Blizzard giving out free playtime?

[Lochton]

unless using a mod to alter the minimap in some way that's always been static, but you were once able to alter the default raid frames/party frames and ui with command line prompts.

Well, that is where many go wrong with it, it is a default UI, and some things don't have to be there unless a specific tool is applied because the average player doesn't use many of the specific demands people have. Blizzard is most likely going to make the map resizeable in the future but there are other things with higher priority as well - I guess you could call it a curse at relying on add-ons for so long, so a company taking steps to FINALLY update their UI, then any stage is better than going backward.

[Puri]

I actually never understood why they stopped giving them out. It's free advertisment.

It's not a cost issue. It costs them nothing to give out a handful days per year. Nobody is going to say: "Instead of 30 days playtime I got 32, thanks to those two extra days I now can cancel my subscription". But on the other hand people are still talking favourably about "free playtime" years, decades, after they gave the last general days out.

[sam86]

That is because it never happened. He complately made it up. His sources? Dude, trust me.

not defending him but u don't need source to find that stockholders complain any action their company make that doesn't generate instant profit
So even if it was good for long term, i do see it very reasonable and acceptable that they complain about free time even if it was due to server problems

[Stickiler]

I actually never understood why they stopped giving them out. It's free advertisment.

It's not a cost issue. It costs them nothing to give out a handful days per year. Nobody is going to say: "Instead of 30 days playtime I got 32, thanks to those two extra days I now can cancel my subscription". But on the other hand people are still talking favourably about "free playtime" years, decades, after they gave the last general days out.

They only ever gave them out for severe server issues or game bugs, they've optimised their processes so they don't have those anywhere near as much, thus they don't give out free days as there's no need to.

[sam86]

They only ever gave them out for severe server issues or game bugs, they've optimised their processes so they don't have those anywhere near as much, thus they don't give out free days as there's no need to.

wrath classic relaunch has more bugs than its launch way back in 2009 that is became the butt joke of internet, every review of wrath mention how the impossible that blizz f8cked the relaunch of a game decade old is worse than its original state, which is blood boiling more than it should
their 'optimised' is probably making millions of players leave the game so fewer can encounter and find bugs
Yes i'm that pissed that joy of reliving wrath has that insane bugs, in live server older exps tend to be quest bugged and ignored (did they ever fix last quest in vashir since MoP+?) but at least during its era it has less bugs (again, vashir last quest wasn't 100% bugged during cata at least)
how the fuck did they ruin wrath relaunch? how can an exploit for exp that was fixed in 2008, exist in 2022? what's next, saronite bombs will fix platforms?

[rogoth]

Well, that is where many go wrong with it, it is a default UI, and some things don't have to be there unless a specific tool is applied because the average player doesn't use many of the specific demands people have. Blizzard is most likely going to make the map resizeable in the future but there are other things with higher priority as well - I guess you could call it a curse at relying on add-ons for so long, so a company taking steps to FINALLY update their UI, then any stage is better than going backward.

yeah, but the whole point of this update was to remove the old static ui that was for the most part unchangeable without addons and mods from third party sources, to a fluid, in game options for altering the look/shape/style of the UI and all that encompasses, if that's not in place then it's failing at the main point of the update no?, and after many of the command line prompt changes were deprecated because apparently allowing people to alter and change things to their liking wasn't what the arrogant dev team wanted you're now forced it seems to work inside the tight little box blizzard have pushed everyone inside of.

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With free to play, WoW could have a renaissance. Do not underestimate the number of bots who would abuse WoW if they did not have to pay for playtime. Lots of opportunities for the token sales department and the vanity item shop team.

FTFY, furthermore, you heavily underestimate the fact that blizzard after sacking 95% of their PR/CM teams no longer have the available personnel or the resources and systems in place to deal with such an issue if/when they decide to go F2P model.

[Lochton]

With free to play, WoW could have a renaissance. Do not underestimate the number of people who would play WoW if they did not have to pay for playtime. Lots of opportunities for the token sales department and the vanity item shop team.

Alas, I believe, no, I know, it will be the majority of bots ruling then, just like a lot of other F2P games, as well, F2P INVITES aggressive stores and services.

yeah, but the whole point of this update was to remove the old static ui that was for the most part unchangeable without addons and mods from third party sources, to a fluid, in game options for altering the look/shape/style of the UI and all that encompasses, if that's not in place then it's failing at the main point of the update no?, and after many of the command line prompt changes were deprecated because apparently allowing people to alter and change things to their liking wasn't what the arrogant dev team wanted you're now forced it seems to work inside the tight little box blizzard have pushed everyone inside of.

The new default is hundreds of times better than the old but in the end, some command line codes or specific functions do not count as average user experience, nor are you locked in a box, you have the freedom of altering it with add-ons if so. Blizzard's new UI offers all that an average player needs without having to drag down tons of addons or have features lacking.

[Lochton]

As i said, bots exist no matter if MMORPGs are free to play. The only effective way to fight bots is to make farmed materials soul bound. All of them.

And the number of bots will skyrocket when going F2P.

[Caerrona]

And the number of bots will skyrocket when going F2P.

These people sit around all day crying about WoW no matter blizzard does.

Going f2p would make the game worse for literally everybody else and the children would still be crying.

So I really question that dudes motives for saying it should be f2p. I already know they are an idiot but it still doesn't add up.

[Puri]

They only ever gave them out for severe server issues or game bugs, they've optimised their processes so they don't have those anywhere near as much, thus they don't give out free days as there's no need to.

I mean that's true, but it still happens. The classic TBC patch on may 21 2021 caused a 18h maintenence and a 4 hour character rollback for example. And as I pointed out, it costs them nothing.

[Peacemoon]

A few years ago every now and then blizzard gave out 3-7 free game days, does anyone know why they stopped it ?

Everyone having garrisons created too many instances which screwed up the servers.

Blizzard give compensation if the servers are down a lot and you can’t log in.

They don’t give compensation because your class is doing 10% dps than you desire, lol.

[kranur]

A few years ago every now and then blizzard gave out 3-7 free game days, does anyone know why they stopped it ?

It wasn't "free". Back in the 2006 era, it was not uncommon for major patches to have extended maintenance for full days. So they handed compensation to not have to deal with the grief and potential sub drops.
Nowadays they got a little better at it, but if that was the case, they will probably only hand out compensation if they were risking a lawsuit.

[God Save The King]

wrath classic relaunch has more bugs than its launch way back in 2009 that is became the butt joke of internet, every review of wrath mention how the impossible that blizz f8cked the relaunch of a game decade old is worse than its original state, which is blood boiling more than it should
their 'optimised' is probably making millions of players leave the game so fewer can encounter and find bugs
Yes i'm that pissed that joy of reliving wrath has that insane bugs, in live server older exps tend to be quest bugged and ignored

Man you've never been around for an expansion launch before WotLK have you? Or do you just have awful memory? WotLKC was easily the smoothest launch I've seen in a while and they were on top of anything major (e.g. adding Dockmasters when the sheer population caused the boats to crash out).

I've leveled 5 characters 70-80, and currently have a 76 and 74 in progress. My main has loremaster and my toons have completed every zone at least three times (except for IC, only did it twice). The only quest I can think of that was badly bugged was the one in Zul'Drak where you're riding the storm giant dude and killing the elites. Even that is still doable if you're careful and respawn him. So, anecdotally, I have no idea what you're talking about. Naxx/OS/EoE are also fine, haven't seen bugs there either. Also no one in my guild has said anything about finding bugs while leveling/raiding. There's been the odd oversight, like the Elemental Shaman buff bug, but overwhelmingly the game is in a great state from my perspective. Any bug that exists is trivial an common sense lets me figure out how to get around it (e.g. the land mine bug in Storm Peaks, just stack them close together in a line and you'll complete the quest easily).

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Fix the economy. The source of the problem.

This is the equivalent of saying that the way to fix sweatshops or scammers is to just ban commerce/trade and shut down the economy in the real world. Sure, if you completely remove the economy and force everyone to be self-reliant, you will remove the issues that the economy faces. Similar to if you have someone with cancer, killing them stops the cancer.

It would be pretty awful for the game as a whole to do this. The game systems would first need to be updated for all professions to be accessible, since you'll need to craft your own enchants, potions, flasks, food, armor kits, spellthread, et cetera. Then, for anyone actually wanting to play the game above LFR, they would need to spend hours farming each week (while competing with anyone else wanting to raid) for fish, meat, herbs, ore, etc to craft their consumables/enchants/upgrades.

[Stickiler]

The game would be much more stable and fun if players simply could use soul bound gold for pots, mats and items from NPCs and could use self collected materials for their own or their guilds crafting (with join/leave timeouts)

How would you use gold for pots if mats are all self-collected?

[Lordofbelbol]

I actually never understood why they stopped giving them out. It's free advertisment.

It's not a cost issue. It costs them nothing to give out a handful days per year. Nobody is going to say: "Instead of 30 days playtime I got 32, thanks to those two extra days I now can cancel my subscription". But on the other hand people are still talking favourably about "free playtime" years, decades, after they gave the last general days out.

Because forum goers ( few people in this post ) will find a way to complain about it and make it a bad thing

[AtomR]

I don't think the OP was refering to days that were offered as compensation for when the game was down like they used to do in vanilla and tbc.

As recently as WOD, if you were offline for 6 months or more you could frequently find 7 day offers to try to get you back into the game. I used it a couple of times and no I haven't seen them do that for a while now and I don't know if they are still available or why they stopped.

[sam86]

Man you've never been around for an expansion launch before WotLK have you? Or do you just have awful memory? WotLKC was easily the smoothest launch I've seen in a while and they were on top of anything major (e.g. adding Dockmasters when the sheer population caused the boats to crash out).

I've leveled 5 characters 70-80, and currently have a 76 and 74 in progress. My main has loremaster and my toons have completed every zone at least three times (except for IC, only did it twice). The only quest I can think of that was badly bugged was the one in Zul'Drak where you're riding the storm giant dude and killing the elites. Even that is still doable if you're careful and respawn him. So, anecdotally, I have no idea what you're talking about. Naxx/OS/EoE are also fine, haven't seen bugs there either. Also no one in my guild has said anything about finding bugs while leveling/raiding. There's been the odd oversight, like the Elemental Shaman buff bug, but overwhelmingly the game is in a great state from my perspective. Any bug that exists is trivial an common sense lets me figure out how to get around it (e.g. the land mine bug in Storm Peaks, just stack them close together in a line and you'll complete the quest easily).

i was, wrath is only exp i never took break or unsubbed
if u want to use that excuse, wod launch is far worse disaster than wrath ever was (probably worst in entire wow exp history, no idea about vanilla start), but the big difference here, wrath was launch 2008, u have private servers more stable than blizz was on 2022 relaunch
there is zero excuse, the game is so bugged it drove players away (sadly), heck the exploit exp to get world first (again) was used like Athene did way back in 2008 and the skeleton crew of classic did nothing, something i really didn't expect to exist in relaunch since it was fixed since 14 years ago?
wrath launch for alliance specially was horrible since if u put boat in SW and boat in Wetlands, no one will take wetlands boat -.-, but again we talking about a game 14 years old now, if they fixed a bug every month it should be bug free, not that butt joke state it is, again every review is shocked how it is that bugged

[mbit2]

Last time i can remember getting free week was WoD.
Got Email "we fixed the game while you were unsubscribed, join for a free week".

My guess is they looked at the numbers and figured people getting a free week dont resub as much as people not getting a free week so they stopped doing it. What other reason could there be when you run a company by minmaxing metrics?

[Lochton]

Says who? And which statistic?

Experience tells me so. SWTOR, AA, FFXIV - all three have a subscription and F2P models, and all three have MASSIVE amounts of bots compared to WoW, heck, LOTRO and ESO have a lot of bots too. Those are just the big names.

F2P is not the reason bots exists. Bad economy systems are the reasons they exist. Tradeable items. Tradeable gold. If you find an economy where last both do only matter for the player himself, there would be no bots.

Fix the economy. The source of the problem.

Never stated F2P was the reason for botting, I stated F2P was basically an open door for botting. And no, you should not remove trading from a game where trading has been a huge part of it just so some can turn the game into F2P. The economy ain't even broken, if we removed the token tomorrow, gold would STILL be piss easy to get, except, there would be dickheads just seeking out their source of gold from underpaid farmers and hacked accounts. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE BOTS BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE MAKING SURE THERE IS A DEMAND FOR THEM! Removing the option for trading won't remove botting, it'll just increase account sales.

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These people sit around all day crying about WoW no matter blizzard does.

Going f2p would make the game worse for literally everybody else and the children would still be crying.

So I really question that dudes motives for saying it should be f2p. I already know they are an idiot but it still doesn't add up.

The guy just wants F2P as a bandaid reasoning to playing WoW because currently, it feels like he uses the subscription as a problem for playing WoW.

Going F2P killed veteran accounts in SWTOR, now veteran accounts are forced to be subscribers because else we lose some of what we have.

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How would you use gold for pots if mats are all self-collected?

From his posts, he wants FFXIV. He wants to be able to do everything for himself without interacting with other people unless he has to do dungeons where he can more or less ignore the group as long as he does what is needed to be done. Literally what he wants, except, he also wants the ability to trade and cooperate to be removed.

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I don't think the OP was refering to days that were offered as compensation for when the game was down like they used to do in vanilla and tbc.

As recently as WOD, if you were offline for 6 months or more you could frequently find 7 day offers to try to get you back into the game. I used it a couple of times and no I haven't seen them do that for a while now and I don't know if they are still available or why they stopped.

They still offer here and there free weekends or such, rare, but still a thing. Honestly, we, as the WoW community, are given quite a lot of free shit.

[Orange Joe]

Says who? And which statistic?

F2P is not the reason bots exists. Bad economy systems are the reasons they exist. Tradeable items. Tradeable gold. If you find an economy where last both do only matter for the player himself, there would be no bots.

Fix the economy. The source of the problem.

There were/are bots in diablo 3 and that game doesn't have any trading so you theory is wrong.