Some quick questions for anyone who may have done the “10 day trial” thing that came with the WoW Collectors Edition:
Okay, so my gf is now officially hooked on WoW thanks to the 10-day trial card I gave her from my CE. Now that her 10 day trial is up, Blizzard was kind enough to give me a subscription card to pass onto her, but the sub code from that card doesn’t unlock the 10-day trial install. So, my questions are:
Does she need to go out and buy her own copy?
If so, will she have to re-install and re-patch the game from scratch, or can she authenticate the installed copy she currently has with the key from a new copy?
Will she be able to continue the character she created with the 10-day trial, or will she have to start over?
I believe that she has to buy a copy of the game, but after it’s installed just log in with the account she created during the trial. Should have all the chars there.
Once the time on your Guest Pass expires you will need to upgrade to a retail account to continue playing. To do this, you will need to log into your Account Management page to enter in your new retail Authentication Key. These keys come in copies of World of Warcraft which can be purchased from retail stores or on the Blizzard Online Store.
Yes. This is correct. I used the same technique to snare my wife.
Buy a copy of the game and just enter the registration code on the account web site. You don’t have to reinstall, repatch, or create another account. In fact, the web site had a box for trial users that needed to enter this code handy right there on the page.
I’m not sure what you mean by subscription card. Did you pay for it?
Nah, I misspoke at first then edited my post with the link. She just has to enter the retail key into the accounts management page (see the page I linked to for a link to it). No reinstallation or patching required, it seems.
I was able to play the full version from a game install that I had made with the free-trial download. It was a different account, but the install was a full install – it’s the whole game and I think will be able to play any active account.
Every install of WoW is a full install. It’s a good thing, too, because I’m not sure I would’ve continued playing after the trial if I had to go through that 97 hour installation process again.
I played the 10-day trial that came with CGW a while back, and I just entered the key from my retail copy when I subscribed. I keep the CGW DVD with my game cd’s so I don’t need to swap discs if I need to reinstall.
I found the process to be very smooth once I understood what was going on. I hoping that I could just buy the game online and not bother with having to go find a retail copy, but I could not.
What I don’t like is having to buy the retail box. It’s stupid. I have all the content installed, just let me subscribe right away for $15 to continue playing. I stopped playing after my trial account becuase of that.
This didn’t deter me but I hear you, particularly since the trial account that my wife installed came out of my WoW box. I now have a second box that was opened exactly once and the CD was never even removed from the case.
Why is it stupid for them to want you to pay for the game? I mean, it would’ve been much better if they’d just let you purchase a CD key instead of having to go out and get the retail box, but you kinda should expect to have to buy it just like everyone else.
pretty sure you can simply buy just the code via their website. To just go right on paying only $15 a month is kinda skipping past the up front cost everyone else had to pay. Doesn’t make sense at all.
It makes a lot of sense. The game has been out over a year and people that wanted to play right away bought their retail boxes. I didn’t want to and will wait until I can subscribe w/o buying a retail box. At this point any extra subscribers are gravy and they should stop that requirement.
Nothing wrong with this, but you’re in for a LONG wait. WoW is still burning up the sales charts and probably will be for a long time. There’s a lot of money to be made there and I can’t blame them for taking it.
I’m with Blizz on this one - they put out what is essentially the best PC demo ever, I certainly didn’t feel put out at having to go buy a shockhorror box from the store, however I will admit that if there had been the option to upgrade my account (by paying the full price online), I probably would have taken it.
No clue, but FWIW, I believe Diablo 2 vaulted into the top-10 a few times roughly 4 years after its release. I wouldn’t be surprised in Starcraft had similar success.
Does WoW offer any kind of free month or some other reason to buy the box? Because if not, the upfront cost is ridiculous. You’re paying $40 for… what? The opportunity to pay them another $15 to play the game? It’s not like there’s any kind of offline content to justify an upfront cost.
Yep, you get your free month tacked onto the remaining trial time when you register the retail key. So free trial+retail box = 40 days (or 44 depending on your trial) of play before paying the monthly fee.
