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Thread: Guilds and Trial Accounts

  1. #1

    Default Guilds and Trial Accounts

    I'd like to start this by saying that I don't want to discriminate against trial accounts, but I feel there needs to be some way to distinguish them from the other types, be it free or full access.

    The main reason I feel this way is because when I look at my guild's roster, I see over 100 members (granted some are alts, but these are normally tracked by our officers), but only 1/4 of this number is active. Many of which have not been on since shortly after our guild formed in January. I have been in the guild since the 2nd day it was formed, have been an officer since the first week, and have moved up to one of the co-leaders since. I have no clue who some of the members are. And the other officers are just as clueless.

    We don't want to remove them without knowing, for sure, if they were just trials.

    I feel there should be a restriction added to trials that prevent them from joining a guild for this reason, and also because a roster showing over 100 members with 75 of those being trial accounts (which are now inactive) is greatly misleading.

    I've overheard others recruiting speeches where they say something along the lines of "We have 75 members." But when checked by /who at different times of the day/night, there are never more than 4-5 people on. And these are usually the same people, be it on mains or alts.

    Perhaps adding an asterisk after the players name or changing the color of their name in chat could identify them. Perhaps changing the color of their floating name from white to blue, for example, could be used as an identifier.

    This next part is personal because I'm "Old school" and don't believe in "Overindulging" hatchies. It may meet with heavy opposition, but I'm sure there may be some that agree with it:

    Restrict trials from taking the Rite of Passage. I say this because we had a member, a few weeks back, that was on a trial account and said his goal was to "Become adult in 10 days because a friend got it in 12 days. I need some help." He was already 2 days into his trial.

    My first thought was "Hell no." I wasn't going to invest several hours "stuffing" this hatchie's hoard, harvesting tons of resources for them to grind their craft, then do all of their quests for them to hit 30/30, loan them the craft scales to get them to the required DCRA skill requirements, walk them through the RoP so they can fly one time, log off, and never log back on, and then be able to tell their friends "Yeah. I played Istaria. I got the trial and made it to adult dragon in 10 days." They convince others to play, and those others never make it past level 20 because they do the work themselves, get frustrated, log off, and never log back on.

    This isn't a rant. I just wanted to express my viewpoint on the subject.

    The game's community, at large, is awesome and helpful. I don't think that would change by identifying trial accounts.
    Last edited by Draeconis; March 29th, 2011 at 04:16 PM. Reason: Corrected typo.
    I never met a gnome I didn't like. For tender morsels they are!

  2. #2

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    I sign all that whole-heartedly!
    YOU told me to play a dragon!

  3. #3

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    I totally agree with you on the ROP and the trial accounts. Trial accounts shouldn't give someone full access (and dont in most games) to take advantage of all a game has to offer; especially something as epic as the RoP and the reward of flight. This would encourage people to at least pay for one month to try out flight, and possibly since they have to spend longer in game - get addicted =D.

    I DO agree that there should be some designation for guilds to know if someoen is on a trial account. I can totally empathize with any guild who adds someone, not realizing they are a trial ,and then having them disappear after two weeks. Its very disheartening I'm sure and also frustrating - because the first poster is right - its misleading since the guilded trial-ees are still on the roster, and its also depressing to see all those names of pepole who never returned (as a member of a defunct guild I know how this feels lol).

    Many games with free trial accounts do not allow them to join guilds, or use what we could call Connies, and sometimes even trade. I don't thikn such a limiting system is entirely appropriate for Istaria as so much an early player gains is through trade/buying from other characters in order to really get a feel for the depth of the game.

    Its why I'm not sure I'd agree with not allowing trials at ALL to join guilds - because the commnity no this game is 2nd to none and often a good reason for people to stick around beyond the early-game confusion and frustration. BUT if there is anyway to let guilds know who is on a trial account and who isn't - I think that would be extremely helpful.

    Course, we have no idea if this is even possible given our engine and game (if we can somehow designate trials accounts in a guild window, or if we can even bar trial accounts from getting into guilds at all). Perhaps a dev will respond and tell us if its even possible to make such desginations (as the poster said wether through an * or a different color name in the guild window or something).

    Or if its possible to ban certain accounts from certain quests. Something tells me that might be beyond the engine but hey never know unless you ask! (Or even stop the trial account at level 30 or level 25 or something like that as other games do, so they can't even pick the RoP up...still no clue if that's possible).
    Frith-Rae BridgeSol
    Great Elder of Keir Chet K'Eilerten
    Iea has returned.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    Quote Originally Posted by Frith-Rae View Post
    Or if its possible to ban certain accounts from certain quests. Something tells me that might be beyond the engine but hey never know unless you ask! (Or even stop the trial account at level 30 or level 25 or something like that as other games do, so they can't even pick the RoP up...still no clue if that's possible).

    I'm sure the engine is fully capable as something like that is already implemented to an extent in regards to restricting certain quests based on the character being a biped or a dragon (like the RoP), or of a certain level in a certain school (Like Dark Cyclone). I'm sure it would still take a bit of programming to accomplish, I'm just not sure it's something outside the scope of what the engine is able to do (It probably wouldn't have too much to do with the engine to begin with, honestly).

    I think it would come down to whether the Devs agree that such changes are necessary (And if the changes they would have to make would be worth spending time on). I mean realistically a trial account won't finish the RoP unless they get a lot of help, and if people are willing to give such help I don't see why the RoP should be restricted.

    As for trial accounts being marked, I can see that being a different story. This I feel is a good idea to designate in some way, perhaps something alike an emblem that would append/insert onto the character's name that they're a trial account.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    While I can appreciate that your guild's roster contains many who have not played beyond the first two weeks or so, we can not violate the privacy of our customers by indicating in any manner the type of subscription they are on.
    My suggestion would be to structure your guild such that you have "trial" members in the guild who are given only the most basic of privileges. Make it clear to anyone who is a new character that they are coming to the guild on a trial basis and after a certain period of time of remaining active within the guild, the character will then be promoted to regular membership. This will allow you to be able to periodically "purge" those members who have remained as just "trial members" for longer than the two week trial subscription.

    I can also appreciate that it is not enjoyable to invest your own time and energy into assisting someone with leveling their character to where they qualify for the RoP quest only to have them gain adulthood and leave the game. But adding an artificial and arbitrary "number of days since creation" really is not the solution to this problem and would lead to more frustration from legitimate players than it would cause someone to remain with the game beyond just a two week period. Everyone plays MMO's at their own pace and has varying amounts of time to spend in game. Someone who can dedicate countless hours over a short period of time and knows best how to gain levels in Istaria to then otherwise qualify for their RoP quest should not have to wait to be able to fly as their dragon just because we as designers "think" it should have to take a certain number of days to attain that level.

    For some players, the journey is where they find enjoyment and those are the ones who will stay with Istaria the longest. For others, the destination is what is key, and no artificial time constraints on reaching that destination will cause them to work slower to reach that destination.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    Most guilds only have a few active members, the guild I`m in only has 4 or 5 and the rest are either inactive, quit the game or had to leave for a while due to financial reasons. I don`t want to kick anyone from the guild simply due to inactivity. as they could return someday. But seeing your situation it`s hard to tell. some trial account users never return, while others may return. all I can suggest is use your better judgment.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    I was not the first one in our guild who got frustrated by trial accounts cluttering up our roster. When I discussed it with our officers at the time, we came up with a solution that seems to have worked pretty well.

    Monthly, a roster clean up is done. Anyone at the basic member level who has not logged in for at least three months gets purged from the roster unless someone requests at the time to keep them. There's no criteria about requesting someone be kept on the roster, and it can be requested via /t so that anonimity of alts is maintained.

    Anyone whose alt gets booted inadvertently just has to ask to get back on the roster. Since we have a pretty open membership (any Scion can /guildinvite), that means there's almost always someone around to bring them back in.

    Guild points are used to extend time before potential booting by 1 week/point. Points are given out 1 at a time for participating in scheduled guild events or helping out other guild members with major projects/questing (e.g., RoP, Myloc queen, popping a new shop).

    I don't know if someone on trial can still buy property, but that was problematic for us on a couple of occasions - someone bought a plot on guild lands and effectively locked us out of it, causing us to lose structures we'd built under prior ownership. I love the plot reclaim system now to prevent those kinds of issues causing us mayhem anymore.

    Anyway, that's how we deal with it. We're pretty loosely structured, though, so some other system might work better for other guilds. Good luck working it out!

  8. #8

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    I use guild points as an "ID card". Members report their alts who get the same point number as the main. Unknowns are 0 and get booted after three months.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    Sorry tired. Meant to add that I am against such a suggestion. Alienating new players is not a good idea. I forget which MMO it is, but the trial is REALLY unfriendly.
    -You're only allowed a certain number of texts a day+per post
    -not allowed to join a guild
    -not allowed to loot certain things

    The whole reason I stuck with this game is the community. Making it so people cannot be a part of the community is a bad thing.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    I do the same, I purge players that have not logged in after a certain period of time, at least 3+ months. I put a list of those to be purged in the guild Calendar. So if 1 is an alt or will return I keep them in the guild. New members remains as initiates for at least 15 days, then if they still log in then they become full members.
    To get to the ROP in less then 10 days 1 would need a lot of Power Levelling. IMHO; to me PL is like starting a mystery book from the last page. You miss so much of all the beauty and the fun to get there.
    Image, Timeless guild

  11. #11
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    Default Re: Guilds and Trial Accounts

    Quote Originally Posted by Velea View Post
    I can also appreciate that it is not enjoyable to invest your own time and energy into assisting someone with leveling their character to where they qualify for the RoP quest only to have them gain adulthood and leave the game. But adding an artificial and arbitrary "number of days since creation" really is not the solution to this problem and would lead to more frustration from legitimate players than it would cause someone to remain with the game beyond just a two week period. Everyone plays MMO's at their own pace and has varying amounts of time to spend in game. Someone who can dedicate countless hours over a short period of time and knows best how to gain levels in Istaria to then otherwise qualify for their RoP quest should not have to wait to be able to fly as their dragon just because we as designers "think" it should have to take a certain number of days to attain that level.
    A trail is 14 days? Then make the requirement 14 + 1 days so 15 days. Players who would be able to gain 30 adventure and 30 crafting levels within 15 days without extensive assistance from a guild have my respect, but can always continue on adv for the remaining days so they can actually hit something. I know I am not the one who should decide how others should play their game, but it is only 15 days… That 15 day requirement for RoP would remove the annoyance of many players having to do a lot of work for “I want to be powerleveled because I want to fly during my trail and quit after that” guildies.
    Rvlion- LvL 100:100:100 - 59.3M - Lunus Ancient
    Gallinthus- LvL 100:42:41 - 6.9M - Hatchling
    Lohasbrand– LvL 4:3:0 – 1.0M - Hatchling
    Sslion- LvL 25 Mage, 25 Warrior, 10 Cleric, 6 Druid, 6 Monk and a few Craft Schools

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