So 1.0 owners have to start paying the monthly fee immediately?

[Alhanelem]

the lack of free trial seriously curbs the initial momentum the game will have.

ok, you suckered me in, the pro troll that you are.

What lack of a free trial? Pretty much everyone here that already played 1.0 is already going to be playing. All NEW CUSTOMERS *will* get a free trial. Because new customers, everyone that is looking at the game but didn't buy it the first time around will get their free trial. This will not curb the initial momentum the game will have.

The quote you made of yourself implies that there is no free trial at all, for anybody, and that's just not true.

The beta doesn't show the full game and doesn't constitute a way to ascertain the final quality of a game.

Wrong. It does constitute a way to ascertain the quality of a game. You're kidding yourself if you think people don't play betas to preview a game and ascertain the quality they think it will have. How many games radically change from a late term beta to a launch a few weeks later? None that I know of. It is ridiculous to suggest that people can't get a good idea of what the game will be like or its level of quality at the final phase of the beta.

Many games even go from being in beta to being "launched" with little more than ceremonial patch. The difference between launch day and the day before is often minimal- and such was the case with FFXIV 1.0.