3 ms·

There's still plenty of options to "try before you buy" in the legal market. If its a game, you can rent it, or borrow it from some friend. In many platforms ga

by mtoledo 17y ago

There's still plenty of options to "try before you buy" in the legal market. If its a game, you can rent it, or borrow it from some friend. In many platforms games will have a demo for you to download before you play. Most magazines and websites will have reviews, maybe even video ones, about that game. Most movies have a trailer you can watch before watching the movie, ebooks have sample chapters, etc.

harry 17y ago
Just a .02$ story about renting from about two years ago. I never really rented before this but was making enough money finally to say 'eh what the hell.' I rented three games in a row from the local hollywood video for my 360 that were unplayable in some way. One was 'ringed' by another user, another was scratched just enough to lock up after the entry video and the third didn't boot at all. After the third trip back down the block to tell them 'hey this doesn't play either' I just downloaded the game and played it on my PC. Needless to say, I haven't tried renting a game again.
Groxx 17y ago
If its a game, you can rent it, or borrow it from some friend. Ah, not if it's a DRM'd PC game. Many allow it, but try doing that with a Steam game. You're stuck with the often-inaccurate demo version of the game. And if you're talking about a console game, where do you go and who do you know to find all games you may be interested in? I generally have less than 10% success rate when visiting rental places, and that's not including foreign language titles that aren't available anywhere here. Reviews are extremely poor substitutes for a good demo, in the same way that arm-chair theorizing is a poor substitute for field experience. And don't feed me bullshit about movie trailers being in any way a good measurement of what the movie will be like. Does reading a book really get you to understand what army life is like? To make matters worse, good demos are hard to come by, as most are relatively crippled compared to what you'd be buying (games and regular apps). If the demo doesn't demonstrate why I'd want it, or implies things that aren't true, I claim false advertising. And this is assuming there even is a demo version.
- mtoledo 17y ago
  But of course. I understand all of those complaints, and I think they all make sense. Though, look at how spoiled we've become by piracy. Now, we say we'd only buy something if we the exact same experience as we'll have with the final product. A demo is sometimes far from the game experience? yep. Movie trailers are bullshit? Sometimes, yes they are! Movie synopsis then? Even more! Now, think about all the other things you buy. You can't really go to a car shop and say: "Hi. I'm looking for a car to cross the us. So, in order for it to be really like my final experience, I'll need to borrow it for at least a week.". Or like, "Hi, I want to try a Mac. Of course the factory Mac doesnt' help me much, so I'll borrow it for a day to install emacs/vi, some terminal scripts, quicksilver and see if it suits me well". The list goes on. Specially with all the other non-pirated items, we have to make a decision about the buying the final product before we've had access to the final product. It's really up to the producer which means he'll provide you, as a sales mechanism, to try his product before you make your buying decision. Not being able to have the full experience before you buy, specially with some kinds of products (some books, some games, most movies) is critical to selling it. It's not the consumer's right to take by force the final experience from the producer to make a buying decision.

by mtoledo 17y ago

harry 17y ago

Just a .02$ story about renting from about two years ago. I never really rented before this but was making enough money finally to say 'eh what the hell.' I rented three games in a row from the local hollywood video for my 360 that were unplayable in some way. One was 'ringed' by another user, another was scratched just enough to lock up after the entry video and the third didn't boot at all. After the third trip back down the block to tell them 'hey this doesn't play either' I just downloaded the game and played it on my PC. Needless to say, I haven't tried renting a game again.

Groxx 17y ago

If its a game, you can rent it, or borrow it from some friend. Ah, not if it's a DRM'd PC game. Many allow it, but try doing that with a Steam game. You're stuck with the often-inaccurate demo version of the game. And if you're talking about a console game, where do you go and who do you know to find all games you may be interested in? I generally have less than 10% success rate when visiting rental places, and that's not including foreign language titles that aren't available anywhere here. Reviews are extremely poor substitutes for a good demo, in the same way that arm-chair theorizing is a poor substitute for field experience. And don't feed me bullshit about movie trailers being in any way a good measurement of what the movie will be like. Does reading a book really get you to understand what army life is like? To make matters worse, good demos are hard to come by, as most are relatively crippled compared to what you'd be buying (games and regular apps). If the demo doesn't demonstrate why I'd want it, or implies things that aren't true, I claim false advertising. And this is assuming there even is a demo version.

mtoledo 17y ago
But of course. I understand all of those complaints, and I think they all make sense. Though, look at how spoiled we've become by piracy. Now, we say we'd only buy something if we the exact same experience as we'll have with the final product. A demo is sometimes far from the game experience? yep. Movie trailers are bullshit? Sometimes, yes they are! Movie synopsis then? Even more! Now, think about all the other things you buy. You can't really go to a car shop and say: "Hi. I'm looking for a car to cross the us. So, in order for it to be really like my final experience, I'll need to borrow it for at least a week.". Or like, "Hi, I want to try a Mac. Of course the factory Mac doesnt' help me much, so I'll borrow it for a day to install emacs/vi, some terminal scripts, quicksilver and see if it suits me well". The list goes on. Specially with all the other non-pirated items, we have to make a decision about the buying the final product before we've had access to the final product. It's really up to the producer which means he'll provide you, as a sales mechanism, to try his product before you make your buying decision. Not being able to have the full experience before you buy, specially with some kinds of products (some books, some games, most movies) is critical to selling it. It's not the consumer's right to take by force the final experience from the producer to make a buying decision.