Kamikaze demo guys just ramming people as they attempt to dock
I try not to see the worst in people and extrapolate to an entire group. It never works out that way.
How Elite could rule the galaxy
- Thread starter JohnStabler
- Start date
I try not to see the worst in people and extrapolate to an entire group. It never works out that way.
You make a good point. Perhaps a few promotions with gaming sites.. where trial keys are given away. I've seen that done to positive effect with other games.
Curse
Massively
Gamespot
PCGamer
etc..
would lap that up as it helps them promote their own website traffic too. Although the game would most certainly need to be much more feature complete before this was made available.
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Just subbed to a game after trying a 2 week free trial, which probably influenced my earlier post
Sorry, I didn't mean that ALL demo players would do that, just that a small minority of players might find it funny.
I dare say a small minority of paid players find it funny (if the alpha/beta is anything to go by)
Couldn't you minimize this with some sort of registration required to try the demo/trial /whatever we're calling it.
I know people can get around this but it would reduce the effect.
It would certainly garner publicity as an antidote to the accusations of price gouging in some quarters which would allow those people to crow that their complaints had been listened to.
But it would also validate the defenders of Frontier who maintained the price price was kept high to keep the testing numbers where they wanted as evidenced by the fact that FD were now letting people have a free try as testing was complete.
So everyone wins and loads more publicity either way!
And there's no doubt it would snag people into buying it who tried it and liked it.
I don't know, the powerful thing about the EVE trial was that it allowed for player investment. All the player had to do was pony up the subscription fee and then they could carry on playing with everything that they'd accumulated. There wouldn't be that psychological hook if it was just and offline demo with some scenarios. Also, I don't think that the combat scenarios we had from the first alpha is anyway near indicative of actual gameplay now.
you hope
i can see his point though, maybe FD could run a separate demo server out of the marketing budget? the one problem i see with that apart from cost is that if someone buys the game after playing the demo for a week or so they may be disappointed if they cannot carry on using the same commander/ship that they have built up in the demo.
having to start all over again would be too painful for some.
an option to buy the game with real money via a star port interface that is just in the demo would solve that a little as their current ship/commander could seamlessly carry on from demo to full game, open the gal map once bought and the play area bubble would disappear opening up access to the full game.
Edit: the same functionality could be added for expansions when released, nothing too in your face, maybe a module added to outfitting?
Premium Beta cost I understand, but Beta? £15 more for access months earlier than release and a headstart of the release when gamma goes live (assuming there is no reset after gamma). Beta is still cheaper than most PS4 games.
But yeah, I think a demo would not hurt - although I sort of think that maybe it should be on separate servers so that people with no intention of playing the game could not sign up just to grief people who buy the game (although that doesn't protect those genuinely testing it out).
Lots of fud over griefing I see.
Did eve have griefing issues with trial players?
There's another excellent reason to keep trial players in the same universe as paid: friends. A person convinces a friend to try the trial version and can help them in- game. This makes for a better social experience.
Did eve have griefing issues with trial players?
There's another excellent reason to keep trial players in the same universe as paid: friends. A person convinces a friend to try the trial version and can help them in- game. This makes for a better social experience.
- people need to see how good the game is
- people need some tuition in order to get them up the steep learning curve
- everyone should have a bash at multi-player dogfighting
I reckon what they should do is release a Lave Academy tutorial that's separate from the full game. It wouldn't upset any of the Alpha/Beta testers if it's free.
The tutorial could end with a massive online multiplayer free-for-all where pilots hone their skills against other players.
- people need some tuition in order to get them up the steep learning curve
- everyone should have a bash at multi-player dogfighting
I reckon what they should do is release a Lave Academy tutorial that's separate from the full game. It wouldn't upset any of the Alpha/Beta testers if it's free.
The tutorial could end with a massive online multiplayer free-for-all where pilots hone their skills against other players.
It also tackles the problem of 'griefing' head on, if it was a problem, that problem would be fixed sooner and make for a stronger product.
i would also restrict a demo to SP
experience shows a free version would just be exploited by botters
if you could restrict Player-to-player trading in MP, then maybe, but that's too easy to get around
also limit number of systems (just a few), maybe time (14 day), and even ships/equipment
and also not to forget in the early days when we had many demos for games, there were not hundreds of reviews and lets-plays, like today - this actually minimizes the need for a demo - although controlling that ship yourself is still a different experience than just watching a video
experience shows a free version would just be exploited by botters
if you could restrict Player-to-player trading in MP, then maybe, but that's too easy to get around
also limit number of systems (just a few), maybe time (14 day), and even ships/equipment
and also not to forget in the early days when we had many demos for games, there were not hundreds of reviews and lets-plays, like today - this actually minimizes the need for a demo - although controlling that ship yourself is still a different experience than just watching a video
I've seen reports before that say demos actually reduce game sales. A lot of gamers buy games they never play (especially on Steam), or play a little of a game and put it away. If they can nab a demo for free then they never get round to actually buying the whole thing.
Very much depends on the game, of course.
Time-limited free demos of online games in particular have become more of a thing lately, so certainly it should be an option on the table. It's important to remember the server loads and potential overwhelming bug reports though. Remember what the releases have been like on day 1 before? Do you want that to be every new player's experience?
Frontier have stated before that their plan is slow expansion - given the timescale and the various challenges I think that's very sensible. Let's get some polish on the old Cobra before we properly show her off to the world.
Good POV..I think I've read similar reports about demos.
