Slashdot Mirror
World of Warcraft Goes Free With Starter Edition
Stoobalou writes "Blizzard Entertainment has announced that its enormously popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft will be free to play for characters up to level 20. WoW has always offered free trials of one of the world's biggest multi-player online games but previous offers have always been limited to a set number of days. The new policy means that first-time visitors to Azeroth will be able to build an unlimited number of characters and classes up to level 20 at their leisure, although there will be some limitations."
When I first heard about this, I was actually excited. I never really got into MMO's much (I did play some MUD's back in the day pretty addictively). I've tried out a few, like Eve Online and City of Heroes, but usually got bored with them after a while (Guild Wars was the only one I played for any length of time). People keep raving about WoW, and I've been tempted to try it out a few times. But paying $50, plus buying a bunch of expansion packs, *ON TOP OF* $15 a month?!?!? Christ, why don't I just give them my house too? That's a lot to go into an MMO, sight unseen.
But the more I read about how much they've gimped this trial, the less interested I am. No chat, no auction houses, no guilds (basically no social interaction of any kind, which kind of defeats the whole point of an MMO). If it were JUST the level 20 thing, or the skills cap, or even the guild thing, I could live with giving it a shot. But basically, they've stripped it of *everything* that makes it a MMO. That's a shame. I really would like to give it a try. And I'm not above paying if I get into it (I'm not a cheapass who pirates all his movies). But I don't think this ultra-gimped version is going to get me into it.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
...is always free
There's a reason there is no "Disagree" mod...
My one friend claims he can get to 85 in a day.
Besides, this really isn't news, its more like an advertisement.
If Slashdot.org got paid for this, great... If not, get this off my Internet.
God spoke to me
Why the limitation to only 10 gold coins? That seems stupid. It would seem to me that given that you can have unlimited characters under the cap anyway, that the more gold you accumulate, the more you're going to want to go out, spend it, become well-equipped, and then break through the cap and rise in the game. That means $$$ for Blizzard, so why the gold cap?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
...WoW's users are building up a tolerance. Players are consuming new content at an ever increasing rate, and with the latest expansion Cataclysm, which took the better part of two years of development effort, many users have consumed the content and quit (again) after only six months or so.
An increasing number of people appear to be becoming tired of the same old recurring end-game structure of 10/25 player raids and working week after week on the next boss fight mechanics in order to slowly replace all of their equipment from the last tier of content with gear from the current content which will eventually get replaced again in the future.
The subscriber base has dropped significantly since it's peak shortly after the Cataclysm release, and Blizzard are now trying lots of things like giving away free copies of the original version of the game, allowing their "refer-a-friend" program to work up through level 80, and now the unlimited free trial period offer here.
Ultimately though the problem is that Blizzard has not been able to think outside the box enough to invent new and compelling *kinds* of content, and their players are increasingly unimpressed with the same cycle of leveling/raiding.
It is likely at this point that WoW has seen its peak in terms of subscriber base and relevance in the gaming world. I think they will always be able to maintain a subscriber base measured in millions, and may well run indefinitely, but if they want to grow again they need to get some fresh talent into their design group.
G.
The first 20 are always free, kiddies...
For those who don't like this policy:
1. It exists because of spammers. Vent your anger at the spammers, not Blizzard.
2. It exists because spamming for gold sales works (otherwise people wouldn't bother). Vent your anger at gold buyers, not Blizzard.
3. It exists because of guild-looters (people who join guilds, strip the guild vault, and sell the profits). Yes, guilds should manage themselves better; trusting people on the Internet without direct experience to demonstrate that trustworthiness is idiocy. But a looted guild bank generates a lot of direct costs to Blizzard (GM tickets) and indirect costs (people who unsubscribe because of the negative feelings this gives about the game).
4. Freeloaders don't get a vote. Someone on a trial account isn't contributing anything; the purpose is to let the person decide if they want to get the privileges that others pay for (and in the process contribute in a positive way to the multiplayer environment). Trial accounts aren't for YOU, they're for Blizzard as a sales tool. Paid accounts ARE for your benefit (as well as Blizzard's). You're just being given first-hand information (for free) on whether you'd enjoy the game.
Typical "entitlement" attitude. Nobody is "entitled" to free games. Be glad you're being given anything, because you're not owed anything. Think games should be free? Write and host your own, and learn firsthand about just how badly people behave even when what they're being handed is free.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
As a longtime WoW Player - relatively casual mind you. I've never beaten an expansion's end-game raid content during that expansion (ie. I went to the Sunwell for a tour when I made 80) - though I disagree with their limitations, I can probably inform non-players on why they are so strict
0. Level 20 - Goes without saying, this is a nice chunk of the early game. If you want to go higher, you'll like the game enough to subscribe..hopefully
1. 10 Gold Limit. WoW has a copper/silver/gold scheme, and 10 Gold is a lot of money for a level 20..who's not a second or later alternate character being "fed" by a max-level character with thousands. This limit I actually agree with - it ensures that Chinese reps that sell gold for real money can't use these characters to make "free" delivery mules as the only people buying gold are buying it by the thousands or ten thousands.
2. Trade Skills Capped at 100 - This is sort of the "crafting" (Blacksmithing, Cooking, Fishing, Mining, etc...) equivalent of being capped at level 20. There was a time when certain blocks of trades were level-limited anyway so you couldn't have a crafting-only mule (ie. to make Artisan level items of 225+ skill you needed to be over level 45)
3. Unable to trade - This is probably again to keep Chinese from using these characters to sell expensive high-end items for real money. You would pay on their website, they log in on one of their low level characters and give you the item you bought. Personally, I think this is far too restrictive. Rather, I would like to see them include all these trade formats but only limited to "Item levels" (in game, mostly hidden ratings on items) viable to level 30 and below. That would enable your friend to give you a set of level 15 armor, without allowing you to hold Furor's Compendium of Dragonslaying or the Battered Hilt (two old items that were often sold for tons of gold as they started the quest for the user to pick up an excellent Epic weapon).
4. No public channels - Again, blame Chinese Real Money Transaction/Farmers/Hackers. They already spam public channels (such as the Trade channel that exists in all major game cities) but have actually been cracked down on quite a bit. This is far too draconian a restriction as the public channels are a great way to make friends, get answers, and generally open a new player to the MMO community. (And if you're on a PVP server, you get the bonus feature of being called a 'gay scrub faggot' whenever you speak too!)
5. No whispers outgoing - Yes, again with China. Since they started getting banned by players reporting their spam in public chat, they started whispering individual players they saw speak in chat at some point. If you get a whisper/tell from low level with an incomprehensible name, that seems like "do u remember me?" or "hi friend do you have time I have great deal for you", you're being offered paid services from this gray-market industry. The restrictions are not too bad here so if someone whispers to you, you can talk back.
6. No party invites - Not sure the idea behind this one. Partying is an integral experience and there's no reason after going through 10 levels or so that a new player wouldn't feel confident enough to start their own or run one of the low-level dungeons. I guess you can be invited to others - not sure how the gadget that auto-finds you dungeon groups factors into this - but I see no harm in having trial players offer parties to others.
7. No parties with those over 20 - Okay, this is to keep from being "powerleveled", (Someone with a much higher level kills everything for you to gain experience). To my knowledge this doesn't work any longer because the XP calculation is miniscule if there's a greater than 5 level disparity in members. I guess its to keep them from killing everything so you can finish quests unusually quick. No real problem here.
8. No VOIP - Most players use external VOIP so this isn't a big deal, but there's nothing its even really helpful to have VOIP for around level 20 anyway. I guess
Getting to level 20 will probably take around 3-4 hours. Once you want to purchase the game, you pay $20 for the game which includes 1 free month. This allows you to level though the classic game (revamped with the latest expansion) and though burning crusade (they made the first expansion part of the base game at the same time they made trials unlimited) which will probably take around 100 hours to complete (even then you can go back and play with 8 other classes, and/or try a different faction for roughly 1/3 different experience). If you want to level past that you will need to buy 2 more expansions in order to get into the more hardcore raiding and pvp at max level.
I don't see why there is an article on slashdot about this. This simply gives people an extra chance to try the game again without having to make a new trial account.
These measures are making the whole experience very unappealing. They might be avoiding some problems, but they are unlikely to attract anybody that didn't make their mind before playing this trial mode and they may even change the mind of the ones who did.
Whether the free gamers have "entitlement attitude" doesn't matter, because if the free mode fails to entice players, then it is pointless. No self-righteousness will make anybody buy/subscribe.
The good, the evil and the vacuum tubes.