There is already a thing called a free trial.
People just refund it on steam after an hour.
Not everyone knows that, especially kids. They will most likely ask their parents to buy the game without the lack of knowledge of the refund option.
My, there is a lot of problems with this whole situation. I personally see the community declining after this "Free" ordeal truely happened anyway. Even though, this community is litterally the ropes that tie the game itself together and aswell as money for badspot and the fourm, which is a by product of this community.
Now i don't know if there is a clear solution, but after experiencing the Mainstream Growth of Minecraft. Soon falling in popularity to the new growth of Fortnite. I'm only a senior in highschool with horrible writing skills, but there needs to be a balance between the community and the game. Minecraft slowly fell due to exhaustion of the game. People still play it and will, but the "Popular" mantality is just not there anymore to keep the game alive, and that is a red flag for a exhausted game. The updates still came but as the updates slowely progress and months and months pass. People leave, it gets boring. Mods used to be big and exciting, but then they got exhausted too. . .
Now we go to fornite, oh i too hate it, but its the popular game right now, with the "Popular" mantality still going strong and huge franchises supporting the game it will still dominate in the culture we have built on the internet.
I dont want to make this post dreadful to read, but with my own experiences of leaving this game and gathering real life experiences and ext. I still come back to see the same people. Still playing this game. The same game that most of us have been playing for many-many years. The same people who argue but still play the same game. Its kinda unique that you people have not left for fortnite or minecraft, or even the next banwagon game, and inturn it makes this game still; Unique. We may not be on the game all the time or in the future but as life goes on the memmories of caring for this game and the memmories of playing this game like i have, will mold us into the people we will become, and that mold will change and you might now care about this game in five years. But you are still here, reading this text on the fourms of this game. Thank you for caring, if at all.