The argument seems to be, "give it to them free and they will start paying." Why? It's free.
What incentive does a business, that already offers a limited, free trial to play, have to give something away in perpetuity?
I get the feeling you either did not read this thread fully, or I didn’t explain myself clearly. Assuming the latter, I will make another attempt.
There are many, many, many companies that have chosen the alternative approach of providing a limited version that is not time-limited but instead feature limited. Additional capabilities can be unlocked by becoming a paying customer.
I could sit and make you a list but just to pick one off the top of my head that you may be familiar with: “FRAPS”. It is free to use and does not stop working after 2 weeks. Instead the length of recordings are limited, and a watermark is applied. But you can use it forever, free, if you are OK with being limited to those constraints. The version of AVG virus software I use to use was free to download and use, and did not stop working after a trial period. Instead, you bought it to get access to continued updates of the virus database. I could go on ad infinitum.
It’s an approach that has many advantages. Consider the following points:
1. There is a certain impedance to convincing someone to download a 200mb client, get it configured, figure out the basics of playing, only to have it yanked out from underneath them before they’ve even had time to decide if they liked it or not. I see a short trial period like that I wonder if it’s even worth the hassle.
2. A lot of stuff can happen during those 2 weeks. Life can interfere and keep me from giving it a full evaluation. Unless you are willing to grovel and beg HTC for an extension, you are screwed. Most people will simple shrug and move on. Lost sale.
3. Someone does their free trial on version 1.0. A month later, HTC releases version 2.0 and it’s a lot better. Or so people say. Generally HTC does not renew trial periods so many people will not go back and check it out again except for screenshots and such, or tooling around in the empty offline mode. Probably another lost sale.
4. I suspect many players of the H2H were wee little squeakers who couldn’t pay for play if they wanted to. But the H2H ignited their interest in flight Sims and familiarized them with HTC as the premier supplier of online flight sim experiences. Someday those squeakers will grow up and have jobs. Does some limited free play help plant the seeds today for customers tomorrow?
5. By keeping the period unlimited, but slowly reducing the available features, you keep them in contact with the game longer. They may start having their features limited more over time, but what you are doing is extending that decision window they have to choose to go pay or not. This keeps him engaged longer. This keeps him applying the patches longer. That gives him longer to form relationships with paying customers and squads. That makes it easier for him to decide to pull the trigger at anytime. Instead of giving the potential customer an ultimatum, you are working in the thin end of a wedge. Slowly applying pressure, instead of calling all-or-nothing.
6. As I said “Free” get a lot of attention. A subset of permanent Free-Play will get HTC more exposure to the gaming community than their 2-week only trial IMHO. More exposure means more opportunities to make a sale. It’s the law of big numbers.
7. Even if a Free-Player never converts to pay, HTC would have the ability to slowly adjust the features available to them until they are actually providing more benefit to the arena than they are costing HTC. That’s a good thing for HTC’s paying customers. IF they are willing, they can do the grunt work, fly the planes no one else will, man the acks, fly the supply goons, etc.
8. The features available can be balanced differently in different arenas. This can “highly” encourage the Free-Play to go provide content in the lesser used boutique arenas like WWI and EW. Maybe they get a wider selection of features when they play there. That makes it a more valuable product for their paying customers that want to enjoy those venues.
9. Free-Players can get shuffled around to give support to sides that have low numbers.
10. When an arena cap goes into effect, Free-Players can be plucked out and re-assigned to the newly opened arena to get it seeded quicker.
11. Etc.etc. etc. The possibilities are only limited by HTC’s imagination.
I think it’s a more flexible, more powerful approach. It gives HTC more opportunities to carefully reel in those reluctant fish instead of just yanking the pole hard at the end of week two. And for those that can’t or won’t convert to pay, they can slowly be transitioned from a cost to a benefit or at least a break-even.
In my opinion, the 2 week trial approach is as archaic and outmoded a model as pay-per-hour was when HTC abandoned it. I think its time for HTC to think outside the box again.
Regards,
Wab
