Denuvo DRM - It works, and you're going to get more of it

No?
I’ve played games for 10+ hours before I realized they sucked. As a counter I played Underrail for around 2 hours and thought it was ugly and charmless. I kept going because I had a feeling it would open up and it did. If it was down to Steam refund or no, I would have refunded no questions asked.

Two hours is on the long side for a demo in my experience, so I’m not sure how asking for a demo is better than using the existing refund framework – and since there is now a blanket refund policy for the largest PC storefront, I’d suspect even fewer developers will divert resources to demos over time.

I know we have another thread about this whole playing-a-game-for-hours-and-still-thinking-it-sucks phenomenon, but I feel that even if you think the game sucks, at 10+ hours you got your money’s worth and the dev should get paid. That’s just me.

That’s not just you, for what it’s worth.

You know, it’s funny that both demo-pirates and angry kids on Steam have that same combative attitude toward developers – shit game, not “worth” the money, obsessed with gaming hours per dollar, think developers are always trying to pull a fast one.

You’d think they’d all be demo-pirates and stay off Steam to leave us in peace.

Didn’t we used to have a rule, or at least a strong cultural norm against advocating software piracy on QT3?

Did any of you buy “Empire: Total war” upon release?

I feel you guys are sugarcoating what developers are capable of. If a game is good, I buy it. That’s it. If I can’t test it in any way I go in blind like I did with R6 Siege. Couldn’t refund it. Devs got my money for their shit game that I’ll never play. No more. If I can’t actually test it before I buy it, I just won’t buy it. And no, for a 100 hour+ game, 2 hours won’t do it.

Very much so.

Not buying a game because you can’t test it is not the same as not PLAYING the game because you can’t test it. One is adhering to a personal policy, and the other is stealing.

Yes. That was before the refund policy, so you may have had a point then, although as you said the better plan is just to avoid games without demos if you’re not sure you want them.

Believe what is being advocated (by some) at the moment are that more games should have a demo system, although the 2 hour refund policy at steam should tackle that issue somewhat.

That’s also a free excuse to play fewer games. There are too many of them anyway, and not enough time.

Buying a game is most definitely not like buying a new car - the latter has an investment on the scale of 1000 times more than the game. Of course you should be able to test a car more before going into that kind of investment.

I think a better comparison is with going to the cinema, a concert or the theatre. If there is a play you might want to see, good luck convincing them to let you in for free for the first act to stand in the back and “find out if it sucks”. Nor will they give you your money back if you hated the show.

I’ve been the project lead with several developers, I’m not advocating anything but; “If you’ve got it, show it”. If you don’t show it, you probably don’t have it.
Letting me not play / test your game without fully purchasing it indicates a problem. That problem being that most likely your game is shit. Not always, but often enough to have the buyer beware tag.

Or of course development resources being tight, no time was allotted to create any sort of demo.

Vast majority of games don’t have demos these days, so that seems a bit… off.

Steam refunds alleviated most of that pressure for me. It’s true that 2 hours isn’t enough to evaluate every game, but it helps a great deal.

That’s awesome! Then you can just skip those games. It’s going to save you a ton of time on both pirating shit and playing shit, and let you concentrate fully on the games from companies that cater to your needs. These games with demos sure look sweeeeet: Free Demos

I’m not sure I believe you.

Do you happen to be a sociopath? I’m not sure how anyone can be in software development and not empathize with the business and challenges of game development.

Are you saying that you don’t care what your customers think as long as you get paid?

I think we’re mainly saying you’re a dick.