They are sinners who secretly crave for redemption. It is your duty to save them

By the way, I found GOG because of torrents... I downloaded GOG version of HOMM III, saw installer's banners.... And now I own 69 games here.

Just another example how piracy is destroying the gaming industry! oh wait...

But you aren't the only one. A good portion, especially of the early crowd, came here via Abandonware sites.

Yes! If he hadn't pirated those games, found out about GOG, and started purchasing loads of games here, he could have used the same money to buy NEW games and help the publishers towards the DRM'd future that will be their salvation from dirty pirates. Instead he's supporting backwards-aiming DRM-free insurgents! Heresy!

A lot of the newer crowd came from torrent sites...

GoG promotion on torrents really *does* work. Remember what Trevor Longino told us in his interview with games.on.net: [edit] oops... sorry for reviving this ancient thread. I found it by accident, and I overlooked the date of the last post :(

Ya well, when was the last time a company offered a demo for a game? I am sick of paying $60 no refund for awful games hyped up by the criminals in the gaming industry who pay (in money or favors) these game review sites for positive reviews. How many times do we see Metacritic scores of 9+ for a game that has user ratings of less than 3? Call of Duty XYZ is a prime example, but these happen all the time with many games.

I have ZERO issue admitting I have downloaded extended trials of many things, and If I like them I BUY THE GAME to support developers. The ONLY time I don't go looking for a "demo" is if there is a official demo or it's a mobile app where I can risk $5 on something that turns out to be a POS. The reason we don't have game demos anymore is because so many games now-a-days are total s**t and the developers know it so they don't release a demo. The gaming industry has become Hollywood in the way that they "throw enough s**t against the wall and something is bound to stick". I have heard 1000 excuses for not releasing demo's but not one holds water, including "we don't have the time or money".

You want to make money? You want me to buy your game? Release a damn demo, if not I will find one elsewhere and If I like the game I will buy it, if not it gets DELETED. I don't play garbage games as I have better things to do with my life.

I could care less what other people think. Yes, plenty of times people steal stuff and don't pay for it, but their decisions are not MY decision. I hate people talking about the bay like it's just for pirates. As far as I am concerned, I have been robbed enough times by game companies with a terrible product I can't return that I just don't care anymore. I know GOG has a return policy, but I am not going to jump through hoops just because some company who's job it is to sell their product, can't be bothered to release a demo.

I cut a little slack to indie devs more than huge devs like EA in this department, but there is no excuse for not having a demo. I can walk into any store and at least look at any product other than video games, hell even music and movies have demos/trailers.

Garbage topic for a first post, and grave digging but I needed to get this one off my chest as I am sick of the crap with game companies.

EDIT: Total War Rome 2? X Rebirth? Anyone get suckered into buying these $60 games? You know what I am talking about... I won't even pre-order games anymore; I'm done. "The Forest" (Indie Adventure/Building/Survival/FPS) may be the first game in a LONG time I am buy that will break my rule of not buying without trying, mainly because I have seen hours of Youtube videos that look amazing. Sometimes you don't have time to just watch videos, hence the reason for a freekin DEMO.

The precursors to indie devs are the inventors of the demo with games released as shareware. And they were better than demos because they let you play 1/3 of the game instead of just one level. For that I do not see indie devs having an excuse for not to publishing demos.

The problem is not Gog games on piratebay. The problem is that we are ghostwise?

But there are Demos. It is true that not with the old frequency we saw it on 90's, but at least most important games have demos. PS Store is full of game demos, as well Steam's.

Then why don't good games have demos? If the quality of games were the reason why there's no demos nearly every good game would have one, right? I think there's many other reasons why there's no demos. I mean, for starters, these days games are more and more commonly released in a terrible state and get patched afterwards. If resources or time don't suffice to finish a game in time it's no surprise that nobody has the time to create a demo anymore. And games have gotten bigger and more complex and I guess even the purely technical effort of creating a demo has notably gone up over the years.

Then there's the thing that by now many franchises have become so powerful that the devs don't need to convince anybody to buy the next game in a series they love. Also more and more people are comparably well-informed by reading reviews and you can look up gameplay footage for *any* game easily online these days. I think especially the latter have replaced demos with something far more convenient.

Another thing is that people have so many full games at this point that probably barely anyone feels like "wasting time" playing demos anymore. I can imagine that even when demos are available probably only a fraction of all the ultimate buyers play them. Back in the day I mostly played demos when I "ran out of" games to play or at least had gotten bored with the ones I had - that's just not happening anymore with everyone owning libraries consisting of hundreds or thousands of games. And sometimes I would get so excited or curious from reading about a game that I felt the urge to play a demo, to get a taste ASAP, but those days are gone too. These days very few games are truly original, you can easily compare almost any new game to many ones you've already played. And if you're not completely sure if you want a game you can always wait for sales which usualy happen very quickly now.

And finally: a big problem is how hard it is to create a good demo and how easy it is to create one that does not do the full game any justice. Heck, the last couple of demos I remember playing almost kept me from buying some really amazing games, I only ended up buying them because I trusted reviews. I guess the risk of creating a demo that makes even an excellent game appear like garbage is so high that it's just not worth it.

List of 680 demos on Steam.

With well over 3700 games

Damn, so many necrobumps today.

Im sure everyone already saw this video by now but hey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QM6LoaqEnY

A good explanation why demos aren't released anymore. Still i find it funny how there's demos in events and yet no one releases to the general public.