026
OPINION
Luke Kemp
Whatonearth happenedto‘try beforeyoubuy’?
THE INDUSTRY HAS GROWN
BEYOND REGULAR CONSUMER
DEMOS. THE COMPLEX
RESULTS AFFECT PLAYERS
AND DEVELOPERS ALIKE.
A
s the philosopher
Sheryl Crow once sang,
a change would do you
good. Now in most
situations, this is true.
After all, you and I alike,
dear reader, benefit every handful of
years from a new Sony console. And
do we not all enjoy a change of
gaming scenery on a regular basis
(usually leading to a Pile Of Shame)?
Yet ath change giveth, so altho do it
taketh away. Remember when OPM
used to hit the shelves with a demo
disc? For many years now, the majority
of us have enjoyed a fast and
uncapped internet connection, giving
us easy access to demos and rendering
the disc irrelevant. And strikingly,
nowadays you’d never be able to fill a
disc with new demos each month.
This has been an incredible year for
games, and it’s not over yet. Make a
list of your ten favourites, then look
on the PlayStation Store to see how
many offer a free demo. Go on, I’ll
wait, I have chocolate. Back
already? Wasn’t very many,
was it?
It would
be awesome
if a State Of Play
ended with Sony
saying “...and you
can download a
demo of each of
these games right
now!” wouldn’t it? But
the reasons this doesn’t
happen also partly
explain why demos
overall are so rare now. For
one thing, creating demos
isn’t nearly as simple asyoumightthink,plusit takestime
and resources away from development
of the final game. Given the industry’s
notorious crunch problem, I’m happy
to sacrifice demos on this score.
Also, games can – and almost
always do – change
significantly during
development. A demo
unleashed on the public in
today’s climate, generally,
has to be entirely
representative, as
certain loud and
unpleasant people
blow tiny
differences from
the final product
out of all
proportion
(spider-puddles,
anybody?).
In compensation
for the near-extinctionof demos, players are being offered
increasingly widespread public and
private betas. Betas give players a free
taste of an unreleased game, and
developers a huge sample of player
behaviour and feedback. Everyone’s a
winner, right? Well... not quite.
Betas are dangerous rolls of the dice
for developers. They’re not demos- they’re unfinished testing grounds
by definition – but, thanks to this
gradual, informal exchange of demos
for betas, this is very difficult to
communicate to the public. The
Modern Warfare beta’s controversial
removal of the minimap, for example,
was partially revoked for the second
round. I had to remind myself that this
could be reversed completely by the
time it hits shelves (but no, Infinity
Ward stuck to its cough guns).
It’s worth remembering, too, that
public betas (which are free to play)
will attract people who’d never usually
consider playing the game. Some
behaviour will therefore be misleading,
and not representative of people who
might actually put up cash for the
game. Devs are well aware of this, but
I wonder how easy it is to identify and
sift through data like that?
DEMO MOORE
So to developers, I say this: betas are
great – keep ’em coming! – but don’t
underestimate the power and
importance of a good demo. If you
plan one in, a carefully curated and
complete experience can get people
excited about your game like nothing
else. Then I – erm, I mean, we – get
to try out some cool games before
handing over the moolah. Things will
be beta than ever!WRITER BIO
Luke grew up eking out as much joy from
every OPM demo disc as the little plastic
pieces of joy would allow. Rumour is he’s
upcycled ten years’ worth of discs into a
life-sized replica of himself.