Any chance of distributing a trial for FFXI anytime soon? - Page 2 - Final Fantasy XI :: Dreams in Vana'diel :: Community

Murphie · 01-18-2007, 10:50 AM

The EQ2 Trial Client is interesting in that it's somewhat limited as to what you can actually do, even within the limits of the newbie zones of the game.

You cannot exp beyond level 10, and you can't initiate trades with anyone, or send tells to people not on your friend list. The latter two restrictions weren't always a part of the trial, but RMT started to use those free accounts as a way to advertise, so SOE had to nip that in the bud.

Still, their trial (as with WoW, DAoC, CoH/CoV, etc.) gives you enough of a taste of the game to decide if you'd like to explore further.

Malevolent · 01-18-2007, 11:38 AM

The bad thing (one could say) about the WoW 14 day trial is that you can't lvl past lvl 20. You can't experience the full game. You can't trade with other perscribed players. you can only hold 20 silver. You have a huge limitation which kinda bothers me. When i purchased FFXI and did the 30day trial i could lvl to 75 if i wanted to i didn't notice a restriction....

Murphie · 01-18-2007, 11:40 AM

I imagine the limitations beyond level are for much the same reason SOE has trade and auction limitations for trial accounts.

Gentoo · 01-18-2007, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Malevolent

The bad thing (one could say) about the WoW 14 day trial is that you can't lvl past lvl 20. You can't experience the full game. You can't trade with other perscribed players. you can only hold 20 silver. You have a huge limitation which kinda bothers me. When i purchased FFXI and did the 30day trial i could lvl to 75 if i wanted to i didn't notice a restriction....

I see what you're getting at, but that's the difference between a free trial client and the full on game. The problem with the FFXI "trial" is that if you play it, decide it's not your cup-o'-tea, you're still out the purchase price.

It would be cool if the WoW 14 day trial had no limitations, but by the same token I've got to believe that most reasonable consumers understand (and accept) the limitations. That is to say, one knows the trial client is really there just to whet your appetite for the full course meal.

Murphie · 01-18-2007, 12:15 PM

When I was playing EQ2 (all of December), someone would occasionally pop up in the OOC channel to complain that the trial was awfully limiting. The general response was "Well, it's a trial."

favian · 01-18-2007, 06:11 PM

Originally Posted by Gentoo

I see what you're getting at, but that's the difference between a free trial client and the full on game. The problem with the FFXI "trial" is that if you play it, decide it's not your cup-o'-tea, you're still out the purchase price.

exactly my point.

i dont know anyone who thinks $30 for a trial is a bargain, not even if they throw in every expansion pack ever created. if at the end of the day you dont enjoy it, the game becomes nothing more but a coaster. i suspect i will never play this game unless square becomes more liberal about distributing trial downloads/cd-keys (one per credit card/name). I do not feel comfortable plunking $30 on something i may end up not liking. Simple as that.

'a $1 a day' is still much more than a wow trial. Blizzard frequently offers a window of opportunity to try for free (with download), or charge $2 for a two week trial dvd.

anyway, a taste of the ff xi experience (albeit a short one) will always beat just reading about it, and not experiencing it for yourself at all.

I also find it very hard to beleive that a trial wont give me ANY perspective on what the full experience would be like. what i'm being told in this thread by forum members, is that i'm completely in the dark BEFORE a FFXI trial and AFTER the trial as well. that is absurd to me.

i'm speaking from a practical viewpoint as well. as it stands now, if i had to make a decision, i would have to jump on the wow bandwagon because i'd rather play something i already had some personal experience playing rather than something i have only read about.

a proper trial would help me make a better decision.

i rather like the blizzard method, because it gives the customer two weeks to try the game out at their leisure, and if you decide you like it, purchase the game in the store, and you get the wow equivalent of a buddy pass plus 30 extra free days for yourself.

if you decide you dont like it after the trial, you lost nothing, at most $2 if you paid for a trial dvd.

if you decide you dont like ffxi, you're out $30.

i havent heard a decent counterargument to this yet.

Gentoo · 01-18-2007, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by favian

I also find it very hard to beleive that a trial wont give me ANY perspective on what the full experience would be like. what i'm being told in this thread by forum members, is that i'm completely in the dark BEFORE a FFXI trial and AFTER the trial as well. that is absurd to me.

I don't think anyone is making that argument. I think the trend seems to be implying that it won't give you the full FFXI experience, which has some pretty dramatic changes at various points in the game. That conceit is on the money (as it would be for probably most MMOG trial software).

The one thing I would recommend is to post on these forums and ffxi.allakhazam.com asking if you can use someones buddy pass. Chances are, it would give you a chance to try out FFXI.

favian · 01-19-2007, 08:31 AM

yah. so far no luck getting a buddy pass. i'm well aware that i'm not going to get the full experience in a trial, but i need to compare with wow, which didn't give a full experience either but more than ffxi has offered me.

Kenki · 01-20-2007, 10:34 AM

FFXI does have a 30 days free trial. Every new FFXI account made from a new CD key will receive a 30 days free. You get 1 set of CD key when you buy the DVD collection (FFXI main, Zilart, ToUA and Promy) and an extra free FFXI main CD key for giving to a friend. Both you and your friend will get the 1st 30days free.

The extra is the main FFXI CD key. It is just as good as any other CD key which allows you to make a character for a 30 days trail as well as a POL acct. The only drawback is that you need to get your FFXI somewhere (like torrent or edonkey) if you can't borrow your friend's DVD. The only drawback is that it is only FFXI so no expansion areas - ToUA, Promy, Zilart - for you (no need to install them) unless you start buying the other expansion or a new DVD collection.

favian · 01-20-2007, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by Kenki

FFXI does have a 30 days free trial. Every new FFXI account made from a new CD key will receive a 30 days free. You get 1 set of CD key when you buy the DVD collection (FFXI main, Zilart, ToUA and Promy) and an extra free FFXI main CD key for giving to a friend. Both you and your friend will get the 1st 30days free.
The extra is the main FFXI CD key. It is just as good as any other CD key which allows you to make a character for a 30 days trail as well as a POL acct. The only drawback is that you need to get your FFXI somewhere (like torrent or edonkey) if you can't borrow your friend's DVD. The only drawback is that it is only FFXI so no expansion areas - ToUA, Promy, Zilart - for you (no need to install them) unless you start buying the other expansion or a new DVD collection.

yeah im aware of that option now. there are problems with that method, some you mentioned already.

the installation isn't easily accessible. imagine telling your customers to download the install via edonkey. i dont know anyone who plays it, most of my friends are interested but aren't going to spend $30 on a trial. neither am i.

so even if i had access to the installation disc, i'd be out of luck if they gave out their buddy pass already. it seems like they instate more measures to keep people out than bring in.

i have a coworker who was split between ffxi and wow, he went with wow after doing their trial, and because he couldn't compare it with ffxi. i imagine that happens a lot. as it stands now i dont think i will ever try ffxi unless i meet the following criteria:

1) finding someone who has a buddypass and is generous
2) getting an installation dvd

what i really want from square is a full scale trial campaign, where they distribute the core game freely online or cheaply in stores.

it is the only way for them to capture a larger market share. as a company interested in a larger bottom line i don't know why it hasn't been done already.

Murphie · 01-20-2007, 06:55 PM

Yeah, that's the Buddy Pass, which is unfortunately harder to come by than some people may realize.

favian · 01-20-2007, 08:15 PM

dont know how often square reads this particular 'ask square' forum, but if they do, i just want them to know that they are losing out on potential customers/subscribers because they do not have easy access to a trial. (i'm a good example)

it seems like the only trial available to an enduser now at this point is if a consumer has purchased something from one of square's partners

-alienware
-logitech

only then can you get an access code and access to the 2gb installation.

http://ffxi.boonty.com/

square, making things more difficult and inaccessible than they should be.

Zeret · 01-20-2007, 08:48 PM

yea the trial for FFXI would not work at all, it might even work against them seeing how your gona be able to do so little. The game is massive and just trying to make a trial from it would make it very hard to play. People who get the trial just wont understand how diffrent it would be from the actual game.

favian · 01-20-2007, 08:54 PM

well, blizzard has been very generous with their trials and they have captured the largest market share for MMORPGs in north america (and internationally if i'm not mistaken). i'm not saying its all due to their trial distribution, but it certainly helps. its exactly how i was able to give it a test, and i went it knowing exactly what it was. a trial. a small sample of a world i knew was greater than what was being shown. i was well aware of the limitations of the trial, i was well aware that the scope of the game was larger than i could experience in the span of two weeks.

i cant beleive people here are actually saying no trial is better than a trial.

i'd like to decide for myself if the game is something i'd enjoy myself, rather than have someone else tell me that i will not enjoy it because its a sample of a larger whole.

anyway, i am downloading FFxi setup disc (what an absurd measure to take just to sample their game) via a torrent.

when its done i'm hoping i can get a hold of a buddy pass, otherwise its all in vain.

if i can't get a running trial of this game in the next week or two, i'm just going to jump on the wow bandwagon and pick up where i left off when my trial ended there.

Murphie · 01-20-2007, 08:56 PM

Originally Posted by Zeret

yea the trial for FFXI would not work at all, it might even work against them seeing how your gona be able to do so little. The game is massive and just trying to make a trial from it would make it very hard to play. People who get the trial just wont understand how diffrent it would be from the actual game.

Trials manage to get the idea across for virtually every other MMO on the market today. As a long time FFXI player, I can certainly see where there would be limitations, but honestly, there is enough to figure out if you want to play or not.

For some FFXI players, I think they are just so used to everything coming only after a lot of time and hard work that the very idea of something coming easily is completely foreign to them, and they just dismiss it outright due to habit.