What do you think about free weekend?

[WowIsDead64]

What I've noticed - is that free weekend boosted populations of all servers to values, that looked more like peak ones. From mid to high for example. But then they dropped again. And it has made me think about this phenomena. What do you think about it?

First of all, question for players, who haven't bought DF yet. Has free weekend reached it's goal? Has it made you buy DF? I have poll for you.

Second question. Blizzard do many things to make more players buy DF and keep them subbed. These things are becoming more and more aggressive. So this may mean, that situation with subs is still bad, so they want to improve it. Don't you think, that may be they're very close to switching to F2P? I.e. they experiment with "What population we would have, if game would be free?".

[Lochton]

Second question. Blizzard do many things to make more players buy DF and keep them subbed. These things are becoming more and more aggressive. So this may mean, that situation with subs is still bad, so they want to improve it. Don't you think, that may be they're very close to switching to F2P? I.e. they experiment with "What population we would have, if game would be free?".

More aggressive? Pardon me? I mean, Dragonflight has a higher player retention rate than Shadowlands did.

As for F2P, please no, for the love of all that is chaotic, no..

[Lolites]

i mean, going "aggresive" as you called it is more eficient when numbers are slowly going UP, rather than when they are low, so id argue this approach shows DF was received well (which they kinda confirmed in their call)
as for f2p, even IF they were down to 1m subs, which they almost certainly are not, its still much more profitable to remain on sub model... and thank god for that, when they reach such lows they would consider f2p wow would "finaly" truly die, as all the morons would come in, and blizz would become hundred times more "aggresive" with shop items...

[kranur]

WoW still has a population in the millions. There is no fucking way in hell that a company bringing in over 2 million per month from subs sits there and thinks "We should remove the sub.". If there will be any change in the monetization model, it will be after MS takes over.

Sure, they're throwing more promotions than in the past (though we did have things like this at multiple points) but that's just because they fucked up bad 2 expansions in the the row and lots of people have even lost the faith to try the new expansion out.

[Triceron]

I came back to play Dragonflight, normally not subbed. Played on Thursday and Friday, just enough to get to Dragonriding and level my Dracthyr through the starter zone.

Would I buy Dragonflight or resub? No.

With the way I would want to play WoW, it'd be a scheduled grind, and I have no time for that. I'm better off playing some other game that I can pick up and drop any time, at my convenience. Real life doesn't afford the same flexibility I had in my 20's.

"What population we would have, if game would be free?"

Not much of a difference, to be fair. People came back because it was a boost and a reason to check out new content, otherwise all content is gated. That's sort of the problem here - it's the systems keeping people out.

I literally came back to check it out because of the wombo-combo of having a 60 boost so that I had a character available to check the game out. If not for that, I wouldn't have bothered. And even then, that would last only a couple weeks or so, since this return of players is likely people checking out the new features of DF like I did. Now that I've seen the Dragonriding mechanics and played the Evoker, my curiosity is sated.

[Soikona]

More aggressive? Pardon me? I mean, Dragonflight has a higher player retention rate than Shadowlands did.

As for F2P, please no, for the love of all that is chaotic, no..

Was there anything official for backing that up? I hear the opposite, especially in the raiding scene.

[Lochton]

Was there anything official for backing that up? I hear the opposite, especially in the raiding scene.

The previous quarter reading stated better retention. That is all.

[Zuben]

I originally intended to sub in the final patch, as that worked well in Shadowlands. But playing during the free weekend DF felt much better than the previous expansion, so I made the purchase. Didn't sub yet, though, as now's not a good time for continuous long sessions, but figured I'd want to play at some point in the next few months. As the expansion was 10€ off it made sense to get it now.

[Pann]

I said in another thread that I cannot work out what Blizzard was hoping to achieve with the way they implemented this free trial. Everything that could have hooked me back in was locked off from me, new features like the trader's outpost and dragon riding were inaccessible without purchasing DF and the fact that I could gain any XP meant that all character progression was blocked.

I hate level scaling as it takes away the feeling of growing and progressing your character that is, imo, at the heart of an RPG but not even being able gain a single stat or talent was a complete disincentive to play. And I have to say that the pop up that appeared after every loading screen was really quite annoying.

Had I been able to try out the new features and make a bit of progress with my character I think I would have purchased DF but as it went I had a quick look around the Dragon Isles starting area, did a few quests and then took a brief trip down memory lane before deciding it was not for me and logging off.

[arkanon]

What I've noticed - is that free weekend boosted populations of all servers to values, that looked more like peak ones. From mid to high for example. But then they dropped again. And it has made me think about this phenomena. What do you think about it?

First of all, question for players, who haven't bought DF yet. Has free weekend reached it's goal? Has it made you buy DF? I have poll for you.

Second question. Blizzard do many things to make more players buy DF and keep them subbed. These things are becoming more and more aggressive. So this may mean, that situation with subs is still bad, so they want to improve it. Don't you think, that may be they're very close to switching to F2P? I.e. they experiment with "What population we would have, if game would be free?".

Yes, I think they are doubling and quadrupling their efforts to entice players to buy and play DF, to levels I personally havnt seen before. I might be mistaken but I believe it's on sale again now as well?

But no, I don't believe it was or is close to F2P at this stage. Likely in the future, but not now. I do see the trading post as the groundwork for an in-game shop selling the good looking stuff, with the currency being slowly given to players, but also purchasable for real money.

[FelPlague]

I said in another thread that I cannot work out what Blizzard was hoping to achieve with the way they implemented this free trial. Everything that could have hooked me back in was locked off from me, new features like the trader's outpost and dragon riding were inaccessible without purchasing DF and the fact that I could gain any XP meant that all character progression was blocked.

I hate level scaling as it takes away the feeling of growing and progressing your character that is, imo, at the heart of an RPG but not even being able gain a single stat or talent was a complete disincentive to play. And I have to say that the pop up that appeared after every loading screen was really quite annoying.

Had I been able to try out the new features and make a bit of progress with my character I think I would have purchased DF but as it went I had a quick look around the Dragon Isles starting area, did a few quests and then took a brief trip down memory lane before deciding it was not for me and logging off.

You could have dragon rode, idk what you are talking about, speaking I literally got 3 friends to play and we did multiplayer dragon races after they all unlocked it.

Also yeah they locked you to 60, but you still gained exp, just you are stuck at 60 till you buy the expac, then you are boosted to the level you would be if you were gaining EXP.

Also you could have gained stats by getting gear from quests, and what pop up?

[Glorious Leader]

next stop F2P fuckers

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More aggressive? Pardon me? I mean, Dragonflight has a higher player retention rate than Shadowlands did.

As for F2P, please no, for the love of all that is chaotic, no..

This is inaccurate bordering on misleading. They noted that retention was better but because sales were so much lower that is not an actual win. They still lost players after the initial release but less total players due to the fact that it didn't sell as much or generate as much people coming back. They actually didn't give a retention figure mostly because they'd be laughed at and had to massage something out of the disaster.

It's pretty fucking clear they've been MUCH more aggressive trying to sell this expansion. Multiple sales, free months given out for purchasing, free weekends for players to try. This is all more or less unheard of so close to the release of the expansion. The free month after purchasing was total bullshit btw, that one pissed me off the most. They couldn't give that at launch but in order to boost WEAK sales they had to offer a more aggressive sales push. Fuck that.

[Pann]

You could have dragon rode, idk what you are talking about, speaking I literally got 3 friends to play and we did multiplayer dragon races after they all unlocked it.

Also yeah they locked you to 60, but you still gained exp, just you are stuck at 60 till you buy the expac, then you are boosted to the level you would be if you were gaining EXP.

Also you could have gained stats by getting gear from quests, and what pop up?

It said something along the lines of purchase Dragon Flight to unlock dragon riding. Obviously I have made a massive mistake by believing what Blizzard said in game but if this was not the case then perhaps if should have said something different?

Isn't that just a roundabout way of saying I could not gain XP?

I dunno? Could I? You seem to know more about what I experienced than me.

[FelPlague]

It said something along the lines of purchase Dragon Flight to unlock dragon riding. Obviously I have made a massive mistake by believing what Blizzard said in game but if this was not the case then perhaps if should have said something different?

Isn't that just a roundabout way of saying I could not gain XP?

I dunno? Could I? You seem to know more about what I experienced than me.

1- no where did it say "Purchase dragonflight to unlock dragon riding" you were able to do the entire first zones campaign and everything included, which also includes unlocking dragon riding. Blizzard no where in game said you had to unlock dragonflight to dragonride.

2- No, you were gaining EXP, but it is not useable, my friend literally gained so much exp from his weekend, he will instantly hit level 70 once he buys the expansion in a couple weeks.

3- Yes I do, because you are bullshitting, because I also experienced it, and neither of what you are saying is correct cause again.

Yes you were able to dragonride, you simply did not spend the 30 minutes questing required to unlock it
Yes you can gain exp, however you cannot level, but any exp gained is banked, so when you do buy the expac, you will instantly level to where you should be, hell it even brings up a special announcement every time you WOULD level from gaining exp.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

This is inaccurate bordering on misleading. They noted that retention was better but because sales were so much lower that is not an actual win.

This is actually misleading as no where did they ever mention sales being much lower as they only said they didn’t read shadowlands which goes for every single expansions reported sales.

[Glorious Leader]

This is actually misleading as no where did they ever mention sales being much lower as they only said they didn’t read shadowlands which goes for every single expansions reported sales.

Excuse me I beg your pardon. They stated sales were lower than Shadowlands. They are of course cowards or better stated they have to manage shareholder expectations so naturally everything is massaged. You can read that sales were lower. If it had been even close they would have a blown it up... as they did for every expansion prior to shadowlands.

[MoanaLisa]

What I've noticed - is that free weekend boosted populations of all servers to values, that looked more like peak ones. From mid to high for example. But then they dropped again. And it has made me think about this phenomena. What do you think about it?

Radical thought: People like to play games for free for a day or two.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Excuse me I beg your pardon. They stated sales were lower than Shadowlands. They are of course cowards or better stated they have to manage shareholder expectations so naturally everything is massaged. You can read that sales were lower. If it had been even close they would have a blown it up... as they did for every expansion prior to shadowlands.

So ya misleading with baseless speculation.

[Pann]

1- no where did it say "Purchase dragonflight to unlock dragon riding" you were able to do the entire first zones campaign and everything included, which also includes unlocking dragon riding. Blizzard no where in game said you had to unlock dragonflight to dragonride.

2- No, you were gaining EXP, but it is not useable, my friend literally gained so much exp from his weekend, he will instantly hit level 70 once he buys the expansion in a couple weeks.

3- Yes I do, because you are bullshitting, because I also experienced it, and neither of what you are saying is correct cause again.

Yes you were able to dragonride, you simply did not spend the 30 minutes questing required to unlock it
Yes you can gain exp, however you cannot level, but any exp gained is banked, so when you do buy the expac, you will instantly level to where you should be, hell it even brings up a special announcement every time you WOULD level from gaining exp.

Oh you got me! I must be lying. There was a window that showed some forgettable faction's progression that had a box that said in order to access Dragon Riding I would have to buy the expansion. I took this at face value and was not going to waste my time looking around Wowhead to find out whether this was correct or not. And no I didn't spend 30 minutes questing on the off chance that this was wrong. If I had known that it was that easy to unlock I might have played on but Blizzard failed to tell me.

No I wasn't. My Character started with a full exp bar at level 60 and had a full exp at level 60 when I logged off for the last time. I therefore gained no experience - this is not complicated.

You do what? Know more than what I experienced?

Look this was Blizzard's opportunity to sell their expansion to me and they failed to do so. Had I been offered some form of meaningful character progression I might have formed a different opinion but I am not going to waste my time playing a game I was not enjoying on the off-chance that might I find a green that had 2 more agi than the gear I already had equipped.

This thread asked for people's opinion of their experience of the free weekend which I have given, it wasn't meant as personal insult.

I honestly don't know what your problem is or what you hoped to gain by jumping on me and telling me I am "bullshitting", I tried the free trial and I will not be resubbing or purchasing DF and despite your compelling and well thought out arguments I have not changed my mind.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yes I bought Dragonflight because of the free weekend, though I came back not to check out Dragonflight's content (the questline was locked after a certain point for returning players so I didn't bother), but to check out the new Shadowlands stuff that had been added after I had last played. I intend to explore what questlines I can (though I can't see the whole story since you can't queue for the raids anymore, so I will never see Sylvanas get thrown into the pit) before starting the Dragonflight questlines. Once I am done with the quests, I will unsub. Grinding world quests/the same dungeons over and over/the same raid bosses over and over holds no appeal to me.

I really dislike the new UI. It looks like it's from a cheap, uninspired mobile game. I wish I could have the old, detailed, ornate textures back.

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Second question. Blizzard do many things to make more players buy DF and keep them subbed. These things are becoming more and more aggressive. So this may mean, that situation with subs is still bad, so they want to improve it. Don't you think, that may be they're very close to switching to F2P? I.e. they experiment with "What population we would have, if game would be free?".

WoW will not go F2P. It does not make sense business wise. F2P as a business model exists to lower the barrier of entry in the hopes of attracting new players who might become whales. WoW does not attract new players anymore. The only people interested in WoW are old WoW players, who are already paying $210+ per year in sub fees and boxes to play WoW, and that's not counting the cash shop, boosts, race changes, and merchandising.

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WoW still has a population in the millions.

Source?

With the way I would want to play WoW, it'd be a scheduled grind, and I have no time for that. I'm better off playing some other game that I can pick up and drop any time, at my convenience. Real life doesn't afford the same flexibility I had in my 20's.

This. When the game become "grind or unsub" starting with WoD and Legion over simply having a ton of content that you could play, that's when I began losing interest in playing WoW.