So their recruitment campaign IMO is kind of borked for several reasons, having attempted it with my brother this weekend. I spent a lot of time figuring out how I could possibly make this work, as it wasn't clear if you had to purchase the game (you do) or if you could just activate it from the free trial.

#1.) Trials have to wait 24 hours before activating the game. Why this matters I'm not sure. If I bought the game and just created an account I wouldn't have had this problem, but for some reason the trial software is special. It should allow you to register a real game at any point.

#2.) None of the items listed above take effect till after the bonus period and after your free month you get for buying the game. So by the time the items designed to help a low level new player become active, the player who would have got the items is well beyond needing them, and neither the recruiter or recruit would benefit from them. Even if you went ahead and purchased a 90 subscription, it still wouldn't benefit you since the billing is delayed. They need an option for billing immediately, not after the trial period to at least give new players and recruiters and option to benefit from these items.

#3.) SE doesn't allow for the purchase of digital codes to pre-purchase subscription time. The only way to do this is with game cards, which have to be mailed to you, and only come in 60-day allotments. So if you're a new player and a recruiter, the end cost of the entire recruitment if you were really looking to take advantage of the items is $25 for the game, and another $60 to buy 2 x 2 month game cards. I'm pretty flabbergasted at this point you can't just go on their store, buy a digital code and enter it on their system to buy game time at this day and age.