I can see what you're getting at, but if the company just provides a product worth buying, there's no problem. They would make a great initial impression on their customers and would end up losing very few subscriptions.

Ultimately, if the game is worth buying and has a wide-appeal, the people who try the game would turn around and make the purchase at the end of the trial AND have some respect for the game developers for their openness.

Like I said, I understand why they DON'T do it initially. It makes sense from a financial point of view. I would just love to see a company take the risk on a truly excellent product. My wager is that they would gain considerably from a PR point of view.

My initial point was that I don't understand why some established games don't have free trials. Does AoC even have free trials up? Did Tabula Rasa? If a game is floundering, there really is nothing to lose.