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Linux Users More Likely To Pay For Games?
Teppy writes "I noticed something unexpected the other day when reviewing the subscriber counts for our MMORPG, A Tale In The Desert. Of everyone who tries our game, Linux users are definitely more inclined to pay money to subscribe. In fact, overall, about 15.6% of Windows users who do the free trial will subscribe, while among Linux users the number is 19.3%. Furthermore, Linux users tend to remain subscribers for a longer time. Are we the only game company noticing this?" Is this down to loyalty, choice, or other mysterious factors?
Having some one pay monthly is the most horrible thing a company can do ...
.. i relly have respect for almost any company that offers a linux version of thier software.. its really about time.. i think Nvidia and ID software are setting a good examples off releasing linux related version of their games/drivers
i mean why Go out and spend 80$ on a game and pay an aditional cost on top of that.. i understand its to maintain servers but its stuppid..
Personaly i am waiting for the next version of Planeshift
www.planeshift.it
its totaly free Massive multiplay Online RPG.. 100% free
In another note i would rather pay +60$ more of the game price just for a unlimited subscirption for a massive multiplayer RPG game.. then have to pay monthly
But, As a linux user
-"i come from a planet ruled by carots"
I think part of it has to be attributed to lack of choice. There's not a whole lot of other games for linux users to spend thier money on. Suppose you could play EQ, DAoC or FFXI on linux, would you see the same subscription and retentions rates then? Hard to speculate but I suspect not.
The other thing is the player themselves. It's no stretch to say that linux users are of a different mindset than windows users right? It may also be a case of this particular game just being more to thier tastes. Afterall ATITD is very different game, certainly very different than anything other MMOG you will find on windows.
BTW grats to the guys behind ATITD for coming up with something that's truly unique and refreshing in the MMOG, definitely something made from a different mold.
Your numbers are so close that i dont think you can easily pick a winner. Without having margin of error, or a total sample size how can we realisticly calculate whom is more likely to pay for your software.
It sounds like the 15.6% and 19.3% reflect *all* Linux and Windows users who do the free trial. That is, it's the entire population. Therefore, there's no sample and no margin of error. (A margin of error is a characteristic of a sample used when trying to generalize the results of the sample to the underlying population.)
The reported percentages are close. But since the numbers come from the total population, they are accurate: of those individuals who download the trial version, Linux users are more likely to subscribe than Windows users.
The interesting question is "Why does this difference exist?" But to answer that question, we'd need more information about the people who purchased the game (and, perhaps, information about people who didn't purchase the game).
Actually, there's plenty of sample size to do meaningful statistics. Here's the total:
Trial Accounts, Total: 34317
Trial Accounts, Linux: 1309
Paid Accounts, Total: 5407
Paid Accounts, Linus: 253
These are all since release. An account is considered a paid account if they have paid for at least one month of ATITD. Note that these are not current subscriber counts - we're arouond 1500 on that. The average length of time a player stays is a bit closer, but I'll try put those numbers together if there's interest.
So, the 15 vs 19 certainly seems meaningful - maybe there's a stats guy out there who can figure out the actual margin or error.
Also, yes - these are percentages of people who do the trial that go on to pay. We don't require any credit card info upfront, so there's no "aha, you forgot to say you DIDN'T want to continue!" factor. Also there's plenty of kids that don't have a way to pay in the first place, mixed in with those numbers. No idea what the numbers would look like if we did use a traditional GOTCHA! business model.
I'm more into FPS than MMORPG so this is more about pirating or buying than signing up for a service. But since I completeley switched to linux a few years ago, i bought all the games i play rather than just copied them. One of the main reasons for me is that i think it is sexy not to have *ANY* pirated software on your system.
And let's be honest: It's really hard to pay for all the windows software you use, starting with little tools like winzip or stuff like that. So buying a single piece of software doesn't make it much better.
But with Linux there are only a few programs that you need to buy so it's very easy to reach a 100% 'legal' system.
And there are Linux users that actually care about copyrights and piracy.
Exactly.
I made a decision to live a more honest life, and part of that was giving up pirated software. Since I find Windows overpriced, I switched to Linux. The irony is, I spend far more on software now than I ever would have under Windows.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.