Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoW goes free-to-play through level 20
by Michael Sacco 
Jun 28th 2011 at 7:00PM
If you do get the hankering for more WoW thanks to the trial, you can get the digital Battle Chest, which includes classic WoW and The Burning Crusade, for $19.99 (as soon as the Blizzard site works again, anyway).
Trying out WoW for the first time with one of these trials? Have a friend who's just starting out and needs a push in the right direction? Check out WoW Rookie, our resource for new or casual players, with topics like:
- Turn WoW into quality time by playing with a partner
- Pick the class that's right for you
- Learn how to run dungeons with groups
Trial Account Restrictions
- 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.
- 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.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 6)
Sonalita Jun 29th 2011 2:27AM
no twinks - erad the restrictions. no mail, no trading, no ah and a cap of 10g so no way to get twink gear
vendeurfrancais Jun 29th 2011 8:45AM
actually, level 20 twinking is still fairly popular, and even if you can't obtain the better enchants, you can keep running dungeons and battlegrounds, and get pretty good gear through dungeons and quests. while it is true that you can't get as many nice enchants, their will still be an increase in the number of players at level 20.
madfigs Jun 28th 2011 7:33PM
WoW: The Team Fortress 2 Killer?
Bernie Roscoe Jun 29th 2011 1:17AM
I laughed.
Lost Sul Jun 28th 2011 7:37PM
Not saying it's a bad move, but it is definitely an indication of the state of the game.
techvoodooguy Jun 28th 2011 9:41PM
If by 'state of the game' you mean that the game has a large cost to get up to speed unless you catch some sales (all told, I got battle chest + wotlk + cata for 70USD. 10 for battle chest + 10 for wotlk on Black Friday, then 50 for cata. If I hadn't caught the sale, it'd have been 100USD: almost double the cost of a new game these days, plus the sub fee!).
'The game' is doing fine, this is simply to lower the entry barrier (again).
Miz Jun 29th 2011 2:43AM
If I like cookies and I want to buy another cookie, that doesn't mean I am dirt-poor and I want to get another cookie as my last wish before dying out of hunger. It simply means I like cookies.
Now replace cookies with money and I with Blizzard.
Lou Gagliardi Jun 28th 2011 7:42PM
So I'm assuming this means I can't login to my old, inactive account and play since it's a "Starter Edition" ?
Darn, but hey good move by Blizzard.
Amaxe Jun 28th 2011 7:43PM
Did not see that coming to be honest.
Wonder why they decided to do this. Preemptive strike against Bioware, or problems with subscription numbers are possible... or possibly not.
jonham013 Jun 28th 2011 7:57PM
It could be the prohibitive cost of getting started in this game. There is a culture nowadays amongst gamers that you pirate a game, try it out, and then you'll buy it if its good. (Or you'll never buy it, either way.)
With a game like WoW you have to lay down about $120.00 or more just to get started (because it really is silly to spend money on a game and be limited to 6 year old content.)
This way, people can try it out, decide if they like it and then commit to paying to play. To me it feels more like an effort to stabilize subscriber numbers (remember, subscriber means exactly that, it counts people paying, not playing.) Rather than having people pay, log on, hate the game and run away, this gives the opportunity to build a playerbase who know what to expect before they sign up,
Amaxe Jun 28th 2011 9:07PM
Yeah I understand that.
I was just wondering because I recall certain games (AoC comes to mind here) which went this route to attract more people when numbers started to fall, and I didn't think Blizz needed that.
kaminari Jun 28th 2011 9:24PM
I'm not sure whether or not they "need" it, but it will increase subscribers and actiblizzard being the greedy bastards they are figure 20 millions subscribers are better than merely 13 millions.
they should have waited until SW:ToR released and hit them the nuts with this tho =P
jfofla Jun 28th 2011 9:44PM
@ Kaminari Blizzard has a much bigger blast aimed at Bioware's "package".
Why do you think Bioware is so terrified of Blizzard they will not announce a release day for TOR?
Blizzard is The Honey Badger!
msteavenson Jun 28th 2011 7:45PM
Of course what people are forgetting is that it only takes about 20 minutes to get to level 20 these days...
Stenenis Jun 28th 2011 7:50PM
If you have heirlooms and know the quests, maybe. I just started on a new server and started a Troll, never having played Horde-side before, and it's taken me 5 hours to get to level 12!
Sonalita Jun 29th 2011 2:31AM
ok, show me a video of you levelling to 20 with no heirlooms no guild in 20 mins.. heck, show me you levelling to 20 WITH full heirloooms and guild bonus in 20 mins...
BlueBoy3000 Jun 28th 2011 7:45PM
Not mentioned is that folks that never bough BC get it for free!
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2993674
"In addition, anyone who owns the original World of Warcraft, regardless of when they purchased the game, will automatically be able to access all of the content and features from The Burning Crusade expansion at no additional cost."
thawedtheorc Jun 28th 2011 8:04PM
I am hoping this is also a move to implementing the BC starter zones into the rest of vanilla so we can fly there.
Ninerva Jun 28th 2011 10:17PM
thawedtheorc: If that ever happens, it'll be in the next expansion. It would mean moving all the BC starting zones plus Quel'danas from Outland (yes, they ARE part of Outland now, and always have been) to EK and Kalimdor. They have never before moved zones from one continent to another, it could potentially break a lot of things.
Also, Silvermoon would need to be made flyable, which would probably take as much work as SW and Org needed for Cataclysm. See for yourself: http://oi36.tinypic.com/14cqtcz.jpg
Artificial Jun 29th 2011 1:56AM
There's no reason they'd need to move any zones from their current servers just to get flying. It's not like flying doesn't work on Outland servers -- indeed, it works most everywhere except the starting zones. All they need to do is work out the mess that is Silvermoon and similar problems. I suspect, though, they'll want to do more than just that. They've admitted they weren't happy with how Silvermoon came together, they'll probably use the opportunity in an upcoming expansion to redo it.