Blizzard giving out free playtime?

[rrayy]

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

When you make a claim of fact that they did, you need to have a source. There is zero to back that claim.

[Lochton]

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

Are still, not as many as when there was the live auction but some.

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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

We also complain when it is not an option, as having the option for offering a few days for free here and there doesn't hurt the revenue as badly as the players not playing at all.

[mbit2]

Every second player was running a bot in wow bgs for one xpac before blizz killed the bot developer in court. Botting isnt just a matter of entry cost but also of risk. Once players figure out they can get away with it it starts growing. The more bot the more notice oh i can get away with it and join. Thats how you got bgs with over half the players being bots.

The last episode was that afk autoshooting trick with diablo immortal. Its not even a real bot as it was just spoon hack to afk hold autoattack forever which allowed afk fighting but look how it grew explosive - easy + people doing it without instant bans = 3 days later every map was full of them.

[HansOlo]

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

What is 3-7 days going to do for you?

[loras]

What is 3-7 days going to do for you?

...Allow him to check whether current content is worthwhile?

[xenogear3]

It is just changing marketing strategy.

Giving out free playtime costs money too.
It is no different from putting Ads on mmo-champion.com

[Lochton]

What is 3-7 days going to do for you?

3 days max is time to check if you have gold enough for a token, or get some from a friend?

[FelPlague]

you could before with old command line text, they removed that when they purged almost all command line text alterations outside of what they deemed 'allowed', the most notable being maxcamdistance command line, but yes, to answer your question you could alter these kinds of things in the past but can't do it now, meaning that it's a worse product as a result.

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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.

They didn't remove that, you can still do both of those with commands, just the commands are different.

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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.

It was not even close to a 18 hour matinence, and there was no rollback. What the fuck you talking about?

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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.

You mean like this?
https://www.icy-veins.com/forums/top...0will%20expire.

Including few free weekend promos they have had, and "50% off a month sub" things.

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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?

No, as stated many times in this forum, they haven't needed to since as they haven't had server issues bad enought o deem it needed, wod was the last expac launch to be abysmal.

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...Allow him to check whether current content is worthwhile?

Except you cant, cause you need to buy the expac to try the current content...

[mbit2]

No, as stated many times in this forum, they haven't needed to since as they haven't had server issues bad enought o deem it needed, wod was the last expac launch to be abysmal.

Why would you need to compensate a player who isn't even subscribed? Makes no sense. Compensation only happens to subscribed ones and free weeks to people inactive for months is an entirely different matter.

[Bromgar]

OP is talking about what Atom said, and not sure if they still do it like at this exact day but my friend did receive 7 days at the start of the year when he wasn't subbed for a while but since then not sure if they still do.

[Orange Joe]

Are still, not as many as when there was the live auction but some.

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We also complain when it is not an option, as having the option for offering a few days for free here and there doesn't hurt the revenue as badly as the players not playing at all.

Ah wasn't around that long and bots were still being made when it was removed. Hell I would argue early d3 was hard enough bots wouldn't have been able to do much. As someone who botted in d3 I would argue no trading made it worse. I couldn't trade for stuff I had to farm it myself.

D3 bots were the highest right before diablobuddy was discontinued.

[FelPlague]

Why would you need to compensate a player who isn't even subscribed? Makes no sense. Compensation only happens to subscribed ones and free weeks to people inactive for months is an entirely different matter.

yeah that is... the point... they don't compensate a player who is not subbed, what are you talking about?

[mbit2]

yeah that is... the point... they don't compensate a player who is not subbed, what are you talking about?

Im talking about you only thinking about compensation while my initial post had already nothing to do with compensation nor did OP ask about compensation. He asked about free gametime and inactive people got that in the past. As already said in first post WoD you got 1 week free playtime as an inactive player.

[FelPlague]

Im talking about you only thinking about compensation while my initial post had already nothing to do with compensation nor did OP ask about compensation. He asked about free gametime and inactive people got that in the past. As already said in first post WoD you got 1 week free playtime as an inactive player.

And as ive said in other posts, they have had these, and you can always contact support and get free time here and there as always.

they literally only a few months ago gave 30 days and a free factionchange to anyone who wanted to return who hasent played since launch of shadowlands.

[mbit2]

And as ive said in other posts, they have had these, and you can always contact support and get free time here and there as always.

they literally only a few months ago gave 30 days and a free factionchange to anyone who wanted to return who hasent played since launch of shadowlands.

I legit didnt get any free stuff email since WoD. The only shadowlands emails i got was advertisement for grind your wotlk DK for a mount + sales offer for shop beforehand. I played about 2 or 3 months at start of shadowlands and thats it. Only recently came back which is also why this new acc exists now.

[Twdft]

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?

Back then you couldn't play at all without a subscription. I'm pretty sure they stopped giving "pls come back"-days when WoW went f2p up to lv20

[Lochton]

Back then you couldn't play at all without a subscription. I'm pretty sure they stopped giving "pls come back"-days when WoW went f2p up to lv20

The last time we had free weekends was what.. 2020?

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I legit didnt get any free stuff email since WoD. The only shadowlands emails i got was advertisement for grind your wotlk DK for a mount + sales offer for shop beforehand. I played about 2 or 3 months at start of shadowlands and thats it. Only recently came back which is also why this new acc exists now.

Since WoD? Gotten a pet, a mount, about 15 days of game time, and three expansions for free (though, for alt accounts).

[Orange Joe]

Anecdotal evidence then. Well, come back if you can link statistics that actually prove your claim, that a transition from sub to f2p actually really raises the number of bots. I doubt that it is a noticable amount.



And you brought a "feeling" as a reason. Sorry, not really useful.



You mix up fixing botting with switching to f2p. You use a fallacy here, that f2p directly influences the amount of bots in a transition from sub to f2p, while you cannot prove that. Argument properly.



I think a computer game economy is broken, if it creates slave workers in real life and criminals as like account hackers. You surely would like to set other priorities here but i think the effect on real life is what matter more than a playmoney economy in a MMORPG which actually calls for abuse.



Sure it would. If bots are used to farm mats they can sell for gold those bots had no use if gold and mats were soulbound. Your caps will not change that. Mats could drop from quest chains rather than from grinding as well, you know, useful and demanding gameplay instead of farming your (bots) ass off for gnome hides by killing thousands of gnomes.

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The number of bots used for leveling in solo player RPGs (where it does not even matter) is way lower than bots used for accumulating wealth in MMORPGs. Also, a bot in D3 only affects the player himself, but not the gameplay of others, also they do not create, as like botting in WoW, slave workers and criminals in real life. You compare apples with oranges.

Once again i doubt free to play will have any notable effect on botting. Botting is a battlefield Blizzard has to adress no matter if the game is going f2p.

Your claim is removing trading will remove bots d3 has no trading and has bots you are wrong

[Lochton]

Anecdotal evidence then. Well, come back if you can link statistics that actually prove your claim, that a transition from sub to f2p actually really raises the number of bots. I doubt that it is a noticable amount.

Nope, for I do not know where to find them, as I have said, I speak of experience from games such as ArcheAge, Star Wars The Old Republic, and Lord of the Rings Online.

And you brought a "feeling" as a reason. Sorry, not really useful.

As useful as you believing in the removal of trading will remove botting?

You mix up fixing botting with switching to f2p. You use a fallacy here, that f2p directly influences the amount of bots in a transition from sub to f2p, while you cannot prove that. Argument properly.

F2P directly influences the operation of the game, as well as its services, and store, and the fact that the door is wide open, welcoming botting without restrictions.

I think a computer game economy is broken, if it creates slave workers in real life and criminals as like account hackers. You surely would like to set other priorities here but i think the effect on real life is what matter more than a playmoney economy in a MMORPG which actually calls for abuse.

ANY GAME OPERATED BY HUMAN BEINGS TO CREATE COOPERATION WITH HUMAN BEINGS WILL HAVE QUESTIONABLE IF EVEN RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIOR CREATED BY HUMAN BEINGS TO SERVE HUMAN BEINGS! The only way you can get rid of botting is by going single-player, or games without any wider development and cooperation.

Sure it would. If bots are used to farm mats they can sell for gold those bots had no use if gold and mats were soulbound. Your caps will not change that. Mats could drop from quest chains rather than from grinding as well, you know, useful and demanding gameplay instead of farming your (bots) ass off for gnome hides by killing thousands of gnomes.

Let us say we removed trading, you would also remove the need for professions, the auction house, and general world cooperation, heck, let us slash resources too because we don't need trading in the first place, as well as crafting while we're at it. Guess what? Bots will still be there but instead of gold or resources, it'll just be achievements, collections, etc, by selling accounts, and because it is F2P there won't really be anything to block that either.

[PixelFox]

Right now, DF is the new hotness and there's not much motivation for them to do free stuff until they see who hasn't come back for the xpack I think.

They just did giveaways of up to $170 worth of Hearthstone card packs to try to get players there to come back / play more / buy stuff, so their marketing guys are certainly flirting with such things and a similar "Here, have a free month of WoW and all the xpacks" thing wouldn't surprise me at some point.