Poll: Should multiboxing softwares have a short trial?

[eauxfolles]

... you are right and i cannot argue logically my way of thinking (as even financially the break-even would be most probably after some years where it is not sure if you are using the software that long).

[Unca]

The only thing I do not like about a subscription model is that if development stops for any reason, I might be left high-and-dry.

This is not much of an issue for something that I use with World of Warcraft, in that even if Tim said "we're shutting down PB and making the license perpetual forever and ever" at some point Blizzard would make enough changes that would make the software glitchy or just not work anymore.

Aside from that, I do not mind the subscription model. It gives the developer incentive to continue to develop and improve the software, and it provides them with a reward for making something that we want to use. Capitalism, **** YEAH!!!

[Ualaa]

Even still, in that unlikely eventuality...

With a subscription model, you might be paying an average of $3 per month, in whatever sized increments you pay.
If the software stops working with some major patch and is not updated, you might be out $15 or $20 in subscription fees.

Conversely, if the author decided to charge for 2-3 years of subscription at one point, for a product which does not receive major updates.
Or possibly releases a product once per warcraft expansion, with tweaks at x.1, x.2 and x.3 if needed to make it work, and charges the equivalent of 2 years subscriptions...
You could be out a lot more, if it breaks.



Take Keyclone... I've had a KC license for 3 years now. The model is buy it once, and your license lasts forever, and the price was $20 which is rather nice.
I've had three updates in that time, but basically no functionality seems to have been added beyond what it initially had when I started.

It does exactly what it was advertised to do, and it was a very easy software to set up and understand when I was starting.
I'm very happy with the product.



Conversely, I'm using IS Boxer now, which is a subscription model.
I've paid $36 once, which got me 13 months of subscription time (an extra month, for mentioning Zanthor as my referral).
Discounting referrals which I've received based on my IS Boxer guide, the software would expire in a couple of months, and I'd have the option to renew or now.
I could go with $10 for three months or $36 for twelve months.

Lax has updated the software 25-30 times in that time, which ranges from major features of his design or which were requested by the user base... to minor tweaks to keep everything running or to make IS Boxer work with a new game or whatever.



I'm using Lax/IS Boxer as an example, as that is what I'm familiar with.

I've seen Tim release several different version of Pwnboxer in the time that I've frequented these boards.

The subscription model gets far more updates than the one-time fee softwares.

[tompl]

> I could go with $10 for three months or $36 for twelve months.

Would be cool if Pwnboxer had an option like that. I'm not sure that I will be using it for the whole year but I did have to pay for it though. This trial thread started exactly from that - people wanting to try it out for less money (preferably zero, yes). But if Pwnboxer and IS Boxer had a 1-month license for 5$, more people would buy it on a whim. Though of course I can't promise that overall the profits would not fall

[Ualaa]

Excluding the free boxing softwares, which obviously are currently free forever, PB is the only major boxing software without a trial.

HKN, AHK, and Octopus are free... so you can try them as long as you want.

Keyclone offers a 24 hour trial, which isn't that long but should be long enough given what the software does... ie, straight broadcast to all windows of any key pushed, unless you blacklist a given key or have pause enabled.
It does have features like round-robin, hotstrings (key re-mapping) and network support.

Game Commander Pro and IS Boxer each have a one week trial.
IS Boxer also has a two week money back guarantee, so technically you could use it for a three week trial if you were so inclined.

I'm actually really surprised that Tim still hasn't given a trial period.
A small percentage of people will try one product and then another, until they find the "best" product for themselves.
A larger percentage will try the first product they get excited about, and stick with it if it works for them.
I've only seen a few people request refunds for PB, and those were people who just could not get it running or couldn't be bothered to figure it out... not people who used it and were unhappy with the software itself.

Then again boxing software sales will speak for themselves.
People come to boxing mostly from one of two approaches; they see a movie of a boxer (which would include a JTV stream) and want to use what the guy in the movie used... or they meet someone in game, ask questions and likely end up using whatever was recommended via word of mouth.
Tim is the only one who can say how many active PB subscriptions there are, or better how many people log in with it (I'm assuming a license server exists with this data?)... and thus how successful the current marketing approach is.

[Drarkan]

I gotta say that for myself, I chose PB from the video, and how I found it I did a search for multiboxing software in google and PB was right there. Watched the video, didn't even see his stream yet, asked a few questions on the forums (i think) at the very least just read through some posts, and felt that it was a good product. I did try keyclone or some free one, got confused with setup, and saw that pwnboxer was quite easy to configure. So a video on how things work seems to be fine for a trial, though for newbs who don't take time to look into things perhaps a 5-10 day (or less) would be enough to see if they are willing to check it out and go for it or not. For me, and I'm sure most people here, are already sold on PB not needing a trial.

[Ualaa]

Not saying it needs a trial, per se.

Just that there might be some people sitting on the fence, unsure if they want to box or not.
Assuming they're aware of trial accounts...
They could do a trial version of a given software, or all of the boxing softwares.
And then hopefully be hooked on the experience and want to blow newbs up!