If that was their intention, it is not thought out well. Sure, the spammers have to use actual accounts (likely hacked/stolen), to do their advertising. Their solution worked well for about a week. Unfortunately spammers are as obnoxious as ever. But whatever, they tried something. I'm actually glad Trion attempts to address the issue unlike it's Goliath counterpart.

The problem with this approach is the following: Spamming on trial accounts will still continue, and it will be be concentrated on same shards Trion uses to recruit fresh members. It may have been a good short-term solution for the subscribed members, but fresh subs may be put off the due to the the spam. That said, Trion could have GMs pay careful attention to the trail shards to squash spammers asap.

I feel the main reasons for the trial shards are to 1) Reduce server load on main shards; and 2) Give trial members a chance to experience the game like we first did. People roaming around the starting areas not knowing what to expec--OH **** INVASION.

Whatever Trion's reasons, their choice to create trial shards is an interesting one. I hope it works out for the best, and they are able to keep Telara full of adventurers, new and old.