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News Molyneux: "Demos are a horrible concept"

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 1 Jul 2010.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    Soooo....he thinks demos are stupid, but releasing the first 'chapter' of a game for free - which would essentially be a demo anyway - is a good idea? Oooookay.
     
    Last edited: 1 Jul 2010
  3. mi1ez

    mi1ez Modder

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    ^ My thoughts exactly!
     
  4. bbshammo

    bbshammo What's a Dremel?

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    Why on earth is Molyneux still taken seriously at all?

    Who cares what he thinks?

    I don't think there's a single catch-all model for all games, when trying to decide if demo, or episodic releases is the way forward.

    He seems to be looking at his own very circumstances and assuming it applies to everything.

    You could even argue that if a game's good enough, and the marketing done properly, then demos aren't even necessary!

    Basically Mr. Molyneux, make games that are clearly good, and people will want to pay for them.
     
  5. Kúsař

    Kúsař regular bit-tech reader

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    How could anyone still respect this looser? There are plenty of reasons why demo is a good idea and episodic concept is good only for certain games...
     
  6. pimlicosound

    pimlicosound What's a Dremel?

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    There's very little difference between a demo and a free first chapter, and doing either is only ever a bad idea if your game isn't very good to begin with. Fable 2's free first chapter did for me exactly what Molyneux claims demos do: it satisfied my curiosity. It proved to me, in the first 10 minutes, that it was a shallow, ugly and uninspiring game. So, not a good idea from his perspective. Useful for me, though.
     
  7. Unknownsock

    Unknownsock What's a Dremel?

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    The problem here is the fact that if the games crap then why buy the game after playing the demo.
    Obviously companies want to get a massive return back, regardless if its decent or not.
     
  8. lacuna

    lacuna Minimodder

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    Demo's like Half Life: Uplink were great since they're not part of the actual game and doesn't spoil the story but includes all of the gameplay elements
     
  9. blohum

    blohum What's a Dremel?

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    ...and episodic gaming has been really successful so far...
     
  10. Psytek

    Psytek What's a Dremel?

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    Lmao, a demo is usually a free installment of the game which lasts around an hour... that's exactly what he's suggesting.
     
  11. yakyb

    yakyb i hate the person above me

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    lack of a demo is the only possible justification of piracy

    how can this b*ll*nd expect us to pay £25 - £50 without any real idea of what the game is like.
     
  12. DarkFear

    DarkFear What's a Dremel?

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    I wonder if the Spore creature creator that was available before the full game could be considered a "demo"...
     
  13. Pieface

    Pieface Modder

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    How can it be a justification of Piracy, nothing is a justification of Piracy. Read reviews, watch the videos or simply don't buy it..
     
  14. azrael-

    azrael- I'm special...

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    ...preparing to install SiN Episode 2. Hey, wait... :p
     
  15. Plugs

    Plugs Minimodder

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    "for free, and then offering users the rest of the chapters at a small price."

    that 'small' price being equivalent to the full retail price, ergo not small at all
     
  16. UrbanMarine

    UrbanMarine Government Prostitute

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    The $10 shareware was nice back in the day. Duke3D anyone.....
     
  17. Lance

    Lance Ender of discussions.

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    Did you lot read the artical? Think about it.

    He said the problem that he had with demos was the time effort and money that it took to make them and that they then didn't do much.

    By making an episode based system you can easily have set up through say an xbox live account it is easy to just hit "sure i'll pay another 5.99 for the next chunk" in game rather than have to go down to the shops to buy the next bit AND THEN have to play it all over again.

    I'm not a massive fan of this system BUT I can see the benifit in games like Fable 3. Ever bought a game realised you didn't like it as much as you thought and stopped playing? I know i have a few in my game box, well if you stop (or get stuck) after the first £10 then you've not paid £40 for a new game you didn't finish.

    The real key will be whether they charge more for the game overall because there is no way that I would pay over £40 for game software without getting extra content over the hard copy.

    But thats just my opinion. Feel free to disagree.


    Edit: And for those that didn't know the fable system was actually based over 4 chapters at about £7.50 each.
     
  18. Evildead666

    Evildead666 What's a Dremel?

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    Half Life 2 : Episode III comes to mind........
     
  19. Hamish

    Hamish What's a Dremel?

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    hahaha, hey Pete i feel much the same way about your games :p
     
  20. Tyrrax

    Tyrrax What's a Dremel?

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    Yeah Pete....you're full of good ideas....like the 360 degree view of that falling piece of bird **** in the beginning of Fable 2.
     
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