lack of demo versions

[darken92]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

Demos always put me off...they never seem to be deep enough or come with enough documentation to allow me to make a good call.

I think the absolute best way of telling if I like a game is by reading and AAR of the game.

If done properly and with in game pics, it can be the best thing for giving you a really good feel for the game.

A good AAR determines if I buy a game or not...

Yes and no. I purchased CoG and found I hated the game. It has put me off purchasing FoF. In fact it has made me cautious on purchasing Carriers at War.

I will be purchasing the Campaign Series, Empire and Arms and World in Flames. Unless I know the game I am now much mare careful. If I can not trial the game and I am iffy on buying I suspect my money will stay in my pocket.

Its not that the games are bad but they are not for me. Being able to trial the game may have made me agree to purchase it. Having said that I am not sure it makes good business sense for Matrix, I am sure there is a cost involved and it may not generate enough additional sales.

[ravinhood]

I also kinda look at this need for demos like going into a store and saying "can I test that milk before I buy it?" "Ummm I'd like a bite out of a loaf of bread before I buy it please" "Cook me up some of that bacon and ham and a couple of eggs before I buy them please I'd like to test their taste, texture and combined flavors" "Well, thanks for all the demos, but, I'm so full now I hardly need to buy ANY of these products now".

As an aside I recently got the full version of "Call of Duty" Game of the Year edition (whatever that means lol). It was $4.25 Now I bought it knowing full well I don't particularly like FPSers, they just bore me and they are linear, I hate linear games. But, anyways I loaded it up and played I think 4 or 5 missions before I couldn't swallow anymore of it. It was just too much of the same, heavy german bunkers blazing machine guns that never run out of ammo lol supid stuff like that. I slaughtered most everything with grenades both American and German vs guns ablazing as all these shooters appear to emphasis. I basically paid $4.25 for a demo of the game a full version demo mind you, but, in 4 or 5 missions I found the game suked. Contrary to "GUN" which was a very fun action shooter game in first person that wasn't as linear as CoD is. "GUN" was fun, COD suked. lol

What would be nice is if there were some way to setup the full game online, and let people play it for 1 day free. That's plenty of time to see if you like the game and then you don't get a free demo that gives you as much enjoyment as the full game without having to pay for a full game retail or bargain bin. I guess to keep those from exploiting the online freebie is record IP addresses and then lock them out after 24 hours. I know some can get around this, but, I'd say the majority wouldn't be able to.

[TonyE]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
What would be nice is if there were some way to setup the full game online, and let people play it for 1 day free. That's plenty of time to see if you like the game and then you don't get a free demo that gives you as much enjoyment as the full game without having to pay for a full game retail or bargain bin. I guess to keep those from exploiting the online freebie is record IP addresses and then lock them out after 24 hours. I know some can get around this, but, I'd say the majority wouldn't be able to.

Well, the Red Orchestra people via Steam have made two multi-day guest passes available to their customers to give out to others. Similary, many Steam games do the 'free weekend' or whatever it may be for people to demo out the full games. I guess that means the idea is more than possible. With Harpoon Classic we also do a lot of expiring game executables when beta testing so that even if the programs escape the beta test group, they have only a limited lifetime.

[ravinhood]

I didn't know steam did that TonyE thanks for the info.

[Sneer]

you don't taste milk but ... you don't buy a car without checking it
so this kind of arguments are not valid for me

it was trial version of DDO to make me paying for few month for this MMO as well as EVE online currently
without trial versions developers would never see my money - they offered 10-14 gameplay to taste what they offer and they got client
as well as many games i bought in last 5-6 months after i decided to make WITP retired
i stopped buying untried games
there are many good games but some of them are not best for me that's all

[David Heath]

ORIGINAL: Sneer

you don't taste milk but ... you don't buy a car without checking it
so this kind of arguments are not valid for me

it was trial version of DDO to make me paying for few month for this MMO as well as EVE online currently
without trial versions developers would never see my money - they offered 10-14 gameplay to taste what they offer and they got client
as well as many games i bought in last 5-6 months after i decided to make WITP retired
i stopped buying untried games
there are many good games but some of them are not best for me that's all

We can fully understand why you would want to try it first but with most if not all of our games you must have a manual and a lot of scenarios to get a feel for the game. This is a lot more work then making a demo of one level for a FPS. We have found in the past the demos do very little in helping making customers minds on buying a game. We find customers mini reviews, AAR and other reviews really do the best in letting the gamers tell other gamers if they like it or not.

David

[Sneer]

it is bussines argument and i understand it / it is always trade off for company /
all i wrote is my personal point of view

[pad152]

I too would like to see demos for more of Matrix Games, I know not all games (like WITP/WPO) fit into a demo. It's about 50/50 with me, when it comes to demos, if I like demo I will buy the game, there are games like Domminions 3 that I never would have purchased without a demo and games like Distant Guns that I didn't purchase due to the demo. Now days, with a lot of new games you need a demo just to see if the damm thing will even work on your system. [:-]

[NefariousKoel]

I can't always judge a game by it's demo.  Unless it's complete junk, but you'll have heard that before even getting a demo usually.

An example would be the time I played the first Starfleet Command demo back in 98/99 or so.  It only had a single battle setup.  While intriguing, I couldn't figure out how to do much or how things worked.  I got my @ss handed to me.  I didn't purchase it at the time.

Awhile later, I found it at a lower price and decided to make an impulse buy.  I kicked myself for making too quick an uninformed judgement and not getting it earlier. [:-]

[stodge]

I'm on the "demo" side. My gaming budget is tiny, so the ability to try a game before buying is essential for me. I've ignored many games due to poor demos and I've bought some excellent titles (Combat Mission) as a result.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Arctic Blast

Demos don't tend to work too well with strategy titles. They either aren't long enough to really get a feel for the system involved, or they feature a stripped down version of the game, so you don't really get a good idea of how the full game works.

I think demo of The Operational Art of War, Vol 1 was pretty good for demo. In one review was even said that demo alone would had been worth of full priced game. Anyways I remember it made me drool, but for some reason I didn't buy game anyway. I don't remember why exactly, maybe I got fed up of all strategy and gave up even Steel Panthers.

Hey, how difficult can it be? Make sure demo has some tutorial stuff (scenarios and brief documentation how to play the game) and 1+ real scenarios. In case of TOAOW1 Korean war scenario was good one, but there could had been some tutorial scenario too. In case of Supreme Commander two first Cybran scenarios are plenty enough and enough things are explained.