Would you buy a game without a demo? Some small companies, like matrix games, and some really big companies dont make demos available. in fact, they encourage you to ‘pre-order’ even before there are reviews. Do you do this?
Would you have bought one of my games without a demo? or was the demo essential.
I bought galciv2 without one, but thats VERY rare for me. What do you think?
If it is a game from a series I like and the reviews tend to be favourable then yes sometimes.
Thats a good point, I bought Cossacks 2 without a demo, but regretted it ;( same with medieval total war actually ;(
Really depends, but honestly, I usualy don’t buy the latest and greatest games.
If one were to come out that I would be interested in, I’d look at specs first, would my PC be able to handle it?
Second, I would almost never pre-order unless it was an expansion to EverCrack or a game I was really looking forward to (like Alpha Centauri).
ALso, the more involved the game is (for example, 6 or 7 CD Roms, 2 or 3 DVD-ROMs) the more bugs there will be. I’d wait a few months and then buy it and download patches for it, or I’ll do what I normally do, wait until they’re not as expensive then buy them.
Depends also.
For games I don’t really know (which is most), like Democracy, a demo is essential. I would not have bought Democracy if a demo was not available.
If it is a game from a serie I know (like Command and Conquer 3, coming soon), I don’t need the demo. I already know what it’s about.
All the time…
Blind faith to the Final Fantasy series for one. But generally all the games I get now I never play a demo of, luckily for me I tend not to make too many mistakes (suikoden 4 a HUGE exception which, sadly dented my faith in one of my favourite series >.<)
I occasionally rent games if there isn’t a demo, on the off chance someone I know hasn’t already bought it. I never buy games as soon as they come out anyway.
Most of the time I want to try them before buying them. Either downloading a demo, try it at a friend or something.
I have just preorded one game and that was Elder Scrolls - Oblivion and only because I liked the previous elder scrolls games, although I still hope for a live your own life RPG soon instead of the “go out and kill monsters and save the world” RPGs. I guess I never get the game I want if I don’t do it myself and I will never finish this lifetime if I try to do it 
. Kudos is in the right direction 
Why are there still people wasting their hard-earned cash on commercial stuff? Especially without demos? I only buy shareware these days. At least with shareware you can ‘try before you buy’. It’s so much better quality, too - you tend to get games with - amazing - gameplay instead of graphics. If you like Civ, try C-evo - it’s freeware, and much better! Conquering the universe? Try Space Empires in all their incarnations. Stars! was good, too, but it seems to have died these days. The only commercial software I buy now is for my natty little new Nintendo DS, and I only bought that after checking out the available software for all the games machines. Nintendo seem to be the only company doing anything different - all the others are doing the same derivative drivel you can get for the PC.
A demo is essential for me – it helps me find out two important things. First, whether it’ll run on my system. Second, whether I really am going to enjoy the game. A video or screengrabs and a review don’t really do the job for me, and my system is usually not a standard one that fits the creator’s specs exactly.
Also as a side issue, I vastly prefer buying downloadables to bought-in-a-box games. I like to have what I want to play now, if not yesterday, LOL, and I loathe the CD-checks that so many in-a-box games have. If I buy a game on CD, nine times out of ten it’ll require the CD to be in the drive and that is just too annoying.
I think a demo is always a good idea. Not that it necessarily tells you everything. I bought Stronghold 2 as soon as it came out and regretted it immedately. A year and 3 patches later and it’s still so buggy it’s unplayable.
yeah the stronghold (original) demo put me off, pity as it is a great idea for a game. The art style looked really messy to me.
Basically I’d agree with this. I still buy games from publishers as such but I’m much more likely to buy home-grown one-man-operation indie stuff nowdays. As for a demo then I’d say it’s very important. Don’t think there’s anything I’ve taken a risk on in at least two years without trying it first. I usually make up my mind pretty quickly while playing a demo if I’m going to have it or not.
Demos don’t really give the full picture. Especially demos about ‘long’ games like Kudos or New Star Soccer. The demo doesn’t show you what the endgame is like, and therefore is not a good enough medium in which to try out a game of this description.
For example, I really enjoyed the Kudos demo because its when you’re first starting out your ‘life’ and you have many choices to make, but once I got the full game and got to about the 8th year, I didn’t have the same enthusiasm. I was just clicking next, next, next just to collect more money and buy more stuff I wasn’t going to use.
I hope Kudos is improved to make the endgame more fun because thats what its lacking at the moment.
Yeah, but that is the game, after all. Both Kudos and New Star Soccer (I’ve only got New Star Soccer 2) consist of living a life and making appropriate choices. One can’t expect a whole new game when you’ve finished your 10 years, or whatever. Though a High Score list for Kudos would be a decidedly fun thing …
I understand that, but these sort of games are made to be replayable. However I feel like if I played Kudos again and picked a different job/career, it wouldn’t be that big of a difference, certainly not worth the hours it would take.
That’s just my opinion, and I know the game is being improved/updated every day so Im sure it will get better with time.
Yeah, I know what you mean, but the various night schools can cost more, and various jobs can cause stress and tiredness to skyrocket (as in medical) or alcohol to go wild (like music). Also acting and music are on contracts, so you have to keep reapplying for jobs. So there are some differences that present different challenges. (Urgh - I used the word ‘challenges’. I sound like a ghastly social worker or psychologist).
I absolutely insist on a demo anymore if I’m going to buy a game that’s new. I may take a chance on a bargain bin game, but I’ve been burned before. I also greatly prefer the downloadable game because it is less clutter in my home as regards to boxes and manuals, and I can keep the registration code in a couple places for backup purposes. They also don’t have CD checks which are so irritating that I purposely use cracks to avoid them. I resent having to use a crack for something I legitimately purchased.
I’m wondering if I’d enjoy Oblivion, but just found out there is no demo for it.
Another lost sale.
What goes through peoples heads “our game is not conducive to a demo”. yeah right, how far would a movie get saying “our movie isnt conducive to a trailer”.
grrrrrr.
I agree - even just a slideshow or non-interactive demo is better than nothing. I didn’t know there were games still being released without demos! They deserve to lose sales; it’s probably 'cos it’s a rubbish game anyway - they don’t want people to find out until it’s too late.