Unsubbed accounts have limited access

[Catriona R]

This week's patch has made a change to accounts, where unsubbed
accounts now have the same access as a "starter" account - very
limited, restricted to lvl 20 (higher lvl existing characters are
locked), no trading, no whispering people who don't already have you
on friends etc, but it's better than zero access, and if you want to
mess around on a lowbie, you now can.

One difference to starter accounts is that you *can* join a guild, so
long as you already had a character in that guild - you do however
need to be able to communicate with a guildie outside the game to tell
them your character name, since you can't whisper them till they have
you on friends (and battle.net whispers didn't seem to work at all
when my bf logged in on his expired account, although admittedly he
could probably have just used the launcher friendslist!).

I have a feeling more people here are unsubbed than currently
subscribing, so thought this might be useful to some ;-)

[Urbin]

Post by Catriona R
This week's patch has made a change to accounts, where unsubbed
accounts now have the same access as a "starter" account - very
limited, restricted to lvl 20 (higher lvl existing characters are
locked), no trading, no whispering people who don't already have you
on friends etc, but it's better than zero access, and if you want to
mess around on a lowbie, you now can.

Hm, not sure this is good news or dangerous news :-)

But thanks for sharing anyway!

Cheers
Urbin

[Catriona R]

Post by Urbin

Post by Catriona R
This week's patch has made a change to accounts, where unsubbed
accounts now have the same access as a "starter" account - very
limited, restricted to lvl 20 (higher lvl existing characters are
locked), no trading, no whispering people who don't already have you
on friends etc, but it's better than zero access, and if you want to
mess around on a lowbie, you now can.

Hm, not sure this is good news or dangerous news :-)
But thanks for sharing anyway!

Hehe :-) Can't imagine there's much to do at lvl 20 that'd get your
completism instinct to kick in too much, at least :-D

[Peter T.]

Post by Catriona R
I have a feeling more people here are unsubbed than currently
subscribing, so thought this might be useful to some ;-)

Maybe a little OT... I dont know how reliable those graphs are (see
link). But going from 6.8m subs to +10m subs in 6(?) months?

<http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/>

Well. I've heard about 25m subs back in the BC and LK days. That is
definitely not true if those stats shows an almost true snapshot of the
amount of subs in every quarter. :)

[Catriona R]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Catriona R
I have a feeling more people here are unsubbed than currently
subscribing, so thought this might be useful to some ;-)

Maybe a little OT... I dont know how reliable those graphs are (see
link). But going from 6.8m subs to +10m subs in 6(?) months?
<http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/>
Well. I've heard about 25m subs back in the BC and LK days. That is
definitely not true if those stats shows an almost true snapshot of the
amount of subs in every quarter. :)

Those numbers seem fairly accurate by all I've heard, don't believe
it's ever gone much over 12m, 25m seems a major exaggeration to me! I
was surprised at the huge jump in subs for WoD, but I'm more
interested to see the next set of figures, sadly I think it'll be a
lot lower, as I think I know more people who stopped playing the last
couple of months than who still are playing :-(

[Peter T.]

Post by Catriona R
Those numbers seem fairly accurate by all I've heard, don't believe
it's ever gone much over 12m, 25m seems a major exaggeration to me! I
was surprised at the huge jump in subs for WoD, but I'm more
interested to see the next set of figures, sadly I think it'll be a
lot lower, as I think I know more people who stopped playing the last
couple of months than who still are playing :-(

I found a few more sites with almost identical statistics. Prolly the
same source. :) And of course there is a rise in the subs around an exp
release. But Q1 and especially Q2 will be interesting reading.

[Peter T.]

Post by Peter T.
I found a few more sites with almost identical statistics. Prolly the
same source. :) And of course there is a rise in the subs around an exp
release. But Q1 and especially Q2 will be interesting reading.

If I say Wild Star... :)

<http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4749-Introducing-the-WoW-Token>

[unknown]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Peter T.
I found a few more sites with almost identical statistics. Prolly the
same source. :) And of course there is a rise in the subs around an exp
release. But Q1 and especially Q2 will be interesting reading.

If I say Wild Star... :)
<http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/4749-Introducing-the-WoW-Token>

I tried the unsubbed access, pretty much nothing to do, can't even buy
off AH and can't use mailbox. Can't access bankers, most are over 20
since I run them up with rested xp and heirlooms for fun.

Okay ,so 15-40k gold for 30 days = $15 by the gold sites
this would well work for me, buy a years sub. It isn't like the gold is
earning interest in a pension plan when not playing.

It depends of they want to get rid of gold sellers, which they don't
based on complete lack of reaction, leave for a year and they are still
botting the same old places.
So, give the sellers some leeway and price it at 80k, plus a bit of a
gold rush maybe 100k at the newly inflated price .
Could still work, a couple of days AH for 30 days.

I may give it a go when it drops at that since game time = 50% playing
ah for me , game time pays for game time. If nothing else I could buy 6
months and burn up some gold doing nothing.

I keep going to resub, but then start shuddering at the thought of
grinding and having to relearn, watch youtube cats instead. I haven't
played wow since early december and until I got a cold last week hadn't
even played so much as a game of solitaire since new year.

I really think the sub limits could be not so much the $ price or the
graphics but a large part the data load for the game. A lot of people
who may play just don't have the installation and update quota.
A lot do, but a hell of a lot don't.
Log on to check the unsubbed access, 2.8G download, and thats after a
couple of months off. A lot who may play just don't have the quota to
look at an installation this month, or next month, or the next.
They can stream but if they google it just says 35G.
https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-system-requirements
Someone with a 15GB broadband isn't even going to look

https://www.telstra.com.au/broadband/mobile-broadband/plans
https://www.telstra.com.au/broadband/home-broadband/satellite
https://www.telstra.com.au/broadband/home-broadband/nbn/nbn-bundles
I know ..Australian Fraudband, Telstra is definitely in the 'charges
like a wounded bull' class but thats where the potential new subs live.
In this city house I have optic unlimited data, $150pm, people visit
from the country, use my wifi, download everything they can. Obviously I
and they don't use satellite to do wow updates just to see what the new
unsubbed access looks like.

[Lewis]

Post by Peter T.

Post by Catriona R
I have a feeling more people here are unsubbed than currently
subscribing, so thought this might be useful to some ;-)

Maybe a little OT... I dont know how reliable those graphs are (see
link). But going from 6.8m subs to +10m subs in 6(?) months?

Not really, since they went from 12 million down to under 7. Most of
those "new" subs were, I am sure, people activating for a single month
to see the new content. There was a huge resurgence in my guild for
about 6 weeks, going form under 20 people active per week to over 100.
It's now back down.

<http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/>

Post by Peter T.
Well. I've heard about 25m subs back in the BC and LK days. That is
definitely not true if those stats shows an almost true snapshot of the
amount of subs in every quarter. :)

I head estimates as high as 15 million, but there is no way anyone
credible ever claimed 25 million for WoW. I think League of Legends
might have numbers that high, but that is entirely different.