I also downloaded AO but opted not to subscribe. Now if I had paid $50 or $80 for it, I might have been motivated to learn to like it and possibly subscribed. As it happened I played it for a day. I picked up DAoC and AC2 both for full price, AC2 wasn't that bad really, just lacking on players. After a few months I canned my subscription, but not becuase the game was that lacking, I actually enjoyed it. So i wasn't so mad about blowing the initial 50 bucks.
DAoC on the otherhand, ugh. Goodbye money, I hardly knew ye. What the hell was I thinking? After a few days I finially realized that there really was no saving grace to this game. GFX were awful, gameplay was lame, combat... well it was about the same as AO, which isn't to say it was good.
Anyone who is really looking for a MMO home will go into a game with an open mind, so save me the line about wasting money being motivation. "I bought it so by god I better learn how to play this POS...". Thats a terible excuse. I personally think an open and free trial would speak volumes to a companies commitment to the player, and improve a newcomers first impression of the game.
On a side note, the free week in AO is really not enough, AO has one of the steepest learning curves of any MMO I have ever played. With NCU, implants and 95% of the weapons being completely worthless its hard for newcomers to pick it up in a week. So I don't blame you for giving up on it, I probably would have too if I wasn't so hard up for it
edit: damn blue, you need a preview option for posting....
This comment was edited on Jun 19, 13:42.