WoW Veterans Get a Free Game for a Friend

[John Funk]

WoW Veterans Get a Free Game for a Friend

Now you can hook your friends on WoW for free!

Blizzard has had Recruit-a-Friend initiatives in World of Warcraft for years, now, but when it came down to the bottom line, the friend still had to buy his or her own copy of the game after the free trial. Sure, you can probably find it for $15 or $20 at your local GameStop, but it's still a hurdle between a prospective player and an adventure in Azeroth.

Consider the hurdle considerably lowered: Blizzard is giving long-time WoW players a free copy of World of Warcraft to give to their friends, including the requisite free month of playtime before the subscription kicks in. If you've been playing the game for years, now, check your email for instructions and a special code on how you too can get your friends hooked on WoW.

There's no word on exactly how long someone has to have been playing to be considered a "veteran." I got my email, and I've been playing since February 2005 - three months after the game came out. Maybe it's a "year one" sort of thing, or maybe there's a bit more leeway there - nobody knows right now except for Blizzard.

You'll have to buy the expansions separately, of course, but the revamped Level 1 to Level 60 content is one of the best parts of the game for a prospective newbie, so it all works out in the end. And really, if a new player decides at the end of the free trial month that WoW just isn't their thing, at least they aren't out any money.

I do consider World of Warcraft one of the best-made games of all time - there's a reason we at The Escapist voted it as our Game of the Decade [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/7270-The-Escapist-Awards-2009-Winners-Announcement.2]. It's definitely worth a try, especially if you can get it for absolutely free.

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[mattaui]

I find it kind of funny they sent me a code when my own accounts have been idle for over six months. I now have the problem of not knowing a single interested person who doesn't already at least own vanilla WoW.

 

[Archemetis]

Yeah, The only people who I could've interested with this was my girlfriend and her brother...

Her brother has already bought up to the Cata' and my girlfriend has up to Burning Crusade...

So I don't think a free copy of Vanilla is going to come in handy...

Now, if I could convince Blizzard to give me the recruitment goodies I forgot to sign up for when I got those two playing that would be awesome.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

oh god the virus can spread!
the plague has only begun to fight!

OT: I'm guess this is some kind of business move to try to put an even greater stranglehold on the MMORPGs, what with the possible competition actually starting to be good.

It's really hard to argue with free. I wonder how well this will work out for them

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Wait. So after the trial, you still had to buy the game? It didn't just jump to a standard subscription?

 

[Proteus214]

Hmm, I've been playing since 2005 as well and I haven't gotten an email yet. Then again, I have cancelled and reopened my account several times since then.

 

[snow]

Heh, they lost a lot of customers and now they need to give away free copies to keep raking in the dough. Just die in peace WoW. I'm tired of your community dissing other mmo games with potential because they aren't anything like WoW, and then dissing other mmo's because they are too much like WoW. (And the occasional dissing a game that is nothing like WoW by saying it's too much like WoW.)

 

[Icehearted]

The community that made this game big has grown older, their tastes are likely hanging, and this game really has about run it's course with most people. I imagine a lot of it's players haven't been with them form the start. I came in around 9 months or so after it began and quit at WotLK, but the game was less play more work.

A free trial probably won't swell their numbers, and if anything I can see how some people might even be put off by getting one of these invitations from a friend.

 

[LostNumber]

I don't know if I count as a veteran (playing on and off since 2006), but if I do I guess I picked a bad time to take a break from the game. Then again, I honestly can't think of anyone I know who either already plays WoW, has played WoW, or has absolutely no intrest in WoW (or video games in general).

 

[Epona]

Anyone who hasn't tried WoW by now probably isn't interested.

 

[yretsyMredruM]

I think it'll help World of Warcraft to a certain extent, because I know many people who would love to try the game. The only reason they don't is because of the monthly subscription fee. It won't dramatically increase the number of subscribers, but a good amount of people will join.

OT: Is it me or is every company trying to entice consumers with all these free games? I don't have problem with it as I love taking advantage of free. It just seems that developers are turning away from the subscription-based fee and more towards micro-transition based profits.

 

[Vaccine]

There was a lot of valid reasons thrown around why their subs dropped off the way they did. Leveling content was shorter by a significant amount, I could power through it in a day, which is pretty damn short considering how much questing Northrend had, I could power through Northrend in maybe 3 days? give or take.
Raiding was also significantly harder than older tiers leaving the less progression focused players with not much to do, with the Tier 11 nerfs next week, this problem will most likely fix itself in future with the last tier always being nerfed.
There's really not a lot of shock and awe to content anymore, datamining ruined a large amount of the game for me, the ability to see entire instances, gear models, boss encounters before it's even released made the PTR more exciting than the real game, something I really wish they'd stop doing and just did closed testing.

There has been a lot of weird stuff they've been doing lately, they've really been pushing for RBGs but can't get people interested(hell, they gave arena glads a trashy reskin mount this season and RBGs next season got a badass brand new model).

Either way, good plan on their part, people can't say no to free stuff.

 

[snow]

I think it'll help World of Warcraft to a certain extent, because I know many people who would love to try the game. The only reason they don't is because of the monthly subscription fee. It won't dramatically increase the number of subscribers, but a good amount of people will join.

OT: Is it me or is every company trying to entice consumers with all these free games? I don't have problem with it as I love taking advantage of free. It just seems that developers are turning away from the subscription-based fee and more towards micro-transition based profits.

**Woops, had one of those "You must type this 2 really annoying to read words in order to continue" screens pop up, i did that first and went.. "Oh yeah I didn't post!"

Yes. A lot of companies are taking that path because... Well.. It's smart, you're allowing anyone to come in to play your game. You're letting them experience the game before they pay you any money. I avoid most pay to play games because of the monthly subscription fee...

I refuse to pay blizzard any more money for a push button/receive bacon game mechanic. There are several games out there for free that have that exact same style gameplay, heck there are f2p games out there that are really fun. It's too the point now where I can't help but wonder WHY people still pay 15 dollars a month to blizzard for such a mediocre experience.

There are companies out there that are f2p that have made 5 times more than what they were originally making when they were sub based. The only problem is when a game that is F2P becomes Pay2Win... I refuse to play those as well. If you're going to sell gear, it has to give a slight benefit and be mostly cosmetically appealing. Companies that sell over powered gear to players ends up ruining their game that way.

 

[Loop Stricken]

I'm assuming this is currently US-only, as I've been playing since day two (damn you slow postman!) and have had no such info sent to me.

 

[Ihniwid]

Not to be a nerd but the use of commas in this article is a bit much.

 

[Jumwa]

There was a lot of valid reasons thrown around why their subs dropped off the way they did. Leveling content was shorter by a significant amount, I could power through it in a day, which is pretty damn short considering how much questing Northrend had, I could power through Northrend in maybe 3 days? give or take.
Raiding was also significantly harder than older tiers leaving the less progression focused players with not much to do, with the Tier 11 nerfs next week, this problem will most likely fix itself in future with the last tier always being nerfed.
There's really not a lot of shock and awe to content anymore, datamining ruined a large amount of the game for me, the ability to see entire instances, gear models, boss encounters before it's even released made the PTR more exciting than the real game, something I really wish they'd stop doing and just did closed testing.

There has been a lot of weird stuff they've been doing lately, they've really been pushing for RBGs but can't get people interested(hell, they gave arena glads a trashy reskin mount this season and RBGs next season got a badass brand new model).

Either way, good plan on their part, people can't say no to free stuff.

A good comment. They really seemed to narrow down the games appeal with Cataclysm a lot with the difficulty changes, and their only response was "Tough luck, wait until the next content patch comes and we nerf this stuff before we give you things to do again."

So people breezed through the leveling content in Cataclysm, and unless you were a serious, progression minded raider you were suddenly left with little to nothing to do. And seeing as WoW is so old, it was just a bad strategy to leave so many long time subscribers who were already growing weary with the game little to do.

 

[Timbydude]

You'll have to buy the expansions separately, of course, but the revamped Level 1 to Level 60 content is one of the best parts of the game for a prospective newbie, so it all works out in the end.

I've always wanted to get into WoW, but whenever I consider it, the revamped content is actually what keeps me from playing. Since they've changed all the content and storylines in vanilla WoW, it seems that if I start playing post-Cataclysm, I'm essentially missing out on 7 years worth of storyline.

I played it a little bit, back when it first came out (and I loved it), but I didn't have the money to go anywhere past level 30. I'd love to pick it up again and go through the whole game, but it's a shame that the old content is gone forever now. That's really the only thing that's keeping me from trying it again. =/

 

[technoted]

Is this the US only, I've been playing since just after release and I've not had an email or anything?

 

[SilverKyo]

So this is Blizzards, "Holy crap, why are so many people quitting, jesus we need to stop this now. Plug all the leaks in the hull, plug them now!"

There was a lot of valid reasons thrown around why their subs dropped off the way they did. Leveling content was shorter by a significant amount, I could power through it in a day, which is pretty damn short considering how much questing Northrend had, I could power through Northrend in maybe 3 days? give or take.
Raiding was also significantly harder than older tiers leaving the less progression focused players with not much to do, with the Tier 11 nerfs next week, this problem will most likely fix itself in future with the last tier always being nerfed.
There's really not a lot of shock and awe to content anymore, datamining ruined a large amount of the game for me, the ability to see entire instances, gear models, boss encounters before it's even released made the PTR more exciting than the real game, something I really wish they'd stop doing and just did closed testing.

There has been a lot of weird stuff they've been doing lately, they've really been pushing for RBGs but can't get people interested(hell, they gave arena glads a trashy reskin mount this season and RBGs next season got a badass brand new model).

Either way, good plan on their part, people can't say no to free stuff.

Rofl, raiding is hard. Cata raiding is E-Zmode unless you want to try to do hard modes, in which case you better be a serious progression raider. Cata raiding can generally be summed up in, "Don't stand in the fire, don't hit that, kill the adds, and DON'T STAND IN THE FRIGGEN FIRE, FIRE DOES NOT GIVE A HASTE BUFF!" If you can't manage that, then you were doomed before you left the starting gate.