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

[Duuude007]

How do you explain it? Did they suddenly change their dictionary?

I'm not trying to explain it, I am trying to point out that regardless of your (or my) definition of the terms "beta" or "trial", when they said trial in that old timeline, they were specifically referring to a period of time which begins before launch, and ends at or after launch.

[Kinseykinz]

Yes they did.

I quote from this document:

"Reinstate limited free trial period for PC version"

and then two to three months later:

"Free trial period ends"

There aren't any other ways you can interpret that.

I understand how you read it to mean '1.0 PC players'


But it just says: "reinstate limited free trial period for PC version"

It doesn't specify new or old accounts...nor does it state an exact 30 days or whatever.. That is an old timeline and was always subject to change. (Heck, according to that timeline, Version 2 was to be out in January of 2013 :P)

But more than likely, they never meant to offer a 'free trial' to the existing playerbase...because we already had not only a free trial period with our original 1.0 disk...but lots of free time added to that while they revamped the game.

It also seems like they will do a 'Welcome Back Campaign' around Launch time...probably around the end of Sept as that is when 'Founders Day' is (the anniversary dates for 1.0). And Welcome back campaigns usually offer a couple weeks of free gameplay to existing, but deactivated accounts. So if you're worried about this affecting those who haven't touched the game in years and/or who are on the fence....if they have an inactive account, they'd more than likely qualify for the Welcome Back Campaign and be covered by that anyway.


All in all, if they offer us a free week or two...cool, if not /meh. I think it's high time we start paying to pay....and if you can correspond on this forum, you at least paid for a month of 1.0....surely you think ARR is worth your RL gil.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

What you got or I got isn't a problem. The problem is that a company should always try to make good of its promises, and even more importantly the lack of free trial seriously curbs the initial momentum the game will have.

If there was a free trial for 1.0 account holders, you could be sure that a large majority of those 800,000 people would give the game a try, no matter how disgruntled they were by 1.0.

Now that they have to pull out the credit card in order to even try the game, I'm not quite sure most of them will. The percentage will undoubtedly lower, and not by a little.

Again, that was my personal feeling, but i agree with you to a certain degree. However, if the game will be good 1.0 leftovers will still try it, maybe not immediatly but will do

[Abriael]

I'm not trying to explain it, I am trying to point out that regardless of your (or my) definition of the terms "beta" or "trial", when they said trial in that old timeline, they were specifically referring to a period of time which begins before launch, and ends at or after launch.

That doesn't really matter much. They could have easily planned to keep the game limited to previous subscribers during the "free trial", before going officially "on sale" for everyone with PC and PS3 version at the same time.

It's a matter of fact that they never call it a beta, while they openly call the PS3 version a beta.

Honestly it doesn't even matter what they really meant, because when people read "free trial" they don't think "beta", they think free game time with the full game, because when it's a beta, developers talk about beta, they don't talk about "free trial", square enix included.
The whole press believed (and reported) the same, and not a single clarification came from SE.
Whatever they meant, they are the ones that put their customers in the position of believing that by using the term "free trial", and they're going to face backlash for that.

I don't think FFXIV is in the position of getting further backlash, or of wasting the chance of bringing most of those 800k people back to see how much the game has changed.

[Duuude007]

So agree to disagree, then.

[Nix]

So agree to disagree, then.

I think everyone needs to hug it out and get some cake.

Cake fixes everything.

...Except diabetes

[Abriael]

So agree to disagree, then.

We can agree to disagree as much as you like mate, but the problem remains.

The public perception outside of this community (and even partly inside of it, and we're the most staunch supporters of the game) is that people that purchased 1.0 are gonna get at least a month of free gameplay, not just the beta.

Whatever Square Enix meant, that's gonna be problems, and in my opinion SE would came out of it much better biting the bullet and offering a free month to everyone that owned 1.0.

It'd avoid the problem and it'd bring back more people, giving more people a chance to see how good of a MMO A Realm Reborn is. Everyone wins.

I don't personally care much on a personal level, as I'm already hooked and will play (and pay) for sure, but our future enjoyment of the game also depends on its success, and this isn't such a small pebble in the way of that success.

[Duuude007]

You see a problem, I don't. Agree to disagree.

[Aldora]

Never said that there aren't oddities, but there are several possible explanations for that.

What there's no explanation for would be calling the beta of one version a beta, and the beta of the other version a "second free trial", especially considering that in all previous communication the first "free trial" is a free gameplay period of the full game, not a beta.

What is very evident is that basically everyone that took Square Enix communication at face value interpreted that "free trial" as Square Enix always intended it, which is a free period of gameplay of the full game.

It's in almost every article about 2.0. Whenever you see people talking about it in the comments of blogs and websites you see people spreading the "good news" that everyone that had 1.0 will get at least one free month.

When they'll notice that this isn't the case, many won't be happy.

You keep referring to a Beta like it's not "the full game" content wise. That does not necessarily have to be true. For instance, the last Phase of the 2.0 Beta (as it is scheduled now) should have all the content available which is scheduled for the official release. The difference here is that there is still room for (minor) tweaks and bugfixes for the official release. They are normally presented via an patch on the release day (since the game was printed and shipped in order for it to hit the shelves on the announced release date).

But, that's beside the point.

The original discussion here was the fact that Hvinire's post mentioned that only the players that purchased a new copy of the ARR Client would get the 30-day "Free trail" period while existing players would not. Let me ask you one thing:

We know that SE originally mentioned that the PC version would enter a free trail period when the Playstation 3 version was being tested. We also know that this is not mentioned in the current outline. On top of that we have Hvinire's post with their statement regarding the "free trail" period.

Considering that everyone with a Final Fantasy XIV Service Account (active or inactive) will have access to both the 3rd as well as the 4th Phase of the Beta (and thus with all scheduled content present in the 4th Phase), will it be a definite deal breaker if the 4th Beta Phase would take 2 to 4 weeks and not have a 30-day "Free Trail" given to them?

For those who played 1.0, aren't we already glad that SE managed to make 2.0, gave us the opportunity to support the game and help SE make the game better by supplying them with our thoughts and feedback? On top of that, there are players amongst us who have been classified as Legacy players with a permanent discount and free in-game item(s) that come along with it? On top of that, people who purchased the 1.0 CE version will get the in-game items from the 2.0 CE version. If i remember correctly, the existing players will get early access to the game, like the new players who will pre-order CE version of 2.0.

I honestly ask everyone, after all this, can we still be cross/unhappy/angry/furious/disappointed about not getting the 30-day free trail? It's not like SE is doing everything in their power to save game, right?

And last but not least, there is always the possibility that Hvinire made a mistake (with the translation) or didn't get all the facts. There is still the possibility that existing players will get a Free Trail as well.

But, truth be told, i don't mind if i don't get that free trail. I'm happy to pay for the game on the day of the release.

[Abriael]

You see a problem, I don't. Agree to disagree.

If you don't see a problem with giving people cause to think that they're getting something and not giving it, well, that's your opinion.

You keep referring to a Beta like it's not "the full game" content wise. That does not necessarily have to be true. For instance, the last Phase of the 2.0 Beta (as it is scheduled now) should have all the content available which is scheduled for the official release. The difference here is that there is still room for (minor) tweaks and bugfixes for the official release. They are normally presented via an patch on the release day (since the game was printed and shipped in order for it to hit the shelves on the announced release date).

As we already know, the beta won't include at the very least the whole summoner/arcanist part of the game's content. Yoshida himself stated that. We don't know if anything else will be missing.

But a beta is a beta, meaning that there'll still be bugs, server problems, and stuff to fix. It's not the best environment to ascertain the final quality of the game, and most definitely not what I'd use to advertise the game to those that already quit because its previous incarnation was poor. When you want to get people's trust back, you bring you A game. A beta isn't your A game.

We know that SE originally mentioned that the PC version would enter a free trail period when the Playstation 3 version was being tested. We also know that this is not mentioned in the current outline. On top of that we have Hvinire's post with their statement regarding the "free trail" period.

Considering that everyone with a Final Fantasy XIV Service Account (active or inactive) will have access to both the 3rd as well as the 4th Phase of the Beta (and thus with all scheduled content present in the 4th Phase), will it be a definite deal breaker if the 4th Beta Phase would take 2 to 4 weeks and not have a 30-day "Free Trail" given to them?

I can pretty much guarantee a lot of people are gonna be pissed, strengthened by the fact that there's already a lot of negativity on the game outside of its remaining community, for obvious reasons, this can easily become a deal breaker for many.

A "free trial" is perceived as a perk/freebie. A beta access isn't perceived by many as a freebie, as it's give and take. SE lets us play, and we do the testing for them.

People expecting a freebie and suddenly seeing themselves with something that isn't really a freebie, are gonna be naturally disappointed.

Is it a deal breaker for me? no. But I'm a fan. I've been hooked to the idea of ARR since when it wasn't even called ARR yet.

SE is facing the rather difficult task of getting back those that aren't fans anymore and are jaded about that game.

The 20-25k (personal estimate, don't quote me) people that remained til the end of the world are already in the bag. The 800k that quit, aren't quite in the bag. Putting a credit card barrier between them and the finished game is bound to turn away quite a good percentage of them, and I don't think that "screw them cheapos!" is the right attitude to take in order to facilitate the success of ARR.