Play, then pay, if okay.

This occurred to me:

I don’t like free. If I enjoy your product, I want to pay for it. Because I want to show my gratitude and because I want to support your continued production. If I don’t enjoy your product, I don’t even want it for free.

I don’t know beforehand if I will enjoy a product. Refunds could solve this problem. But there’s still a barrier, of course. It’s not pleasant to pay for something just to try it. That takes all the fun out of shopping!

A compromise is to offer a free trial version of the product. Digital content can be distributed very cheaply. In fact, when a customer downloads “free” software, they are paying for the low cost of distribution -or at least of transportation- themselves.

The downside of the try-before-you-buy concept is that the producer is encouraged to make the trial version persuade you in some way to buy the full version. This can happen by simply making the trial very good, which is honest if the full product is of equal quality. But it also happens, and tends to be more lucrative, in all sorts of less honest ways.

So what I have been considering for Bientôt l’été is to allow the customer to pay for the product after playing it. You would be able to download the full game and I would only require payment when you’re done. If you didn’t like the product, you don’t pay and remove it from your hard drive. No harm done.

I realize that this potentially opens the gates for abuse. But I may be willing to take that risk. Abuse happens anyway. People pirate software, for instance. I also hope that the audience for my work possesses a more than average sense of responsibility and ethics. That they would only be content with themselves if they behave decently. And finally, I think that if you treat people like civilized human beings, perhaps there is a better chance that they will act as such.