Warhammer Online now has a “perpetual” free trial. It joins the ranks of Wizard 101, Free Realms (which is now almost just like WAR, albeit having arrived from a different direction), Guild Wars, DDO and Puzzle Pirates in the short list of games that I think are starting to understand the market. Of course, Guild Wars is still the frontrunner in the business model department, and Puzzle Pirates will likely remain the one I play most (it’s just so durn schedule friendly!), but this change by the WAR crew is exactly the tipping point that has me itching to download the game.
If it turns out well, I might even give them some money, like I did for W101 and Puzzle Pirates. In the immortal words of Daniel James of Puzzle Pirates fame:
I want to like WAR. I’ve been digging into the tabletop game, and it’s fascinating. While there are some considerable differences, WAR looks interesting enough to take a look, and Public Quests look interesting as a mechanic. They have offered me (and many others) a gift by changing their business model this way. Time will tell if I love them enough to demonstrate it with dollars. The chance of that went up from 0% to at least 33%, and that has to count for something. Even marketers understand that math.
Of course, dearest Turbine and Blizzard, if either of you wanted to up the ante by offering me a lifetime sub to LOTRO or WoW for my birthday, I’d not turn you down. I’d even promise to take lots of pretty screenshots and write about what you are doing right in your games. (The records show that I’ve done plenty of complaining, so I can afford to balance it out.)
It is my birthday, after all, and turning up my nose at gifts would just be… improper.
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Disclosure: I know, I know, some would say that WAR is dying and should be taken out back and dumped on the Tabula Rasa heap. Some might suggest I give money to someone more deserving. There are definitely (largish) grains of truth in those opinions.
WAR will never be my “main” MMO. Still, this is a Good Move for the business of MMOs, and hopefully a good one for WAR, and I want to let these people know that I approve. If they don’t read my blog (slackers!), maybe I can send them a birthday card with a nice $10 bill or something. Since, y’know, we’re supposed to vote with our wallet.
And, well… I’ve spent my fair share of money buying games that aren’t the biggest boys on the block, and that aren’t the greatest examples of game design. Yet… they are fun enough to warrant an expenditure on my part as a reward for a job well done. Call it my way of paying the tab after a decent, middle class night out to eat. It’s not The Ritz, but it’s not Carl’s Jr. I’m totally happy paying game devs for their work, I just want to do it on my terms. That will never be paying for a subscription.
Heck, I even gave Braid $5. If I can do that, I can lob some dollar love at the WAR guys. Well, that is if their gift really is a fun bit of work, not something I’m going to send along as a White Elephant to someone else in a week… and $10 is half of Torchlight or Machinarium…
Tish Tosh Tesh 
Happy Birthday, Tesh!
First off, Happy Birthday!
But did I miss something? After you’ve wrung all the gameplay out of the Perpetual Free Trial, isn’t your only option a traditional subscription?
First and most importantly, happy b-day Tesh!
Now then, understand the market? Come on now. Warhammer launched a year and change ago with a subscription scheme. Did the market really change that much? I’m not talking about offer, I’m talking about demand.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good move on their part, but I don’t agree this is them “understanding the market” rather than them going “OMFG get people in free and see how many stick”.
Happy Birthday 🙂
And agree with you about the “wanting to like WAR” thing. I was so excited about it last year and loved some of the mechanics that they introduced yet… somehow… the game didn’t quite do it for me.
I wish you a happy birthday! 🙂 I wondered if WAR has some kind of birthday initially. 😉
Pete and Julian, yeah, I’m probably stretching too far for a cryptic reference. See, instead of getting $10 in the mail for my birthday, or a Li’l KT from the Blizzard Store, I get a free trial. That’s where the $10 comes from… perhaps I should have mentioned giving $5 to charity? Yes, as far as I can tell, you can only do the free trial or sub… and I won’t sub. 😉
And yes, they are a bit late to the party on this move. It’s a good one, but I do have to wonder if they are really understanding the market or just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. (And I’m still very curious as to what the Cataclysm will bring… I’m suspicious of a business model change for the venerable 800 pound gorilla.)
Thanks for the well wishes, all! It’s been a good day so far; we got snow on the ground to stick for more than a half hour! I do love some good snow.
I’m quite serious about this being a turning point for my interest in WAR, though. I downloaded it and made myself a White Lion last night. We’ll see if I have fun with it.
Happy Birthday as well. 🙂 It’s also about the birthday of my blog, but I suspect you’re older.
As for giving your money to M59, we don’t have billing set up again, yet. If you want, I could set up a temp account for you for your birthday. 😉
Belated! 🙂
happy belated birthday!
Happy birthday Tesh !
I’m with you on that boat. This free trial thing makes me want to try them. It’s a game that looke very promising two years ago, and the more I read after its launch, the less I wanted to play :/.
But, I said the same about DDO, and now have sent sent 12€. So, why not WAR ?
Happy Birthday! 🙂
tanti auguri!
Happy belated Birthday. 🙂
As for WAR, bought it and played it on launch… I’d hope things have changed since then.
The game itself, especially the world and the lore (from the tabletop) are all excellent, was decent enough and enjoyable. What really got to me was the amount of PvE in what I thought was going to be a PvP-centric title. (the pre-launch videos made it seem like there was bloody war *everywhere*) If you’re more into PvE and just interested in some PvP whenever you feel like it — this might be a good bit of fun for you, and I would recommend it for that.
I haven’t been back in a year and might give it another month of play since they’ve done this… hopefully the populations are higher.
Happy belated birthday Tesh. I agree with you, I think a perpetual free trial is a good move in specific and in general. It’s very easy to read about games and get a negative impression of something you might actually like to play. Giving an extended free trial is a good way to convince people who might just believe the web first.
Thanks again for the well wishes, everyone!
We’ll see how my White Lion does this weekend if I can carve out an our or two to play.
Late to the party but thought I’d pipe up about WAR. I have 3 characters in their 20’s and that’s all I can bring myself to do. The first two tiers are awesome and a lot of fun but once you hit Tier 3, well, you realise that the rest of the game will be spent doing exactly the same things as you’ve just been doing and after that, I can’t bring myself to do it. I know that many other MMOs work off repeating content over and over, but for some reason in WAR it just loses its fun. Tier 1 is awesome though and I had a lot of alts in that bracket.
Thanks for stopping by, Zombie! I’ve heard much the same from a variety of people. That’s one reason why I think this “perpetual free trial” might be a good thing, to keep Tier 1 populated. I guess we’ll see how it pans out. I haven’t played it much recently (way too much on my plate), but I do intend to dig into the game more.