I’d like to get a feel for what the people think that are currently playing the game now, of the trial coming out now.

I think this was in bad form. I think Funcom got ahead of itself by releasing the trial now. He’s my reasons:

A) First and foremost, they should have released a free 14 days to anyone that has been inactive over 90 days at the same time. Players that left want to see the changes. And they don’t want to start from scratch. They don’t want to be “lumped” in w/ an opportunity for people who are 100% new. The trials are great for players that have never experienced AoC, but do to the fact of the way the game launched, by not offering free time to old players, it just comes off as more “hiding” things to me.
B) Not waiting for DX10 to be fully functional is almost the biggest mistake they could make, IMO. It’s like THEE hottest hot button issue about the game, and players in general aren’t going to give a shit that they are calling it a “live test”. Perception is reality, and in this already cynical genre, assuming players will “understand” about it, is horrible judgment IMO. They are going to be giving an already festering group of people, more reason to scream “look! Still not done!” and now, they’ll do it in-game.
C) 1.05 will essentially change the face of the game. Abilities, gear, gems, crafting – 1.05 is going to have a huge impact on all of it. Personally, I think the WORST time you could say to players “hey, come try our game” is JUST before you release a game wide revamp. How well can they possibly think things will go when all these new people, just start to get used to how the game works, and understanding different elements, only to have the rug pulled out from under them and they have to relearn it? We’re talking about 3-4 months down the road tops. Plenty of time for people to hit 80, get accustom to how the game runs, and then get told “everything changes!”

I love AoC. I didn’t experience their launch, so I don’t know how bad it was. I do know that since Jan, I’ve had nothing but fun in the game, and find it to be an incredible world, with lots to do. And while I’ve seen the dedication and conviction of the dev team to turn things around, I really feel like this trial was released one update to early. I feel like Funcom fell victim to the players saying how much the game had improved, and wanted to show old & new players how much the current player base is right. Problem is, that most of us were saying “to make the greatest impact, they should wait for 1.05”.

Hopefully they have something up their sleeve to release w/ 1.05 that says “Try the game now, plus THIS!!”, b/c this move just screams hasty to me.

 i pretty much agree on everything you said as i am quit surprised too that they decided to start the free trials now and not a week or two later...

but i believe they know that too, and from the directors letters, its really clear that the guy knows what he is doing and is fully aware of what players want, so i bet they have a very good reason to do that. also that makes me believe that 1.05 is much closer than we are expecting :)

 the only thing i desagree about with almost everybody is DX10, with my limited understanding of how computer gfx work, i dont think that AoC DX10 client will get any faster by code optimization, maybe a 2%~5% but no more than that, and definitly not the 50% + increase that some players are hoping to see. volumetric light/fog and interactive vegetation have a high tax on the gpu and thats gonna stay that way until MS can optimize DX again. for now, and like with Crysis, people will have to either keep running DX9 or lower their settings on DX10 to get a descent frame rate, till they get faster GPUs...

Sadly i have to agree.

FC should have waited a few more months.

After 1.05.

I honestly think this was a really stupid idea.

I do think that a free trial and a win back offer need to go off at different times. New players will muddle around and get farmed a bit by current players but then there will also be folks interested in helping the new players out. There is a lot of stuff for brand new players atm.

Previous players have high level toons. Some will come back just to go on ganking sprees while others will want to see what has changed. Older players on ganking sprees does not work well with a bunch of brand new players running around.

On the other hand, the previous players will want to see how much of the game has actually changed (1.05). An offer to previous players needs to go out after 1.05, but should not go out at the same time as you are trying to grab new players. 

The timing for the free trial for new players does actually make sense. I expect an offer for previous players to go out after 1.05. These two groups need different things and should be given offers at different times.  

Agree on what OP Clearsam and DaveTT said it is indeed missed opportunity.

---

Originally posted by catlana

I do think that a free trial and a win back offer need to go off at different times. New players will muddle around and get farmed a bit by current players but then there will also be folks interested in helping the new players out. There is a lot of stuff for brand new players atm.
Previous players have high level toons. Some will come back just to go on ganking sprees while others will want to see what has changed. Older players on ganking sprees does not work well with a bunch of brand new players running around.
On the other hand, the previous players will want to see how much of the game has actually changed (1.05). An offer to previous players needs to go out after 1.05, but should not go out at the same time as you are trying to grab new players. 
The timing for the free trial for new players does actually make sense. I expect an offer for previous players to go out after 1.05. These two groups need different things and should be given offers at different times.  

---

 Good point. I hadn't thought about that. That makes good sense. I still think that new players will be pissed about 1.05 changing the game they just learned, but that shouldn't slow the win back offer, so I can see how the timing makes ,more sence w/ your point.

Originally posted by DaveTT

 

Sadly i have to agree.

FC should have waited a few more months.

After 1.05.

I honestly think this was a really stupid idea.

I don't think this is stupid. I bet there is a lot of different reasons (besides the ones posted on the official forums) for chosing to release trials right now. Just consider these few things:

• Summer is just around the corner... A lot of people would rather go to the beach and sit outside enjoying warm summernights instead of playing computergames.
• Easter will let a lot of people get the most of their free trial.
• FC's PR dept. have been mostly idle for quite some time - Erling and his boss is still on the payroll and they need to do something to warrant them staying there :)
• Quite a few of the very loyal customers have done everything they currently can (several times) in AoC - "Coming soon" is not good enough anymore and they might give their subscription a rest until fall.
• Funcom needs to keep the current subscriber base going to fund continued development of their next major title.

When patch 1.05 is released they can always run a "winback" campaign - After that... 1.06 another free trial re-relaunch - Rinse-repeat...

With a little luck they might still end up with a decent niche-success like EVE. I hope they do.

Originally posted by catlana

I do think that a free trial and a win back offer need to go off at different times. New players will muddle around and get farmed a bit by current players but then there will also be folks interested in helping the new players out. There is a lot of stuff for brand new players atm.

Previous players have high level toons. Some will come back just to go on ganking sprees while others will want to see what has changed. Older players on ganking sprees does not work well with a bunch of brand new players running around.

On the other hand, the previous players will want to see how much of the game has actually changed (1.05). An offer to previous players needs to go out after 1.05, but should not go out at the same time as you are trying to grab new players. 

The timing for the free trial for new players does actually make sense. I expect an offer for previous players to go out after 1.05. These two groups need different things and should be given offers at different times.  

I agree I think this is what is happening. And it seems like a good idea!