SWG - Free Trial Account Restrictions : Star Wars Galaxies Discussions

I wanted to write a quick note here to explain some of the changes we have instituted with regards to the free trial accounts. As many as you have noted, we have had a large upswing in the number of 'credit spammers' in the game, advertising their credit farming websites, etc. This is not a problem unique to Star Wars to be sure, but something that all MMO's have had to deal with over the years. Without commenting in general about credit farming, we certainly do not want our players to be harassed by these folks, nor do we wish to have their Star Wars role playing immersion be ruined by such blatant non-Star Wars behavior.

Practically all of this spamming has been done through our free trial program. Our plan had been to address this immediately following the house pack-up event with a number of restrictions and alterations to the free trial. With the house pack-up running late and the spamming problem getting worse, we decided to activate the old restrictions on the trials immediately in order to end the harassment of our players. The net result was of course that free trials could no longer leave Tansari Station.

Our free trial program is incredibly successful and we do not want to keep these restrictions in place very long. We are working now on more focused restrictions that deal very specifically with those folks using the trial for nefarious commerce. These should be in place soon, and we will lift the embargo on trials and allow them to once again enjoy as much of the game as is reasonable without the ability to negatively effect our paying customers. This will include the ability to travel to the other locations in the galaxy. Folks in the trials are our future comrades and friends (well, some may become your enemy I suppose...But in a good way SMILEY8)), and we should welcome them.

There were a small number of verteran players in trials as well that were impacted by this, and we do apologize for the inconvienece. Rest assured that anyone who lost items due to being forced back to the station will have those items returned if they move to subscribed status.

Once again, we will be putting systems in place that will allow you to play with friends who are trying out the game. This is a great way to introduce someone to Star Wars which and we feel it is very important to facilitate this. These changes are fast tracked at this point and should be coming very soon.

Thanks,

DeadMeat
Lorin Jameson, SOE Producer, Star Wars Galaxies