the pc demoless

renandstimpy · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:03

Where are all the demos? Im sick of seeing the consoles getting the latest demo releases and leaving the pc gamers with nothing..

Haze · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:05

they dont like us

Evilsod · 28 Jan 2011 at 16:43

Download it and get your own demo. People can bitch about piracy all they like but its kinda irrelevant if you try it for an hour or 2 and think its crap so delete it as you would a real demo or like it so buy it. The whole piracy debate doesn't even have a say in the matter unless you kept it and didn't buy it.

ic1male · 28 Jan 2011 at 18:00

I agree with Mr Sod.

LiamJ · 28 Jan 2011 at 18:37

The Crysis 2 MP demo has finally been announced for the PC via their Facebook page. And yes, I am quite disappointed about the lack of demos for literally every game released over Christmas especially.

Ewanb75 · 28 Jan 2011 at 18:39

theyre not demo's nowadays tho, theyre beta's, or charlies or whatever

Ravenger · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:23

The problem is pirating just makes the situation worse. The reason we're saddled with such restrictive DRM and our consumer rights have been completely trashed is due to the perceived piracy problem on the PC.

Ampeg · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:27

Yeah, piracy gives them all the excuses they need to treat the PC as a second tier format. The lack of demos really does in no way justify piracy, whether you keep the game or delete it after five minutes, piracy is still piracy.

orderoftheflame · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:37

Ampeg said:
Yeah, piracy gives them all the excuses they need to treat the PC as a second tier format. The lack of demos really does in no way justify piracy, whether you keep the game or delete it after five minutes, piracy is still piracy.

This.

I've bought games I've still got in the wrappers. If I'd pirated them and only played five minutes before deleting them, how is that justifiable?

Evilsod said:
People can bitch about piracy all they like but its kinda irrelevant if you try it for an hour or 2 and think its crap so delete it as you would a real demo or like it so buy it. The whole piracy debate doesn't even have a say in the matter unless you kept it and didn't buy it.

So if you play a game for two hours then delete it it's fine? What if you play for three hours then delete it? What about 8 then you blat it from your drive? It's fine as long as you delete it when you're done though I guess...

No demos suck. Piracy is still piracy though.

dovey · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:38

Despite all their drm it generally gets bypassed anyway. I was suprised when one of my mates came back with a ps3 mag and a disk full of demos, I had just assumed they were a thing of the past.

Evilsod · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:53

orderoftheflame said:
So if you play a game for two hours then delete it it's fine? What if you play for three hours then delete it? What about 8 then you blat it from your drive? It's fine as long as you delete it when you're done though I guess...

No demos suck. Piracy is still piracy though.

1-2 hours is normally what a demo provides free of charge. Difference is the devs couldn't be arsed to produce a demo so that saved em a bit of money. So some people will inevitably download it to try it out and will might decide it sucks so don't buy it or decide they like it so do. Just bringing up any number of hours and saying 'then delete it' has nothing to do with anything.

orderoftheflame · 28 Jan 2011 at 19:59

Evilsod said:
1-2 hours is normally what a demo provides free of charge. Difference is the devs couldn't be arsed to produce a demo so that saved em a bit of money. So some people will inevitably download it to try it out and will might decide it sucks so don't buy it or decide they like it so do. Just bringing up any number of hours and saying 'then delete it' has nothing to do with anything.

Hold on, so you're allowed to pluck an arbitrary number out of the air that you consider fair, yet my example is wrong? You're right though, the amount of numbers of hours you play has nothing to do with anything.

You're downloading a full unrestricted copy of a game. Piracy.

If you burn it to disk, never play it and use it as a coaster. Piracy.

Regardless of what you use it for you're still a pirate. If you don't want to pay, don't play at all.

twist3d0n3 · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:03

if they're not going to provide us with something to try out, how are we to know if it is worth getting?!

logically, i see the only way as get a dodgy copy and find out for yourself, if you like it, buy it...

Ravenger · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:10

I agree the lack of demos isn't helping the piracy situation, but the perception that pirating = a lost sale is prevalent among publishers. The way to deal with the situation of no demos is to make your feelings known to the publisher, and not to buy games that refuse to give us demos, or saddle us with restrictive DRM.

Look at Dead Space 2 for example - no PC demo, ludicrous DRM, none of the DLC extras of the console versions, yet PC gamers still rush out to buy it.

I'll admit it's a good game, but I'll not be buying it mainly due to the DRM, but also because PC gamers are obviously considered second class customers by the publisher and developer compared to the console gamers.

ic1male · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:15

Yes but one could say with your argument, Ravenger, that if no-one buys the game on PC, then the platform will just never see any further games from that publisher.

orderoftheflame · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:18

Ravenger said:
I agree the lack of demos isn't helping the piracy situation, but the perception that pirating = a lost sale is prevalent among publishers. The way to deal with the situation of no demos is to make your feelings known to the publisher, and not to buy games that refuse to give us demos, or saddle us with restrictive DRM.

Look at Dead Space 2 for example - no PC demo, ludicrous DRM, none of the DLC extras of the console versions, yet PC gamers still rush out to buy it.

I'll admit it's a good game, but I'll not be buying it mainly due to the DRM, but also because PC gamers are obviously considered second class customers by the publisher and developer compared to the console gamers.

Great post, I completely agree with you. Downloaded copies certainly don't equal sales, and I'm sure that even the publishers that are stating they are know this. It's still giving them an excuse to do what they're doing though.

If people actually voted with their wallets, it might actually make these publishers stop for a second and think. Problem is, people are never going to do this as long as there's the option that benefits them most in the short term.

ic1male said:
Yes but one could say with your argument, Ravenger, that if no-one buys the game on PC, then the platform will just never see any further games from that publisher.

Are you trying to say that without piracy the PC market would completely die? Amazingly enough, there are people that are willing to part with money in order to buy good games.

With his argument, they'd be less naff games surely? Quality would rise as developers wouldn't take the risk of a quick buck with a average title. As I say though... we'll never know.

ic1male · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:32

orderoftheflame said:
Are you trying to say that without piracy the PC market would completely die? Amazingly enough, there are people that are willing to part with money in order to buy good games.

No, Ravager said people should not buy games with DRM. If people don't buy games with DRM, the publisher will take the other view of there being no market for PC versions of their games, not that people are withholding purchases in protest.

orderoftheflame · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:37

ic1male said:
No, Ravager said people should not buy games with DRM. If people don't buy games with DRM, the publisher will take the other view of there being no market for PC versions of their games, not that people are withholding purchases in protest.

Give publishers some credit.

As astonishing as it sounds, they don't just sit on massive towers of money looking at graphs and charts of sales.

I'm pretty sure focus groups, or just browsing their own forums would tell them why people had stopped buying games.

ic1male · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:38

orderoftheflame said:
Give publishers some credit.

Eh? When we've just been saying that they are of the impression that piracy is accounting for tons of lost sales?

orderoftheflame · 28 Jan 2011 at 20:43

ic1male said:
Eh? When we've just been saying that they are of the impression that piracy is accounting for tons of lost sales?

What? I've just said that publishers most likely know that they're exaggerating lost sales. It doesn't stop piracy still being bad for the gaming industry as a whole.

You're saying that if people stopped buying games with DRM, publishers would be dumb enough to think "people aren't buying games with DRM, there is no market for games on the PC any more." :confused: