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

[SkyeWindbinder]

The "problem" is that it's quite half-hearted compared to what many expected and to what would be most effective.

Half-hearted? Hardly. It seems more to me that you're just disappointed you're not getting more free. I know, I know, you're going to claim you're not, it's all enough for you, you've reserved the PS3 version, yadda yadda... But the truth of it is, you're not judging SE by the standards of some vast number of people. You're judging them by your standards and your ideals. And that is reinforced by the fact that you seem to be the only one making this much a big deal about it. I don't think there's anything "half-hearted" about SE's offerings at all.

It doesn't matter how many agree or disagree with my opinion (I sure am not alone, this thread demonstrates it). It's my opinion, and I have full right to express it even if some seem to take personal offense at it (which is ludicrous).

I don't think anyone's "taking offense" at your opinion (at least the vast majority of people who disagree with you don't.) I think people are just amazed some of the claims you are making. As if SE is doing a "half-hearted" job because people who get the game for free don't have an extra 14 days before they begin playing. Now that's what is ludicrous in my eyes, especially considering everything SE is offering so far. And sure, you get the odd person who agrees with you, like the person who actually declared they were rage-quitting the thread and leaving in a huff, or even me, I sometimes agree with you. But on this issue, you seem to be the only one so far who thinks this is really a big deal or somehow damaging for SE. I (and many others) am inclined to disagree. The ball is in your court to prove how the lack of an extra 14 days of playing for people who get a free game will hurt SE. That's all I'm saying, I'm no implying you don't have a "right" to express your opinion or anything. lol

What FFXIV: A realm reborn *is* is completely irrelevant. What matters is the perception people have, and there's a crapton of people out there that perceive A Realm Reborn like a mere expansion/evolution of the crappy game (according to them) that XIV was. The problem of discussing this kind of argument in this forum is that people here don't stick their nose out of here enough.

And then there are people here who do. The thing is, many of the people who do are not going to agree with you.

If there are people out there who are shying away from the thought of an expansion to ARR because they felt the game as it was before was crappy, then I sincerely doubt that their minds are going to be changed by SE offering 14 more days of free play time for their game. I mean, come on. Let's be serious here, lol. The free trial is to let people decide whether or not they want to invest their time in the game. 2 weeks is enough. An extra 2 weeks most likely will not make a difference. You either want to pay to play the game, or you don't. It's as simple as that.

It's simple mathematics. The more you offer, the more effective that offer will be. I'm not even sure what makes you argue against it.

It's also simple logic that people who decide they're not gonna play the game simply because they get 2 weeks of free play time instead of 4, despite having a nice amount of bonuses, there's a huge chance they were not gonna stick around to continue playing anyway. I mean, there's "grass is green", and there's "water is wet", and then there's that. (shrug)

It doesn't when the game doesn't have a horrible precedent weighing on its reception.

Once again, SE does not really owe you anything because you didn't like their game. Also, they're offering you a lot anyway. So... yeah.

There's no need to link of any statistic. Those people exist, which means that by the law of big numbers more like them exist within the 800,000 people that played 1.0.
If you're gonna argue that I happen to randomly know the only ones, sorry, but I'm gonna laugh.

So, basically, your argument is "These people exist because I say they do! And if you disagree, I'm just gonna lol at you!"

...um, Abriael? Who are the people who hired you to be a journalist? My six year old nephew might want a job. LOL

Ah, you know I kid. Anyway, in all seriousness, if you don't have the sttistics to back up your argument after making such claims, then you have no argument. I mean, that's pre-school journaism knowledge, Abriael. Come on.

"Chances are" doesn't make a solid argument. How much they're willing to freely give away measures how many people will actually give the great game a chance.

lol It makes a better argument than saying that SE is being "half-hearted" in their generosity by offering "only 2 weeks" of free time to people who get the entire game for freaking free. But then again, that's just mho.