To be fair, after you've downloaded Play the Fae you don't have to download much more if you decide to activate the game and you can play any of the races.
As mentioned earlier, I'd be more than happy to download the other data
after I'd already decided to check out the game further. If I recall correct, SOE had this right back in the day of Trials of the Isle, an independently downloadable trial game. I don't think that downloaded the
entire game until you tried to patch it to get from there to Freeport or Qeynos.
In my opinion, asking someone to download the whole 4gb before they enter the tiny portion that is the trial is assuming more about their potential for conversion than should be assumed. You want to get them playing right
now, into the fun right
away.
Then if they're interested (and to Merusk's point, are properly channeled to converting to a full account) you deliver the full game. They'll have the patience for that because they already like the game.
I'm harshing a bit much on EQ2, but in general I truly agree SOE has the smartest patching process going, both technologically and procedurally. NC Soft may too, but the only games I've launched through the new Launcher were betas.
Blizzard's system is all kinds of broken.
Y
Yes. I didn't really bother ranting too much about this one because a) we all agree, b) nobody else, even indie titles in
beta, seem to care so little for their consumer patching experience; and, c) we all probably agree nobody else is ever going to stoop as low going forward. Christ, I'm even expecting a better patching experience from
Funcom.
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