When I asked why people pirated games I got a lot of people saying something along these lines:
“Demos suck! They are such a small part of the game. I HAVE to pirate the game to see if the full version is any good, rather than just the bit they showed me in the ‘demo'”
But after a month of trying a very long (60 turns) demo for Kudos 2 I have concluded that this just isn’t true because:
1) The pirates still pirate the game anyway, and
2) The long demo seems to be contributing to a lower conversion rate, ie: people are trying the demo and not buying the game as much s they have with my other games.
Now I know that it is very tricky to work out whether this is because the demo gives too much game away, or whether its a problem with the quality of the game, but given some very good reviews, and some very positive forum and email responses from buyers, I think generally the game quality is pretty good (certainly it’s way higher than the first game). I am guessing that the demo basically gives away several hours of entertainment for free, and it’s just too darned long. So I halved the length of it and re-uploaded a new demo today to see if that improves things.
A GOOD demo (from a business POV) is one where as it kicks in, the player thinks “What? OMG I was getting so into this game”. In a sense, the demo is the first course of a meal, the opening scene of a movie. Give away too much, and you lose sales. Most people will take a free starter rather than pay for a whole meal, and I’m sure a lot of people like me get bored towards the end of todays’ long and tedious movies anyway :D
So hopefully it will work and I might get some more sales…
In unrelated news, check this out. Seems some people are really getting into modding Kudos 2 :D
I will give you one thing, you certainly have no shame (or maybe you’re just completely out of touch with the gaming world). You are willing to let people know that you produced those “games” that all consist of graphs and bar charts. Nobody would waste time to pirate your crap, let alone purchase them when they could have just as much “fun” making Excel spreadsheets or watching paint dry.”
People get really wound up on slashdot don’t they? Anyone who isn’t a signed up member of the pirate party who has a ‘F**K the RIAA’ T-shirt and thinks that Richard Stallman is the new messiah is REALLY yelled at.
It never ceases to amazes me the level of casual aggression, insults and abuse that passes for normal on the internet. Kids grow up thinking this is how people should discuss things. It really is not, and will not get you very far.
My first job was as a boatbuilder and bridgebuilder. Everyone was pretty fit, and we worked with chisels, knives, hammers, hacksaws and even chainsaws. Occasionally you would be dangling over a river from ropes a co-worker had tied in place.
We were all VERY polite to each other. You learn not to be abusive to the guy next to you when you are all effectively armed to the teeth and working somewhere dangerous :D