Oooo, Morrowind! You're in for a real treat. :D

Wolfenstein's shareware episode cemented me as a PC gamer as I convinced my parents to get it to me for my birthday instead of a Genesis :)

Diablo's demo and Duke 3D's shareware episode were what made me pre-order those games.

Shadow Warrior's demo caused me to get the game as soon as it appeared on GOG instead of waiting for a sale (my usual strategy.)
While it represents the gameplay aspect quite accurately, the story / humor and level design of the full game are not done justice.

Or you could replay the shareware episode two more times and imagine that you had the registered version.

Ahh... good times. :D

I did that with Duke3D four or five times a day.

Ah, so THAT's why you're so familiar with the pepper spray. :)


More seriously, after I had finished the shareware episode, I had mostly felt that I had experienced enough of that particular game and moved on.

There weren't really many options to buy the actual registered versions here in Slovenia. Close to none, really; if any at all. Even for shareware games, I remember paying 1500 SIT per title, which today is about 6,26 EUR. Yeah... >.<

It helps that chapter 2 and 3, while fun, paled next to chapter 1 with the theatre and adult book store and nudy booths and bathroom stalls and arcade and strippers and O.J. on the T.V. etc etc etc.

I think I recall paying $5 or $10 for the Heretic Shareware disc back in the day...

If it's a game I like and I plan to buy it anyway or already own it, I appreciate it when the demo adds something that isn't included in the actual game, like a bonus adventure or whatever. But nevertheless this is not what a demo should be about in the best case, IMO. It should introduce you to the game and not provide you with a free "spin-off" or extra.

I find the best demos to be those that let me play the first part of the game, the first missions or puzzles or levels, without other restrictions. If the game is good this will leave me wanting for more, longing to continue the game I've started. I don't like demos that let you play only for a restricted time though. Those leave me stressed and with a slight grudge towards the developers as I like to take my time and do things at my own pace. (I don't sign contracts on my doorstep either, if your offer is a good one and convincing on its own, leave me time to evaluate and think about it, otherwise I'll get suspicious of the actual quality.)

Generally, it's true that a demo can prevent players from buying a game, but buiyng something unseen and regretting it can do that, too, with regard to future purchases. I think it's a better strategy to believe in your games and be open about what they are, letting everyone test them, than to be all secretive about them and risk to disappoint the expectations of your customers. Of course, I understand that creating demos is extra work and costs extra money. But in the past I've passed on buying games simply because I couldn't find a demo and therefor couldn't make sure they would run on my system and that I would enjoy their gameplay, their controls etc. You can't really judge that just by looking at gameplay footage.

Yeah...the only thing that really kept me from buying it when GOG launched it, was the fact that I was already in the middle of playing three other games at the time, so I wishlisted it after really enjoying the Demo....got it now though, so I am sure DF will be a wasting more of my life again, lol

That's what she said

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I just downloaded the Trine demo and OY, what a pain in the ass that was to get running! However whence I got it going it was pretty fun. Is the demo a hint as to how buggy the game is? Is the game worth pushing through the bugs? Side note, is the game worth getting for the SO alone?

And what a wonderful world that would be to not be spammed with ads everywhere I go...

Well, I never played the Outcast demo but some games just need more time to develop for their full effect, some seem incredibly dull even if one of the best parts from the whole game is taken out of context.

Other demos that had the opposite effect for me were those of Project Snowblind and Darksiders, in both cases I still trusted the reviewers, bought the games despite the horrible demos and got some brilliant games. In case of Darksiders the reasons for the bad demo are obvious. It just is one of those extensive action adventure games where the beauty of the world, story and the gameplay need to develop over multiple hours and a short demo just can't grasp you the way the full version does. Project Snowblind (a mostly forgotten Deus Ex spinoff) on the other hand is just a linear FPS and oddly enough when I finally got to the part from the demo in the full version it didn't seem bad to me at all but I must admit that it was just a badly chosen level for a demo. The problem is probably that they had to choose a level which presents most of the features you get access to later on but doesn't spoil too much of the story so the demo seemed like a totally generic FPS with a few gimmicky features thrown in. Without the spectacular introductory sequences everything just seemed dull. Can't say that I agree. I remember a few demos that used custom levels not found in the final game but used it to their advantage. The Populous - The Beginning demo comes to my mind. IIRC it consisted of two or three levels, one (or two?) of them was specifically created for the demo and it was a great idea. The level did a better job at presenting the overall game experience than any particular level from the full version would have. It included just the right amount of features only available in the later levels of the full version while skipping others. So you could get a great impression of the game without the need to spend too much time with it and without feeling like "dafu? I already played that level, don't wanna do it again" when you finally got the full version. Oh yeah, not to mention Half-Life Uplink which did a great job at presenting the Half-Life experience without spoiling any part of the full game for you. Not to mention that it allowed some people to play earlier versions of Counter-Strike for free. :B

I LOVE YOU! Well, sometimes. IMHO a demo with exclusive content just is the best decision a developer can make.

You completely ignore that extra credits simplifies the stuff they present because otherwise it would be to much information in a short time and you simply assume, that they made that assumption. A demo is not worth it if the people left over from case d - case c is big enough to warrant the effort of a demo. If case d- case c is negative the demo even does harm and it is very likely that some advertising campaign will bring more people to buy a game especially because case c is extremely small in that case if it exists at all.

I at least can say that there where way more demos scaring me away from a game then there where for the opposite.