The Trial vs Standard Edition doesn't feel fair

[Goji1639]

It is a little weird, because it discourages people from actually buying the game until they've completed the base game and HW for free.

I'm guessing it's a coding/logistics issue, though. Trial and active accounts are separate, insular things; your account is either trial or active, it can't be both. Rearranging the infrastructure to change active accounts across the board into trial accounts for everyone until they've completed HW is probably more complication than it's worth; and the end result would be them losing money anyways.

They probably should at least explain that once you buy the game your trial ends, and you'll be required to pay a sub fee to continue, though.

[Nishira]

I’m a new player myself, started only a month and a half ago or so. I play together with my partner. We tried it for a week with the free trial and were thoroughly fed up with the restrictions by then haha, so we gladly bought the game. For those playing solo I can sorta see how it may work, tho crafting without a retainer, and having no access to the mp just seems like a nightmare to me. With a group tho I can’t see how you regret your choices, it’s so much more convenient with a small investment. And if you enjoy it, it’s well worth it the way I see it

I really appreciated the free trial, it gave me the chance to see if I’d like the game. I did and then I’ll happily support those making the game.

[Rivlet]

Hi, everyone,

Thank you all for your feedback. It has been pretty enlightening. There are some things I want to say about this.

1. I wasn't able to post since yesterday night because the forum restricted me from doing so, according to something about a forum level. I will only say that, in my opinion, there is room for improvement there too (especially when talking about something as big as the forum of one of SE's flagship games and franchises). Having moderators could be a better way to control flooding and misuse.

2. Some member thought my stance on the subject could be considered as "greedy". I want to make something clear here.
First, I am super grateful about the chance given by Yoshida and his team to let people approach their game in a calm and cheap way. The Free Trial is, indeed, very generous.
Second, the mistake I made (buying the game without informing myself properly about what would happen) took place precisely because I wanted to SHOW SUPPORT. Lifting the restrictions was OK, but it wasn't necessary for us. Being able to party was the only perk we were looking for and we didn't need it because one of our friends already had the game (bought + subscribed). That is what I consider the saddest thing of all: for us, purchasing brought way more inconvenients than rewards (I insist: for us, our playstyle and our expectations).

3. As some other users pointed out and as I said before, we are now aware of the impossibility of blurring the line between Free Trial and Standard. The way the game is built prevents it. The only solution would be to lift all restrictions from Free Trial so that there is no such thing and so that a simple F2P ARR - HW Standard version takes its place. This WOULDN'T BE FAIR for SE and FFXIV (third time I point this out).

4. Some people have been focusing on the obvious (Free Trial is a Trial, duh; you buy the game, no more Trial), but that was NOT the point of this thread. The point was that the distinction between Free Trial and Standard users is confusing (as some members pointed out) and highly unfavorable to some players belonging to the latter category. Unfavorable enough to make me wish I had been TRULY greedy and had squeezed every penny of the trial, not purchasing anything but the Complete Collection once I was fully done with ARR and HW.

I probably had more things to say about the issue, but I think those are the main ones and the rest is pretty clear.

Unfortunately, there is no solution for this.

However, I think there are some things that may help: making information clearer and more accessible (heck, even finding the download for the ffxiv client can be an ordeal) and maybe fixing what I commented about the forum, so that communication is fostered.

Cheers, everyone.

[kaynide]

Obviously it’s not ideal for SE if you (or anyone) were to recommend this game as “oh it’s fun, but play it for free until around level 60 to save money”.

For you, what would be ideal or maybe what would have been an incentive change that to “I mean, you could play for free, but you really really wanna buy the game ASAP because you’ll get….”?

Currently, it boils down to no gil cap, market access, item storage, and the ability to chat or form parties freely. These are not that big of a draw in my opinion, especially for a new player that constantly gets new gear from quests…and especially because the game has little need for money when your just playing it. Even the veteran rewards are not that enticing.

[Jojoya]

Unfortunately, there is no solution for this.

The solution is to have a second account as free trial only. It doesn't take that long to get through the "tedious" parts and then you'll be able to enjoy the parts you do like. Your character would have exactly what is allowed to a trial character so there would be no issue of SE needing to take away things that can only be obtained with a entry/standard subscription.

The distinctions between the Free Trial and Subscription are clear. There is nothing unfavorable to those who are subscribed as they are getting more flexibility and value for financially supporting the game. All those little QoL features not available on trial actually do make a big difference unless you are trying to play FFXIV as a solo player game with only minimal contact with other players.

[StriderShinryu]

It does seem like kind of a strange distinction and I'm imagining it is likely more of a backend thing with the way accounts are handled than anything specifically intentional. Most of the time when I've seen complaints like this it's been in relation to someone who maybe bought the base game literally years ago and decided to try it again now under the free trial only to find out that the account they started years ago is locking them out of trying the game now. It's definitely something they should probably look into fixing.

[Chyro]

One thing they could do about the difficulty of making 'higher content' chars into free-trial chars (as it would need to restrict level, access to locations etc) - would be to simply not do it anymore once a char starts the first non-free-trial story quest (currently that would be the first quest of Stormblood). Then they could return any char that is still in Free Trial content (ARR & HW) to go back to being a free trial player (Gil restriction could just prevent you from gaining any Gil while above the 'cap' of the free trial) when their sub runs out. Or even limit it to only players that have 'bought' the game but not subbed yet (so that you'd only go back to free trial after the 30 days that came with buying the game - but once you start subbing, you can't go back to non-subbed free trial). There's a lot of variations and possibilities about how to implement this, when specifically targeting the problem of players being turned off from the game if buying it 'forced' them into sub-mode. Another more generous solution would be that buying the game lifts the free-trial restrictions, while also letting you play until the end of heavensward as if you're still in the free trial (so even the 30 days from buying the game would only start ticking after reaching the end of heavensward). I agree that something could be done about it to make it more appealing for players to fully get into the game before having to sub. Though can't say how far Square Enix should go with it, or how generous they should be - probably a question for their marketing and financial teams. I do think it could be a benefit for players and the company both, if it makes more people stick with the game.

[Rivlet]

@Jojoya: Well, there are options, of course (such as the one you presented and others). What I meant by "there is no solution" is that the specific problem I am bringing up cannot be solved (my account cannot be downgraded to trial and trial accounts and ARR&HW cannot be upgraded to Standard Version F2P).

Dezzmont's post summarized my ideas and feelings pretty well:

I think people are sorta missing the core problem here:

The upgrade is sorta a downgrade if your still in ARR or HW. I definitely think SE 'earns' the sub by how much they support the game, and the free trial is EXTREMELY generous, but it feels bad if you want to support the game and then realize your now locked into the sub even if your not really 'ready' for it.

The issue at hand doesn't question the generosity of the Trial or the overall difference between Trial users and subscribers. It specifically alludes to Trial vs Starter/Standard. Of course, purchasing and subscribing for content beyond HW is completely fine and justified, in my opinion. It is the difference between Trial and Starter/Standard which doesn't feel fair TO ME. I capitalize this because even though I agree there are players who would deem the QoL features worth paying and subscribing for, I am not one of them. How many of us are there? I can't tell. But what I can say is that I would definitely prefer being able to go through ARR and HW's content at my own pace, without worrying about subscriptions, than being locked out of it because I can manage parties, join FC... I would do that eventually, but not before beating ARR and HW.

Let me provide another example: GW2 is the MMO I played the most. Got my endgame, updates, etc. The GW2 base game is not great (again, my opinion). The story is kind of meh, cutscenes are, more often than not, simple face-to-face dialogues with a 2D background, etc. Even the typical MMO content wasn't great back then. However, since there was no time cap, I got to beat that part at my own rhythm. Having done that, I got to experience the massive improvement of the Living World seasons, which came for free. That hooked me, cheering me up to actually purchase the first expansion. I liked it. Got involved in it and bought some gems on the store to get some QoL and cosmetics. Then the second one came out, which I also bought and absolutely loved. And now I'm looking towards the third.

Of course, they are different concepts and models (one has the entry experience under the "F2P" label, the other one wears a "Free Trial" one; one features subscriptions, the other one doesn't; both feature Free user limitations, although way differently). None is better than the other. I am just explaining this to further clarify the way I often approach MMOs. And that's what I wanted with FFXIV... I just didn't expect that showing support by purchasing the game (and potentially future subscriptions after HW) was going to lock me out from being able to approach it that way.

[Rivlet]

I know that you don't like idea of losing the ability to play FFXIV base game and Heavensward for free once you buy the game but again trial version is never ment to make base game and Heavensward content free to play, it's made to let people try base game and Heavensward content with restrictions before buying the base game and expansions.

And there is no point to keep saying that FFXIV base game and Heavensward content needs to be fully free to play either when devs of FFXIV already said years ago that they won't make any of content fully free to play which is why they continue to have the trial version of the game.

So only option you have now is create a new account just for the trial version and play through everything that trial version offers.

And yet it is what they did, regardless of what they meant. Otherwise, they would have left it as it was: 30 days + ARR + 35 as a level cap.


I never said that. In fact, I said exactly the opposite (which means I agree with you).

[Vahlnir]

And yet it is what they did, regardless of what they meant.

As a free trial, albeit an extremely generous one. You seem to be struggling with this.