I Was Ripped OFF!

[The Panther]

I find the title of this whole topic kind of odd. How can a person be ripped off for paying exactly nothing for the demo?

The one sole purpose of a demo is to get a person to plunk down money for the full game because it is proven as a good product. If a turn and magic limit help to achieve that goal for the developer, then the demo was successful. Heck, had they asked me, I would have said a level 2 magic limit would be even better as there are a lot of really cool level 3 and 4 spells out there that people would be dying to try out.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Agrajag:
Quite honestly, a turn limit demo would just make me upset, upset enough not to buy the game (and perhaps obtain it in um... other ways).

The demo is intended for people who aren't integrity-challenged and honesty-impaired. The sort of people who do not consider "other ways" to acquire merchandise that is normally sold, and who feel an obligation to reimburse merchants for what they receive. There is no point whatsoever to catering to folks on the Kazaa network, since such folks won't pay for games (or anything) even if the selling price was $5.

[Pickles]

Originally posted by The Panther:
"I find the title of this whole topic kind of odd. How can a person be ripped off for paying exactly nothing for the demo?"

Ironically?

[johan osterman]

Originally posted by Karacan:
What?! You're really in it for the money?

Yes, and I eat buttered babies that I cover in fudge.

No one is getting fat of dominions, if you don't believe me you can look on the shots from origins. Neither JK nor Kristoffer is making anywhere near a regular salary of their dominions work. So if they were only in it for the money they would spend their time elsewhere. That said illwinter is not the Mahatma Gandhi of the game industry, illwinter does not eschew money, if illwinter made buckets of money everyone here would be delighted, but both JK and Kristoffer are for the most part more interested in doing what they feel like when they feel like it than making money.

There seem to be an odd sense of entitlement underlying some of the Posts here. The demo is free. It is intended as a teaser and as an example of what you'll get if you buy the game. The demo as it stands does just that. I don't get why a limit on the demo pisses anyone off. Releasing the demo is a market device. It is the equivalent of a movie trailer, and much like the movie trailer it is incomplete and intended to be so. Complaing about it's limit like you have somehow been tricked or robbed by it is absurd and infantile.


Karacan: are you named Bj�rn L�sing (I don't recall the exact spelling) by any chance? Also you can still netplay with your friends, only you have to finish or upgrade in 40 turns.

EDIT: I just wanted to point out that I did not mean to imply atrocities in this post since I assumed his cry of despair was good natured and joking.

[ August 04, 2004, 00:24: Message edited by: johan osterman ]

[Gandalf Parker]

demo limits and copy protection have very little to do with piracy. Its not really worth considering pirates in any decision. Nothing will change their numbers either direction, and their numbers arent higher than the number of people who will refuse to cross that line.

[The Panther]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
demo limits and copy protection have very little to do with piracy. Its not really worth considering pirates in any decision. Nothing will change their numbers either direction, and their numbers arent higher than the number of people who will refuse to cross that line.

That is so true. I would totally refuse to load a game for free through piracy no matter the circumstances. The people who make these fine games deserve pay for their work.

[PvK]

Ya, I am sure Attrocities was joking with the title.

The Dominions I demo was great from a player perspective, since you could play (and lose) entire games with it. I intended to buy it after having so much fun losing my first game (as Man), but I put it off, well into my second game (as Ulm), mainly because the web ordering process seemed like a hassle. What spurred me into buying Dominions I was actually wanting not the higher-level spells (quasi-sacriligious as Ulm, anyway ), but to get the Black Plate Infantry of Ulm units and the Guardians! No question this game was worth the money, and I was sold for Dominions II without needing to see the demo. The 40-turn limit seems like a wise move, though - I would think that more players would tend to hit that limit and want to buy the game, compared to an unlimited demo, where they might decide to do without.

PvK

[PrinzMegaherz]

Originally posted by The Panther:
That is so true. I would totally refuse to load a game for free through piracy no matter the circumstances. The people who make these fine games deserve pay for their work.

Not every game is fine. It is actually very hard to discern whether a game is good or not before you have actually played the original.

Why?
1) There are certain game magazines which(not to say most) sell their honesty for exclusive demos or a bag of money

2) Demo games, as already said below, have a tendency to hold more content than the rest of the game. Those of you who remember Quake 1 will surely agree that the first episode you got for free had more content then the other ones afterward. It even had it's own boss, while the other episodes except the Last one had none. I was very disappointed after I bought the game. Same thing with diablo 1 and the butcher / undead king (can't remember the name). 2 unique bosses in the demo levels, no more after that till you meet diablo.

[ August 04, 2004, 01:28: Message edited by: PrinzMegaherz ]

[The Panther]

Originally posted by PrinzMegaherz:
There are certain game magazines which(not to say most) sell their honesty for exclusive demos or a bag of money

Well, that is why I Subscribe to CGW and no other pretender. I have never seen an instance of a review being slanted in CGW in over 5 years. Oh, reviewers are slanted, but I am pretty good with knowing this and taking it into account. I suppose this comes from about 10 years of uninterrupted subscription of CGW.

I trust Bruce Geryk as the main man for strategy reviews at CGW. If he says a game is good, then it is. Of course, he and I have the same taste in games, as I well know from long experience. But still...

In fact, when Bruce said all strategy gamers needed to go and buy Dom 2 at once, I obeyed his orders immediately. Good thing too.

I have made the mistake of buying games on a whim that sounded good (so and so gave it five stars!!!) only to find it a lousy game and then CGW subsequently gave it 2 stars or less in a review. I have truly learned my lesson on this.

[Arryn]

Originally posted by The Panther:
I trust Bruce Geryk as the main man for strategy reviews at CGW.

Tom Chick would probably dispute that.