Philosony: The demo cometh
by Kylie Prymus 
{ Sep 20th 2008 at 12:00PM }
I say newly discovered because this type of gamer could not have existed several years ago. Sure there were the PC gamers who were occasionally blessed with a downloadable demos (usually after the full game's release), but rarely were these demos consolidated in one place. With modern consoles having become full time netizens, however, demos have changed their status from being the haphazard bone thrown out to increase a game's lagging sales, to becoming fully fleshed out and highly anticipated "micro" games complete with unlockables and online play! Not since getting those bulky 2-disc PlayStation Underground mailers 10 years ago (with fashionably shameless easter eggs plugging musicians on Sony's label) have I been so excited about trying out games I would otherwise have no interest in!
But excitement alone does not a completus demotaris make. The defining feature of this lower primate - nay, its telos, its raison
I must note that gaming, for me, is a hobby. A very serious hobby. 
One might go so far as to say call me an "enthusiast" if the word didn't evoke images of stuffy sommaliers in tweed suits. The point is that I'm not a professional game journalist or developer, so I have no reason to feel an obligation to play every demo that pokes its finger in my firewall, much less to play them ad nauseum (a phrase which here signifies the Latin precursor to Godwin's Law). So why do it? As an avid movie watcher I don't aspire to see every trailer that's released, nor do I scour the "search inside" section of books on Amazon or constantly listen to sound clips from bands. What makes game demos so special? Their relative scarcity? Their interactivity?
One might go so far as to say call me an "enthusiast" if the word didn't evoke images of stuffy sommaliers in tweed suits. The point is that I'm not a professional game journalist or developer, so I have no reason to feel an obligation to play every demo that pokes its finger in my firewall, much less to play them ad nauseum (a phrase which here signifies the Latin precursor to Godwin's Law). So why do it? As an avid movie watcher I don't aspire to see every trailer that's released, nor do I scour the "search inside" section of books on Amazon or constantly listen to sound clips from bands. What makes game demos so special? Their relative scarcity? Their interactivity?Perhaps this is a holdover from the days when demos were extremely rare and sought after items. I'm sure I'm not the only sucker reading this who
A better explanation may be that I lack the time to be a completist about all of the full length games I want to play so I have to pick on poor, defenseless demos to feel good about myself. It may take me at most an hour to discover the ins and outs of a demo, where a sandbox game like GTAIV would have clocked 40 or more. Call me a close relative of the trophy-whore, but 40 maxed out demos sounds better than 1 maxed out game to me. Sorry Niko, I think we need to see other people.
What about you? Any self-identified demo dweebs like me out there? Why do you find them so compelling? How often do demos do for you what is, on paper at least, their purpose - get you to buy a game that you might have otherwise overlooked?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eris @ Sep 20th 2008 12:12PM
do you have apple kool aid?
benny boy @ Sep 20th 2008 12:29PM
I have to agree with you there Kylie. I have basically filled up my 60GB hard-drive with game demos, game trailers and movie trailers. I've still got the demo for Skate (which I must have played at least 20 times over), Motorstorm (the original) and quite a few more.
I haven't actually played most of them for months but I feel satisified just knowing that they're there to replay at any time.
Recently, my hard-drive became full so I had to delete (reluctantly) quite a few of my demos just to make space for some new demos and the Ratchet and Clank: QFB game which I know will stay on my hard-drive for at least a year despite for the fact that I probable won't actually play it again.
Fane @ Sep 20th 2008 4:45PM
I'm right there with benny boy. I used to keep videos and music on my PS3, but they've all been shunted to a 320 GB USB drive, to make space for more demos. I'm now at the point where I have to delete demos just so I can download the new ones and it pains me to do so, even though I haven't played most of them in months.
I also keep demos until I feel I've given them a fair opportunity to hook me, but I'm not as obsessive as Kylie (thank God ;) ). Some, however, I am able to delete immediately.
Also, I didn't download NASCAR.
Superbean @ Sep 20th 2008 12:33PM
Well i do download every demo that comes out and play it but that is where that ends. Unless its the greatest game in the world then theres no reason to play it again. and theres no way i wuld pick a demo over a game. even 40 of them. they just stop at a certain point but i need to know the story.
Superbean @ Sep 20th 2008 12:35PM
Well i do download every demo that comes out and play it but that is where that ends. Unless its the greatest game in the world then theres no reason to play it again. and theres no way i wuld pick a demo over a game. even 40 of them. they just stop at a certain point but i need to know the story.
themizarkshow @ Sep 20th 2008 12:57PM
I download every demo and play it through to completion at least once. If it interested me, I play it again. And possibly again... unless the game is out. Then I just go buy it.
If the demo didn't peak my interest however, I usually just beat it once, let it sit on my hdd for a few weeks, and then finally play it one last time before it walks the plank. I am more of an achievement/trophy whore than a completist. But I can definitely see the strong relation between them.
jeff z @ Sep 20th 2008 12:54PM
I am a demo-whore. "Whore" meaning I get with them, have my way, then leave them...only to return if they are worth it.
I feel I have this relationship with them due to garbage games being release and me being reluctant to spend cash not knowing whether the game I just bought is crap or not. Unfortunately, I seem to just keep playing the demos...I have some games (a total of 7) but I feel thats all worth owning at the moment...until then...I have my demos....
Fane @ Sep 20th 2008 4:46PM
Wouldn't that make you a john?
jeff z @ Sep 20th 2008 6:02PM
Hrm....I believe you are right....so the demos are the whores...cheap whores....that I love and cant get enough of
Averna @ Sep 21st 2008 7:58PM
So cheap they are free *shudder*
ChocoDK @ Sep 20th 2008 12:55PM
I do download every demo that is released each week regardless of the genre. My HDD did fill up thanks to demos. I don't download though all the videos though or the wallpaper/themes. However, demos do serve a lot of fun (very few of them to me though) but otherwise I prefer the whole game. The 1942 demo though that one is enough for me to not need the full game.
doc j @ Sep 20th 2008 1:05PM
Well, I heard that only Nazi's deleted demos.
Also, the first time I've ever seen taxonomic spelled that way. I feel as if I've been missing out.
davebo @ Sep 20th 2008 1:07PM
Close relative of the trophy whore? That's funny, but you do realize the trophy whores at least have something to show for their obsessive compulsive behavior?
Tim Parsons @ Sep 20th 2008 1:14PM
yeah same here i donwload and play through all Demos released,.well with one exception i dont always play through all sports games(most but a few i just check for a brief)
strike @ Sep 20th 2008 1:16PM
I thought this weeks article was a bit week........but keep 'em coming :)
strike @ Sep 20th 2008 1:16PM
I thought this weeks article was a bit week........but keep 'em coming :)
Fane @ Sep 20th 2008 4:49PM
Twice, and you still couldn't spell "weak" right. /jk
strike @ Sep 20th 2008 6:08PM
Hey, dude, i think fane is spelled gai
Joe14k @ Sep 20th 2008 1:19PM
My hd is telling me to delete some of the 30+ demos it has. I keep them for a while because sometimes they serve me as "quick play games" (there's not a lot of loading) while im waiting for someone or something to be ready.
Hasan @ Sep 20th 2008 2:08PM
That point about having the good feeling of finishing the demo is soooo true to me :D ! It doesn't take much time, you finish it quickly and happily, plus you have online play! Sweet!
Dahk @ Sep 20th 2008 2:27PM
Damn I fully identify with you there hahaha. Every demo and trailer I've watched and/or played through fully. Also, my 60GB fills up SO FAST with them that I have to constantly delete things I don't want to delete =/. For some reason, collecting them has also been a part of this species for me... and deleting them feels like I've lost a part of me (cheesy, but still).
Thing to note though. *raises hand* I fully bought and traded Zone of Enders for the Sons of Liberty demo.
DekenFrost @ Sep 20th 2008 3:28PM
I have always loved demos. I remember having countles playstation magazine cd`s playing every demo as if it was a full game. Back then i didnt have the money to actually BUY every game.
Then The PC Age came and demos where much easier to obtain. I may not be a completist and download every demo nowadays, but i enjoy trying out new things.
Now i bought myself a playstation 3 (it just came yesterday) and instead of playing MGS4 which came packaged with the console (absolutely wicked game by the way) i spend most of the time downloading demos. Well it does take its time since i only have a 2k connection .. so while i wait i have enough time to play mgs4 after all ^^
Anyway, i understand your addiction and share it to some degree ...... *waiting for the wall-e demo to finish...*
Jacksons @ Sep 20th 2008 6:42PM
Haha, same scenario here. I just got the thing, I have a shiny copy of Ratchet right in front of me, yet here I am downloading a bazillion demos. Currently, Insomniac's other game.
Phil0926 @ Sep 20th 2008 3:53PM
Actually the PC age was long before your Console Magazine demo CD age. I was getting PC Magazine and PC Gamer back on the early 90s with demo disk and floppys lol. Also when AOL was big back in the mid 90s bout a year before PS1 was even released, DEMOs and Shareware were HUGE. But yeah i agree, i remember loving demos, i think gaming nowadays lost the love for Demos though, they just arent the same. I remember when you bought new PC back in the day the companies who made them would slip in all kinds of Demos and Shareware. I cant even tell you how many times i played Duke Nukem 3D and Big Red Racing shareware.
Memories
DekenFrost @ Sep 21st 2008 4:18AM
yeah, very true. Before i had a Ps1 my "konsole" of choice was the amiga :)
I litteraly had boxes full of shareware and demo disks from magazines and what not.
jae29one @ Sep 20th 2008 4:12PM
Download, Play and Delete..
Ekon @ Sep 20th 2008 4:23PM
Usually i play threw a Demo many many times, see the ups and downs of the game then i might go rent it from blockbuster, or even buy it. I played the star wars demo and i was compelled by that so I'm going to go buy that today or whenever i get up. Unless there is something else I'm not aware of right now...Oh noes....
Fane @ Sep 20th 2008 4:54PM
Okay, this is the second time you've used "threw" for "through", so I must comment.
If you want a quick alternative, "thru" is incorrect, but often used.
Proper grammar FTW.
pliny5678 @ Sep 20th 2008 4:28PM
I had to force myself to delete some demos because I have so many movies and TV shows that I'd rather have on there. The only demos I've kept are the two Heavenly Sword ones and both Folklore demos because I've rented games, but I'm not going to buy them.
Axe99 @ Sep 20th 2008 5:15PM
Go Fane, you editing thing. You must have noticed that the grammatical standard on PS3Fanboy was pretty good (which it is - some of the lower-profile gaming sites are atrocious, and even IGN can have its shockers).
As for demos, up until a few weeks ago I played every one (and if it wasn't for a demo, I'd've _never_ picked up Everybody's Golf, but the demo hooked me and I loved the game) - but I'd caution against not playing full games at their expense - there's a depth to gameplay that designers often develop over a course of a game that demos will never be able to show you. And, of course, story-based games will never be as strong in demo form. But, at the end of the day, if you're having fun, then keep demo-ing - it's the fun that it's all about, after all :)
JaseH @ Sep 20th 2008 5:35PM
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
_____________________
Kylie Prymus.
turkeybaster @ Sep 20th 2008 11:41PM
_____________________
Jase H.
_____________________
Jase H.
_____________________
Jase H.
_____________________
Jase H.
_____________________
Jase H.
_____________________
Jase H.
Seriously.
JaseH @ Sep 21st 2008 12:37AM
Get it right next time.
Seriously.
_____________________
JaseH.
HiddenEmerald @ Sep 20th 2008 6:00PM
While I do dl every demo, most of them I just delete right off the bat. However, there are a few that I am addicted to. Battlefield: Bad Company comes to mind. I played the demo more than I played my other games, going online. Unfortuently, the online was stopped. But thats ok. Cause I got the game. I also play Quake Wars (demo) and the Nartuo Ultimate Ninja Storm demo. Fatal Inertia, too, but thankfully the psn cards came out and I can get it
Groundskeeper Willie @ Sep 20th 2008 6:46PM
I used to download most demos, now I download very few, and I delete many of those without playing them as well. I just find them unsatisfying. I also think they fail as a marketing tool; I can't remember the last time I played one that resulted in me making a purchase I wasn't going to make anyway.
People only like them because it's free gaming. I don't get enough time to play the games I buy, never mind any old demo they happen to stick on the store.
Windmill @ Sep 20th 2008 7:16PM
Yeah, well, in New Zealand, most of us are on 10 gig's of bandwidth a month for like $60. So we can't download demos and what not
ps3fanbot @ Sep 20th 2008 8:19PM
OMG! All this time I thought only I had problems of collecting every single demo!
When MGS4 came about, I ran into storage space problem. Demos and games I had left me only 3GB free from my original 60GB.
At this rate, I probably had to delete full game installations too.
So I figured upgrading to 320GB will be worth it.
Now I have about 170GB free in my HDD.
I also have an 80GB external HDD dedicated for music and movies storage on PS3.
I'm using original 60GB from PS3 as my laptop external (NOTE: You can also use it with PS3 if you want).
It's all win win situation. I recommend upgrading your HDD for all you demo whores! I think 500GB should be out now!
Sancho @ Sep 21st 2008 8:46AM
just got my 320 gig ps3 and i'm working on downloading every demo from the store unless i have the full game..... PSN-Sancho45
Chris G @ Sep 20th 2008 8:47PM
Guys,
What is the point of keeping demos on your hard disk you are not playing? Have you noticed that non of the demos are ever 'removed' from the PSN store? This means when you want to play it again you go and download it again! Cheaper than a new disk.
Chris
turkeybaster @ Sep 20th 2008 11:41PM
All this talk about short and sweet bites of gameplay from demos gets me thinking: what if Sony were to develop some sort of ubergame with an overarching storyline, but a ton of disparate game types (think Wario-Ware, but less mini-gamey). That might be a cool idea. Flying a space-fighter one minute, having slo-mo kung-fu battles at a birthday party, chugging hot sauce, outrunning poodles, rescuing a man-sel in distress, etc.
meatee @ Sep 21st 2008 12:23AM
I have a similar problem, but mine actually involves money. In addition to videos and demos, I also feel compelled to almost always buy every PSN title. There's a few that I don't have, but I've bought quite a few. I just recently installed a 320gb hard drive, just so I can continue to feed my PSN addiction.
kentuckyfried @ Sep 21st 2008 3:59AM
hahaha...it's funny what you said about the Zone of Enders game. I ended up keeping the MGS2 demo, but instead of re-sale I think I returned it to Gamestop sans the demo inside, and they took it back. =D Or maybe I sold ZOE on Ebay? I can't remember.
As for the demo's themselves, it's ridiculous. I will pretty much download everything that pleases my eye, but the irony is that I don't play 80% of them b/c they seem to take forever to install at times. I have to *really* want to try something before I play it. As a result, most of the racing game demo's have been deleted really quickly. There's about 10 psp demo's I've yet to place onto the psp (which I haven't played since probably December 2006 for MGS portable ops). At some point (maybe now since you wrote this article), I'll hunker down and install of them so I can at least erase them off of my hard drive.
It's the relative ease with which the demo's can be downloaded, and their usefulness as a tool (I decided to pass on buying the Force Unleashed), that I can only imagine that there will be more and more demo's to come.
Icebear42 @ Sep 21st 2008 6:11AM
Contrats Sony. PSN has come a long way for this new creature to emerge.
I used to download all that was given every week. Now I even delete old demos long covered in digital spiderweb. And not all is downloaded anymore.
nesstee @ Sep 21st 2008 5:40PM
I used to play demos in such a rabid manner untill the point I realized that i liked the demos ~better~ than the full game it self or in some fashion, the full game became a let down as it was not a tightly packed package of repeated awesomeness.
corbin @ Sep 21st 2008 9:56AM
I love demos. I so wish that there was a reviewer and quality scale out there for demos alone. So you could see the best demos available and which ones were crap. Something like "this demo is 5min. and not representative of the full games quality" or "This demo will take a good hour to get through and is a great representation of the full game" Too often demos are created with an early build of the game and don't show what the game play will actually feel like with the full game.
Jack Tretton @ Sep 21st 2008 10:44AM
What's next week's Philsony article going to be? How you arrange your game boxes? The style in which you wrapped your controller cords "back in the day"?
Oh, and you try way too hard to sound like you're a "Ph.D candidate in philosophy [who] specializes in the sociology of technology." Keep in mind who your audience is, and stop reaching for your thesaurus every third sentence.
Gonzo @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:23PM
Plentiful free demos are perhaps the greatest thing about this generation of gaming; that and custom soundtracks & game building.
I didn't buy anything for my ps3 for a week after I got it because I was having so much fun with the demos. It probably would've been longer it it weren't for the GTA4 launch.
I'm very greatful for the demos as they show me the sad truth of games I was looking forward to (and preparing to pay full price for) like SW Force Unleashed (oh my disappointment when I realized the Boss battles were done by QTE).
Currently I'm playing the Mercs2 demo to death. I would get the full version but my friend said that I may as well just play the demo over and over to get the same basic experience.
OddyOh @ Sep 25th 2008 10:35PM
I usually do download every demo, unless it's something I really don't care about, but I'll often play these things once and delete them. Lots of junk out there.
Waden @ Oct 26th 2008 5:45PM
Lego Batman demo has so much replayibility...i find myself downloading every demo and challenge myself to get "100" percent on each.