Pricing Tiers?

[Akel]

This is probably a bad idea for reasons I have not yet foreseen.
Anyway, my idea is to have different pricing Tiers.
Like:
Basic - $2.50 (Unlimited play. No perk unlocking. Only get Loopy+bomber)
Advanced - $5.00 (Unlimited play. No perk unlocking. Get all planes)
Full - $10 (Well...whatever it currently is. Full planes, full perks. The works.)

And what is the purpose of this, you might ask? To get more players.

Basically, let's say someone plays the 3 hour demo. They like it. It's pretty cool and fun. But $10 might be a tad too much (I'm not saying it's not worth $10, but I've seen comments here and there which suggest some people can be really skeptical and hard to sell). But $2.50? Less than $3? That's tempting. Easy to swallow. Looks like a game they can just play casually for a cheap price.
And so they play...for a month. It hits them.
"You know what? This game is pretty awesome!"
They're playing around with their basic loopy and bomber and having fun for the most part...but they see all those awesome planes and think, "Man, it'd be cool to gun down enemies in a biplane, or flip around as a miranda, or wow, these mines are so annoying, I wish I could dump mines all over the place with an explodet!"
So what do you do? Offer an upgradeable system!
For just $2.50 more...they can go up to advanced. A month has already passed. Their wallets and their minds have been reset. Another $2.50 looks like a small price to pay (yet again) for more gameplay. And so they bite the bullet again.
Yet another month has passed...And while they've been enjoying the game for the most part...something still nags them. Their loopy only shoots one missile at a time. Their bombers...can't drop bombs. Their mirandas can't shoot super cool super lasers. Their biplanes can't fire that powerful "BOOM!" cannon.
They're getting bombed and double-missiled and vaporized by weapons that they can't use to get back at those enemy players!
Just for $5 more...they can get back at them. They can spam missiles and bombs and lasers and cannons! Just for 5 measly dollars.
And then...they realize...they've just bought the full game!

Okay...I don't know if that's really how people think. But whatever. Just thinking of ways to increase the population. Plus, having a $2.50 tier would make things easier to gift around. Let's say you've got a bunch of buddies (really poor young buddies who don't have jobs yet and don't really know if they want to continue playing the game after the demo period). It's easier (on the wallet and mind) to gift four people for $10, than four people for $40. And once they do get jobs...they can upgrade to full whenever they get their own cash. But you can get the satisfaction of being able to play online with them until they do upgrade.

[Tosconi]

well 2,5 is better than nothing...but we've all gone through the time of unlimited loopy and really many people were comfortable with just 2 planes. In the result this idea might bring back an enormous number of loopies in game.

[D0rk]

I figured this game to be cheap enough already. $10 is nothing compared to any new console game or most computer games.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by D0rk

I figured this game to be cheap enough already. $10 is nothing compared to any new console game or most computer games.

That is very true. I mean, I was at Best Buy yesterday, and there was a Wheel of Fortune game (from 1996, I might add) for $15. O SHNAP!

[Akel]

There are already a lot of loopys anyway(i'm still newb, playing on newb servers, so maybe my view is skewed)...so I don't see how more loopys would make much of a difference. And as for price...I'm not saying $10 ain't a good price for the game. But, i don't know...i think there is a lot working against the game.
Tough economy (people will make tougher choices, limiting choices, more stingier now than ever). Tough competition (tf2,CS, etc you can get for $20 or less). Lack of publicity. Lack of popularity. Simpler 2D graphics in an age of HD 3d graphics, which people make subconscious correlations with to free flash games.

But I do see and acknowledge the potential problem of people being satisfied by the $2.50 price range and probably won't feel the desire to upgrade.

Hmm...maybe they should do a Free Weekend on steam. even if there is already a demo of the game, people might pay more attention and give it a try if it's in the spotlight and on the front page.

I probably would've ignored this game completely if Steam didn't have a sale. I didn't even know this game existed until two weeks ago.

[zwanglos]

Hmm...maybe they should do a Free Weekend on steam. even if there is already a demo of the game, people might pay more attention and give it a try if it's in the spotlight and on the front page.

They did that during the Christmas sale, sort of. Demo players had full access to the game (all planes/perks) for a little while.

[Akel]

ah, did not know that. but i think that's a little different because I think that with free weekend the game will show up on your gameslist and that helps even further for really lazy people who are too lazy to download the demo.

And um...anyway, the suggestion above is just a basic suggestion. the pricing can be different and so can the plane choices for them. is there a plane that people wouldn't mind having unlimited of, or a boost in population? what about biplanes?