Trial restrictions- I'm not so sure..

Rock, can you keep your sentences shorter please? I find your posts hard to read.
In this instance, while I understand what you've been saying, the fact that trial users impeded your game is hard to swallow. Im sure you got a load of emails and im sure you got tells too. But hey,i get tele canvassers calling me all day long. What to do?

Restricting trialists in a punative way, as now, means that less people that try the game will take it.

ide sooner delete a few emails and ignore a bit of spam than have that happen quite frankly. And besides, there are ways of achieving both. Its just a matter of looking at the issues and determining the outcome you want.

NC really have complicated a pretty straightforward issue here and I hope they resolve it soon.

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Don't get into a flap. It's only my opinion and I'm thick

Arc 56763 Lord Anarchys heaven

2 mission arc. Bring friends cause Lord Anarchy means business...

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I should note that a suggestion discussed in detail on the French forums has already been passed along for consideration at NCNC (it was also suggested here on the English), and any other good ideas that crop up will likewise be sent over.

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While not ideas Per Se, I hope that much of the constructive critiscm as possible is fed back to red names.

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What has disturbed me about all this (and probably why i've gone over it so much) is that this really isnt something that they should need our advice about. Theyre supposed to be professionals backed by a corporation for heavens sake and this really really isnt rocket science.

They send out trials. They want people to take the trials and then buy the product. They dont want thhe trial accounts to be used by spammers and griefers. Ba boom.

And you know something else? I have to say, in my business life I had never given or taken a restricted trial. Everyone who gives me a trial gives me full use of the product for a limited time. Then they ask me if I want to keep it. And i do exactly the same.

I'm not actually sure that this limited trial business has anything going for it in the first place.

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Don't get into a flap. It's only my opinion and I'm thick

Arc 56763 Lord Anarchys heaven

2 mission arc. Bring friends cause Lord Anarchy means business...

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I'm not actually sure that this limited trial business has anything going for it in the first place.

[/ QUOTE ]Then you really need a course on MMO economics. CoH didn't really have a problem before I9, but post-inventions there certainly were requirements for trial restrictions.

The only successful sub-based MMO's currently on the market that hava no real need for limits are games like EVE, where it's not really viable to gather large amounts of money by using trial accounts. Of course, EVE also has developer-sanctioned ways of buying in-game currency, so they also don't really have the spam problem.

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( Quick reply, not specifically to anyone. )

Trial limits were introduced into LotRO after a couple of months due to the excessive amount of spam caused by gold-sellers. They were denied some forms of communication, not dissimilar to those outlined above.

Now, personally, I got very few gold-seller mails, and broadcast stuff didn't bother me since I totally ignored the broadcast traffic, it was a sewer. So I did not see the need for it. Others, however, thought it was a brilliant idea and said that the amount of spam they were getting had reduced to almost nothing. Of course, the gold-sellers just came up with another way of getting their message out...

So, one person's experience doesn't really count for much. The real situation could be terrible, but you're lucky. Or it could be Inf-pedlars just love sending you messages. The only people with a hope of knowing for sure are NCSoft, and they would need to datamine it heavily to find out.

The situation with level limits is another matter, and the communications blackout seems to be a little hamfisted. Level limits have nothing to do with gold-farming or gold-selling. The LotRO (and WoW) solution on communication is that people can only receive tells and such from trial accounts if the receiver has that character on their friends list. Not perfect, but fairly workable.

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

Strangely in the software business limited trials are rife. Some of them do go down the "full features for 30 days", but a lot of them go down the route of "use this free!! (but with limited features unless you pay $29.95 to register). Ridiculous in my opinion

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@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
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Level limits have nothing to do with gold-farming or gold-selling.

[/ QUOTE ]A trial account that wasn't level limited could PL to the level cap quite quickly and then farm gold/inf/gil/plat. Unless of course you make trial accounts unable to trade stuff.

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I find it hard (very hard) to believe that is a valid tactic, but if you say so.

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Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.

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I find it hard (very hard) to believe that is a valid tactic, but if you say so.

[/ QUOTE ]Well, getting a character PL'd to the level cap doesn't take more than a day, so that leaves 6/9/13 more days (ignoring 3 day trials) to use that character to earn inf, which can then be passed to the next trial account. Basically allowing gold farming without needing any paid accounts at all.

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I should note that a suggestion discussed in detail on the French forums has already been passed along for consideration at NCNC (it was also suggested here on the English), and any other good ideas that crop up will likewise be sent over.

[/ QUOTE ]

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While not ideas Per Se, I hope that much of the constructive critiscm as possible is fed back to red names.

[/ QUOTE ]

What has disturbed me about all this (and probably why i've gone over it so much) is that this really isnt something that they should need our advice about. Theyre supposed to be professionals backed by a corporation for heavens sake and this really really isnt rocket science.

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TBH nothing I've seen suggests that they do actually need our advice. Sure, lots of us will give it, on all sorts of topics, and it never hurts to listen to what customers are saying...as long as you don't give too much weight to what's ultimately a very small fraction of the subscribers.

Feedback from forums might suggest ideas, or refinements, NCNC wouldn't come up with so quickly themselves - there are more of us on the customer side, after all - or give hints on how well changes are going down. That's a long way from the feedback being an absolute necessity, though.

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And you know something else? I have to say, in my business life I had never given or taken a restricted trial. Everyone who gives me a trial gives me full use of the product for a limited time. Then they ask me if I want to keep it. And i do exactly the same.

I'm not actually sure that this limited trial business has anything going for it in the first place.

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FWIW my own company mainly does full product/limited time trials too (with a limited product/limited (but rather long) time version for university courses), but I can see different types of trial being more applicable in different circumstances.

Given the nature of CoX accounts NCSoft will have 100% accurate figures for how many trial accounts are being opened, and how many are then being converted to full accounts as they expire. Presumably they're also tracking changes to the numbers as they vary the capabilities of trial accounts, and will back pedal a bit if they find restrictions are so tight there's a marked drop off in full account takeups.

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I've used alot of software trials, www.downloads.com is brilliant for finding the odd bit of software for whatever I need it for, and I have to say I have used more "Full Access/Limited Time" than I have done "Part Access/Unlimited Time". But thats just me, obviously in this situation Unlimited Time is hardly an option, so your choices are limited for what to run.

As for feedback, most companies accept feedback, whether they take it seriously or not is never going to stop people giving them feedback, and if we all throw our stupid ideas and suggestions at them, if we can help them improve the game environment in one way, thats a bonus.

Obviously theres an issue with trial accounts, too lax, to too heavy handed, and obviously its gonna be hard to balance, at the end of the day, perhaps we're in a better position to say what potential subscribers would find acceptable having been there before, and then maybe were not.

I'd like to think that some of whatever (sensibly) is fedback on these boards does get thought about, afterall its a great opportunity that MMO Devs have to increase the appeal of their game by listening to the fanbase.

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I understand that trail accounts need restrictions to stop inf-sellers, but why so steep? I've just come off one myself and it was VERY hard to communicate with other players at all. I've been yelled at and flamed through tell for ignoring people when I can't reply because I'm on a trail account. What am I meant to do there? Maybe they should make it so you can only reply to someone who has sent you a tell recently. That way, you can communicate very easily, and you are unable to spam gold sells. Also, just disable trading on trail accounts.

I'll just say that even now that WoW have put all these restrictions on trial accounts that the spam is still as bad. You get maybe one or two spam adverts a minute when in a city and at least one every half hour while you're out questing. If you pay say £9 for the gold they sell, you can buy WoW for £7 on the internet, so they make profit anyway.

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I'm not actually sure that this limited trial business has anything going for it in the first place.

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Then you really need a course on MMO economics. CoH didn't really have a problem before I9, but post-inventions there certainly were requirements for trial restrictions.

The only successful sub-based MMO's currently on the market that hava no real need for limits are games like EVE, where it's not really viable to gather large amounts of money by using trial accounts. Of course, EVE also has developer-sanctioned ways of buying in-game currency, so they also don't really have the spam problem.

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One of the reasons, alongside my sons experiences that prompted this thread was the fact they actually increased the rerstrictions during a patch recently. that is not an indicator that they have any thoughts to revisit it in the near future.

If you read my overall posts, in fact the one I just wrote, I don't dispute as such them operating certain limitations.
I can see the inf limit. i can see an argument to allow a trialist membership to an SG but not to a base. I can even see a logic to prevent LOCAL and broadcasting chat. (which they dont.) But the simple fact is they are breaking eggs to make their omemlete.

Fact. My son, who is bright, a keen gamer etc etc, was not enjoying the trial and would have quit if I hadnt teamed with him and persuaded him to carry on. Now his trial issues are over he is enjoying it. He is part of an Sg that helps him team and he can chat to people and suddenly the game is taking the shape that makes it long term playable.

Not enery trialist will drop the game because of the restrictions but a disproportionate number of them will.

There is no business on earth that wants to discourage people it is applying a trial to NOT to buy the product is there? Well, that is precisely what these restrictions are doing.

The fact that there are ways to exploit an unlimited trial is NOT sufficent reason to punitively restrict a trialist.

I don't need a course in MMMO economics. It's more a course in MMO (and general) common sense thats required here. And it's the person(s) that issue deicts like this, without looking at the knock on effect of this kind of action, that needs to take it.

Finally, just to cover your exact point, if there was a choice only between the current restrictions (less people actually take up the game) and less griefing ( and no restrictions at all (a few annoying emails emails and tells here and there)I would choose the latter not the former and expect the developers to deal with it another way.

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Don't get into a flap. It's only my opinion and I'm thick

Arc 56763 Lord Anarchys heaven

2 mission arc. Bring friends cause Lord Anarchy means business...

[ QUOTE ]
Strangely in the software business limited trials are rife. Some of them do go down the "full features for 30 days", but a lot of them go down the route of "use this free!! (but with limited features unless you pay $29.95 to register). Ridiculous in my opinion

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That is a completely different scenario and you ought to know it. If I was wanted a certain function (the ability to obliterate all files from the comp for instance), I could use the free trial, say thank you very much and never use that particular product again. I could simply download another one.Thats why softwear companies agree with each other to make trials that dont offer full functionality. Because they all suffer the same problem.

This is not the same thing at all.

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Don't get into a flap. It's only my opinion and I'm thick

Arc 56763 Lord Anarchys heaven

2 mission arc. Bring friends cause Lord Anarchy means business...

Post deleted.

I can't be bothered mate. Think what you like.

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@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat