Will "World of Warcraft" fans find a new free-to-play option with its new patch release?
The MMO Champion website recently discovered the patch notes for 6.1, and it mentioned that several features are included in the new patch, including a brand new account type dubbed as "Veteran Edition" that offers a free trial account where gamers can enjoy playing the game under a few restrictions. This is similar to the present trial edition known as the Starter Edition that "World of Warcraft" offers, which lets the players reach up to level 20 without the need to subscribe to the game itself or pay for the access.
But early today, Blizzard released an official statement regarding the speculations about the alleged free-to-play access for "WoW." Although the game developer confirmed that the alleged Veteran's Edition is exactly like the trial account that is ideal for lapsed players, it does not mean that the free-to-play rumors are exactly true.
"We've always had this kind of weird limitation where if you've never played WoW we let you play as much as you want, albeit in a very restricted Starter Edition account," stated Bashiok, the community manager from Blizzard.
"However, if you have ever had a subscription - but don't currently have one - we don't even let you log in. In 6.1 we'll effectively revert lapsed accounts into a Starter Edition "mode", with all of the same restrictions. The one difference being that your sub-level 20 characters will be able to join a guild if any of your other characters are still in that guild," he added.
He also explained that the label for the said mode is "Veteran," but it will not be what it will be called entirely. The term could only be used for all accounts that do not have any active subscription. This means that the supposed free-to-play mode of "World of Warcraft" is not happening at the moment.
