Piracy Demos

[AngelicSven]

So, the big Steam sale was last week, and I got a lot of stuff. I was telling my friend about what I acquired and was listing off the games. He picked one out and and said he should go download it to try it out. Being against piracy, I started to question him about it and he said if there's a demo unavailable, he'll download it to play it 'X amount of time' If he likes it, he'll remove it and buy it, He'll also remove it if he dislikes it. His rationale was he doesn't want to pay 50-60$ for something that isn't worth it.

This is conflicting cause that does make sense but he's also downloading the entire game for free, even if he doesn't play it. Am I just justifying his actions? What do you guy think about that system?

 

[Motiv_]

Honestly, I am of the mind that there should be a demo, even if it's only a single level, for every game that can afford it. Sure, it costs and delays the game developers to make a demo[footnote]As I don't work in the industry, I can't see why[/footnote], but it would leave alot less people wondering whether or not the game is actually any good.

I ended up buying Cortex Command for the ridiculously high price of 20 USD[footnote]Ridiculously high for an indie game's beta with an uncertain future, mind[/footnote] because the demo was just that good. If it had no demo, I would've never even looked at it.

I'm not going to jump into the piracy debate which is almost sure to come[footnote]I'm still deleting quotes coming up upon 3 months later[/footnote], so I'll simply say that no matter what your friend's rationale is, it's still pirating and if he gets caught, will still go to jail/get the shit sued out of him.

 

[evilneko]

"My friend" has the same rationale. Buy what's good, delete what's not.

The thing about demos though is sometimes they don't accurately reflect gameplay. I've mentioned it before but compare FarCry to its demo. The demo gives a very, very different impression of the game.

 

[Zantos]

I'd say more borrow it or give him a chance to come try it out instead. Even when people genuinely start with those intentions it can reduce to just plain old pirating very quickly.

It does annoy me that when games have demos. It annoys me more though when games have demos you have to jump through hoops for (buy this and get a demo of this) or apparently there are even demos you need to pay for. No games industry, this isn't how it works. If you release a demo it's to encourage us (your loyal and faithful consumer) to buy the game, if you expect us to treat getting demo like a privilege we should be eager to receive then I'm less likely to buy it than if you just stayed in bed and didn't bother.