Well I aggree with you in that reguard but have my own opinion on railracer.
I am not flaming che or anyone but to be honest to put it politely I
have been unimpressed with railracer.
Firstly after the beta was over and life got in the way interest with
the game tapered off some what.
Especially with the likes of swamp and tactical battle.
Long before that though I was having major issues with the online
activation server.
The one time activation code was fine so long as I kept the file backed up.
However the program would frequently fail to activate or go online
especially after dotnet or directx updates and would sometimes just
plum not work.
Then rr suddenly stopped licencing itself.
To top it all off, the fact that pirates made che basically say users
had to buy the game for each new system really turned me off.
Yes I have a licence, no I don't want a refund, I got 6 months of
enjoyment out of the game.
rr2 is supposed to come out, and to be honest, with all the new stuff
out its a bit junkey and basic.
Don't get me wrong it was not crap when it came out like 5 years
back, for its time it was revolutionary but with the fact I may have
to keep buying the game for each new system and other junk I don't
know if i would be willing to repay for the game.
I think the way blindsoftware does it is good though I have had an
issue where pipe2 does not seem to want to register that is the
replacement server doesn't want to find my origional purchace order
and I need to contact support to get the key replaced manually.
I think there needs to be a ballence between secure and crazy though.
In the case of che, with the policy of railracer if the reg system is
for every comercial game and if the licences are the same as they
were for railracer 1.0 years back I doubt if I will ever buy the game
or legally play it ever for the simple reason that to buy a game I
have already purchaced because I need to buy a code for each system
I play on especially when I only have only 1 or 2 units I mainly play
on well mostly 1, is a real turn off.
And to be honest with other licencing systems out there well you be
the judge on that one.
I won't outright say the game was crap and I didn't get what I payed
for because I did to a point.
Its the principal that counts though.
At 06:47 PM 1/18/2013, you wrote:
Hi Dark,
There is no denying that the ability to play a demo is better than
just hearing about a game via written game reviews and/or a podcast. I
take your point about Railracer as I wouldn't have been interested in
that game myself had I just listened to Che's podcast on the subject.
However, when I played the beta I did find I liked the game as you
did. Although, I think the real issue here is a question of ethics as
much as proper marketing of a product.
That is to say you freely admit you would have no whims about pirating
a game if there isn't a demo available. Steeling a game is still
steeling regardless of if the purpose is to tryout the product in the
expectation of buying it. That's a bit like walking into Wal-Mart
steeling a few movies off the shelf, take them home, watch them, and
return to the store to pay up if you liked them. I think most people
would say that action is unethical. However, as I've pirated software
in the past just to try it out myself I'm not the right person to talk
about ethics as it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. :D
All the same you have a point. Something like USA Raceway is based on
American Nascar racing. That is to say it is based on an American
sport, and the rules are different in Nascar than Formula 1 which
Europeans are familiar with. Without a demo I'd be hard pressed to
write a review or create a podcast that could convince people that my
game is a better racing game than Topspeed. It would be easier to let
them just play it and decide for themselves.
Something else is an audio review or podcast can't really give a new
gamer the experience of new concepts and ideas. Take my 3d game
engine. I can write FPS games where you go forward, backwards, left,
right, up, or down in a true 3d environment. I can write about it
until my fingers are sore or talk about it until I'm blue in the face
but can not pass on what that feels like nearly as well as letting
someone play it for themselves.
Cheers!
On 1/17/13, dark <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Tom.
>
> another fact to considder, is that often the experience of
playing a game is
>
> very different to that of hearing about it. A perfect example hear is rail
> racer.
>
> I do not myself enjoy racing games, they are not something that tends to
> interest me in the least. Thus I wasn't absolutely enthusiastic about rail
> racer. nor did the podcast Che made about the game precisely enthrall me
> either because the concept of riding round a track on a machine
bolted to it
>
> on a rail where you couldn't actually hit the sides or crash struck me as
> even less interesting than usual racing games.
>
> However because! there was a demo available, and because I know myself that
>
> the experience of playing a game can be vastly different from hearing about
>
> it I tried the thing and found my previous assumptions to be wrong.
>
> in the case of rail racer in fact, I'd argue that the reason the game works
>
> is in it's mechanics and fine tuning and the need to develope the necessary
>
> judgement and coordination to play properly, things which are not
clear from
>
> a review or a podcast, and only become clear when you try the game for
> yourself.
>
> This is especially true of games hwich might be extremely well
designed, but
>
> in genres or settings that you would not normally play. You
mention your own
>
> experience with sarah as an example, but even if Kelly or someone similar
> made a podcast would you have been likely to buy the game without a demo? I
>
> know for a fact I myself would not have bought railracer without that demo,
>
> and would (I'm sorry to say), be unlikely to considder buying any other
> racing title unless a demo was available since it is a subject and genre of
>
> games that I just do not generally find interests me.
>
> So if you for instance produced race way and had no demo, I would probably
> not buy a copy myself however good the game might be and quite likely even
> if someone made a podcast about it.
>
> In that case however I probably would be more likely to play a pirated copy
>
> just to see what the game was like, far more likely than if a demo was
> available in fact.
>
> Beware the grue!
>
> Dark.
>
>
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