When to expire the demo key

[Battleline]

I plan on using Software Passport for a project I've been working on and I have a few questions.

The options on key expiration seem to be:
1. Days after key entered
2. Number of uses
3. Time after key entered

Does anyone have opinions on what the best option / amount is for a demo? It seems to be pretty popular these days to allow the user to play for 1 hour and then expire the key... is there a reason for this, or is it just what everyone is doing these days? Is option #3 the way you would accomplish this?

[terin]

This subject is covered in my book *shameless plug* www.indiegameguide.com

But the summary of what I write is:

Before you get into this question you've got to answer a few more.

In your game is there a moment in which the game is 'most addicting.' A point in which a player is all-out ready to get further into the game: Because that is when your demo should end.

If there isn't, then I suggest going back to square one and making one!

Now, as you said there are basically three ways to limit a demo- and you can really use any combination of them

They are limit the features, limit the uses, or limit the time (hours used or days installed)

The MOST common is simply time (by hour), followed closely by a combination of features and time. Uses is most commonly used in applications as are day based limitations.

The key question is: Which is better for your game in predictive patterns?

If limiting features isn't an option due to game design or implimentation, then the question simply becomes how long, on average, does it take someone to reach the point where you want to turn the game off.

if that question is unanswerable then you MUST find a way to limit features to the extent where the player reaches that critical point in the game it turns off (yes, even just stopping them from going further is a feature-limit).

Hope it helps!

-Joe