New Trial Accounts: "You've got to be kidding me"

So I hear that the trial accounts no longer require CC#'s, and tell my friend who'd been wanting to try the game, to check it out now that he could ( he has no CC and can't borrow one ether) so he logs in for the first time and well gets REALLY Upset, The reasons: Restrictions. He can't go ANYwhere but the 4 sims surrounding the welcome area, He can't BUY ANYthing, ETC....

so at first I'm upset cause He can't come and see my builds. But then it hits me I'm gonna make less money now cause of this. not only can newbies not go to ANY of the stores my stuff is in including AV central for <bleeps> sake.

but even if he could he can't BUY anything. now I realize this is only for the first ,now 7, days and if he subscribed he could do all these things. But guess what. It ticked him off SO much, he's not even gonna play the rest of the trial, let alone subscribe.

then i was thinking this is gonna kill the game i love. if i had started playing, under these conditions i don't think i would have subscribed ether, it took me a good month to get a hang of the game, it has a big learning curve. extending it to 7 days was good but not good enough, and the restrictions have got to go.

this is gonna adversely affect how many new subscribers this game will get, people trying this type of trial out are gonna tell other people they hate it and not even play.

so I wanted to test out my theory and i want to the new "trial area" and talked to some newbies, and guess what all 3 of them told me that 1) they where ticked off about the restrictions and 2 ) that they would not be subscribing.

now one of them I started showing all the cool things I've made and\or Purchased. then told him about all the other Sims describing them to him, and telling him about the more open "mature areas" and guess what, He said now he was gonna sign up for one month and get a real Feel for the game, and then decide.

I totally agree with you!! I was at a event at stage 4 last nite, and some newbies were around.......and it really does just seem stupid that they can't go anywhere....why even bother starting them with 300$ if they can't buy/build.... ?

Hello All Morning

There is an area within the four newbie regions were they can build. In the welcome area according to the announcement; "Easier, Longer Free Trial " by Phillip Linden. Now we can all go visit there and meet with these new ones As a matter of fact I did last night and I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I already heard one person saying "I am board, what else is there to do..." To which I told them about what was beyond the restriced area, showed them shortcuts to gestures and generaly tried to cheer him up.

As for those of us who get by on votes, ratings, and money from classes this is going to hurt us. I would suggest (yes I will put this in game suggestions also) that they allow us to teach classes in the welcome area to the newbies. Also I see no harm in having an "Avatar Central" store in the newbie region where we all could see our wears to them for them to play with and check out. I believe this would give them a better understanding of what can be done in SL.

When I logged on in Apr. I loved the total freedom to do as I pleased I dont like restrictions but I do understand part of the reasoning behind it. If I was a linden I would not want to have to pick up after a bunch of temp ppl buying up small pieces of land and building experimental prims all over the place. This also helps them gauge what ppl's first impressions of the game are. Which I feel will make the game better for all.

Hope this adds a positive note to all of this as it was ment to

Morning and see you in game

Cat

there are like 4 threads on this.

I personally feel that there is nothing wrong with having to provide a CC# to play. All the other games of this nature do exactly the same thing, except some of them you don't even get a Free trial, you just have to start paying. I understand that this alienates some people who would like to play, but it does so across the board with all games of this type.

Perhaps I do not realize the preponderance of <18 year old players who would like to join Second Life but I personally was completely satisfied with the old 5 day trial system that required a CC#, and apparently so were most of you (since you are still here ;)).

-Noddingham

agreed with all

Catherine - Everyone is encouraged to offer events in the welcome area. Feel free to use the Stage 4 area. Just make sure you avoid scheduling an event in the welcome area at the same time as another event.

In fact we pay Lindenbucks to help you put on events - /3/9b/1083/1.html

I can understand restricting trial members from building outside of those zones (to prevent object spam and littering at least until they understand the system), but I don't understand why they shouldn't be allowed to explore the world.

I understand that free accounts can't be given much money due to mule-mining abuse (existing player starts additional account, takes its money, repeats). Perhaps a better scheme would be to have 2 classes of trial user, and to REQUEST a credit card (which is validated but not charged before the trial expires) for a normal trial account. Anyone who chooses not to provide a card is still allowed a restricted trial membership as a pauper.