I suggested the two week trial fee, ONCE WE GO TO STEAM AND NOT BEFORE, to weed out the ppl who are not serious about the game and to let steam have some meat to market with. (Steam uses specials all the time in which trial fees are slashed or waved, believe me that marketing strategy works).
The free trial system has nothing to do with declining numbers. I suggest leaving the trial system the way it is. on or off steam and if I understand this correctly, steam has nothing to do with how much we pay to play AH, or even charging us we pay HTC like we do now. the HTC 2 week FREE trial has worked for 18 years, or however long they have used it. you said to weed out people who are not serious about the game, a 2 week free trial gives the people a chance to see if it's for them, if they like it or not. and you keep saying we this we that, as far as I know you don't work for HTC, you should be saying HTC this or HTC that, or HiTech this and that. well we can come up with all the ideas and post them, if HTC likes them they will use them at one time or another. always good to have people with new ideas.
another thing when the word or phrase is used as in "2 week trial" it usally means free trial, oooooohhhh I just thought of something- a trial usually means money back if not satisfied, do you suggest giving the money back if they don't like it?