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Game Demos Key to Game Purchases
GameDailyBiz is carrying a story looking at the importance of demoing a game before purchase, a factor apparently crucial in game buying decisions for many gamers. The NPD research found that demoing a game was even more important than the price of the game, when buying a title for yourself. Price was the ultimate deciding factor in game purchasing for gifts, however. From the article: "This kind of finding could be particularly important to publishers trying to determine the best way to divide up their marketing spend. Perhaps publishers would be better off putting more resources into providing gamers with a high-quality demo instead of investing heavily in a huge ad campaign. With in-store kiosks, Xbox Live Marketplace and the online features of the soon-to-be-launched PlayStation 3 and Wii, it's becoming easier than ever for publishers to distribute their game demos directly to the audience they're after."
I used to never get demos either, and had mostly good luck with game purchases anyway, from knowing what I wanted. It was just too much hassle to find a download site, go through the Download Now link to another site, go through the Download Immediately link to another site, then sit in line for 30 minutes, before the using the Windows Installer and subsequently uninstaller for a 5-minute demo.
Xbox Live has however really changed that, it's very much easier and I have actually started downloading every demo on there. Still a bit of confusion as to what you can and can't do while downloading, but very simple both to download and remove. In my case it showed me that I didn't really want any of the current games on there. I do however think they should be a bit longer than 3-5 minutes (Kameo anyone?) if possible, added bonus if you can save at the end of it and continue at that point if/when you buy the game, or carry some sort of other incentive over.
Hahahahahaha!!! Yeah, WTF is wrong with that kid? Doesn't he know games are for *adults*!? Just punch him in the face and take the controller next time! And where do you live that the demo consoles in *all* the stores are broken? Did you go around checking? Always one step behind the elusive 6 year old and his console-destroying mashing? LOL! "Damn! That stupid twerp beat me to it again!"
Your myopically self-centered, pathologically egotistical post made my day.
-stormin
The Southern Baptist Convention has creationism. On Slashdot, we have porn.
Given the largely uninformative nature of reviews these days, the only options left to figure out if a game is any good are as follows:
1) Try it yourself
2) Read the box cover and judge from that
3) Force a brother/friend/slave to buy/rent the game.
4) Pester the Gamestop people about it incessantly until they ban you from the store for harassment.
Obviously 1 and 3 are related, while 2 and 4 are suboptimal. Quite simply, I'm far more inclined to buy games I have experience with beforehand. It took me about 5 minutes of actually play to realize I liked Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox, while it can take a day's worth of review and opinion browsing to even get a feel for some of the basic mechanics of a game, let alone finer points.
Because of that, I really enjoy demoing and renting games first. It's far more time efficient and worthwhile.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
I often play a demo or a "demo" (wink nudge) before purchasing a game, but it's a little frustrating when many demos these days exceed 1GB or even 1.5GB! That's a lot of time spent downloading to play a 20-minute demo. I don't mind the download times, really, but how about some more substantial demos?
I got antsy and bought Just Cause for PC last week. Oops. If I'd tried a demo (does one exist) I'd know it was an unpolished POS.
When I register a game from say, publisher Electronic Arts, they ask me "How did you hear about this game?"
A-Magazine
B-Television
C-Friend
D-Saw it in a games store
etc
They never ask E-I played the warez version and liked it enough to buy it. If they're not asking about that form of "demo-ing" a game, they'll never be able take into account people who want to try before they buy with the cracked version.