Tag: Trial

Defiance Reveals Endless Free Trial


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Trion Worlds has announced that Defiance will be moving over to an endless free trial, allowing players to get in on the action for as long as they like without buying the full game. Instead of the previous 72 hour time limit, players will now be capped at 500 EGO points until they upgrade to the full version. With Defiance going for cheaper than a meal at Burger King most days, upgrading to the full version won’t set players back that much. To the best of my knowledge, this beta extends only to PC players.

(Source: Trion Press Release)

Rift Compensates For Shard Transfers


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Going free to play has a habit of causing disruption, especially when it comes to the more popular servers. In the case of Icewatch and Akala, two European shards, the already popular servers became overloaded thanks to the influx of new players ready to give free to play a try, as well as the returning players who had already called the server home. As a result, Trion was forced to alleviate the load by converting the shards into “trial status,” forcing players to move their characters elsewhere using the game’s free server change tool.

What is trial status, you ask? When a server is put on trial status, only the starting cities of Meridian and Sanctum are available. Characters are fully accessible and do not lose any equipment, but must be transferred off of the server in order to play in areas beyond the starting zone. Transferring is free and does not carry any of the normal restrictions of how much platinum your character may have on them. A guild master may transfer his guild over to a new server, in which case each member will be notified on their next log in and be given the opportunity to follow.

Since players are understandably angry at this move, Trion is compensating refugees from Icewatch and Akala with exclusive titles, an exclusive wardrobe set, and +1000 loyalty.

(Source: Rift)

Xsyon Trial Server Now Open


Hey folks, remember Xsyon? Yes, it is still up and running and doing just fine. Up until now if you wanted to try Xsyon you had to buy the game and pay the subscription fee. The rules are simple: You can play as long as you want, and do pretty much whatever you want. The limitation is that the server will be reset every Monday, so if you want your progress to be saved, you’ll have to buy the game.

All players old and new that are signed up on our forums now have access to the Trial Server. Instructions on Trial Server access are available on your account page after signing up.

(Source: Xsyon)

TERA Launches With Strong 7-Day Trial


When you launch your game with both a client cost and a subscription, gathering new customers after the initial rush of early adopters can get pretty hard. In recent years, level-based trials with no time limit have replaced the one to two week trials of the past. Another hard wall that developers have faced in bringing in new customers, even with the free trials, is the growing size of game clients. Back when Dungeon Runners shut down, the developers noted that a large percentage of players would never even finish downloading the client, and Dungeon Runners was free!

TERA launches its seven day trial with some pretty generous offerings. Players are able to level up 8 characters to level 23 on one server (assuming you can do that in seven days), with some restrictions to certain chat channels, trade brokers, and player vs player combat. Trial accounts are also not allowed to vote in the elections, so put your vote-rigging plans to rest.

Additionally, if you don’t want to take on the 50 gigabyte installation that is TERA, you can try the limited Gaikai streaming trial. There is nothing to install for this trial, however it only lasts 30 minutes and you are restricted to the warrior, sorcerer, and lancer classes. Additionally, Gaikai services are only available in the United States and Europe.

Hit up the link below for details on both the 7-day trial and the Gaikai streaming demo.

(Source: Try TERA)

Darkfall Suspends Client Cost


Darkfall 2.0 may still be far off in the distance, but Aventurine is still working hard to bring new players into the community. In a few weeks, players will be able to get into Darkfall for the easy price of $14.99. Similar to Warhammer Online a couple years back, Aventurine is dropping the client cost in favor of simply paying for the subscription once the trial runs out.

This promotion comes with both purchasing and game play relayed changes and it will last until the launch of Darkfall 2.0. We will be removing the client purchase fee and to start playing Darkfall you will only need to pay the monthly fee. We are also preparing something that has to do with skill gains.

More in a few weeks.

(source: Darkfall Website)

Try Out The Old Republic Free, Again!


Last weekend, Bioware invited users who had never experience The Old Republic to show up and try the game for free for a weekend. Starting today and running through the 26th, Bioware wants to scoop up anyone who did not participate in last week’s trial. Players are able to take on the first fifteen levels of the first two planets for any class or race. Trial players will not be able to use general, trade, and PvP chat, and will be unable to use the send mail or use the Galactic Trade Network.

Check it out here. A reminder: This only extends to people who have never played The Old Republic before. Previous subscribers, friend pass users, and prior free weekend players are not included.

RuneScape: Members Trial Much More Likely


If you had asked me one year ago if RuneScape should have a members trial, I might have said no. Not that such a program wouldn’t be beneficial, but that the rampant amount of cheaters that plagued the game at the time would use the opportunity for free membership, no matter how short, to bot more valuable members items and upend the economy even more. Now that the bots are no longer an issue, there isn’t much of a reason not to allow free players to experience membership.

Not to say that RuneScape’s free version is low quality, but the skills accessible to free players are (for the most part) a far cry from the variety offered in membership. Of the twenty five skills, free players can access sixteen. Seven of those skills are combat related (Attack, strength, defense, constitution, magic, ranged, and prayer). Of the remaining nine, three (woodcutting, fishing, mining) are basic harvesting skills, five (runecrafting, crafting, firemaking, smithing, cooking) are processing skills that revolve around taking raw materials to a place and using them on a thing to create finished stuff, with Dungeoneering bringing up the rear as a combination of all of the above in a secluded area.

Members, on the other hand, is quite a different game to its free to play brother. Weapons and equipment sets with special effects add a whole new level of strategy to combat, as do potions, poisons, curses, new magic books. Skills like summoning can dramatically alter a person’s experience from combat to simple resource gathering. Farming requires time management and mobility while slayer introduces the player to combat that requires more strategy than fight, fight, eat food, kill.

In 2010, Jagex did attempt a membership trial for a week in July, but the program was bogged down by a few unfriendly details. Players were required to submit credit card details, which was charged for $5.95 and set the player up with an automatically recurring subscription. Only if the player unsubscribed during those seven days would the deposit be refunded.

To Jagex’s defense, and as I’ve already said, an unrestricted membership trial at the time would have upended the RuneScape economy table, riddling the members worlds with even more bots than were already present. With the bots absent, there isn’t much reason for Jagex to not offer a taste of membership to free players.

Other than that I have no opinion.

Aion: 10 Day Free Trial And Welcome Back Week


Aion’s 2.5 patch brings a whole lot of sexy to NCsoft’s already big-hitting title. The patch brings with it a new graphics mode, new content, customizations, pets, mentoring, armors, abyss changes, dynamic maps, and more changes than you could legally shake your finger at. In fact, NCsoft is so excited, that they want to welcome back their old players (again) to show them just how well the game has improved…just not for a few weeks. Possibly to give the current subscribers a leg up on the update and work out any kinks before reopening the doors, the welcome back week runs from June 3rd to June 13th.

If you haven’t logged into your NCsoft account since the security update, you may want to get a head start. NCsoft enacted a new security policy, requiring computers to be authenticated before an account can log in from them. In order to authenticate a computer, you will need to enter your password hint answers, and if you don’t know those, go through support to get them changed. Do so soon, because there’s no saying how much NCsoft’s Customer support will be backed up.

Furthermore, those of you who never played Aion will have the opportunity to take part in a ten day trial, experiencing up to level 20. The trial goes live May 26th. Oh NCsoft, why did you have to pick June 3rd and make me choose between Aion, the Hellgate Global beta opening, and the Duke Nukem Forever beta (among other things that week)?

Rift 7-Day Trial: Alienware/Friend Referral


Wanted to try out Rift, but didn’t know anyone who owned the game? Missed the ally weekends? Well do I have good news for you: Alienware is giving away keys for seven day trials to Rift, and you can get one.

Just head over to http://www.alienwarearena.com/giveaway/rift/, and create an Alienware account to get your key. Follow the instructions, and you’ll be all set up to start your seven day trial.

Alternatively, if you didn’t want to sign up for an Alienware account, you are welcome to use my referral link: Here.