[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by johan osterman:
There will be a turn limit on the demo. Shrapnel wanted a more limited demo than it was in dom 1, with a mechanism like the turn limit. Whether or not this is a good decision I have no idea, but all things concerned I trust shrapnels business sense over ours anytime.

Im not happy with this. You guys know me. You know that Im all for you getting the money you deserve. But if you look back at all the Posts in the newsgroup one of the things that we were always able to make a point of is that the demo allowed you to finish games.

I thought you totally went the right direction before. If it had been full featured and allowing full games but not multiplayer games, then many would have stayed with the demo. If it had been limited play either by days or by turns, many would not have been hooked (it took a while to get past the interface). If it had been shareware, many would never have sent in the money.

By allowing everything, but not allowing the full exploration of ALL of the strategys in the game, I think you had hit on the perfect arrangment. People felt you were nice for allowing full games. But I think most people who could afford to buy the game probably did it. Thats the impression I had in the newsGroups anyway. Maybe its because they were in the newsGroups and we could keep telling them to get past the interface problems.

The reason for "play awhile, now pay for it" demos is the concept of "just enough to hook them". Sure its standard. In fact it makes total sense for a lot of games. Any game where you play it and then you are done, this would be the only way to go. Games with no replayability, or games that people get tired of and delete, you would have to go that route.

Oh well, as Im famous for saying (way too often) everything has its pros and cons. You are with Shrapnel now so your pricing is more standard, your demo will be more standard, hopefully there will be some standard marketing, maybe some boxes in stores? I better back off now. Wont do me any good to stay on your good side and anger the publisher.