It's been an eventful week in mmos. Not only did WOW release a new patch, but Blizzard/Activision announced a new f2p model for the flagship MMO. Well sort of, it replaces the 14 day trial and will allow players to try the game out for 20 levels.
However, the catch is that the limitations on free trials will remain pretty restricted, i.e. no guild memberships and no access to the chat channels for most. I have mixed feelings about this, on the one hand I think it is cool that new players can now sample various races and classes without the constraints of time. On the other hand, the restrictions make me want to play Wow less, instead of more, which is what the company is probably the opposite of what Blizzard wants.
While initially I was kinda miffed that Cata had possibly nerfed the Valley of the Trials when I re-rolled Horde as a hunter, I reserved final judgment until I made a little progress. I once had a Hunter go as high as level 30, so I never really did experience end content, but always wanted to and always found the game to be fun to play. Now it just seems that they are greedily trying to bring more players back in without giving anything up.
Is RIFT chipping away at a sizable chuck of Blizzard’s subs? What do the rest of you think?
I personally had given up on the game, not because I don’t like it, but because it plays horribly on Vista given it has issues with the annoying video adaptor error, which seems to be a known Windows issue. A pity.
In other news, SEO announced that they were lowering prices on some of their game content, and sadly for SWG fans, the game is going to seize operations in December. Massively had a lengthy interview with the developers. It's really sad I never got to play this game in its prime, and now it looks like TOR will be the only game in town, though I can't say I am all that surprised. Stilli, "it's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced..."
