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World of Warcraft offered 'free'
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Author:  Amnesia10 [ Thu Jun 30, 2011 11:52 am ]
Post subject:  World of Warcraft offered 'free'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13973145

Quote:
Popular online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW) is to be offered free up to level 20.

Previously fans of the game, which has 11.4 million subscribers, had to pay a monthly fee of £8.99.

Under the new system, players will be able to build an unlimited number of characters but they will not be able to join guilds or accumulate more than ten gold coins.

The move is seen as a way of attracting new players to the game.

Author:  JJW009 [ Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

Sounds like a way to get flooded by annoying noobs.

Author:  jonbwfc [ Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

JJW009 wrote:
Sounds like a way to get flooded by annoying noobs.

Not really. Just stay out of the zones that level 20's or less can get to and you'll never see them. If you've been playing WoW for any length of time there's no real reason to go anywhere near Elwynn Forest for example.

Jon (lasped WoWer)

Author:  Fogmeister [ Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

jonbwfc wrote:
JJW009 wrote:
Sounds like a way to get flooded by annoying noobs.

Not really. Just stay out of the zones that level 20's or less can get to and you'll never see them. If you've been playing WoW for any length of time there's no real reason to go anywhere near Elwynn Forest for example.

Jon (lasped WoWer)

True,

There is only very limited access to lvl 20 and below. Not due to actual restrictions but due to rapid death.

The guild thing isn't much of a hinderance TBH as there is no real need to enter guilds until lvl 40-50 ish for raiding.

Also, the 10G restriction is not really a restriction as 10G is a LOT for a lvl 20 to have.

I would have thought more sensible restrictions would be stopping PvP for lvl 20 or below (as in arena, ctf and king of the hill pvp stuff) (can't remember what they're properly called now :P )

Also a lapsed WoWer.

Author:  JJW009 [ Thu Jun 30, 2011 9:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

Ah OK. Level 20 sounded like it should be quite high! As you can tell, I've never played the game. The nearest I came was watching "Theguild" on Youtube and reading Asphodelia's tales :oops: :lol:

However, if suddenly over 9000 noobs in search of lols happens then wouldn't that put off the noobs who would otherwise find it wonderful and addictive? I can imagine spawning and immediately being confronted by a large Anonymous greeting party determined to ensure I never progress :|

Author:  Fogmeister [ Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:49 am ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

Yes very true.

When I was playing the beginner zones were already full of people runnins around doing the same quests and waiting for the same loot drops etc... There is one cave with a guy you have to kill and even 4 years ago people were queueing up waiting for him to respawn so they could complete their quest.

With free gameplay it will make this even worse.

I can already see queues of people lining up to kill the same guy over and over.

Author:  belchingmatt [ Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

Fogmeister wrote:
I can already see queues of people lining up to kill the same guy over and over.

Is it a NPC, or could it be a prisoner in a Chinese gaol somewhere?

I can just see him now, 10 years into a 25 year Sisyphus like sentence.

*sigh* "Here we go again."

Author:  Fogmeister [ Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:59 am ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

belchingmatt wrote:
Fogmeister wrote:
I can already see queues of people lining up to kill the same guy over and over.

Is it a NPC, or could it be a prisoner in a Chinese gaol somewhere?

I can just see him now, 10 years into a 25 year Sisyphus like sentence.

*sigh* "Here we go again."

LOL! That would be an awesome punishment and would ease up the AI processors on the servers.

:lol:

Author:  jonbwfc [ Fri Jul 01, 2011 10:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: World of Warcraft offered 'free'

JJW009 wrote:
Ah OK. Level 20 sounded like it should be quite high! As you can tell, I've never played the game. The nearest I came was watching "Theguild" on Youtube and reading Asphodelia's tales :oops: :lol:

I think the current maximum level you can get to is level 75. The game has a 'progression curve' that's quite steep - if you're vaguely savvy you can probably get to level 20 in maybe 20 hours of game time or so. By level 70 you're talking more 20 hours of game time to gain one level. There are plenty of places to see and things to do at 'noob' level though. Plus there are two factions who effectively live on different continents up until roughly that point, so you can play the game though at least twice and never see the same content at all.

It would have to be fair to say that while they're not giving you the whole game for free, they're giving you an awful lot of game for free. Certainly as big a slice of content as some games you pay 40 quid for.

I'm not encouraging anyone to play mind, because it can be a horrible time (and money) sync. But what they're offering is actually quite a good deal.

JJW009 wrote:
However, if suddenly over 9000 noobs in search of lols happens then wouldn't that put off the noobs who would otherwise find it wonderful and addictive? I can imagine spawning and immediately being confronted by a large Anonymous greeting party determined to ensure I never progress :|

I'd imagine Anonymous would be less interested in griefing players in game and more interested in taking the game off the air. That would certainly be news. As it is the game has a 'flagging' system which means if you prefer things that way, you can be effectively immune from attacks by other players and just get on with what the game world offers you to do. The main problem you're likely to have is more to do with simple crowds - if there's a quest objective you need (like a specific goblin chief you need to kill) and there's a hundred other people online who also need it, then likely you're going to find it quite hard to get that done.

Jon

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