How To Get The Most Out Of a Trial Weekend?

The Secret World is having a trial weekend this week. It’s a game that’s getting quite a bit of attention, in part thanks to its adult content and also because a lot of people really seem to have connected with the mythology of the world. So I think it’s fair to presume that a good deal of you are going to be looking into playing the game this weekend and will be hoping to do as much as you possibly can before deciding whether to buy into the full game or not. While I can’t talk specifically about The Secret World, I’ve played more than a few trial weekends before and below is something of a guide to help you get the very most of the game whilst its free-to-play.

#1 – Download in Good Time

It’s easy to be caught by slow internet connections and surprisingly high file sizes, so why put yourself up for it? Be sure to download everything you need – including patches, can’t stress that one enough – well in advance of the trials close date because, if you don’t, you’ll end up missing the deadline, or worse, playing for 20 minutes and ending up enjoying it and being disappointed that you can’t continue without paying.

The Secret World is entering its first free trial weekend tonight->

And remember, a lot of more modern games can be anything up to 20-25 GBs in size, not counting patches, so be sure to clear out some hard drive space as well.

#2 – Read Everything

There’s a lot to know when you enter a trial weekend and, again I can say from experience, sometimes it just isn’t worth your time. Remember, this isn’t a beta, and sometimes the developers will put strange barriers in place. Maybe you’ll only be able to join a certain group, perhaps you’ll be limited for how long you play or even by level. The worst will be if you’re limited to only the beginning areas, because it’ll take longer to download than it will to play.

Be sure what you’re downloading, but also be sure to note whether or not your character will be deleted after a certain time or if the account you’re making is permanent and just waiting for your credit card details. If it’s a proper account, you won’t have to start again if you want to continue your adventure or if the game goes free-to-play in the future.

We do read MMO reviews too!

#3 – Take Your Time

Sometimes we’re in a rush to get through the tutorial and get onto the game proper, and that’s understandable. Developers, especially in MMOs, sometimes like to treat us like idiots, bless them, and the idea that we don’t know our way around a mouse but we’ve managed to get into an MMO is hilarious to me. Still,  they’re there for a reason and if you’re playing with limits, you want to get absolutely everything out of the game while you can – everything.

The tutorial is the quickest way to see the most basic features of the game and, while the controls and feature set are surprisingly similar across the MMORPG genre, you don’t want to miss anything by rushing through. The whole point of the trial weekend is to discover a new game that you might potentially want to pay for, so do yourself a favour and give it a chance to impress you. If the tutorial quests suck, it’s the developers fault and it might be a comment on the latter parts of the game.

#4 – Read Reviews

So the trial is over and you played it for a couple of hours and absolutely loved it. You pull out your credit card and start typing in names, addresses and numbers. You’re so excited that you make the occasional mistake, but it doesn’t matter; soon you’ll be a part of a whole new exciting world.
But just hold on there, Jimmy. If the developers have given you access to the early parts of the game, they probably feel pretty confident that at least some of the people who download and play the game for free are going to convert into real paying customers. You might have fallen for their trap, Jimmy, you fool.

50s infomercials aside, make sure you’re going to enjoy the rest of the game before paying for even a month. If you play a game and love it, it might be that you’ll play it for another hour and that is when the quests will get dull and repetitive and the worlds uninspired. Check YouTube or here at DevilsMMO – we’ve got you covered.

#5 – Don’t Delete the Files

This one is a mistake I made a couple of times when I first started playing in free trials and it’s something that causes you to want to jump up and down on your own head. That’s a really hard thing to do, so try and follow this very simple rule to the letter: don’t delete the files for the game you’ve just played once you’re done with the trial.

Obviously if you hated the game and never want to touch it again, delete it, but if there’s any chance you’ll play it again or if you plan to subscribe, keep hold of it all. After the first free trial, there’s usually another right round the corner and to spend most of the weekend on which you could playing re-downloading the whole thing is pretty frustrating.

If you can spare the hard drive space and are interested enough to want to play it again, don’t delete – you’ll really, really regret it.

Conclusion

If you’re not a hardcore MMO fan, it’s easy to miss out on free trials. They’re designed to hook you in, to make that initial payment seem less scary, but they’re also made to artificially boost the amount of accounts on the books. You can be sure that if a game is holding a free trial, the developers are going to get more out of it than you are.

And the only way to really change this is by going in prepared and making the most of your free time. Just know what you’re getting into, know how long things are going to take to download and install and don’t spend hours on a character that might be deleted when the trial is over.