World of WarCraft Free-to-Play Until Level 20 (Updated)

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World of WarCraft Free-to-Play Until Level 20 (Updated)

Post by Steve Farrelly @ 09:55am 29/06/11 | 25 Comments

Free-to-Play MMOs are scrambling this morning, after news Blizzard have decided to adopt the model for their game for players to grind until level 20 where you'll need a subscription to continue. There's no limit to how many characters you can use, either.

The World of Warcraft Starter Edition allows players to access World of Warcraft for free -- all you need is a Battle.net account and an Internet connection. Starter Edition players can play up to a maximum character level of 20 and are able to upgrade to a full, paid account at any time, allowing them to continue their adventures where they left off. The Starter Kit gives gamers who are interested in trying out World of Warcraft a chance to experience the game before purchasing a copy.

There's also a local price reduction on the World of WarCraft: Battle Chest, which has dropped from AU$69.95 to AU$29.95 (SRP) and includes a full 30-days of play time.

For more clarification, check out the FAQ on the new changes right here.

world of warcraft level cap free-to-play blizzard burning crusade

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kettels
Posted 10:09am 29/6/11

thats pretty big news, the other MMO's can't be liking it to much. I think i'm still going to avoid it, just to keep whats left of my productivity but it makes it very tempting.

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Taipan
Posted 10:13am 29/6/11

Yep knew it they are getting desperate. :P

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Enska
Posted 10:16am 29/6/11

lulz, I think its a far cry from getting desperate.

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Morbz
Posted 10:27am 29/6/11

hahah yea i was like ooo that could be worth it i have 3 level 80s i havent played in over a year haha

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Eorl
Posted 10:36am 29/6/11

Wait what...

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Tanaka Khan
Posted 10:36am 29/6/11

Gee, so you get to play for an hour free until they want your money.

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andrewus
Posted 10:43am 29/6/11

I tried to fire my account up a few months ago. My wow had been hacked / banned and I did all the account recovery forms and such but never heard back from them.
A shame, I wouldn't have minded getting back into it. I just attempted to ring blizz support 1800 number just then and it said 45 minute wait in queue. Fck that.

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Eorl
Posted 10:49am 29/6/11

Here is the list of features for "Starter Edition Accounts":

The full restrictions are:
- A level cap of 20.
– A maximum of 10 gold.
– Trade skills are capped at 100 ranks.
– Unable to trade via the Auction House, mailbox, or player-to-player.
– In-game access to public chat channels unavailable. Players are limited to communicating using only say, party, or whisper.
– Characters will be unable to create or join guilds.
– Characters are not able to send whispers to other characters unless they have been added to the characters’ friends lists or have received a whisper from a character first.
– Characters will not be able to invite other players into a party.
– Characters will not be able to join parties with other characters above level 20.
– Voice chat disabled on Starter Edition accounts.
– Realms experiencing login queues will prioritize players who have full, paid accounts.
– Starter Edition accounts are not eligible for character transfers
– RealID features are disabled on all Starter Edition Accounts.

FAQ here

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Khel
Posted 10:56am 29/6/11

Pretty much the same restrictions trial accounts used to have, its just now instead of a 10 day trial, you can get to level 20 before it runs out.

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TiT
Posted 11:09am 29/6/11

the only reason why i dont have this game on my computer is.. there is not one big iso i can download that has all the patches

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andrewus
Posted 11:14am 29/6/11

the only reason why i dont have this game on my computer is.. there is not one big iso i can download that has all the patches

copy the installed folder from a mate & place on your computer.. problem solved

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eXemplar
Posted 11:40am 29/6/11

Trial accounts were already limited to level 20 - this sounds like blizzard just cashing in on the whole publicity of f2p going around, without actually doing anything different.

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skythra
Posted 12:14pm 29/6/11

copy the installed folder from a mate & place on your computer.. problem solved

That's a shit solution. First problem: I don't even know one person who has it installed.

Would this work with the trial account launcher? Because that downloaded content as it needed to, reducing the whole install to a few hundred mb's and then downloading as it went along IIRC. Much more clever way to solve the issue.

Edit: wow could go f2p and just not let people raid or BG and they'd get people who hit 80 and then go "well i love my char so much i'll go pay a subscription for a month and see how it goes, it's only like 20 dollars".

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Eorl
Posted 12:46pm 29/6/11

It's actually the best option besides doing a full fresh install Skythra. Your only problem is you have no one TO get it off. And the trial account doesn't "only" download trial stuff. It downloads the whoooole game, just like the rest of us. Just your only limited to Azeroth. Hell, you can go into plaguelands or any high level area as a level 20 on a trial account, just your going to get smashed.

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deadlyf
Posted 01:00pm 29/6/11

Yeah this sounds like it's just marketing bullshit. I understand the restrictions in place, trial accounts used to be a huge problem until they crippled the shit out of them but this isn't F2P it's just a relabeling of their trial system. To be honest, calling it F2P kind of shits on the concept of free to play which is fine for a subscription based MMO to do since F2P is it's natural enemy but you'd think a game site would have a bit more of an editorial presence in their reporting of it rather than pretty much just posting an ad for Blizzard.

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nexus6
Posted 01:16pm 29/6/11

i was given 10 free days as an incentive to return to the game, but they wouldnt let me lvl up. if they had allowed me to sample some of the lvl 85 content i might have been tempted, but stuck at 80 was never going to do it. wow is a good game, but its a victim of its own success, they have so many people playing they are never going to try anything radical ( and therefore interesting) or they will loose to many people. and thats fair enough, it has worked for them for a long time. the biggest problem for me is that it hais ruined MMOS, from waht i have seen most of the mmos coming out are trying to be exactly the same as wow and thats a huge shame. I know rift tried to be different but it certainly didnt feel very different to me. im hoping the old republic will be good as a starwars fanboy, but it looks scarily like wow with new skins.

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Tanaka Khan
Posted 02:30pm 29/6/11

For some reason, I've been getting spammed about 10 times a day for me to return to WoW with fake emails. The funny thing is that the emails are coming to an address of mine that has nothing to do with WoW. The spelling of these emails has been terrible too!

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deeper
Posted 03:07pm 29/6/11

I think the more important part of the news post is the mention of the price drop for the game rather than the level 20 trial stuff. Level 20 cap isn't letting you play much

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ravn0s
Posted 03:11pm 29/6/11

The funny thing is that the emails are coming to an address of mine that has nothing to do with WoW.

i've been getting emails to an email address that hasn't associated with WoW or battle.net for a while now. they're usually emails saying my account's been hacked and shit. don't really care, haven't played it for like 5 years.

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skythra
Posted 03:21pm 29/6/11

It's actually the best option besides doing a full fresh install Skythra. Your only problem is you have no one TO get it off. And the trial account doesn't "only" download trial stuff.

Um. No it is only a small download and you can start playing straight away, it downloads as you go. And considering this thread is "F2P Till level20" if you only want to play till level 20 that IS the best option.

If you want to install the whole game, that's irrelevant to the F2P scheme.

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Eorl
Posted 03:28pm 29/6/11

That process that your talking about, is the exact same progress a person who wants to install the whole game goes through. It's downloading what everyone else downloads, regardless if your trial or not. It's just that if your account is flagged as trial, then you can only do certain things in game. I'm just saying another option, and one that is somewhat better then wasting quota, is by getting the files from a friend. Though in your case, you can't.

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Trauma
Posted 03:37pm 29/6/11

You still need a lot/all of the game assets because players who have any items or spells that can't access may be around trials, they cant just make your gear/items/spells invisible to some trial, the only way to save on the size would be to cut zones that are not available to trials.

I don't see why it matters, it's an easy game to download. I love that from the list of restrictions on the trial accounts most of them are anti-Chinese.

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Spook
Posted 03:42pm 29/6/11

still too much.

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 03:45pm 29/6/11

This lvl 20 thingy is just the trial account offer but you don't need to put in that code. Dunno why Blizzard haven't done this all along. Would have saved money on printing.

8-)

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Trauma
Posted 04:02pm 29/6/11

I imagine there is also no time limit, last I saw (years ago) trials were valid for 14 days.

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