In most movies about drug addiction, this happens: a dealer will give you the first hit for free, thus setting in motion a spiralling morality tale of physical and spiritual decay. Blizzard’s latest move, providing gamers with a World of Warcraft Starter Edition, allowing new players to play for free right up until they hit Level 20. In short – they have become that drug dealer. The first hit is free, man…
This is genius on the level of a Blofeld or Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – a cruel, insidious genius that will leave you broken and penniless. By the time potential players hit level 20 they’ll be too far gone. The credit card details will come out of gamers’ pockets like a long forgotten instinct, they’ll hand over the money without thinking… and before you know it you’ll be crawling on the street missing your original teeth and possibly an arm like Jared Leto in Requiem For A Dream.
Genius. Actually, make that ingenius.
Alright – further details on this free until level 20 scheme can be found in the Blizzard store. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Thanks MTV Multiplayer
Sam
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 9:37 AMI wonder if I could get any cash for appearing in one of those Quit campaigns for WoW addiction as someone who’s been there but has been clean for 2 years or some such now.
Klutar
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 9:40 AMThere was always free trial, wasn’t there?
Chazz
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 9:47 AMIndeed and in the time of the trial one could easily hit level 20.
Klutar
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 9:49 AMYeah I remember giving myself the trial, then activating the account so I could RaF myself.
Maniacal
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 12:40 PMfrom memory the free trial was 14 days and was capped at lvl 10. a capping at lvl 20 means a twink at 19 doing battlegrounds cause you don’t gain experience doing battlegrounds :-) and I myself wouldn’t mind seeing what azeroth looks like now
Steven Bogos
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 12:55 PM2 things:
There has been an option to turn off exp gain for quite some time now, you dont just have to do BG’S
Also, ATM trail accounts are severly limited on their actions. They can’t join guilds, use mail or use the Auction House, for example. It’s quite hard to play a twink without access to the Auction house
Klutar
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 3:44 PMIt capped at 20 I’m pretty sure.
Twinking is mostly obsolete now.
Good luck starting a new account, capping at 19 and making enough gold for twink items.
Aaron
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 9:52 AMIt’s only vanilla WoW, so none of the new races, so it’s like, the leftover crack that got dropped on the floor of the crack den and was way over the 5 second rule. If you want the China Ice you still gotta pay for it choco.
Anyway, drugs and WoW is a more analogy, there’s nothing even remotely druglike about WoW. Now I’m going to play as my purple skinned pointy eared ninja man and ride my sparkling flying space lion to the World Tree at Mt Hyjal.
Chazz
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:14 AMIf it’s only Vanilla WoW then that’s the good stuff.
Vanilla WoW was the real, cut properly kind of drugs.
BC and beyond is the dirty crud cut with bleach and other cheap chemicals.
Klutar
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:23 AMYou forget that vanilla isn’t vanilla anymore after Cataclysm, it’s all changed.
Chazz
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:33 AMI did forget that actually and all I can say is;
FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…
Klutar
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:56 AMSentiment agreed with.
It’s so boring now, it basically plays itself.
Exaemo
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 3:36 PMVanilla, non-vanilla.
It’s a EQ clone.
Any MMO that doesn’t belong to the Ultima Online geneaology tree is boring as hell and forcibly group oriented.
Chazz
Thursday, June 30, 2011 at 8:39 AMBasement dweller much?
An MMO that is “forcibly group orientated” is a bad thing? Yes it’s ridiculous you have to socialise and work together with other people in a MULTIPLAYER scenario!
706
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 9:59 AMThat is no doubt going to ensnare some, however I do wonder if the game is good enough to keep people playing. I don’t really have time for MMOs these days and I don’t think I’d enjoy them as much as I used to, so I am a little tempted to play this just to see if WoW is a good game on its own, or if it is just an MMO with a very polished addictive side to its gameplay.
I will not however give in and try it lest I do get addicted. I’m saving myself for Diablo.
Jimu AKA Grimlock!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:02 AMI always have thought of WoW as the heroine of video games.
Richard
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:09 AMThe female savior of videogames?
Klutar
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:11 AMA female hero?
Mike
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:14 AMWoW is already dead as a game. I’ve wanted to go back this year, tried to go back, but it’s gone.
Stevorooni
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:16 AMI remember getting a trial disc, but then after installing and updating, it wouldn’t even let me start it without entering my credit card details – which was crap considering it was meant to be free, so I uninstalled it and never became afflicted.
dmag87
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:19 AMIt can’t be that addictive, right…….. guys?
Matt
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:21 AMSo, free lvl 19 twink accounts?
Alinos
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:22 AMEh in my opinion they should basically let you level to 40-50.
Biggest issues with things like WoW and that is that starting a new character is boring work. Seeing as until you get into the 80′s for the most part your not going to be playing with anyone
Fenixius
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 11:06 AMThis. This is why WoW, which is one of the most sublime games to ever be released, fails utterly in my opinion. There is -no- meaningful player interaction before level 85.
Lone Wolf
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:23 AMI played WoW when it first came out, got up to about level 35 or so when the level grind started getting to me. Put it down and never looked back.
andy
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:51 AMloved it when i first started playing trying to figure out everything and exploring was awesome but then i realised because i was a little late on the take up of wow i missed all the real fun and i was always behind everyone.
you group with someone and they know exactly where said item is and just went straight there.
wish the amount of people from WOW would move straight over to another MMO maybe knights of the old republic. it was said that WARhammer online didnt work out.
phaded
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:59 AMSo they took the 14 day trial, removed the 14 day limit on it, then rebranded it as a free starter edition.
Gusman
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 11:06 AMTo be honest, I find WoW to be cheaper than going to the movies or dinner regularly with your friends/family. But yes they are evil >:D
Azoshi
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 11:29 AMIt’d be nice to try WoW but isn’t there like 50gb + of updates? [Possibly exaggerating, sorry. <.<]
Considering I bought my copy in 2007 and have never installed it properly mainly because of the huge amount of updates.
Reoh
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 4:24 PMMyth. The first hit is totaly not free.
Also WOw’s new move is borrowed genius, because there’s nothing groundbreaking about adopting something that is succesfully working in many other games prior.
@Azoshi, it’s probably a reduced client. You couldn’t access a lot of the areas anyway so they don’t need to update those into your client. WOW also features a streaming patch technology that lets you start playing sooner while parts not necessary are downloaded in the background or later when you logout. Also possibly only as you access an area which needs those files and I’d imagine a lot of the “trial client” will be like that.
Virus__
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 6:23 PMAnd for 20 bucks you can now buy the battle chest online which you then refer a friend with yourself and have RAF upto level 80.. Mind you when you hit 70 you then need Wrath for the other account, but it’s pretty cheap..
sub zero
Friday, September 2, 2011 at 3:26 AMall trail wee want lvl 1 from lvl 85