Gongonzablag

Gongonzabar Rants: Paying for Demos

Recently, there’s been a few things that have been bothering me.  So to let off a little steam, I’ve decided to write an open letter to video game developers and publishers.  Read a version of the letter after the jump, you’ll have to send me $5 via Paypal to read the full one.

Dear People who Make and Publish Video Games,

I have been a loyal fan and firm customer of yours for close to twenty years now. Now, while we’ve had our ups and downs, our Starcrafts and our Starcraft Ghosts, I remain true to you even now and will do so even in the future.  However, I’ve recently noticed a small but growing trend that has been quite bothersome.  Just last week, I shelled out 40 big ones for a game that I’ve been looking forward to for quite a while.  This game was Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec II.  With all those words in the title, and especially with two of them being “Gran Turismo”, how can it be worth any less?  Well, the problem with the purchase is that the game I bought was just a DEMO for the real game I’ll probably shell out $60 for a year from now.  A DEMO!  So, even the n00biest of n00b gamers can see the inherent flaw in this.  So with this in mind, the question boils down to “Was it worth it?”  The answer to that question is no.  Not a big resounding NO, but just a no.  With a decent set of cars, a small selection of tracks, a good soundtrack, and awesome gameplay, this game was easily a $25-$30 buy.  However, with the $10 tax that seems to be appended to most of the new current generation of games, a $40 price tag can be justifiable by certain gamers.  So even though I was wary about buying the game, I went through with it and enjoyed my brand spanking new demo.

All was well in the realm of gaming, I got to race my cars and on the side I could kick some major butt with my main girl Sheik.  That was until I saw <a href=”http://pc.ign.com/articles/869/869473p1.html?RSSwhen2008-04-25_103500&RSSid=869473” target=”_blank”>this interesting tidbit of news</a>.  What is going on in my wonderful little world of gaming? I have to pay another $10 for another demo?!  Well that’s not exactly the story, but one could honestly see it that way.  I’ve been looking forward to this game, Spore, for I don’t know how many years now.  I’ve already made up my mind, I’m going to buy this game.  Why must I pay $10 dollars for a feature that I will be paying for just three short months later?  In the past, developers and publishers would let us have these kinds of features for free, provided we pre-order the game before it comes out.  I remember having one of my funnest bouts of gaming in the beta of Guild Wars, which was only accessible through the pre-order of the game.  Recently, one could get access to the Metal Gear Solid 4 Online Beta through a similar pre-order of the game.  This was and still is a good plan.  This not only rewarded the fans who decided to put their faith in your product, but those fans would in turn would also drum up free publicity by talking about your game (unless your game sucked).  So, why have you deviated?

Maybe I’m just over-exaggerating things, maybe I’m just delusional in seeing how  I think things may pan out, but right now, I’m not happy about the current state of things.    In less than half a year, we gamers will have been subjected to almost having to pay for demos of games that you publishers know we will pay multiple times for.  I say almost because, honestly, I don’t have to give you more money then your due.  And that’s what I intend to do.  Come June, I will not buy the creature creator for Spore, I will instead download the FREE demo.  Three months after that, I will buy the full game of Spore for the full price.  Unless somebody does something to sweeten the deal, include something that I will not get in the real game, or offer me a price reduction on the full game, I refuse to spend money on any part of a game multiple times.  In other words, I will pay for the creature creator of the Spore game only once.  We are gamers and we will probably remain loyal customers for almost all our life.  So, instead of treating us like  crap, treat us with respect and we will assure you that we will support you further.  I am asking you in this letter to please discontinue charging us for these demonstration feature.  If your product is truly spectacular, you won’t need to nickel and dime us to get your money back.  I guess the moral of the story is, treat us with respect and we’ll promise to make you millions of dollars, or at least we’ll try.

Faithfully Yours,
Gongonzabar Farbin