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P2P + Non-Invite Free Trial = 10 million + subs.
Souldrainer
Member Posts: 1,857
So, of all the MMOs that are P2P out there, I have only seen one that has had a free trial since the first build. For some strange reason, the same game has well over 10 million subs. Coincidence? I think not! I realize WAR has followed suit, but this came far after launch. It still boosted sales though.
List of P2P games with Free Trials:
World of Warcraft
List of P2P games with 10 million subs:
World of Warcraft
It baffles me when a new game comes out and has a limited or "buddy key" trial, or none at all. Given that this was one of the major failings of AoC, and that these free trials boost sub numbers immensely. Anybody care to debate this analysis?
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Comments
If the game is not good ,then even with unlimited free trial will not increase it subs like WAR. new MMO games hardly introduced Trial with its launch ,so they can make some sells to people those wants to check out the game badly.
You're right very few do.
Do: Guild Wars, Lineage, Eve Online
Don't: FFXI, FFXIV, DCUO.
Maybe GW don't count. But I do believe that they should offer free trial.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
A lot of games that are P2P offered a free trial, although some now have changed to F2P.
But say what you will about WoW, it did not offer a free trial right away either, and yet it got big, I dont think its the free trial that made it big either.
shitty games that know they are shitty = no free trial = no open beta (without pre-order) pretty much.
There wasnt a free trial for WoW at launch... just guess passes which most games have. Plus what does trials have to do with subs? Its the content that matters not letting someone play for free. Hell Rift wont have trials at launch and thats a really polished solid game.
Most MMOs have free trials, where exactly did the OP do his research?
Um....WoW had the subs because Blizzard already had a massive fanbase following for YEARS before WoW came out, not because of a free trial(which they didn't have at release btw). They were already the top dog of the gaming industry before WoW was even heard of.
Can YOU give some names?
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
A Tale in the Desert: 24 hour demo.
Asheron's Call: 14 day free trial
City of Heroes: 14 day trial.
Dark age of Camelot: 14 day trial.
Darkfall: 14 day trial.
Eve Online: 14 day trial.
Everquest: Escape to Norrath demo.
Fallen Earth: 30 day free trial.
I could keep going...
Actually, you can read the whole list here: http://mmofallout.com/where-to-buy-beta/
I'd say quite a few MMOs I have played have free trials:
Ryzom, Vanguard, SWG, Global Agenda, Alganon or did it..., Lineage 2, I think I had one for EQ2 also.
Drop the next-gen marketing and people will argue if the game itself has merit.
AoC, WAR, DaOC, LoTRO and DDO (had trials pre-F2P), AC, UO, CoX, DFO, EVE, EQ2 (pre-F2P), Horizons,SWG...
There's a lot of good reasons why one P2P game out there has over 10M subs, and free trials is not one of them.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Cool, seems like the OP didn't do good research then heh
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
I was hooked on SWG free trial back in 2004, and I bought the game. Loved it forever.
I was hooked on WoW after giving up to free trial when SWG was destroyed, and I still play it (on and off).
I bought Age of Conan WITHOUT free trial because I love R.E.Howard works and I quit after 15 days.
I will NEVER buy a MMORPG without a free trial again.
I would like to try Final Fantasy XIV and DCUO, but since there are no free trials for those - no chance of getting any $ from me. I'm sure that's the case with great many people.
NEW IDEAS that can refresh the STALE state of MMORPGs
This
Also WoW didn't have a free trial at release. No non-F2P mmo's that I know of had a free trial at release but they usually will have one later.
This is exactly what I was going to post. I've been burned by so many MMO's that I don't touch them until I've had a free trial. No free trial? No purchase.
Took the words out of my mouth. When I read the first post I was like what? Every P2P game of AA or AAA quality has a free trial!!!!
+1 for me
Last chance for me is Diablo 3 to buy without Free Trial.
Kain_Dale
indeed.
only really recently released games dont have trials. WoW didnt have one at release either
trials take a while to come, Im sure DCUO and FFXIV will follow suit
the OP is either drunk or doesnt have a bloody clue wtf hes talking bout
MMORPG.COM members overestimate the number of players interested in playing subscription based games.
Except for Wow and Eve all other western MMORPG's are under 100K now unless they are within their launching period OR went free to pay.
If you know that War, Aoc, Aion etc are all played on 4 US servers (L2 even has one), you know the subscription based games have hard times these days.
That's sad because I think the only ones benifiting from free to pay games are the money grabbers behind it (for several reasons I will not go into to not derail the discussion).
So yes I don't think there will be other subscription based games with over 1 million players in the west.
The market is saturated with mostly very mediocre copies of what people already play.
The 100K niche market is there for the bored ones, the underground movement.
And by offering MORE games instead of BETTER games the situation doesn't improve.
Same for me too.
Maybe you are right but the other side of the coin with these Free trials is that blizz isnt able to keep the gold sellers away from there game what totaly (that and the bad community) ruined the game for me.
To conclude.....more isnt better imho.
my two coppers
New games without a free trial are simply tried through torrenting and private servers like most of the European Community loves to do. Of course they are smart. They know the "State" doesn't care about legality of video games when so many other issues befall their courts. They also know that consumers have a right to try a product prior to subscribing to it, which is why almost every case gone before a European court (and most American courts) have been thrown out the window on the matter.
Aion and Lineage 2 are considered to be top successful MMORPGs in South Korea.
Guild Wars and WoW have most of their player bases in the United States and were made in the U.S.
Final Fantasy XI and XIV are Japanese and have both, Japanese-Only servers and non-Japanese Servers*
*this is a standard thing with japanese games. They have their own servers for their own population and servers for everyone else. The japanese most of you encounter in FFXI are those who played in the localized servers intended for a non-japanese population. Japanese forumboards are littered with posts and demands to keep foreigners out of their games and some of these posts are on the level of hatred Adolf Hitler used in his anti-jewish speeches. A simple firewall to log the IP you are connecting to along with a Traceroute will tell you waht you need to know.
Do you judge a game by subscriber base and popularity, or by the present population? Subscriber base and popularity is what marketting goes since it doesn't involve playing the game and they can literally make up anything to support their asset and claims.
Subscriber base measures sales and only sales. Nothing more....Popularity is mostly created by the population of a game. Blizzard is also good at advertising and spreading the game. Currently thanks to Blizzard Advertising, WoW is the game people know about as other companies spend very little in advertising. I am not a WoW player, but I know of the Blizzard Conventions launched and the money put into preserving and spreading WoW. Blizzard may care about money, but they have a mechanism that reaches more towards their players than most other companies. **
**In many non-American MMOs, botting and cheating are common. Combined with the time it takes for gamers to level and the culture, Koreans and Japanese are taught to not to complain about games..simply because they are just games and a form of entertainment. Grinding promotions through jobs is the way of life in Korea and Japan, specially with the long work schedules and social attitude towards the belief that reliability equals hard work. A foreigner who complains about cheating and botting will be ignored outright and sometimes a foreigner will be banned for "making a big deal" over a simple game. The same is true if you play in a non-localized FFXI server. Only foreigners who accept the "Japanese way" are allowed and one problem results in ban (even complaining about cheating.)
MMORPGs are time sinks, more so than other games. A gamer literally has to spend the most amount of time to get the least productivity when compared to other genres. There is more story elements and character development playing in a 30 - 50 hour singleplayer story than playing in an MMORPG that sticks you in there for 1000 - 10000 hours.
The attraction to WoW exists for many reasons...and it has survived for years for many reasons, but in South Korea the same level of advertisement exists for their games as well as Japan. The difference between American Gaming Companies and Others is that when an American Title is launched, usually by the first or second expansions all versions are patched and Americans Control directly the way the servers are....while Koreans and Japanese will launch their own servers for their own populations, keep their servers updated and intentionally keep quiet about it while localized versions of the same game suffer in lack of updates compared to six months to eighteen months behind in updates.
This is the primary reason if I do not play Localized versions of MMORPGs. The only exception which has equal translation along with almost equal patching which is F2P and I play from time to time is Runes of Magic, where at least you aren't punished for being born in a different nation.
My personal favorite thing was how in 2001 - 2003....The top MMOs were Korean and Japanese in terms of population and support. Of course there were other popular games people knew and loved, but koreans and Japanese people spent so much time talking garbage about how "Americans" couldn't develop a decent game if their life depended on it, and then Blizzard came through with WoW which took the world by storm and combined with the American attitude of not excluding everyone or banning anyone from playing in the original servers....and their marketting, now even Koreans and Japanese are incorporating WoW elements in their games trying to beat WoW. Guild Wars also did a number too.....So yeah I am happy American Gaming has taught Easterners a Lesson..
The popularity is there...Forget mentioned 10 million subscriptions. I may not like WoW or even have a WoW account, but look at the impact it has had on the industry. Everyone is talking about "how do we beat WoW" when designing their games these days. That to me is a good sign.
I doubt you'll be disappointed by that one.
All it takes is one bad day.
Well it shouldnt.. I loved Diablo 1 and 2 with Lod. But who knows.
Kain_Dale