World of Warcraft - Free to Play

[Revalis]

Along with the release of its second major content patch, Rage of the Firelands, for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Blizzard has also announced that the massively multiplayer role playing game is now free to play up to level 20.

They've renamed the trial the World of Warcraft Starter Edition and removed the previous 10 and 14 day time trial restrictions. Now there's a chance for everyone to get hooked, as playing up to 20 levels of the game gives you just enough time to start caring about your character. They'll even let you make Blood Elf and Draenei characters, races that were previously only available with The Burning Crusade expansion. All you have to do to start your trial is create a Battle.net account and download the game.


Additionally, Blizzard is selling both World of Warcraft Classic along with The Burning Crusade expansion together for $19.99 as part of a new digital Battle Chest. Plus, if you only purchased the original WoW and none of the expansions, Blizzard is also giving you access to The Burning Crusade for free now as well.
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[Tbone]

Someone is getting scared of TOR!

[Gami]

Someone is getting scared of TOR!

Eh doubtful. It's more like they have realized that what they have now is a game where the only reason people stay is for the endgame and grinding up to level 85 isn't what it use to be nor something a lot of people want to waste a month doing just to start the real fun let alone pay for that month.

Blizz has been loosing members since WotK and their attempt at revamping the old world to encourage new play didn't work quiet as effectively as they might have wanted it to. So now they give you the first twenty levels to play so by the time you hit the cap you hopefully have an invested interest. The drop in price also makes sense because honestly it is ridiculous to have to buy 3 expansions and the original game. I honestly won't be surprised if soon they have something that just boost you to 80 so you can get right into the newest content and not even have to ever go to Outlands or Northrend.

[ArchNemesis]

I can't possibly understand why WoW is popular...

[JazzyC]

I guess it would be a nice starting block.  But it doesn't just limit you to level 20.
The full restrictions are:
- A level cap of 20.
– A maximum of 10 gold.
– Trade skills are capped at 100 ranks.
– Unable to trade via the Auction House, mailbox, or player-to-player.
– In-game access to public chat channels unavailable. Players are limited to communicating using only say, party, or whisper.
– Characters will be unable to create or join guilds.
– Characters are not able to send whispers to other characters unless they have been added to the characters’ friends lists or have received a whisper from a character first.
– Characters will not be able to invite other players into a party.
– Characters will not be able to join parties with other characters above level 20.
– Voice chat disabled on Starter Edition accounts.
– Realms experiencing login queues will prioritize players who have full, paid accounts.
– Starter Edition accounts are not eligible for character transfers
– RealID features are disabled on all Starter Edition Accounts.

I can understand some of those are to prevent Gold Sellers exploiting the system, and the same would go for griefers and other riff raff.

[Manic Velocity]

I'm going to write a letter to GamersFirst and ask them to pick up MxO.  

If WoW is good enough for F2P, then Warner Brothers has no goddamn excuse.

[Arawn]

Goo Manic!!

[DudeWithGun]

It sounds a lot like the free trial, except you have an unlimited amount of time to realize you don't want to play, instead of 14 days!

[Arawn]

ROFL

[Baobinga]

Blizzard sent me an email to my 5 year old account and offered me a free week of play.

They must be hurting. I went to their website and it was legit. Got a free week. I think I'll log in and check out this "amazing" new content.

[Paitryn]

it really isnt new. their original free trial capped at 20, I guess they just removed the time limit on it. actually, it IS the trial period without the time limit. all the trade and chat restrictions (due to gold sellers using trial accounts to spam, they had their chat functions removed and never had trade capacity)

Lame, if they just took their old marketing tool and changed the advertising around it.

but when you hemorrhage 600k subs and your latest raid patch is touted as "pug friendly" (biggest mistake they could make IMO) its destined to cause them to quiver.

[Paitryn]

I can't possibly understand why WoW is popular...

at its inception it was easy to step into compared to EQ or SWG (at the time swg had zero questing or tutorial. you just jumped in and had to figure it all out), not a niche market like MxO or CoH, and you didnt need a brand new comp or vid card to play unlike EQ2 at the time, so more players. and it didnt take itself too seriously. it was simply a game you could step into and step out of when  you felt like it. it removed a bit of the stigma of people who practically lived in their online game. It didnt attract as many EQ or other MMOers so much as its popularity attracted people who DIDN'T play MMOs (myself included at the time).

the problem is that it became so popular with non traditional MMOers, that they know of no other mmo design principle. Many even credit WoW for design concepts that are shared by almost all MMOs in general.

But if I could really hammer down its reasons for popularity they would be because of YouTube, South Park, and its own mass number of pop culture references (including one based on the south park episode about itself.) It became the cool kids MMO to some extent. like farmville, it proves  you dont have to have a good game to be successful, just one thats easily accessible on wildly popular with the masses.

[Lits]

Its really all about the pretty colors and the sparkly shit. I tried WoW for a time and every now and then I find myself going back to it for about two weeks, but honestly I don't have any clue nor give any care as to what the story line is or where it's going. When I succumb to the boredom I just run around see the nice visuals and stay away from people who's title is a different color than mine. Just everyone else with half a brain I have no attachment to the lore.

That being said, you could also get the same exhilarating visuals if you take too much Robitussin.

[Revalis]

Its really all about the pretty colors and the sparkly shit. I tried WoW for a time and every now and then I find myself going back to it for about two weeks, but honestly I don't have any clue nor give any care as to what the story line is or where it's going. When I succumb to the boredom I just run around see the nice visuals and stay away from people who's title is a different color than mine. Just everyone else with half a brain I have no attachment to the lore.

That being said, you could also get the same exhilarating visuals if you take too much Robitussin.

This.

I got the free 7 day invite a week or so back. I logged in for a few hours of it and just ran around. It was very non-committal. :P

[Paitryn]

for me it was about the lore because i was a fan of Warcraft 3 and blizz historically told a great story (diablo series comes to mind there). vanilla wow storyline was a bit in the dark, just wrapping up loose ends really. BC was tying up the Illidan storyline in outland and wrath was set to finish off the frozen throne storyline of W3s expansion. but after that it was really game over for WoW. there was no real world arcing story to tell afterwards. Sargaras and the burning legion were its largest threat, and the lich king being its second largest.

sadly WoW didnt tell the story very well. it wasn't about the lore I dont think. (though they did try to have it, if you wanted lore though you needed to buy comics, books and other media.) it was about being popular. Pop culture references, inside jokes, etc. the game was purely about entertainment.

it did frustrate me. when you down onixya, you dont expect the lore credit (well except for it to say "a group of adventurers killed the dragon") but to have everything you did be given to some unrelated NPC that really just stands there and does jack unless the opposing faction prods them was just annoying. especially when he didn't even exist in the game for 5 years. (king Varian Wrynn)

The writing was pretty good until wrath, so it makes me wonder if the staff lost more than just Tigole to project Titan at that point. in BC you were going after Illidans cronies before going after Illidan himself in each raid (save for gruuls and Mags lair. I dont really count sunwell or Zul'Aman because they were tacked on after Black temple.) and Kara was telling us the dark history of of the last guardian. but in wrath, none of the raids leading up to Lich king really had anything to do with the Lich King at all. Naxx was rehashed content. well not even rehashed. Obsidian sanctum, malygos, ulduar, none really were needed to go after LK. I think the most lore was found in dragonblight where you got to see past conversations between bronzebeard and Arthas. oh and culling of stratholme was a great experience since i played it out in W3 seeing it from ground level was good.