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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard giving 7 days of free play to lapsed accounts
by Anne Stickney 
Nov 15th 2010 at 6:00PM
Cataclysm is fast approaching, and Blizzard is offering seven days of free play to lapsed subscriptions in preparation for the upcoming expansion. Players who have quit the game are being offered this seven-day promotion via email, and although it hasn't been mentioned on the official site, the email and the promotion are both completely legit. The full text of the email is as follows:
Claim your 7 free days of game time!The earth-shattering rage of Deathwing will soon be released upon the lands of Azeroth. Return to the battlefields with 7 days of FREE game time! Simply click below to claim your time and prepare for Cataclysm ... but act fast, as this offer will expire on Dec 1st, 2010.
Prepare for Cataclysm™, the next expansion to World of Warcraft®, whose features include:
Two New Playable Races – Adventure as one of two new races: the feral worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.
Classic Zones Remade – Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens.
Flying Mounts in Azeroth – Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before!
Level Cap Increased to 85 – Experience new quests and dungeons as you seize ever greater abilities and tap into new talents!
New High-Level Zones – Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea.
Guild Advancement – Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.
Archaeology – Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.
New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds – Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.
And much more...
We look forward to seeing you back in Azeroth.
- The World of Warcraft Team
This game time is only valid for inactive accounts, rather than accounts that are set up with a paid subscription, according to blue poster Harlsoco. As with any email claiming to be official, though, it is recommended that players log into their Battle.net accounts and check their Account Management page to verify the promotion rather than clicking any email links, just to avoid any possible hacking attempts.
If you've taken a break from Azeroth, check your email -- you may have a free week to get back into the swing of things before Cataclysm's launch.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
Netherscourge Nov 15th 2010 6:13PM
What do loyal 6 year customers get?
Contra Nov 15th 2010 6:26PM
Bugged Ironforge where you have portals but no elementals to kill.
bcraig Nov 15th 2010 6:28PM
You get 6 years of content that you enjoyed. Marketing 101 discounts to bring in new sales not decrease profits.
Eregos ftw! Nov 15th 2010 6:44PM
bcraig:
I completely understand the reasoning of this, and as I said below, I would do the same. Instead of repeating myself even more, I'll just quote myself:
"faithful customers aren't getting rewarded. It sometimes hurts that people who haven't played for 3 years or more are getting free time when people who haven't stopped subscribing for 6 years aren't. "
jfofla Nov 15th 2010 6:49PM
An invoice.
Absintheur Nov 15th 2010 7:05PM
Ummm, IIRC this isn't exactly new. I quit for about a year (new baby) a while back and Blizz emailed me with an offer for 7 free days to get me back in. It worked... smart tactic.
Wes Nov 15th 2010 7:47PM
6 year loyal customers get a larger player base and more people to raid with or do dungeons with who are brought back by the 7-day free trial. In theory, the more people playing the potentially shorter queue times when using the LFG system or when shouting in /2 to look for raid members/fill missing spots.
Is that not good enough for you? Do you want a bonus +1% dps for every year you've subscribed in a row without stop over those who took any breaks? Bonus pets(wait, you got those...)? Exclusive dungeons(get real, casuals wouldn't be able to play those and we'd see a QQ mega-explosion)
Kadon Nov 15th 2010 6:12PM
I tried doing the 7 free days and WoW broke my motherboard. FML
ZeroDesu Nov 16th 2010 5:15AM
Oh come on, that was funny! He wasn't being serious...
Diziron Nov 15th 2010 6:13PM
Come on blizz, how about some love for loyal customers.... over five years I have been playing and no percs for me?
eevzy.rar Nov 15th 2010 6:55PM
You get the joy of having played the biggest game in the history of the industry for so long =)
Mosios Nov 15th 2010 7:18PM
Diz - they dont need to bribe you - you send them $15 a month without a bribe :)
N-train Nov 15th 2010 8:26PM
What could they really give "loyal customers" as a perk though? They're never going to give you anything that could actually effect gameplay, that would simply be unfair.
You get the neato pets for logging on during anniversaries, as well as some of the cool stuff that comes with one-time-only events like the zombie invasion, shifting sands, the china Olympics, and this cool elemental invasion.
You could get a neato achievement bragging to everyone that you've been playing since 2005, which achievement lovers will love and everyone else won't notice or care.
Do you want a free week? That's about 3 USD you just saved, and even less if you're using a multi-month payment plan.
Blizzard is being a smart business and bringing in customers for the release of their new product. For some reason they're not worried about losing loyal, 5 year customers right on the eve of their most-hyped expansion ever.
TheGiant89 Nov 15th 2010 6:21PM
I just renewed Saturday, what luck :(
Mark Nov 15th 2010 6:13PM
My account is inactive but I got no such email sadly. I guess it has to have been inactive for like a month or more, though I see nothing saying that.
Mosios Nov 15th 2010 7:22PM
Mark, while they havnt said anything - i would bet their sending them out slowly [which would explain why their sending them now, cata isnt for another few weeks.] It would be a big gamble on the servers to have an EXTRA few million more peaple playing at once, right?
So keep an eye on your emails. [i could be wrong though.]
prenden2 Nov 15th 2010 7:28PM
Just anecdotally, my account ran out on 25/6/10, and I've been offered the 7 day free trial. My money's on requiring 3 months' inactivity to become eligible for the free week.
Mosios Nov 15th 2010 7:44PM
A friend who hasnt played since january didnt get one, maybe its only going out to peaple whos subscription lapsed in June/July?
I'm sure over the past 6 years they have done alot of marketing 101 testing and believe that accounts that lapsed three months ago are more likely to re-activate their subscription through a discount and that peaple who lapsed over 3 months are less-likely to come back?
[and peaple who subscribed a month ago are most likely coming back organically?]
I just thought they might be emailing slowly to avoid server overload [how many peaple do you think have stopped playing over the past six years? afew million?]
shanefarewell Nov 15th 2010 6:17PM
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.
prenden2 Nov 15th 2010 7:30PM
RIP Silvio Dante.