Been hearing a lot of suggestions lately about a "Free Trial" and no matter how I look at it.....I don't think it would work.....

I mean, if you allow trial accounts to all join NA-1 or EU-1, there will be a massive chaos on the server. PKers will be raining down killing everything in their way....yeah....

Then there's the suggestion of a "Trial Server" but then again....remember when DarkFall launched? You know.....50 people fighting over the same goblin spawn then one guy attacks another player by mistake and gets attacked by all the other players in the area for the kill.

Wouldn't that turn off more players?



And then I was pretty much looking around the MMORPG.com forum and I saw that thread "Need more solo-content in MMOs" and it sort of gave me an idea.....

How about a Demo? Basically, a single player Demo of DarkFall with a single race and starter zone, scripted PKers who comes by from time to time, decent crafting spots, goblins/zombies/trolls with good AI. Demo would not have a time limit. Player could play as long as they wants and once they feels confortable with the game mechanic, well he can buy DarkFall and join the MMO server.



Quite frankly, I haven't tried a single "Free Trial" where I could actually do enough to tell wether or not I liked the game. Always ending up buying before realizing it's crap and leaving the game. Demos are pretty easy to make and doesn't cause any trouble both server-side and community-wise.

Beside, knowing the DarkFall community, it would be possible to make multiple accounts in order to farm alignements or make easy gold (starter quests).

Thoughts?

My closest solution would be to be able to buy an account that you can play for say 14 days for 10 dollars, then after that 14 days you are prompted to buy the game.

A free trial wouldn't work in my opinion, a minor fee trial might.

Originally posted by MadnessRealm

How about a Demo? Basically, a single player Demo of DarkFall with a single race and starter zone, scripted PKers who comes by from time to time, decent crafting spots, goblins/zombies/trolls with good AI. Demo would not have a time limit. Player could play as long as they wants and once they feels confortable with the game mechanic, well he can buy DarkFall and join the MMO server.

WoW sells trials for $2.99

I would GLADLY pay $5 to give Darkfall a shot.

The only way I see it working is a segregated trial island.

Originally posted by TheHatter

WoW sells trials for $2.99

I would GLADLY pay $5 to give Darkfall a shot.

As would I.

I'm actually boot'n up the Sega Dreamcast and playing Phantasy Star Online while I wait for something good to come my way.

I have contemplated all the suggestions in this thread plus a few more without being able to figure out which, if any, would work best for Darkfall.

What I will say however is that within the last couple of months Aventurine has given out free 10 day trial game cards, on more than one occasion in Greece. I don't know what this gesture might imply, just stating a fact.

Originally posted by egotrip

Originally posted by MadnessRealm

How about a Demo? Basically, a single player Demo of DarkFall with a single race and starter zone, scripted PKers who comes by from time to time, decent crafting spots, goblins/zombies/trolls with good AI. Demo would not have a time limit. Player could play as long as they wants and once they feels confortable with the game mechanic, well he can buy DarkFall and join the MMO server.

I'm actually serious. It's somewhat easy to make.

I have not seen the results of the 10 day free trial cards on EU yet but I would really like to avoid a Free Trial. It would be terrible.

I think eventually AV will go with a trial island. seems more logical than programming a hundred new routines to check trial status on the various mechanics like trade etc. small island in the west or w/e that has a town for each alliance, which meet in the middle for some pvp

A small island won't display a main reason to play DF for a lot of people - a huge beautiful world Agon, you know...

Originally posted by Kshahdoo

A small island won't display a main reason to play DF for a lot of people - a huge beautiful world Agon, you know...

How about a large island then, with steep mountains on the cliffs and no landing spots for boats.

A small island would indeed not work, because it would be crouded with trial players.

Originally posted by TheHatter

WoW sells trials for $2.99

I would GLADLY pay $5 to give Darkfall a shot.

Actually you can, for only 6.8 euros you can go out, to a newspaper stand and purchase the latest issue of "PC Master" and voila:

Oh, I forgot, you don't live in Greece.

It's alright though, in that case the price is only 6.8 euros + plane tickets*

*for optimal experience, only Aventurine affiliated airlines are recommended.

Originally posted by Cuelda

Originally posted by TheHatter

WoW sells trials for $2.99

I would GLADLY pay $5 to give Darkfall a shot.

 

Actually you can, for only 6.8 euros you can go out, to a newspaper stand and purchase the latest issue of "PC Master" and voila:

 

Oh, I forgot, you don't live in Greece.

It's alright though, in that case the price is only 6.8 euros + plane tickets*

 

 

 

 

*for optimal experience, only Aventurine affiliated airlines are recommended.

That's pretty cool. I would start another thread with the pic to show everyone DF has free trials, but w/e

Originally posted by TalRasha

Originally posted by Kshahdoo

A small island won't display a main reason to play DF for a lot of people - a huge beautiful world Agon, you know...

 

How about a large island then, with steep mountains on the cliffs and no landing spots for boats.

 

A small island would indeed not work, because it would be crouded with trial players.

I really doubt a large island would fix it. I mean, those who have seen DarkFall at launch just know how chaotic it was if you put the various bugs, lags, etc aside. 50 players attacking the same goblin, same thing happens in every cities....yeah.....that was sad...

Originally posted by TheHatter

WoW sells trials for $2.99

I would GLADLY pay $5 to give Darkfall a shot.

Originally posted by tensspotting

That's pretty cool. I would start another thread with the pic to show everyone DF has free trials, but w/e

All they did was offer trials for euros through a popular UK gaming publication, it does nothing to help NA players. Not really deserving of its own thread.

However, it does prove that everyone arguing against a non-restricted free trial for DF is wrong, as apparently AV has seen no issues with offering the trials through the magazine.

Trials do not/will not hurt your precious game at all, they will help it prosper.

Aventurine needs to stop listening the whiney DF veterans who are afraid to see new blood coming into the game, and just design a proper trial and put it into motion. Anyone saying there would be an overload of ganking is kidding themselves because we all know DF is just a gankers game to begin with, what are you so afraid of?

Implement a free trial, non-restricted for 7 days, asap Aventurine. ASAP!

Originally posted by Euphoryk

 

All they did was offer trials for euros through a popular UK gaming publication, it does nothing to help NA players.

Actually it's just Greeks, for the time being.

PC Master is a Greek magazine.

How about make the trial on a floating island way up in the sky? And then also add death from falling damage while they are at it?

Originally posted by Cuelda

Actually it's just Greeks, for the time being.

PC Master is a Greek magazine.

I don't understand the point of your response.

Are you insinuating that Greeks are not Europeans? If not, then everything I said was accurate.

Originally posted by Euphoryk

Originally posted by tensspotting

That's pretty cool. I would start another thread with the pic to show everyone DF has free trials, but w/e

 

All they did was offer trials for euros through a popular UK gaming publication, it does nothing to help NA players. Not really deserving of its own thread.

However, it does prove that everyone arguing against a non-restricted free trial for DF is wrong, as apparently AV has seen no issues with offering the trials through the magazine.

Trials do not/will not hurt your precious game at all, they will help it prosper.

Aventurine needs to stop listening the whiney DF veterans who are afraid to see new blood coming into the game, and just design a proper trial and put it into motion. Anyone saying there would be an overload of ganking is kidding themselves because we all know DF is just a gankers game to begin with, what are you so afraid of?

Implement a free trial, non-restricted for 7 days, asap Aventurine. ASAP!

A limited number of trial accounts has little to no effect in regards to paying accounts.  However problems will occur with a mass trial account influx so careful forethought is a must.

DF veterans are not against a trial because we are afraid of "new blood."  We just want to see proper implementation to limit any kind of exploiting.