Should games be shareware?

[9mmCensor]

Back in the days, games were shareware. You downloaded a few levels, played it, and if you enjoyed the game, you bought the rest to finish the story.

So why is shareware dead? Is it because games became toolarge in size, and internet connections were enough to deliver it anymore? Or is sharewares demise the result of the uprise of the demo?

Steams delivery of HL2 is proving that 'net deliver is an acceptable vehicel to get gamers there games. Shareware is cool.

[fiji]

Back in the days, games were shareware. You downloaded a few levels, played it, and if you enjoyed the game, you bought the rest to finish the story.

So why is shareware dead? Is it because games became toolarge in size, and internet connections were enough to deliver it anymore? Or is sharewares demise the result of the uprise of the demo?

Steams delivery of HL2 is proving that 'net deliver is an acceptable vehicel to get gamers there games. Shareware is cool.

because to make a good fancy graphics new fangled game, costs a LARGE sum of money

[theMonster]

You can play the first 3 levels of Doom3 by giving it a DL, so I'd say the ansewer to your question is no.

[Albuquerque]

It just depends on the developer. Some games dont' always lend themselves to a shareware release... Have you ever seen a demo/shareware release of The Sims? Age of Empires? Microsoft Flight Simulator? See what I mean? :)

Other times, while a game may have demo-able parts, they still aren't quite indicative of gameplay. If you gave me a shareware copy of Halo, I may not have purchased it. Not to say I resent purchasing it, but I'm not sure it was worth what I originally paid.

But I'd still say demo/shareware is alive and well. FarCry anyone? I would have NEVER thought to buy FarCry until I downloaded the demo. Same goes for many games in my past.

I don't think it's dead, but a lot of our new games just wouldn't be faithfully depicted in a "short snippet", or maybe are bad enough that the developer wouldn't WANT to give out short snippets ;) j/k

[9mmCensor]

because to make a good fancy graphics new fangled game, costs a LARGE sum of money
I know games are expensive to produce. That has nothing to do with the delivery meathod.

[Phoenix87]

No.

[Tatuya]

Using something like Bittorrent would also be a very cheap method, as you'd need only a few people to DL off the original server and then spread it to more people, creating a chain effect.

[jbloudg20]

Maximum PC does distribute a lot of Demos for games with the included CD. I know I really liked Age of Empires, and thats where I saw it first.

[Albuquerque]

Maximum PC does distribute a lot of Demos for games with the included CD. I know I really liked Age of Empires, and thats where I saw it first.
D'oh! Open mouth, insert foot; I never knew AoE had a demo!! That's what I get for assuming ;)

[OC Noob]

Shareware/demos are getting way too short, but then again there are a lot of good demos out there.

It really does **** me off to download 500+ mb to get an incredibly short demo. Depending on how badly I want the game it does make me not want to buy the full version.

[Syx]

Considering VALVe spent $40million developing HL2, it would be stupid.
I think steam is a great thing, and I have faith in VALVe.

[Krusty]

I wouldn't say shareware is dead, but I would say it is suffering because people are no longer willing to give you a large taste of anything.

I remember ORDERING a wolfenstein 3d shareware. I had to pay a couple bucks to have the floppy disk sent to me. On that floppy disk, I got 9 levels, or exactly 1/6th of the game. That was a nice piece of shareware. I got more than a tiny taste. I got an entire course of the meal. And that one free course got me to go out and buy the whole meal.

Fast forward to last month. I downloaded the Doom3 demo. Seeing as it was made by the same guys as Wolfenstein 3d (Apogee --> iD I believe), I thought I would once again get one course free. I was rather disappointed that I barely got enough to whet my appetite there. A 500 friggin megabyte download that consisted of one friggin level -- not even an evening of entertainment.

---------

So shareware isn't dead. Someone just replaced the deep fried onion and buffalo wings with a piece of cheese stuck to a toothpick.

Cheap bastages.

[theMonster]

It really does **** me off to download 500+ mb to get an incredibly short demo.

Are you still stuck with 56K? I dowloaded Doom3 in about 7 or 8 minutes while I was reading stuff here, but I get 1024K/s download stream that's 1MB mega byte not mega-bit. This confuses people quite often. I have a hard time finding servers that can keep up with me or allow that much bandwidth downstream.

[DarkVirusVx]

Most new games you can download demos. You can buy them sometimes to..If your a moron like me. When deus ex first came out I found a jewel case at bestbuy for $12 i was so pissed when half way into the game it says Pleas ebut the full version. No where on the fing case did it say demo. Who cares i got a bootleg they owned me

[OC Noob]

Are you still stuck with 56K? I dowloaded Doom3 in about 7 or 8 minutes while I was reading stuff here, but I get 1024K/s download stream that's 1MB mega byte not mega-bit. This confuses people quite often. I have a hard time finding servers that can keep up with me or allow that much bandwidth downstream.

No, if I was 56k there would be NO 500mb DL for me. I have a connection that will do about 800 Kbits/s, but most DL are limited well under that and 500 mb takes about 5-15 minutes.

The wait isn't the point though, the point is they make you download this massive file for the engine and only give you a few minutes of content. Demos should at the minimum give 1 level or 10 minutes of play and that is cutting it very short.

I used to DL 10-20 demos in a night and play them all night to decide which games I was going to buy. Can't do that with 2 minute demos and I really can base my decision on anything but a brief glimpse of the game.


Overall, its stinks.