to it. And actually I think it'll bring more mature people and eventually bring a "fresh air" into the game !

Seriously? Base game is not really expensive, thus this "free access" should attract mostly the players who cannot afford $10 ($5 during sales). Are you really sure that kind of players are mature enough?
Also already overloaded ESO support would receive quite a lot of extra work for absolutely zero money in return.

Tandor

No thanks, any step towards Free to Play would be a bad move in my view. This particular proposal would be an open invitation to kids, bots, and gold sellers. It's not as if there aren't enough free trials already.

lolo_01b16_ESO

Fhritz wrote: »

ApoAlaia wrote: »

Permanent free trial = mischief heaven.

No thanks.

There a 1001 undesirable things that can be done with unlimited access to free accounts, however limited you might think they are.

Of courses, but there's always some solutions. It work for a lot of game, why it shouldn't work for ESO ? ^^

Sure there are solutions. To prevent just the bad / mischivious ideas that came to my mind while reading this thread, you need the following restrictions:
Free accounts can't:
- use any chat besides group chat
- send mail or accept COD mail
- buy from guild traders
- join guilds
- trade with other players
- enter pvp zones
- queue for group content
- send friend requests
My guess is that coding all those restrictions would require more effort than the extra cash they make from people who only test the game because it's free.

trackdemon5512

Sounds like OP just wants to destroy PC EU lol

Ippokrates

We have 2021. If you want to check an MMO, you can check videos about that game on YT Channels like for example Josh Strife Hayes. It is quite good indicator if you should spend 10 bucks on particular title or not

The_Old_Goat

Actually what a permanent free trial would bring to the game is an onslaught of ingame currency for sale ads at whatever.com in every zone chat. We do not need that.

Nirntrotter

Nah, bots are bad enough as it is. Just get the base game at a sale.

MEBengalsFan2001

Fhritz wrote: »

I think ESO should - and even need - a permanent Free Trial. Not the "free week" we are used to, but a real "Free" part. It should encourage people to test this game more frequently, and eventually boost up the "new" player base. Something like "Normal only non dlc + base game w/o Morrowind + lvl 50 cap (no cp)" should allow more people to test the game, because most of the time when I want to bring some friends or even random people the fact that they either need to wait MONTHS for a free week or have to buy the base game (It cost almost nothing, but that's not the point) retain a lot of people.

What are your thought ?

$10 isn't much for ESO which is what the base game cost.

spartaxoxo

The game is bad enough with all the free alts on console in terms of botting, don't need the 10 dollar price tag to disappear too. It's the only thing keeping a lot of cheating kids at bay as any price is too much for them. The result is this game skews older and has a much better atmosphere as a result.

And this game is hardly hurting for players, it's already one of the largest mmos out there.

Soul_Soliloquy

No thanks, giving me nightmares just thinking about it

Wolfkeks

I just don't think they game could handle it, like, performance vise. Every time we have a free to play event the PC EU server has a meltdown moment at some point.

Warstory

I would have no problem with a permanent free trial as long as they were restricted from using cetain aspects of the game, like guild stores, mail, chat, a level cap and so on. Otherwise the game would be flooded with even more bot's, spammers, cheaters and Aholes in general.

Nanfoodle

ankeor wrote: »

I don't want 13 year olds in this game. [snip]

[edited for rude/insulting comment]

I do enjoy a game with a proper gate. I choose ESO over alot of new MMOs just to have a better quality of gamers. Besides IMO buying the base game is so very cheap when you look at the hours of game play it includes.