Demo download links?

[unmerged(58541)]

i don t understand why nobody uses filefront.Its the best download site for game demos,patches and mods and above all there are no registration and payment bullshits.
Having to pay for a demo is rather odd at least for me.The whole concept of demo version is to try the game before giving away 40 euros

 

[unmerged(38686)]

So?

So ban your prejudice
and open your mind.

 

[Jazumir]

So ban your prejudice
and open your mind.

You post about once every 10 months and this is it?

As long as you can DL it on some free site, there is no valid objection to be made against PI´s rejection of torrents as a distribution base. It´s their thing to decide. And their objection to it goes beyond simple ´intolerance´. It´s not like it was some sort of racism or such. They do have their reasons.

 

[Lord Boreal]

i don t understand why nobody uses filefront.Its the best download site for game demos,patches and mods and above all there are no registration and payment bullshits.
Having to pay for a demo is rather odd at least for me.The whole concept of demo version is to try the game before giving away 40 euros

You're not paying for the demo, the demo is free. The cost that has been mentioned is for FilePlanet's premium service, which amongst other things, will allow you to pre-load the demo.

 

[unmerged(45977)]

You post about once every 10 months and this is it?

As long as you can DL it on some free site, there is no valid objection to be made against PI´s rejection of torrents as a distribution base. It´s their thing to decide. And their objection to it goes beyond simple ´intolerance´. It´s not like it was some sort of racism or such. They do have their reasons.

It's true that it's their decision. That doesn't mean we can't discuss it here, as it's an obvious flawed decision because torrents have nothing inherently to do with piracy, especially because it's a free demo.

 

[Spricar]

Just out of curiosity and from strictly legal point of view, what happens if someone DLs free demo from a site provided by PI, then make a torrent and offers it on a random site with torrent's links? (I'm not planning to do that, I'm just curious). Is this even allowed?

 

[Spricar]

You're not paying for the demo, the demo is free. The cost that has been mentioned is for FilePlanet's premium service, which amongst other things, will allow you to pre-load the demo.

Is FilePlanet a PI partner? If it is, than it is somehow strange that they (and PI) are offering a free demo but with a possibility of preloading it if you pay.
If they are not partners, than it is even worse since Fileplanet is charging and earning money for something that should be free and something over which they have absoultely no rights...

 

[macscarfe]

It's true that it's their decision. That doesn't mean we can't discuss it here, as it's an obvious flawed decision because torrents have nothing inherently to do with piracy, especially because it's a free demo.

Nowhere at anytime in this thread (or otherwise i believe) has anyone from Paradox said they don't use torrents due to piracy.

What Johan actually said was

We don't like torrents for some reason or another. You are on safe ground assuming that torrent links will be removed and the person linking them will get into trouble.

and this tends to indicate to me that the decision not to use torrents was taken 'above his head' in the management structure and he either dosn't know why that decision has been taken or isn't at liberty to make you aware of why it was taken or just can't be arsed to endlessly discuss and debate the finer points of an obscure decision made ages ago and which basically effects no one because all information you want on the torrent is easily available elsewhere on the internet.

 

[Jazumir]

It's true that it's their decision. That doesn't mean we can't discuss it here, as it's an obvious flawed decision because torrents have nothing inherently to do with piracy, especially because it's a free demo.

Yes they do have something inherently to do with piracy. Some people may not use torrents at all, but if PI offers the HoI3 demo as torrent-download, it can only enlarge the user base of torrents. I am not saying all torrent activity is illegal, but most undoubtfully is, and the illegal possibilities of torrenting can be too tempting or the legal situation to unknown for many a user to refrain from illegal use. It can not really be surprising, that a company, which does no copy-protection, is interested in keeping the whole torrent business as unknown as possible and certainly does not want to propagate it with its own services. This is simple logic and not a ´flawed dicision´ IMHO.

EDIT: about the post directly above: I dont think that what johan (edit: or king, or whoever it was) says indicates that the decision was made above his head, but rather that pointing out the reasons for the decision would make the decision itself kind of useless. I did go as far as i think i can, explaining it, without damaging PI for exactly those reasons. I´d be happy if my posts, along with the rest of this threads, enter data-nirvana rather sooner than later.

 

[unmerged(45977)]

Nowhere at anytime in this thread (or otherwise i believe) has anyone from Paradox said they don't use torrents due to piracy.

Ok, it could be because something else. Not sure what but I guess so.

It's just a sign that publishers are still living before the internet age. It's not only the games industry but also the music and movie industry. At least PI is a bit more enlightened because of their DRM policy.

And I think it's fine to discuss it in this topic because we can also discuss GG vs Steam and the like.

Also, I wouldn't download it through torrents because I don't see the benefit in doing that for a small file (<1GB) and I guess the demo servers will be quick enough. I just think it's weird to forbid it because I don't understand why.

 

[King]

I never use Torrents due to piracy.

 

[Alex_brunius]

the thing about torrents is this ... sure, it helps spread files faster and your not bound to the limits of a single server BUT ... and this is a good argument against torrents...paradox cant insure the integrity of a torrent that wasnt posted by themselves. anyone can just take the demo, include a nice trojan and start seeding ... and there will be plenty of people around that, even tough their virus scanner might warn them, will still run the thing because hey, "its from paradox after all"...

I don't see why anyone would say its from Paradox if like you mentioned it was posted by an ordinary user.

And I also fail to see why this is different from any other technology or source outside of Paradox uploading the demo. It is still out of their control and might still contain trojans or viruses.

If they intend to remove and ban anyone hosting the demo unofficially using any technology, then fine I can accept that argument. But Kings & Johans replies make it seem like torrents in itself was the problem (which its not).

I never use Torrents due to piracy.

That's an unhealthy stance.
Why are you afraid people would legally spread the perfectly free demo so that more can play it?

The technology is not illegal or really has anything to do with Piracy. Software Piracy existed long before it and will exist long after it aswell. Of course your free to do whatever you feel like on your own forum, But I'm just trying to convince you to not be mad at the wrong stuff.

 

[unmerged(45977)]

Yes they do have something inherently to do with piracy. Some people may not use torrents at all, but if PI offers the HoI3 demo as torrent-download, it can only enlarge the user base of torrents. I am not saying all torrent activity is illegal, but most undoubtfully is, and the illegal possibilities of torrenting can be too tempting or the legal situation to unknown for many a user to refrain from illegal use. It can not really be surprising, that a company, which does no copy-protection, is interested in keeping the whole torrent business as unknown as possible and certainly does not want to propagate it with its own services. This is simple logic and not a ´flawed dicision´ IMHO.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, and PI's. But if I search for "Hearts of Iron 3 torrent" on saturday I'll be able to find the game, no matter how they distribute the demo. If you really think that people that want to pirate games will pirate it because the demo was on torrents I really think you live 20 years ago.

 

[Wyrm]

So, if a technology is capable of bad things it should not be used?

That leaves us with precious little technology left to use... if any...

 

[TheJoker]

i don t understand why nobody uses filefront.Its the best download site for game demos,patches and mods and above all there are no registration and payment bullshits.
Having to pay for a demo is rather odd at least for me.The whole concept of demo version is to try the game before giving away 40 euros

you mean http://www.filefront.com/ ? the site where i usually get 50k/sec on average ?

 

[TheJoker]

I don't see why anyone would say its from Paradox if like you mentioned it was posted by an ordinary user.

And I also fail to see why this is different from any other technology or source outside of Paradox uploading the demo. It is still out of their control and might still contain trojans or viruses.

If they intend to remove and ban anyone hosting the demo unofficially using any technology, then fine I can accept that argument. But Kings & Johans replies make it seem like torrents in itself was the problem (which its not).

reputation is rather more easily ruined then gained. and with torrents you cant really say who did the initial seed.
regular downloads arent in the same categroy, usually you download those from a trustworthy source(like fileplanet, filefront, steam, paradox site etc., some gaming mag. etc). you KNOW where the file came from very much unlike a torrent where you dont.
and honestly, if i download files i ONLY do this from trustworthy sources where im sure the file is clean.

 

[Jazumir]

It´s a bit like this:

You have a cherry tree in a field somewhere, from which you pick cherries and sell them on the streets. You have your cherries packed up in certain amounts, so you dont wanna give out samples. If someone asks you for samples, you say: Come back in the evening, we will walk to the cherry tree, and i´ll let you pick one or two cherries. So it happens. You stand there, watching as the potential costumer makes his samples. He doesnt leave though, when he is done sampling and your house is a bit far away to watch him from there. Or he could just come back, now that he knows, where your cherry tree is....

Conclusion: You either need a fence around the tree, watch the tree all the time, or do not talk about the path to the tree.

 

[Registered]

I actually asked the torrent question when the EUIII demo was coming out. The answer, at the time, was that the sites where you can download the demo do not like the competition and these sites are important to Paradox since a lot of people read their reviews.
i think that's a sensible argument even if i don't like it.

I never use Torrents due to piracy.

Sorry but that makes no sense at all. It's like saying you don't use the internet on account of piracy. There are trackers out there that offer legal content only. (demos, patches and so on).

 

[semaphore]

I never use Torrents due to piracy.

Torrents is not a bad thing, its an excellent delivery platform. Piracy will always exist and torrent is just an unfortunate casualty from the negative public opinion of pirates.

That said...

So ban your prejudice
and open your mind.

It's their forum, if Paradox doesn't like something they have every right to disallow you from doing it. You may think they are wrong about not liking torrents but that's besides the point, we all have things we don't want to see in our house regardless of right or wrong and this is apparently one for Paradox. I'm surprised that this thread is still open.

 

[Doma]

I never use Torrents due to piracy.

You should stop using FTP aswell then.
All the warez topsites use FTP!

Also, make sure to never burn a cd.
People used them to trade pirated software back in the day!!

Just silly...

So when you download a new linux distro, you rather use the swamped http mirrors because someone uses the other superiour tech to swap pirated stuff?