Demo?

[leastonh1]

Hi all,

Well, here's my 2p worth...

I am also in favour of demos for games. I could give any number of examples where demos have shown me a poor game and thankfully put me off spending my limited resources. The argument I've heard here about how some demos have not shown the potential customer the true nature of the game holds no water for me. If they have managed to produce a wonderful game, then surely the devs are capable of delivering a quality demo? Besides, if a game gets rave reviews on most or all sites (gamerankings gives a good overall picture) and the demo really sucks in terms of delivery and restrictions placed on it, then I'd still consider the purchase of the game itself.

Matrix would benefit from releasing a demo of their games, I'm certain. Take GGWAW for example. I will not be buying this game, despite the excellent reviews. I have read this game is somewhere between Axis & Allies and Hearts of Iron (see the wargamer.com review) in terms of complexity. Well, I liked HOI, but abhorred A&A so will keep my credit card in my wallet for this one. It's a risk I cannot financially afford to make. If I bought every game I liked the sound of without trying the demo first, I'd estimate that 30% of my outlay would be wasted. As I buy one or more games per month at an everage of £30 each, that adds up to a LOT of money!

So, I can't and won't speak for anyone else, but this gamer would be much happier to see demos released by Matrix. Even five or ten minutes play on a game like GGWAW or maybe 2 or 3 complete turns for a couple of the scenarios for some of the wargames would make a huge difference to me. I won't stop buying Matrix games just because there's no demo, BUT I will be much more cautious about the ones I do purchase.

Flames on a postcard to....

Regards,
Jim

[SittingDuck]

Needed a demo for this and a lack of it eliminates the game from my buying list. Based on Grigsby's past works and the report that the AI is challenging, I considered the game, even though the scope is way too simplistic for my liking. Nonetheless, I thought about it.

However, I've been burnt enough by 'reviewers' who couldn't mod or code a game and have given what is simply poor perspective on game value many a time. I can't trust reviews - I have to trust the community's feedback many months after a game has been released. It takes a considerable amount of time playing a game to write a truly accurate review. I rarely see this done by most reviewers - they are in the business of producing 'reviews' - hey, they are writers. Thus the need for a demo.

I feel if a game is good enough, a demo is a strong selling point. If it is weak, as so many are, then the demo reveals that. The lack of a demo, to me, is a sign of a certain lack of confidence. If a company feels it has to 'hook' me via overblown reviews (I am speaking in generalities, not necessarily about WaW), then they can be certain they won't get my business from now on. I think the wargame industry will continue to hurt itself in the long run by putting out games without accompanying demos, games that don't match up to the overblown reviews they receive at times. There is just too much history of over-hyped, under-coded games over the years now.

[Joel Billings]

Funny that this thread should pop-up again. We've been planning on putting together a demo for some time now, but have been waiting for the TCP/IP/LAN version to be finished first. At Origins this past weekend we confirmed with Matrix that we will be providing a demo as soon as we have the TCP/IP/LAN version at least into public beta testing. The demo will include the two tutorials and 4 turns of the 1941 scenario. My concern with demos and complicated wargames is that it's hard to quickly get the player to where they can both play the game and understand the game's full potential given a limited demo. Since we have step by step tutorials with GGWaW (unlike our other games), we think this demo will give players a good view of what the game is about. This demo will be very large, probably around 300MB, but we don't see an easy way to make it any smaller while giving players a chance to see what the game is all about.

So look for a demo of the game to be available for download sometime between late July and late August depending on how things progress with our other work.

[5cats]

While a demo would be nice for some, it's kinda strange how it's almost as big as the game is. Of course I do understand why that is, lol! It still strikes me a funny.
While the learning curve in WaW isn't really that steep, there is a "bump" or two one must overcome before they "get it". This is evidenced by repeated questions in this forum. Why can't my transports move? Why can't I amphibiously invade? Why is my production negative? & etc...

[Scott_WAR]

I would seriously redo the two tutorials. Make them a little easier to understand, and cover a little more, ESPECIALLY the production one.

The problem I see is that the tutorials will confuse some people, and will keep them from buying the game.

Look through the forums, find the threads that explain those issues that are asked about most often, and add more info in the tutorial about those specific areas (production especially)