The Trial vs Standard Edition doesn't feel fair

[Fland]

If someone is having a hard time coming up with $10-$20 a month.. then they don't need to be gaming, they need to get their life together. $20 is basically the cost of lunch at a casual food place.. and thats ONE meal... FFXIV is only like $15 per month, for how many hours of enjoyment??

hell donating plasma once pays $75...

I was 13 years old and was able to pay my own Ultima Online subscription, and pay for my own phone line, AND pay for my own internet (around $120 USD per month for a 13 year old)... all from selling candy bars to kids at lunch and mowing lawns

I don't think the OP can't afford the sub. They just don't want to pay for the sub until after they finish with HW. Which you can do with trial acc, but they already bought the SE acc.
They want the SE acc to become F2P once the sub ran out, which is not the case here.

[Jojoya]

That's the whole point of this topic. Other subscription games allow it just fine.

Which games are you referring to? Every other example presented in this thread has not been a subscription-based MMORPG. They've been buy to play or free to play that offer optional subscriptions but don't require them.

[ForctyusGold]

thing is the game is running mostly because people paying sub. i dont know how works Guild Wars or BDO but i guess they need side money with aesthetics or pay to win mechanic. free trial is here for trying not playing in style free-to-play o/

[Fyrebrand]

I find it ridiculous that someone who gave Square Enix exactly zero dollars is welcome to play for free, as much as they please, up to the end of Heavensward. But someone who bought the game and actually gave Square Enix money, is basically persona non grata as soon as the funds dry up. What kind of messed up logic is that!?

I guarantee you there is some amount of customers they are losing because of this inane policy, and playing the forum "rules lawyer" is not doing anyone any good. Plus, I have a friend who bought the game years ago, I believe before there even was a free trial. I told him about the new expanded free trial, and he was interested but of course Squeenix dumped him like a sack of popotoes.

[ForctyusGold]

I find it ridiculous that someone who gave Square Enix exactly zero dollars is welcome to play for free, as much as they please, up to the end of Heavensward. But someone who bought the game and actually gave Square Enix money, is basically persona non grata as soon as the funds dry up. What kind of messed up logic is that!?

I guarantee you there is some amount of customers they are losing because of this inane policy, and playing the forum "rules lawyer" is not doing anyone any good. Plus, I have a friend who bought the game years ago, I believe before there even was a free trial. I told him about the new expanded free trial, and he was interested but of course Squeenix dumped him like a sack of popotoes.

im sure they can play under Free Login Campaign when its out. there is ZERO limitation. people know the rules still saying how horrible designed it is. free trialers have restriction , those who pay for game time doesnt so there is difference. i would cut free trial to 30 days durations because limitless how it is now is just ridiculous kinda.

[Jojoya]

I find it ridiculous that someone who gave Square Enix exactly zero dollars is welcome to play for free, as much as they please, up to the end of Heavensward. But someone who bought the game and actually gave Square Enix money, is basically persona non grata as soon as the funds dry up. What kind of messed up logic is that!?

I guarantee you there is some amount of customers they are losing because of this inane policy, and playing the forum "rules lawyer" is not doing anyone any good. Plus, I have a friend who bought the game years ago, I believe before there even was a free trial. I told him about the new expanded free trial, and he was interested but of course Squeenix dumped him like a sack of popotoes.

Sure, they're losing a few hundred customers who refuse to create a new account so they can continue to play with the trial restrictions.

I'm sure most are smart and just make the second account.

[Rivlet]

Perhaps...

Aaand yet another metaphor which fails across the board. You guys must be hungry, but the restaurant is just not the best of options. And yet, I WILL TRY.

I go into a restaurant to try their famous pizza. They allow people to try the pineapple version for free. It is a big pizza, but they let you take your time, eat at your own pace... They don't care if you are occupying a spot in their establishment.

I start eating the pizza and I like it (jokes on me). Out of appreciation and because I feel bad by eating a whole pizza for free, I pay the price of the pizza I am eating (make it two, because I am also paying for my wife's).

After doing so, a White Mage Cook comes and turns our half-eaten pizzas into half-eaten pizzas without pineapple, which is nice because no one prefers pineapple pizza. After happily eating the improved pizza for a while, the waiter comes and tells us that we must finish our pizza ASAP because, if not, we have to pay the full price again to eat what remains of it. Feeling confused, I ask whether they can add pineapple again and let us eat the rest for free. The answer is negative.

Meanwhile, I see people stuffing their mouths with pineapple pizza all around us. Some of them even finished it. I am still hungry, but I know I cannot finish my pizza in time. Feelsbadman.jpg.

...and OP...

No! Nein! Non! I am NOT saying that. I am actually saying the OPPOSITE. And I think I did 4 TIMES. And I did exactly that after the FIRST PERSON explained all the technical difficulties that would arise from such downgrade.

Forums are about reading. Seeing the title, the OP post and a couple more things won't cut it.

...trial...

We can label things all we want "Free Trial", "Free to Play"... But I'd rather have us sticking to facts. Simply, the game lets you play for free. Yes, cut in QoL, but you can beat ARR and HW for free.

Doesn't make sense to go technical on the labelling. Otherwise, we would have big problems with our "labelling law". SWTOR is F2P and yet they pretty much put very similar restrictions to FFXIV FT. If two things are the same, why different labelling? Human is hard. If there's labelling to be applied, the basic is fine:

F2P - You can play the heck out of the titles for free, with some restrictions (ARR+HW)
Subscription - Content is blocked under subscription (rest of FFXIV)
Purchase - You buy the game and you get the whole thing (GW2, for instance).

...gaming...

This comment is so ... that I don't know where to start. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying you are ... , only that your comment is.

Judge your own life, not others'.

I don't think...

For @AethyrSanc.

I find it...

Exactly.

smart

Baseless judging again plus personal insult. Thanks.

[HollowedDoll]

thing is the game is running mostly because people paying sub. i dont know how works Guild Wars or BDO but i guess they need side money with aesthetics or pay to win mechanic. free trial is here for trying not playing in style free-to-play o/

GW2 is pretty straightforward, buy the expansion, and any living seasons story ( Kinda like the meat inbetween expansions ) that you weren't online for which has a generous few months of free time to claim, afaik only the chinese game has p2w stuff everything else is mostly cosmetic or stuff you can get by just playing.

[Seera1024]

We can label things all we want "Free Trial", "Free to Play"... But I'd rather have us sticking to facts. Simply, the game lets you play for free. Yes, cut in QoL, but you can beat ARR and HW for free.

Doesn't make sense to go technical on the labelling. Otherwise, we would have big problems with our "labelling law". SWTOR is F2P and yet they pretty much put very similar restrictions to FFXIV FT. If two things are the same, why different labelling? Human is hard. If there's labelling to be applied, the basic is fine

Because it's a free trial. The labeling is important in this case. You don't get to dismiss it because it gives you access to the free to play side of things, which some games have used.

A free trial is used to see if you like something or not. Free to play games are games that you can play for free for as long as you like.

By purchasing the game, you've told SE that you no longer need to trial the game because you like it.

I'm sorry that you didn't research enough into what purchasing the game meant, but that doesn't change the fact that a trial is for you to decide if you like something enough to buy it or not. And YoshiP has come out and stated that FFXIV would shut its servers down before going free to play.

You can't dismiss the labeling differences between free to play and free trial because they mean two different things. And it is just fine to get technical about it because those differences matter for this discussion.

Just because a different game is free to play but has the same number of restrictions, doesn't mean that FFXIV should follow suit. Each game has its own reasons for the restrictions they put in place on the free trial and free to play members. Each of those restrictions either aimed at enticing players to buy the game or an optional sub or to discourage RMT or both. I typically find the "other game does/doesn't do this" arguments to be very weak ones because they are different games and just because another game does or doesn't do something, doesn't mean every other game in that same genre should follow suit.

On a slightly different vein: they've changed the trial a number of times, when I tried the game out before Shadowbringers was released the trial was 14 days long and only let you level up to level 35. And players who played that trial are actually locked out of the current trial unless they buy the game on that account or make a new account. Those players I do hope one day that Square Enix is able to adjust to be able to play the current free trial on. Because they never purchased the game.

[Fyrebrand]

Sure, they're losing a few hundred customers who refuse to create a new account so they can continue to play with the trial restrictions.

I don't think you nor I can know how many customers it affects, but why would a business want to willingly lose any customers? If it eventually leads to somebody upgrading and paying a subscription, it will be more than worth it. And like I said, these are people who have already given Square Enix their money in the past, so clearly they have a proven interest and a desire to return. Why should the company bet *against* them, in favour of random people who may never hand over a dime? I get there are complications that come with flip-flopping between paid status versus free status, but it's nothing that can't be solved. You should never make it a hassle for your customers to access your product, even if it's a free sample. It's literally supposed to be a promotion, not a test of the customer's resolve to see if they're willing to put in the "work" to deserve it.

no one prefers pineapple pizza

This is flagrantly false. It is a scientific fact that pineapple is a superior pizza topping. All your arguments are rendered moot now.