I've never pirated, and I won't. As you say, it's stealing, which is not
right. But especially for the developers of games for the blind, stealing
hurts them worse due to the relatively small income they get from customers.
---
Shepherds are the best beasts, but Labs are a close second.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 11:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] The Dragon Answers Questions
Hi Dark,
There is no denying that the ability to play a demo is better than
just hearing about a game via written game reviews and/or a podcast. I
take your point about Railracer as I wouldn't have been interested in
that game myself had I just listened to Che's podcast on the subject.
However, when I played the beta I did find I liked the game as you
did. Although, I think the real issue here is a question of ethics as
much as proper marketing of a product.
That is to say you freely admit you would have no whims about pirating
a game if there isn't a demo available. Steeling a game is still
steeling regardless of if the purpose is to tryout the product in the
expectation of buying it. That's a bit like walking into Wal-Mart
steeling a few movies off the shelf, take them home, watch them, and
return to the store to pay up if you liked them. I think most people
would say that action is unethical. However, as I've pirated software
in the past just to try it out myself I'm not the right person to talk
about ethics as it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. :D
All the same you have a point. Something like USA Raceway is based on
American Nascar racing. That is to say it is based on an American
sport, and the rules are different in Nascar than Formula 1 which
Europeans are familiar with. Without a demo I'd be hard pressed to
write a review or create a podcast that could convince people that my
game is a better racing game than Topspeed. It would be easier to let
them just play it and decide for themselves.
Something else is an audio review or podcast can't really give a new
gamer the experience of new concepts and ideas. Take my 3d game
engine. I can write FPS games where you go forward, backwards, left,
right, up, or down in a true 3d environment. I can write about it
until my fingers are sore or talk about it until I'm blue in the face
but can not pass on what that feels like nearly as well as letting
someone play it for themselves.
Cheers!
On 1/17/13, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
Hi Tom.
another fact to considder, is that often the experience of playing a game
is
very different to that of hearing about it. A perfect example hear is
rail
racer.
I do not myself enjoy racing games, they are not something that tends to
interest me in the least. Thus I wasn't absolutely enthusiastic about
rail
racer. nor did the podcast Che made about the game precisely enthrall me
either because the concept of riding round a track on a machine bolted to
it
on a rail where you couldn't actually hit the sides or crash struck me as
even less interesting than usual racing games.
However because! there was a demo available, and because I know myself
that
the experience of playing a game can be vastly different from hearing
about
it I tried the thing and found my previous assumptions to be wrong.
in the case of rail racer in fact, I'd argue that the reason the game
works
is in it's mechanics and fine tuning and the need to develope the
necessary
judgement and coordination to play properly, things which are not clear
from
a review or a podcast, and only become clear when you try the game for
yourself.
This is especially true of games hwich might be extremely well designed,
but
in genres or settings that you would not normally play. You mention your
own
experience with sarah as an example, but even if Kelly or someone similar
made a podcast would you have been likely to buy the game without a demo?
I
know for a fact I myself would not have bought railracer without that
demo,
and would (I'm sorry to say), be unlikely to considder buying any other
racing title unless a demo was available since it is a subject and genre
of
games that I just do not generally find interests me.
So if you for instance produced race way and had no demo, I would
probably
not buy a copy myself however good the game might be and quite likely
even
if someone made a podcast about it.
In that case however I probably would be more likely to play a pirated
copy
just to see what the game was like, far more likely than if a demo was
available in fact.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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