[casual_games] Different Payment Models

[Jamie Carlson]

>The current 1-hour demo then big ass payment model is the #1 reason 
>why we have an industry where 20-30 games out of hundreds are making 
>80+% of all of
>the profits. Our users are playing the other games and getting an 
>hour (or more with portal-switching) value out of them, but they are 
>only paying for the very best games. ...
>Sure, some people are breaking this mold, but I play great games 
>from small indie developers every day that I know will never make 
>back their dev costs, and that makes me sad.

This is one of the areas that I've always wondered why the C.G. space 
deviated from the Retail Game Demos and Shareware Games formulas. 
Instead of giving the user *everything* for an hour's time, just give 
them parts of it...

Most games have 2 or 3 various game modes (i.e. Story, Endless, 
Puzzle modes), so just give the player a "taste" of ONE of those 
modes which is sufficient enough to teach to player the full range of 
game mechanics but only hints at the full gamut of content that is 
provided in the purchased package (you'll need a obligatory graphic 
on EXIT to communicate the rest of the features and content to the player).

In my opinion, this always urged me to buy because I wondered what 
those other modes were like and what the rest of the levels would 
provide to me as the player. Most demos only provided up to Level 5, 
for example, and I would play those 5 levels over and over again 
until I was highly proficient at the game and was left "wanting" 
since I had no additional challenges to apply these new found 
"ninja-like" skills to... (i.e. since the demo prevented me from 
"unlocking" the rest of it)

Has this approach proven to be even LESS successful than the 
unbridled "Play everything the game has to offer for 60 minutes" approach?

If so, that's surprising to me...
- Jamie


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   Jamie Carlson (Sonalysts Inc.)
   Producer / Designer
   http://www.sonalystscombatsims.com
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