rec.autos.simulators

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

Snow Whit

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Snow Whit » Wed, 23 Sep 1998 04:00:00

10 minutes is almost enough to justify re-starting and restarting the
game without ever having buying it.


Jeff Jone

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Jeff Jone » Wed, 23 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Well Doom had a demo that was a third of the game and sold bookoo units, as
did Doom 2, as did Duke Nukem ... those demos *represented* the actual
games, where as today the most typical statement is "you can't judge the
full game by the demo". Kind of silly too, because that's what a demo should
be for.

Joel Bierlin

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Joel Bierlin » Wed, 23 Sep 1998 04:00:00


>>Of course, (at least for me), a third of the game is all I need/have time
>>for before I move on to something else.  A limited demo wets appetites and
>>probably generates more sales.

>Well Doom had a demo that was a third of the game and sold bookoo units, as
>did Doom 2, as did Duke Nukem ... those demos *represented* the actual
>games, where as today the most typical statement is "you can't judge the
>full game by the demo". Kind of silly too, because that's what a demo
should
>be for.

Of course, I played the heck out of the Doom 1&2 demos, loved the games, but
never bought them.  I figured I owed ID something and bought Q2.

-Joel

Todd Smi

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Todd Smi » Wed, 23 Sep 1998 04:00:00


>The bottom line is simple.  Wait for others opinions before you download it.
>If you are still uncertain, buy a magazine.  If your line usage costs $$$,
>why bother downloading 30+MB demos anyway?

Doom, Doom2, and Duke were released as shareware becuase they didn't
have Activision spending millions on advertising. They needed an
alternative method to market their game.

Times have changed. Now a lot of demos are considered "tech demos" in
order to help test the engine. That's what qtest, q2test, the nfs3
test, sin "test" demo, etc. are. They are more for testing the engine
on the bazillion different configurations out there before they ship
the full product. Then they ship a real demo after the real game ships
when they have more time. It all makes sense.

The only problem are the morons who can't "see" this trend and
download a "demo" expecting a full 1/3 of the game. Then come on here
an whine about this and that.

Todd

Mart

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Mart » Wed, 23 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Nope, less than one fourth of the full game. Episode 1 is a lot
smaller than the other episodes. That's another thing - shareware
games. A few years ago you could play one third or one fourth of the
whole game, a full episode. The other episodes were the same size.
These days shareware companies (Apogee, Epic) are releasing smaller
shareware versions with each release. Their latest, Balls of steel, is
even crippled. Not my idea of shareware.

==========================
Martin van der Plas

http://home.wxs.nl/~plas0006

Thomas j. Eva

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Thomas j. Eva » Wed, 23 Sep 1998 04:00:00


>A. It helps get a better full version out the door.
>Really, imagine what a game like Unreal would be if a pre-demo was released
>to the public...  Nope, thousands of us had to buy this great game to find
>out Internet play was pretty crappy and you need a super computer to achieve
>a constant 30fps.

You think a demo would change that.  They've been trying to "fix"
Internet play since the game was released and they've gotten nowhere.
Unreal would never have been released if they waited until they got
good net play out of their demos.

-T

DM

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by DM » Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Personally, I find demos of 'so-called-driving-games' that allow no other
control of the cars (bikes, etc.) other than the keyboard the most pointless
& irritating (after a substantial download). If they can't even put in the
essential controls (at least a joystick - if not wheel support) then it just
gets the quick 'double add-remove'!!!

Regards

DM

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To reply please remove < .nospam > from my e-mail address

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>> Lately I discovered more and more companies are releasing 'alpha/beta
>> demo's'. A few years (months?!) ago a demo was a demo: it would give you
a
>-snip-
>> So... what's your opinion?
>> Jeroen van Engelenhoven

>What I find even more annoying is a timelimit or a simple lack of gameplay
>in a demo. Compare, for instance, the SiN demo (last month) and the Duke3D
>demo (two(?) years ago).  The SiN demo lasts all of ten, maybe fif***
>minutes, while the Duke3D demo included the entire first episode - a third
>of the full game!  I can accept the differences in demo size, due to the
>differences in technology, but for a 30+ MB download I sure wish there was
>more than fif*** minutes of play.

BlackD

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by BlackD » Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:00:00

On Tue, 22 Sep 1998 02:26:28 GMT,

I find these Demos are the best way to decide if a
game is good enough to buy.

eg: NFS3
I downloaded the 30-mb demo and found the quality
to be so poor that I can only assume that the real
game will be as good (read "bad")

Demos are a way of showing the public how good a
game is and if the demo sucks then the game surely
will too and should be avoided.

Someone said that often a whole range of games in
the same genre get released at around the same
time. With Colin McRae Rally, Johnny Herberts F1,
Grand Prix 3, Grand Prix Legends, etc.. etc.. Who
needs NFS3?
            _
   ____ _  (_)
  / __ `/ / /
 / /_/ / / /
 \__, / /_/
/____/

MB

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by MB » Thu, 24 Sep 1998 04:00:00



>>A. It helps get a better full version out the door.
>>Really, imagine what a game like Unreal would be if a pre-demo was
released
>>to the public...  Nope, thousands of us had to buy this great game to find
>>out Internet play was pretty crappy and you need a super computer to
achieve
>>a constant 30fps.

>You think a demo would change that.  They've been trying to "fix"
>Internet play since the game was released and they've gotten nowhere.
>Unreal would never have been released if they waited until they got
>good net play out of their demos.

>-T

We would still be waiting for the full version to be released.  Thats my
point.  They dont have to worry about getting good net play in the demo.
Releasing a demo or preview (like SiN, Quake1 and 2) would have let them
know we arent going to put up with that crap.   They wouldnt have to fix the
demo, just the full retail version.  When the full version was released we
could see if it was fixed.  Instead, we had to buy the full version just to
see if it worked in the first place.
I could have spent the money on something else back then.  Now the money is
spent and I have to wait for what should have been the full version.  Its
been almost 4 months now.....  The wait continues.

Freon98
m | b at mocc com

Thomas j. Eva

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Thomas j. Eva » Fri, 25 Sep 1998 04:00:00


>It helps get a better full version out the door.
>Really, imagine what a game like Unreal would be if a pre-demo was released
>to the public...  Nope, thousands of us had to buy this great game to find
>out Internet play was pretty crappy and you need a super computer to achieve
>a constant 30fps.

>We would still be waiting for the full version to be released.  Thats my
>point.  They dont have to worry about getting good net play in the demo.
>Releasing a demo or preview (like SiN, Quake1 and 2) would have let them
>know we arent going to put up with that crap.   They wouldnt have to fix the
>demo, just the full retail version.  When the full version was released we
>could see if it was fixed.  Instead, we had to buy the full version just to
>see if it worked in the first place.
>I could have spent the money on something else back then.  Now the money is
>spent and I have to wait for what should have been the full version.  Its
>been almost 4 months now.....  The wait continues.

Hmm.  Good point.  However I don't think they would have waited this
long to release the game.  They probably would have released it with
bad net play anyway (all the while claiming to have fixed it).  But I
guess having the demo first would have at least made people wary and
cautious about the game instead of jumping at the hype the way we did.

But I'm not against demos.  Just the demos that are released way
before the game is close to completion.  If Epic released an Unreal
demo several weeks before they released the game, then yes it would
have been very helpful indeed.  But if they released a demo before
they even implemented multiplayer, as soon as they got the engine and
a couple of levels put together, and when the game required a super
computer to achieve a constant 20fps, what good would it do?  That's
the sort of trend we're seeing now.  Rush the demo, then rush the
game.

-T

Ronald Stoeh

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Ronald Stoeh » Fri, 25 Sep 1998 04:00:00


> On Tue, 22 Sep 1998 02:26:28 GMT,

> I find these Demos are the best way to decide if a
> game is good enough to buy.

> eg: NFS3
> I downloaded the 30-mb demo and found the quality
> to be so poor that I can only assume that the real
> game will be as good (read "bad")

It's not that simple. If everybody had taken the demo
for F1RS serious, it would have been a flop.

l8er
ronny

--
Toys'R'Us '99: "So, would you like a hand gun with that action figure,
kiddo?"

          |\      _,,,---,,_        I want to die like my Grandfather,
   ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_              in his sleep.
        |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'     Not like the people in his car,
       '---''(_/--'  `-'\_)            screaming their heads off!

Rex

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Rex » Fri, 25 Sep 1998 04:00:00

    Considering that a demo, as opposed to a beta; is supposed to convey a
good idea of what the FINISHED game is like; i.e. is demonstrates it; I can
see a time in this instant internet transaction age; when "preferred
customers" who join mailing lists and sign webpage guest books and that sort
of thing are offered time limited "tasters" for maybe $5.
    You know you'd go for it; and spread the word here and further.
    Good bye half the online reviews.
    In fact; judging by the RB2 fans; you could make a good living selling
sims by installments. In the end; if you're here, you're an online gamer. It
could happen.

Seeker

BlackD

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by BlackD » Sun, 27 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Ok Ok ... I went against my better judgement and
bought the full version of NFS3 even though the
demo was poor.

My reasons were simply that the game's RRP is 50 %
less than the normal price of new games and for
that I got a game that was 1000% better than the
1st demo.

It still amazes me why the 1st demo has so many
bugs and is no where near being representative of
the final product.



>On Tue, 22 Sep 1998 02:26:28 GMT,

>I find these Demos are the best way to decide if a
>game is good enough to buy.

>eg: NFS3
>I downloaded the 30-mb demo and found the quality
>to be so poor that I can only assume that the real
>game will be as good (read "bad")

>Demos are a way of showing the public how good a
>game is and if the demo sucks then the game surely
>will too and should be avoided.

>Someone said that often a whole range of games in
>the same genre get released at around the same
>time. With Colin McRae Rally, Johnny Herberts F1,
>Grand Prix 3, Grand Prix Legends, etc.. etc.. Who
>needs NFS3?
>            _
>   ____ _  (_)
>  / __ `/ / /
> / /_/ / / /
> \__, / /_/
>/____/

            _
   ____ _  (_)
  / __ `/ / /
 / /_/ / / /
 \__, / /_/
/____/
OurGan

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by OurGan » Wed, 30 Sep 1998 04:00:00

Speakin' of demos, all...the WEIRDEST thing happened to me today.  I was
playin' the Mogul 99 demo, or at least gettin' ready to.  I click on "Resume
Game" for the hell of it, and it gives me the standard "This feature isn't
included" message, and the two buttons for more info and continue with the
demo.  I clicked continue, and not only did it spit me into the game, it
spit me into COMMISSIONER mode, with full control of ALL the editors!  Only
thing still unavailable is the Hall of Fame, and I haven't completed a
season yet, so I dunno 'bout continuing a season...more as it develops!!

             Josh

Mart

Demos: a new, irritating trend... Your opinions, please!

by Mart » Thu, 01 Oct 1998 04:00:00


I've got another one. Try downloading the Frontier : First Encounters
demo, and then patch it. Now it's the full version ! (Well, almost.
Without music or video.)

They should release more demo's like that :)

==========================
Martin van der Plas

http://home.wxs.nl/~plas0006


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