Five Things Devs/Publishers Do in Demos That Drive Me Away. - by lost_soul
lost_soul on 19/8/2010 at 02:22
1. having long (>8-second) unskippable cut-scenes that I MUST watch before I can start playing. This ties in with......
2. Artificially disabling features like Saving and Loading progress.
3. Not even including one full level.
4. Including malicious software that installs hidden drivers on my machine, or does other nasty things.
5. Trying to slip other unwanted things on the system, like toolbars.
Rest assured, if your demo contains any of these things,you have lost out on a sale from me.
catbarf on 19/8/2010 at 02:41
I can't remember the last time I played a demo of a PC game. Most publishers seem to want you to just buy the game outright, especially since modern DRM prevents you from re-selling if it turns out to be crap.
Assidragon on 19/8/2010 at 04:30
That's why a lot of people in my vicinity usually pirate a game they are planning to buy, and if they like it then go ahead and buy it. It's the only way to be sure!
Edit: reply:
Quote Posted by lost_soul
1. having long (>8-second) unskippable cut-scenes that I MUST watch before I can start playing.
You can just remove the video files. Works with outmost games :thumb:
Quote Posted by lost_soul
4. Including malicious software that installs hidden drivers on my machine, or does other nasty things.
Mmm, that's not really widespread. Of the top of my head, only the crappy Starforce DRM did that?
Quote Posted by lost_soul
5. Trying to slip other unwanted things on the system, like toolbars.
Incridbly common these days, sadly.... especially when they vary the pages and one asks if you want a toolbar, the next asks if you do NOT want one. Le argh.
Koki on 19/8/2010 at 05:53
1. Demos? What fucking demos?
EvaUnit02 on 19/8/2010 at 07:58
Quote Posted by Koki
1. Demos? What fucking demos?
This. Demos are an increasingly rare commodity these days.
@Lost_soul:- Honestly thinking that you have entitlement rights when it comes to demos is ludicrous, they're given to you for free in the majority of cases (SCEA only giving out demos to those who pre-order their 1st party PS3 exclusive games being the exception that comes to mind. Thankfully SCEE have ignored this bone-headed decision.). Be thankful that they're giving you a way to sample the game at all.
Koki on 19/8/2010 at 08:03
Oh thank the great developing gods for giving me this opportunity to try out their product legally
lost_soul on 19/8/2010 at 08:09
In my day, a demo was actually worth something. You have no idea how many hours I spent playing the first episode of Duke3d or Doom for example.
EvaUnit02 on 19/8/2010 at 08:30
Quote Posted by lost_soul
In my day, a demo was actually worth something. You have no idea how many hours I spent playing the first episode of Duke3d or Doom for example.
Jesus Christ, are seriously confusing those Duke 3D and Doom "samplers" as demos? They were SHAREWARE software, NOT DEMOS.
The games industry was in a very different place during the 90's than it is now. Games development can be very expensive these days, especially if you want to compete in the AAA blockbuster arena. It most cases it's virtually absolutely impossible to produce shareware episodes like it was back in the day, almost completely infeasible.
To have the same expectations now that you had ~15 years ago is absolute fantasy. Wake up and take a good snort of reality and get over yourself, you have absolutely ZERO entitlement when it comes to demos.
Shadowcat on 19/8/2010 at 09:54
I suspect we have bugger all entitlement to anything much from a retail game, either. Who's even talking about entitlement, though? I'm pretty sure this thread is about annoying traits in demos causing annoyance.
As for "shareware" vs "demo", is there really a difference? One anticipates more content from something labelled "shareware", but that's really the only distinction that springs to mind. It seems excessive to draw such a big line between them.
I'm also wondering whether the old shareware approach might work just fine these days, if anyone actually felt like doing it. The only notable issue I see is the tendency of modern games to be rather shorter, so that 'shareware episode' might be over fairly quickly, but that aside, what do they have to lose? People already pirate the hell out of games, claiming they want to try before they buy. Why not put a bigger slice of the pie out there and see if you entice more customers to play things your way?
If the game is any good, you may as well aim to get them well and truly hooked on the free part.
Shakey-Lo on 19/8/2010 at 10:04
Really the so-called "freemium" model is an updated version of the shareware idea. I think in 10 years time the freemium model will be the standard.
