20 replies to this topic

[Megell]

I bought skyrim... My life is now over.

Also, this game is awesome.

[Caseyweederman]

Yes.

[Drackir]

So good.

Can't say more...have to go play.

Actually, I've been pretty good about not getting sucked in. Fondusi's is still under development.

[Caseyweederman]

Good! Kickpuncher isn't. :/
Today's the first day in over a week that I've made any progress.

[Drackir]

Then it's still under development.

[Megell]

Just looking back....
okay... I should not said "bought" when I wrote this ... I actually should of said ruthlessly pirated the shit out of it.

[Drackir]

I bought it twice. In the literal sense.

[Megell]

Well it's good that someone is covering my rampent and horrible theift. Arrgggg.... I'm what's killing the video game industry. hehehehe.

[Drackir]

/sadface

[Caseyweederman]

I bought New Vegas three times.

[Drackir]

I bought it and never played it!

[Megell]

I bought New Vegas three times.

I downloaded new-vegas for the sole purpose of testing it on my system to see how the glitch (game) would handle. It crashed every 30 minutes or less, and would corrupt upon auto and quick save stacking (that was never properally addressed for most PC users as it required specific windows operating procedures). I did enjoy it though ultimately dispite these issues, and I bought a legit copy on steam when it was part of a 20$ deal - what in retrospect was about what the game was actually worth. I'm considering purchasing a copy of skyrim post hoc to compliment the company, I just usually like play testing my games for a while before I invest money into them, and skyrim is worth full price for the amount of pleasure I got out of it.

Perhaps to deal with rampent piracy the companies should begin releasing demos again like they did for ff7. The problem with demos and early test builds I found time and time again is they are not representative of the game as a whole. A major issue is it used to be an understood agreement between the developer and the player that a demo showed the pro's and most importantly the cons of a game in full view. For example in ff7's demo the player gets to play up to the point in which the have seen most of the basics of the game - seen some cool and boring stuff - and haven't been flashed with knights of the round. With modern demos they tend to give the player a INCREDIBLE experiance in the first level where the player will experiance, but then after that the game is mostly bland and uncreative. For example skyrim's first dungon and town are criminal of this. There are lots of scripted events these places such as "Dragon, I SAW A DRAGON"! and the talking bandits in that mine along with all the clutter, traps, and excitting tricks. However in other areas comparitivily the player only encounters this shere amount of detail 20% of the time. Bioshock's demo was criminal of this as well as the player got plasmids and skills that they would not encounter until much later in the game and events and scripting that was far beyond what was for the rest of the game. (remember how the demo gives you the "rapture" start, the plane crash, it's JUST INCREDIBLE). yet after this point, dispite being a great game is no where near as grand in scope.

In other words, demos are advertisements, NOT playtests. For example when I bought my liscence for photoshop, I paid 200$ for it and haven't regretted it unless I haven't eaten for a few days (I had it pirated for a long time, but some of the collage work I do requires a legit copy for legal reasons). It was because I was first offered a public liscence, a 30 day full program demo, and I full well knew the pro's and the con's of the program vs other programs that also offered similar test periods. This is what I would call a fair demo - because it didn't just highlight the features, it highlighted the program as itself. Games need to do this and regain our trust in demos and alot of moral pirates will be willing to shell out a few extra dollars for great games here and there. Game distrubters are used car sales men, we all know it.

[Drackir]

I don't know what you mean that companies should "start releasing demos again." When did they stop? Do you mean on PC? Because, if you go on Xbox Live or PSN there are tons of game demos. In fact, the new game testing thing that the PSN has for Playstation Plus members is basically what you're describing, I think. You get one full hour to play as far into the full game as you can get. It then gives you the option to purchase it and continue playing. I think you can even play again but you have to restart.

[Caseyweederman]

Steam too. Steam has done a great deal in curing my need to pirate things I want, and the way they did that was to change to suit the market by making things I want very, very accessible to me and often very cheap.

[Drackir]

Totally. The amount of stuff I have on steam (110+) is a testament to that.

[Halloween]

I preordered Skyrim. I chipped my way into it pretty deep after the first week since launch, then stopped for a couple months. I'm thinking about starting it up again, anew with a different build, but I started Dragon Quest 8 a week ago and demand myself to finish that before stepping into anything else!

As I'm sure most you guys can relate to, having an enormous backlog of RPGs becomes DAUNTING as the years go on, new stuff comes out, and the old games remain unfinished and keep stacking up D:

Maybe I'm just a lazy gamer

[Drackir]

Yeah, I'm the same way. It's almost bad that RPGs take 100-200+ hours to beat because I just don't have that time for every one that comes out.

[Halloween]

Yep! My backlog traces back to unfinished DOS RPGs, even if they were a little too above my head as a kid. Because I'm stubborn, I'd like to have every game I own completed at some point in my life. But for now, I'm happy that I've made a promise to myself to stick to one game at a time; it gets troublesome when I'm involved with more than one storyline at once!

[Drackir]

Yeah, that's tough one. I guess, fortunately (perhaps) Battlefield has no multiplayer storyline to speak of so I could still play it.

[Caseyweederman]

I have the bad habit of starting way more games than I could ever finish.
I've had to develop a new sense of completion satisfaction.
In Oblivion, for example, I completed the mage guild quest and got distracted by other things. I'll probably go back some day and at least finish the main quest, but for now, that has to be enough of a game that I can move on to other things.

On the other hand, to a certain degree, it's the developers' mandate to make a game that will hold a player's interest, don't you think?