Old Ascalon for free?

I think this is an excellent idea, and would be easy to implement. The only thing that should be added, however, is maybe a small arena so people get to see the pvp aspect of the game.

I also don't think access should be unlimited, nor should it be as little as 3 days. I think it should be around 7-14 days, so people can have enough time to explore the area without being rushed.

I'm with Lunar, I think it's a good idea, but maybe the area would be limited even more for the free players. That might work right? Anyway, a small problem I see with it is that it would take up so many potential names for people who are playing long term. How long should the names stay saved to that person?

This is a terrible idea.

A lot of people will play the game and get bored of it, therefor never purchasing it. GW isn't a p2p game, it needs to sell copies to float. Part of business is great advertising, which leads to people purchasing your product on a limb. If they don't like it, they still paid for it, which is every business's goal. Anet needs to rake in a lot of money to maintain their goals, giving away free time, which will be an illusion for how 'easy' the game is, will get people thinking it's a short and easy game with no replay value.

Just look at that one's site's review where all 4 reviewers thought the end of OA was the end of the game and they'd accomplished everything. That'll be the mindset for everyone who tries out GW for free.

They do a similiar thing in EQ2 - they allow you access to the Island of Trials (nooby land) with unlimited access.

I think it would be alright. I can see all the downfalls you've pointed out, but I think the extra people who would start playing the game would being more benefits to out weight the negatives.

[COLOR=Red]how many people here or that you know made up their mind on a BWE that they liked it enough to buy it?[/COLOR]

that is all the time you need to expose someone to it .

a weekend and no more

to give them an endless time draining the pockets (even a little) of GW is asking too much

my opinion

I know more guildmates and friends who wont be buying GW because of the BWE's then will. GW comes across as an easy game thats completeable in a few days, and the way Anet has set up it's intro's since Jan or whatever, made it even worse.

i will accept your evaluation of their easy finish opinions

i have trouble understanding them though.
i see a very large beautiful world that you could spend weeks on even without the missions or any wildlife attacking you

have they considered the pvp (if they like it) would be over and boring in a few days as well?

i see a problem with even letting people have it for a weekend...
what keeps a person from just making an new account and playing it for another weekends time... or another.

i think GW is doing pretty good, and the weekend events are already serving as the trail/demo, thats what your friends passes are for.

if there was a demo, i think old ascalon is still too large for a demo. id say like let them do one primary prof mission and one secondary, and then maybe a pvp lvl with a time limit or something... iono

Sorry but i have to completely dissagree with that.

First off there wouldnt be enough people playing like that to make a viable chat room, so people would get bored real quick.

Second, the people actually playing the game would get pissed off real quick if they did, and would find a way (I know i would ) to make their life miserable.

Third, even if they did persist, A.net would merely kick them out, like anyone else abusing the game.

As you can see that (and many of the other flamers ideas) would not work at all, A.net just wouldnt allow it.

if they hang and abuse and they would be kicked ....
then why let them in long term in the first place?

I don't think there needs to be any type of free trial for GW. Friend's pass is basically the free trial.

i think i have the answer

the people doing this have previous experience in games of this type

they are the experts with a major personal and finincial stake in it

they will do what EXPERIENCE has shown to be best

whatever that turns out to be

In practice, giving people a taste of something good, and then requiring they pay if they want more is an extremely effective marketting tool. Nothing makes people whip out their Visa faster than reaching the end of that time period while still in the middle of something enjoyable.

OTOH, if they can take all the time they want, this disappears. Sure, there's the promise that when (if) they ever get around to paying, there's more goodies to be had, but this just doesn't have the same impact as cutting people off while they're still in the middle of something, before they've completely exhausted all the things to do in the part of the world they're in.

So, not only do free trials need to be time limited for maximum effect, but if it were true that the average player could completely explore the Kingdom of Ascalon in three days, a three-day trial is too long to be completely effective. You'll make less money than if you made it a shorter trial in that case.

OTOH, I don't believe a new player who hasn't been playing in previous events could make it through KoA, at least not the average new player. So I think a three-day weekend event is about right. But certainly not unlimited, or even a week long free access.

Also, they can't be too frequent either. Ideally, I'd say they should hold a WPE-like event with the release of each expansion. But no longer and no more frequently than that, if making the best profit they can is their goal.

Oh, and whatever you do, don't limit people's access to one area. If people reach some sort of sense of closure, they're less inclined to buy the next chapter. There's an extremely good reason for cliff-hangers. The last thing you want to do is let people feel they've reached the end of something. When they actually do run out of content is when they're least likely to purchase...

the no cliffhanger comment was from GW not my suggestion

I would agree with most if not all of what Dreamsmith has stated, with an emphasis on short term access. I was hooked after my first Beta last Fall and then I proceeded to get my friends hooked and now we spend some time each week talking about how we can't wait until the next BWE and are planning a LAN party for release night and all it took was a taste...

1 weekend event was enough for me and i didnt spend more than 15 hours out of it

i sent in my order on sat of jan event

The issue here isn't whether people would try to abuse the freebieness of KoA, or whether others would fail to appreciate how uber the end-game PvP is. The key point is getting access for all those people who would flip over the game based on the intro area (people like us, generally). The only question then is: Will that result in more revenue vs. the cost of the upkeep than not doing it?

I'm half suspicious that this is exactly what ANet has in mind for the area at some point. It's a nice, broad intro to the game mechanics. You can try out all the classes and combinations in a very limited, but by no means gimped fashion. It shows off several terrain types and ranges of art. And it introduces players to the basic ongoing business model of the game - pay for content, not for server access. People who try KoA for free and then buy the game will be much more likely to purchase future expansions when they come out. At least, I can see where ANet might expect that to be the case.

There are lots of people out there who will love and pay for this game. The point is to reach them as completely as possible, not to convince every bnet kiddie and Shadowbane ganker that GW rulz. My impression is that ANet are pretty proud of their product, and I don't see them wanting or needing to resort to time-dependent trial gimmicks to sucker people into whipping out the credit card before they have the chance to make an informed decision.

As far as people getting to level 20, if the reports of high level Charr north of the Wall are accurate, it may be possible. (If you hadn't tried, it's possible with a partner to open the gate and explore a small area where the Charr are apparently preparing the things that level KoA) Not that getting to level 20 is going to curb anyone's desire to see what happens after the Searing, or what's in the Shiverpeaks, etc.

I wouldn't bar access to the Academy though. In fact, that's the most important part. Let them into the Academy, do the PvP fight, finish the mini-mission, play cinematic, and Game Over, Thank You for Playing the Guild Wars Trial - pop browser to plaync.com.

Interesting idea. I understand you mean down the road and not immediately. I guess it's a possibility. I don't believe we'd have Level 20's in the Kingdom of Ascalon, for I think that would be mathematically impossible but I could well be wrong. We need someone with Charles' math skills to figure it out.

When you say people won't hang around for long while in KoA because they run out of things to do, well... wait to judge that until after this BWE. There are so many new quests, you could really get a lot of gameplay out of this region!

Thanks for the input on this Gaile, I'm sure Lunar appreciates this reply. Lol, I've been sticking around here when I saw you were in this forum, so could see what you had to say.

pfft. it's never much.