What if we took the current trial account and made that a baseline membership option with full access to the game? It would have a few restrictions:
- Cannot chat until max level.
- Only one character creation is allowed per account unless you upgrade to the $15 per month.
- No access to allied races (This would require more than one character anyways).
By giving players the ability to play a single character for free, you massively increase your potential player base because “This costs money to even try” is removed as a reason to not play. The restrictions could be tweaked, but the basis should remain the same. The goal is to give players a single character that can access the full game without paying any money. Access to additional characters, and realms, will only be granted to those who are paying the full membership.
I have never felt that level 1-20 is enough for a player to reach a decision on whether or not they like the game. I feel like more people will err on the side of caution and simply not play because of the associated cost. A single free character with full access to the game could help prevent this.
Do you guys like this idea, would you make any changes?
Well, I know some people who do only play one character. Like literally have 0 alts, every time I see them logged on it’s the same exact character. This would essentially make the game free for them, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. Blizzard might mind because they would lose money when they inevitably unsubscribe because it would no downsides for them.
So?
Blizzard doesn’t need more players, but I’m sure they want more customers.
People playing for free aren’t customers.
Here’s a better take, FF14 does this. Reduce Sub cost for a single character, max 8 total across all their realms. That way if you want to only play once character you’re free to, but if you want additional it’ll be the normal sub fee. It’s 12.99$ for a single character in FF14, which is a fine thing since you can be everything on a single character there but for WoW I’d say 9.99$ since you can only be 1 thing overall.
You can also just make like 10 accounts and have one of your alts on each one.
I give you credit for trying, but what would happen is there would be an explosion in the number of WoW accounts as a bunch of people made separate alt accounts and put them all in the same guild together.
are people really that strap on cash that you cant pay $15 a month. Honestly if you cant afford it then time to call it quits because you have more issues irl
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I mean…that’s just asking for a free account with extra steps. I imagine if something like that were implemented it’d go along with other free-to-play hazards like actual Diablo Immortal-style PTW microtransactions (as opposed to people claiming that the existing structures are PTW).
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Make it free up to dragonflight at least. Level 60 should be free, I’m not sure why we still have trail accounts be limited to level 20. I don’t agree that endgame content should be free though because more of that content requires some communication, I wouldn’t want to queue into a m+ or raid and find out no one can talk because they’re trails.
Otherwise, the trail experience REALLY needs improvement, especially now a days with every game going free to play. Also the “If you cant afford $15 a month, you have more issues irl” argument is a false dilemma fallacy, just because someone doesn’t want to pay $15 a month for something doesnt mean they can’t. Plus, the game is struggling to bring in a younger audience which is really important for the health of the game. So you can’t really expect a 16 year old to drop $15 just to try the game and potentially not like it when he can just hop on fortnite.
This is a bad idea, OP.
I would be in favor of a discounted sub for 50% off with a limited number of maybe 2 alts, 1 per faction, on an account though.
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Which mmorpg worth it’s weight and has a good amount of players is free to play?
if someone complains about 50 cents a day for an entertainment product then they probably shouldn’t be playing this game anyway.
Why not? When I was 16 I had a job. I was working before 16 mowing yards. If I played WoW back then I’d easily be able to afford it. Everyone doesn’t like garbage like fortnite.
Oh, I am sure bliz would love to give up all that revenue so you can play for free.
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Im not talking about other mmos, kids now a days cant care less about mmos anyway which is the issue at hand. We need more players BECAUSE its an mmo. mmos thrive on more players, most wow players are 30+ and the game is slowly losing its audience.
Every product now a days is a subscription service. This oversimplifies the issue by assuming that someone’s complaint about a 50 cents per day expense for an entertainment product is solely based on their financial situation. There could be other reasons, such as perceived value or the fact that they may find the product overpriced relative to alternatives.
Like I said, the issue is bringing in a younger audience. I get that you don’t like it, and the people you talk to don’t like it. Lets face it though, you’re in an echo chamber of people your age. I used fortnite as an example but you could use other popular games such as valorant, overwatch, genshin, and other games young people play now a days. The genre of the game doesn’t matter in this context, the issue is for people to try the game with no resistance and see if they really like it or not. People always go towards the path of least resistance (other free games in this context).
I really don’t understand the issue here. It is such an easy argument to grasp, I really can’t see a counter argument other than the complete fallacies I keep receiving. Blizz will not be losing revenue because no one really plays the game to level one character from 1 to 60 (not even dragonflight). It’s just a few extra levels I’m arguing for.
Age has nothing to do with it.
There is nothing to gain from trying to attract people to WoW who aren’t going to like WoW.
This is a terrible idea because it would lock potential players into the first class they tried and eliminate them trying anything else. So … how about blizzard just make the entire game free to play. Honestly, that is about what it is currently worth considering the half baked entirely untested garbage they are releasing.
There are way too many loopholes in that idea. It would definitely get abused. Why not just increase the trial account level to 35 or 40?
Some classes are more fun to play around those levels. Leveling is really fast now and that may give them the opportunity to see more.
Exactly. Companies don’t make money by giving their product away for free. They will always find a way to monetize.
The OP is suggesting that Blizz give away their game (including the latest X-pack) without requiring players to pay the box price. That’s just ridiculous. If anything, I could see a reduced sub-cost with restrictions after actually buying the game.
I personally believe that based on sales of DF if the new Expansion after DF isn’t a super success, we could see either way more monetization in the form of the store or the potential of the game going down the free to play route with cash shop transactions.
Me personally, I would prefer the game never go F2P. Also, I am having a blast in DF as is my wife and three boys.