And to be honest, that is exactly the problem with demos. Nowadays, games are usually not ready upon release, so they are patched later on. (That would not be
that big of a problem, as long as you can be sure that it will be patched, but that's beside the point.) Obviously it would be more trouble than its worth to develop a new demo for every version you release, so developers don't do that. But because of this, the demo actually doesn't demonstrate the current game, but an earlier stage in its life. (We all know that this is especially true for PI products. That doesn't bother me because this way I have a say in what will get into the game in the end, and otherwise I wouldn't. Your mileage may vary.)
Now, the solution is already invented and in use: the ability to download a time-limited version of the game, then if you like it, you can buy it. If you don't, you don't need to. The problem with this is very obvious: the publisher will need to somehow enforce this limit, because otherwise it would have a very limited income... (I would love to live on the planet where this method works, but that's not Earth.) One such way is Steam. The problem with Steam is that it likes to infect your system like a parasite and if you let it, soon you won't be able to live (or rather play) without it. Call me a hippi (or whatever), but I don't like the way some publishers forces you to be connected to them while you play. It has this certain stench of fascism about it... Problem is, I can't think of a good way to authenticate the user reliably and still not causing too much trouble. It is a very hard thing to balance I'm afraid.
Now, Paradox has a somewhat special situation, because their games are only meant for a very limited group of people. (Yeah, they might want to reach more people, but be serious. You can't aim the masses and keep the quality and depth at the same time. It's not going to work.) Because of that, they are especially relying on us to support them, otherwise they will go under. (From what I've seen, they have been on the rise for the last year, recruiting new people, releasing game after game, publishing games developed by others, etc., but as a consequence of capitalism, if you are not growing
fast enough, you are going under.) On the other hand, their target group is supposed to be mature enough to understand why is it necessary to actually buy their products in order to support them. (I mean if you can understand how the economy in Victora works, then you can understand how it works IRL
)
As a result, releasing demos is not really a good idea for PI (HoI3 is the perfect example), and neither are PC magazines, as they test early versions full of bugs and balance issues. The only practically working way is this very forum, and ourselves spreading the word
And I guess I should write a blog, but if I would, PI would be forced to buy some new squirels (or rather some more storage space) for their servers again very quickly :rofl:
