It's funny how you think you know me. I'm 31, and primarily a PC gamer. I know what free trials are, and they don't really exist anymore. There's a small handful on Steam and on Google Play, but not very many.
I also like how you think me 'allowing minimal ads' will cost the consumer. If a company pays me to run ads in my game, that costs them, not the consumer.
Sure, time is money, but downloading a 35mb game and getting to play for free doesn't cost them any money.
There are plenty of games with minimal ads. Even if they do have ads, a simple $1 or so IAP to turn ads off is brilliant.
There's a big difference between something like that, and charging for lives, which is complete and utter bullshit.
I'm in no way saying him charging $5 for the full game is bad. It's actually a great method. I'm just saying it's considered an IAP.
You mentioned my original post said nothing about ads but mentioned being free, well that's incorrect. It wasn't until my reply that i mentioned either, and they were both literally in the same sentence.
Look I get it. mobile gaming sucks, but it's still a thing. Some people capitalize on it, some people abuse it, and some people make the best of it.
I don't think there's anything wrong with having a player earn so many stars and recommend the game to a friend, so they can continue playing for free.
I also don't see anything wrong with putting out a trial and charging for the full experience.
I don't see anything wrong with having ads that don't harm the players experience and a small charge to get rid of them. Hell, one of my favorite mobile games(Dungeon Quest) says that if you spend money on any single IAP(no matter how small), you no longer have to have ads.
What I don't agree with are games like Candy Crush, charging for lives, and PVZ2, charging for normal in game items that were free in the first game, Or games like Adventure town, completely limiting what you can do by limiting Stamina, and making you wait or pay.
I'm not sure why people got all up in arms for me simply saying an IAP is considered a microtransaction, and that's probably why his game didn't do so well. I never said it was a bad method. Just that people prefer 'free'.