Free to play for 3- or 5-days every so often

To be honest, I got this idea from looking at Steam, they're advertising a game called Myth of Empires. The game is free to play for the next 3 days, and I haven't played yet, but it looks good. I would not have bought the game if it cost money, but now that I have a free period to try it out, why not? If I'm not having fun I don't buy it, if I'm having fun, it'll justify me buying the game. This method can only work if your game is good.

Looking at this, I thought about Ashes of Creation and the sub model they're putting forward (which I'm a huge fan of and it's the best win/win for everyone), but I think it lacks accessibility. Imagine if you guys implemented a 3- or 5-day free play period, like every 3 months or so? People who tried it in the beginning and maybe didn't like it, would normally not resub. Even during new content release, some might resub but not all. All of that changes with a free period, the number of people who will try it again, the number of people trying for the first time, all of it will increase, and how many of those people will convert to subs? A lot. Probably a lot more than if you didn't do a free period. It's a great way to bring back old blood and get new blood at the same time. That being said, I think you should do this for the launch of the game, for obvious reasons. I'm not an expert in this field, I just recognized the genius of this strategy from seeing Myth of Empires doing it with Steam. I hope this suggestion helps!

Edit: I want to emphasize because there's been a little confusion. Some people think I meant 3 or 5 days free to play any time someone creates a new account and this is not what I'm talking about. What I'm saying is, I like the idea of a specific time period that is 3 or 5 days that the game can be played for free (Example: December 1st - 5th). In this example, if someone decides to try it out December 4th, then they'd only get 1 day to play for free.

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Disobedient

Tyranthraxus wrote: »

Disobedient wrote: »

I'm seeing a lot of people talk about "bot / gold-sellers" in the game from this free period. Maybe I don't know enough about how effective these gold sellers can be, but what I recommended was a 3-day period every 3 months (because every 3 months we'll likely see balance changes / content changes via the node system unlocks or even new content releases). So, can these bot / gold-sellers really do anything worth paying attention to, with a 3-day free trial?

They can if they keep opening and opening new accounts to get further 3-day trials.

OK! Now I understand where the misunderstanding is coming in. I recommended a 3-day free to play time period. Not just an anytime 3-day free trial. So, for example, if someone were to play on the 3rd day of the trial period, they can only play for free for that 1 day.

Ludullu

pyreal wrote: »

What sort of organized operation would farm low level mats with the objective of depleting an area?
Anything organized would have a monetary objective. Depleting an area offers what economic benefit to the people who are employed to do it?

The objective would come from in-game benefits. Overfarming a forest around a node might lead to that node weaking for a siege/war.

Afaik people did waaay worse things in games like EVE. If Ashes is trying to be as big of a social sandbox as EVE was - it'll have to account for irl actions of players. And spamming free-trial characters to overfarm a location is most definitely one of such actions. Guilds would either do it themselves or find people to pay who'd do it for them.

Disobedient wrote: »

OK! Now I understand where the misunderstanding is coming in. I recommended a 3-day free to play time period. Not just an anytime 3-day free trial. So, for example, if someone were to play on the 3rd day of the trial period, they can only play for free for that 1 day.

This would simply lead to properly timed node attacks. Groups of people prepare for a node siege/war right before the trial period starts. They spam their free characters to overfarm everything around the node (and potentiall any other neighbors) and then attack the node, because it's now weaker.

W/o a free trial, this kind of strategy would be waaaay harder to pull off.

Dolyem

pyreal wrote: »

Ludullu_(NiKr) wrote: »

Veeshan wrote: »

Normally free trials prevent being able to do some things, often it you cant use AH or trade is a common one cause the economy issue.

But either way not realy needed to talk about this for a long time :P wait till game actually releases and server queues/stability is sorted out so probaly wont see a free trial to atleast 6 months after release so long way off atm.

It's not about the conomy though. It's about how the game works. Locations can be overfarmed. Mobs can be overkilled. And considering that AoC's crafting will supposedly require materials of all lvls and tiers - if forests can be comletely cut out by bots - that's a huge issue for the entire game.

And it's made even worse by the fact that all of those materials are completely gone from the game, rather than going into the economy. Exactly because trial chars shouldn't be able to trade.

So trial people would end up with chracters that can't farm mobs, can't gather things, can't trade which means they can't process or craft. They will literally not be able to do anything in the game, because any actions has a consequence on the overall life of the server.

$15 is already a tiny price for a month-worth of content. Trials make sense when your game has a box and a sub purchase. Ashes will only have subs.

What sort of organized operation would farm low level mats with the objective of depleting an area?
Anything organized would have a monetary objective. Depleting an area offers what economic benefit to the people who are employed to do it?

I think demos and trials are good for games. I remember getting demo cds in the gaming magazines in the 2000's. Always appreciated them.

this guy right here would utilize low levels protected by corruption to clearcut nodes to negatively affect node environmental management. I plan to run a 40+ player mob through a node at some point just absolutely clear cutting while having a strike team set up to kill anyone willing to go corrupt by stopping them

Disobedient

Disobedient wrote: »

OK! Now I understand where the misunderstanding is coming in. I recommended a 3-day free to play time period. Not just an anytime 3-day free trial. So, for example, if someone were to play on the 3rd day of the trial period, they can only play for free for that 1 day.

"This would simply lead to properly timed node attacks. Groups of people prepare for a node siege/war right before the trial period starts. They spam their free characters to overfarm everything around the node (and potentiall any other neighbors) and then attack the node, because it's now weaker.

W/o a free trial, this kind of strategy would be waaaay harder to pull off."[/quote]

I see what you're saying, and I agree it's totally valid but also not necessarily a reason for them not advertise in this way. Having a high degree of freedom in a game like this is appealing but it also comes with the drawbacks from what you just mentioned, people will always create new ways to exploit systems / situations for personal gain. In my opinion, I wouldn't let that be a determining factor in something as important as marketing for the game. Especially when the game is an MMORPG, and it can live or die by its population size.

Myosotys

I don't think the idea is bad but instead of a free to play on a limited time, better to do a demo version for one week with access to the character creator, no trade, very limited area, limited level limit everyting that could be boring for the players who pay every month or everthing that could be exploited.

Spif

Sometime, far down the road after release, I can see marketing gimmicks where there are trial subs (not free though).

Example: 1-week trial for $2. Or having a 1-week trial key given away at conventions/etc or added on to a purchase of something else

But if the game needs new blood a while after release, getting it on Steam would be far more effective

Undead Canuck

Just no.
There is sooooooo much information about this game, and there will be so much more after launch.
If you cannot figure out if you will like a game by watching it for hundreds of hours, pay the subscription for a month. At least there is no box cost like others.

Disobedient

Undead Canuck wrote: »

Just no.
There is sooooooo much information about this game, and there will be so much more after launch.
If you cannot figure out if you will like a game by watching it for hundreds of hours, pay the subscription for a month. At least there is no box cost like others.

I see your point, but have you thought about if most people would do that much research before deciding on buying or not? Probably not many, maybe they'll watch a streamer play, or find a youtube video on gameplay. However, if any of these reason aren't convincing enough, then they just won't play, and that's the problem I'm trying to address here. The launch of a new mmorpg is an iconic experience that can never be replicated, despite any attempts at fresh start servers. The feeling of exploring a new, unknown world with others who know nothing, and have nothing, starting on an equal playing field as everyone else... It's an experience that will never happen again, at least not in the same game. Because it's such a once in a lifetime experience, it can literally change how many players become die-hard fans in the future, as they will always have that initial experience of playing ashes in their mind. This is an experience that should not be gated behind a paywall at the start, because if the experience is good, then the amount of people who will sub to the game after (and for the long haul) will be exponentially more than if they charge everyone money right away, and far less people play at the start, thereby missing the most compelling time in an mmorpg's lifespan.

Undead Canuck

I disagree. There is no problem to address, you are just asking to add extra work.

So, to have people play for free, Intrepid has to pay for the extra programming to lock down the system so botters cannot take advantage of the exception. And pay to monitor the servers. And try to make sure that the paying people are not impacted by the people who don't care (because you know idiots who are banned are going to play the free accounts just to troll). And possibly lose paying customers when the experience is horrible since the people who don't care destroy the experience.

Just pay the $15. If they like it, their adventure has begun! If they don't, just cancel.

Zehlan

I am against free trials for two reasons. First off free to play invites d-bags , exploiters and omg pan handlers!

Second and worst of all naming characters! It's hard enough to find a good name now you would have a an infinite amount of 5 day old characters eating names up till Intrepid has to implement naming policy like passwords i.e must have minimum 2 numbers one capital letter and 1 vowel and your randomly generated name is .... First Name: Id Last: 10t.

If 15 bucks is too much for you to try the game then maybe it isn't for you

Diamaht

It's $15 dollars for an entire month, with no box price, plenty of time to test things out. I spent almost twice that seeing Deadpool last week. I spent more than that at Taco Bell the other day.

Disobedient

Undead Canuck wrote: »

I disagree. There is no problem to address, you are just asking to add extra work.

So, to have people play for free, Intrepid has to pay for the extra programming to lock down the system so botters cannot take advantage of the exception. And pay to monitor the servers. And try to make sure that the paying people are not impacted by the people who don't care (because you know idiots who are banned are going to play the free accounts just to troll). And possibly lose paying customers when the experience is horrible since the people who don't care destroy the experience.

Just pay the $15. If they like it, their adventure has begun! If they don't, just cancel.

That's a fair argument if that's really what would happen. I could see it being a problem if that was the case. The only thing is, I don't know enough to say whether that would happen or not (plus I don't think the vast majority of free players would play just to troll, nor do I believe the vast majority want to "destroy the experience"). I think these are the loud minority, when the data (like most other things in the world) would suggest the majority think and act in a different way. This is just my assumption.

Assuming that doesn't end up happening, allowing a free launch for all players for literally 3-5 days, would bring in EXPONENTIALLY more revenue from subs (if the servers hold properly and the experience is as intended), than if they gate the first 3-5 days behind a $15 paywall. It's way different playing something than watching it. Trying to have gamers live the experience vicariously through a streamer will not equate to the same number of subs, guaranteed.

Ayeveegaming1

No, its an invite to gold spammers and other unwanted shenanigans

scottstone7

Night Wings wrote: »

Even better just make a Server that only free trial players can play on, but once that trials is up they have to pay a subscription fee and remake their character on a subscription server and the stuff they had in the trial server is lost, but they get the basic gear from that level and starting gold for that level. Honestly might be better just to boost that character they make to 10 regardless what level they were on trial server, because every MMO I've ever played 1-10 is always the tutorial phase

This way ^ bots cant bother actual subscription players and they wont be able to transfer anything, because its a new character.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just my two cents on how I would approach this.

I'm completely against anything that lets bots or gold sellers get their foot in the door. As unpractical as the separate server would be for dev cost wise, I do agree that if some sort of free to play trial period is set up then restricting it to it's own private server would in my opinion be the best way. That would help curb the bots and gold sellers getting easy access to main servers as well as help to reduce people joining in for a short time locking down a character name then buggering off never to be seen again. At least then the trial servers could be wiped every time a trial period ends.

Apok

scottstone7 wrote: »

Night Wings wrote: »

Even better just make a Server that only free trial players can play on, but once that trials is up they have to pay a subscription fee and remake their character on a subscription server and the stuff they had in the trial server is lost, but they get the basic gear from that level and starting gold for that level. Honestly might be better just to boost that character they make to 10 regardless what level they were on trial server, because every MMO I've ever played 1-10 is always the tutorial phase

This way ^ bots cant bother actual subscription players and they wont be able to transfer anything, because its a new character.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just my two cents on how I would approach this.

I'm completely against anything that lets bots or gold sellers get their foot in the door. As unpractical as the separate server would be for dev cost wise, I do agree that if some sort of free to play trial period is set up then restricting it to it's own private server would in my opinion be the best way. That would help curb the bots and gold sellers getting easy access to main servers as well as help to reduce people joining in for a short time locking down a character name then buggering off never to be seen again. At least then the trial servers could be wiped every time a trial period ends.

Came here to say the same thing, more trolls as well in anything that's free compared to games with subs

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