New allies have entered the fight for Azeroth, and you're needed on the frontlines. This weekend, we're upgrading all inactive WoW accounts to allow you full access to the game and all of your characters without a subscription. You’ll also be able to access the Battle for Azeroth™ trial experience, even if you do not own the expansion.
Source: mydealz
Can anyone confirm?
You get 3 hours of Bofa if you don't own it. You can play previous expacs as much as you like.
If you've bought it then you can play the whole weekend for free.
you can get Bofa deez nuts.
the exact wording as specified on the link
**Players can repeat the Battle for Azeroth trial experience with up to 12 characters per qualifying account during the welcome back weekend.The Battle for Azeroth trial experience ends after three hours of game play in Battle for Azeroth, or after the quest "We Need Each Other" (for Horde) or "A Nation Divided" (for Alliance), whichever comes first.
I have BfA already. I can play free all weekend. the three hour limit is for BfA content if you dont have the expansion.
Salty customer
Its free
So what? It's free to stab yourself doesn't mean its smart to do so. BfA is almost stabbing yourself in the eye.
The game can't be too bad considering they've had millions of active subscribers for over a decade.
heh following that logic:
Heroin can't be that bad considering they've had millions of active users for over a decade
I kid though…(although WoW use has often been critiqued for it's addictiveness) :D
Fair play, I'm not ashamed to admit it was my drug of choice for many years.
@magic8ballgag: It used to be good. I went back last year and this year for 9 months (some bundle deal)
It was bad. So bad. Like a whole new game now and not in a good way.
I will return to warcraft universe when they release a new rts and not reforged I play classic war 3 still and it is ok but man we really need a new warcraft rts call it whatever you want but we need a new one.
I would have chosen different words - but BfA did seem to be a very token attempt at an expansion.
I agree it is a trash game but Blizzard and Rockstar are probably the only 2 good major developers left
Trash players usually say this
Don't you guys have mobile phones!?
**Players can repeat the Battle for Azeroth trial experience with up to 12 characters per qualifying account during the welcome back weekend.The Battle for Azeroth trial experience ends after three hours of game play in Battle for Azeroth, or after the quest "We Need Each Other" (for Horde) or "A Nation Divided" (for Alliance), whichever comes first.
5 years too late
Kinda surprised WoW hasnt done Free Play weekends more often in the past
Nevermind, 3 hours is not what you could call a 'Free Play' weekend. Blizzard/Activision at it again
They have never needed to I guess. This is a sign the biggest gaming cash cow of all time is nearing its end. The MMO generation are now married with kids. We've been through a MOBA gen and a Battle Royal gen since then. For a lot of people, quiting WoW was the best gaming decision they ever made. Despite how much fun they had with the game.
Don’t forget the crafting/survival phase too.
Yeah I’ve heard the same with friends that are former WoW ‘addicts’, I personally don’t get the appeal of that level of grind. Each to their own.
I believe it's 2 fold:
First it's the friends, those who started with us and those we met along the way. Especially when WoW started, having kindred spirits beside you when gamers were still uncommon made it feel very clan-like. Ultimately, as friends left, it was the loneliness many felt which made them also quit.
Secondly it's the time and money invested in the grind which gives the game some intrinsic value to the player, almost as if quitting means losing it all.
Blizz always thought they'd have new players to replace the old but many of those new players were our younger siblings or children, maybe there's a gap now.
@Ebany: That and the gaming landscape is drastically different to waht it was 15 years ago when this launched
@Ebany: I feel $20 (if it still is) a month to play a single game AFTER having already bought it would be a hard sell these days too.
If it was one time purchase I feel it would be a bit bigger than it is now.
I certainly would of gotten heavily into it back in the day.
@JMxoxo: It's $16.50 I think. They let you pay in AUD nowadays.
But yep, the subscription model is outdated. I don't think it's going to last much longer. Will probably go buy to play soon. Pay for expansion and that's it. They will ramp up micro transactions however.
LOL. That statement would've been relevant 10 years ago when the game was at its peak. Nowadays its a shell of its former glory and you can do raids in 2-3hrs with PUGs and have enough time left over for 4chan/Ozbargain.
bring back 40 man MC raids.
You're a purist, I like you!
@incipient: The people who still play wow are not my kind of wowers to me. Classic wow fans ftw beginning of Wrath was probably where it all embedded for me.
But honestly classic wow best words.
@AlienC: yeah cant wait till they bring WoW Classic back.
I still remember the day i got my Ana/bene and re-rolled Shadow priest. My GM was pissssssseeeddddd lolol
Blackrock Horde!
You'll be able to nolife it soon enough when classic comes out, don't worry.
@bert-lifts: Those who used to do hours of 40 man raids are not going to be going back to that life. Most of the people I know who I raided with have kids now. Ain't nobody got time for that!
Why do you feel people aren't entitled to choose how they spend their free time? You're quite happy to spend yours trolling online. To each their own. Many clearly enjoy the game.
For those that have been away for a while I would recommend that you skip this expansion for now. It's been poorly received, poorly thought out and in general inferior to Legion the expansion that came before it. Most people are already looking forward to the major systems introduced this expansion being scrapped. Patch 8.2 is when most hope that this expansion will turn around. So I'd probably wait for it to release and then look at getting back into WoW if you want.
I bought BfA collectors edt for 1/2 at JB hifi but havnt activated it. Worth activating and trying it out in the 3hr free-to-play window this weekend?
You can activate it any time you want if you don't have plans on selling it later. You'll also get a 110 level boost for a character so you can jump straight into BFA instead of just leveling old zones. That boost might be worth saving for later once you have tried out some new classes or just familiarised yourself with the game again.
With three hours you're probably not going to get a lot done and won't really see a lot of the new systems. But you can do some questing in the new zones. They are actually some of the better zones that Blizzard have done. In particular Kul Tiras is really well done.
I think I'll just wait for classic.
Don't play WoW.
It's terrible.
… Can't wait till I get home and level my new Kul Tiran Human Rogue !
…… and I still havn't picked what class I'll play for my Zandalari Troll… shaman or hunter ?
… and I have been so gosh darn busy with these new races I havn't even talked to Magni Bronzebeard with HIS new quest chain..
… or done the quest to get Hati back for my hunter ..
(omg please send help.)
They don't call it Warcrack for nothing! And to be honest, WoW now is nowhere near as addictive as it used to be in vanilla and TBC. Probably a good thing.
Is it that it’s not as addictive? Or that the majority of the demographic who grew up with it are now in family stages of their lives. I certainly fit in with that, having a family means I only have limited time to play games, so I need something that I can pick up for an hour here or there and not feel penalised for not playing hours on end every day.
They’ve definitely made the game more casual, and even though the OG’s don’t agree with it, I think it was necessary for it’s survival. If they didn’t do it, the game wouldn’t be here today, what would they prefer?
I'll just wait for classic
2 days eh.. wonder how far, in game that will get you. lol
Thanks for the post Op
It's probably more targeted at players like me. I played the start of BFA and have a 120 level character but stopped playing because the expansion wasn't very good. They've just released a new patch and fixed some of the issues with the expansion so are probably hoping to get those that have unsubscribed recently back playing BFA. I don't think this was meant to be targeted at users who haven't played in years.
It's only 3 hours though, so even for returning players it doesn't make much sense.
You've misinterpreted the 3 hr time limit.
There's a 3 hour Battle For Azeroth Trial Experience for people who don't own BFA. If you own BFA it's free for the whole weekend. It's covered in the terms and conditions of the offer.
*Offer available through March 24, 2019. Player is responsible for any online connection fees. Game access will be granted at the last expansion purchased or World of Warcraft®: Legion®, whichever is greater, and players can access this content throughout the entire duration of the Welcome Back Weekend.
**Players can repeat the Battle for Azeroth trial experience with up to 12 characters per qualifying account during the welcome back weekend. The Battle for Azeroth trial experience ends after three hours of game play in Battle for Azeroth, or after the quest "We Need Each Other" (for Horde) or "A Nation Divided" (for Alliance), whichever comes first.
How many days would it take to download the game even?
A week on my 3MBit connection.
A month on the NBN.
You can play it within a few minutes of starting, there's just some hefty load periods depending what you do.
This game ruin/made my life in high school
Would recommend A++
3 hours seems a very short time , but as mentioned above wait for classic wow release .
These statements seem unrelated. Classic wow isn't going to be free I don't think?
Its a new/old server as the game was originally level 1-60 with far more character customisation with the skill trees - Blizzard decided to do it as it was an extremely popular private server.
As far as i know wow is still free to level 20.
Oh 1-20 is free, that's cool. Didn't know that. Thanks…or probably "damn you"!
“Here’s some free cocaine”
In its current state more like here is some cocaine cut with a lot of horse piss and manure.
Oh and don't forget your mud pie on your way out.
Yeah burning crusade were good times.
So just like normal cocaine in Australia then.
Lol I wouldn't know or would I?
WoW is still the best MMO ever, just dont have time for it.
yep Wow is the only MMO right now. Other games cant be called "Massive" because they have what? few 10ks worth of players online?
Played the first 10 years, stopped playing after I got the 10 year Statue they gave out to players. lol
Yea, 10 years /played is a long time to be down the rabbit hole.
I did try other games during that time, but kept going back and account active till 2013
Wth that's the first time I heard of that. I guess it required you to be subbed the entire 10 years?
I dunno but I reckon as long as you are in an active guild, I don’t find it boring. Plenty of stuff to do, raiding, mythic +, dailies.
I have never played WOW, can i play this to see what its like or do i already need some software purchased / account etc?
WoW I believe, as per comment above, is free until level 20, I remember something like this being around when I first tried it too
You will just need a Blizzard account
It's a good opportunity to try it because you'll be able to get past lvl 20 without paying.
Play for the weekend, see if you like it, if you like it buy a month sub.
This might not even work but: if you want to get further into the game (you probably shouldn't), start the normal free trial now and get a couple of characters up to 20 then progress with them beyond 20 during the free weekend :) Good luck have fun don't do it etc lol
Trash game
Ok installed.
LF39M MC.
you can solo it now……
No thanks! I've quit WoW for the last time last October and I ain't coming back!!! This is coming from a player since Vanilla days and played all the expansion! I've now other games to play :)
Back to 2010
Luckily am staying with family this weekend and can't play. This game changed my life and most likely not for the better. But who knows, sunk a lot of time into Minecraft when I quit WoW. Maybe I'm just shit : )
I wonder if my account would be playable.
I suffered from game breaking bugs so I put in a ticket to see what was wrong.
GMs response an 'accidental' permaban then lied about it. So I did a 'accidental' charge back via paypal and got my money back.
I did get an email 6 weeks later asking me what I thought of the game as a whole.
Never played a game (or any hobby) that kept me as distracted whilst I was at work as much as this. Do not recommend. Also 3 hours is nothing. I guess they didn't want you binging new content and burning out since the levelling part is generally the funnest.
I recently spent about 20 days /played on a 1x private server reliving the dream grinding to 70 and getting the best in slot till tier 5 epics (patch 2.0). It's just setting in now what a waste of fking time it was. My advice is steer clear of this game in all forms boys.
Whats the private server? how did you find it?
WoW really seems to be one of those games you either fall in love with or you don't.
I tried it twice, but really couldn't see why it was popular. I dont like paying each month to play either.
I enjoyed Diablo 3 far more.
However I have friends who love WoW and have played continuously for years.
I was also surprised how average the graphics are…
hi.
totally agree with your comments.
tried it twice.
could not work out what the hype is about. didn't see how it's different to all the other MMOs out there.
i guess the crappy graphics is to cater to most people with crappy graphics cards.
Meh. I've moved on.
I heard only 3 free hours will be given during this period.