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Poulet7

What happened to try before you buy game stores?

i was just thinking, what happened to gamestop allowing people to try out a game before you could buy it. i remember back around the time of ps1, even some of ps2, i could walk into a funcoland or gamestop, and they would let you play a game you were about to buy. it helped in letting parents see what there child was playing, and allowed the player to give it a try. i know that now days you can easily download a demo, but there are still some games that don't have demos. The last time i was able to do that at a game store was gamestop. it was when la pucelle tactics came out in 2004 and i wanted to try it cause i wasn't sure. i miss getting that kind of customer service in a game store. now its all about reserves, subscriptions, driving up there sales, and reselling used games and giving lil to no money back to developers so they can continue there awesome work. I still kinda like game stop, heck i worked for them in college. they help and hurt the gaming industry, but i'll save that for another rant. i was just wondering, was i the only one that remembers this?
Viewed: 71 times
Added: 10 years, 11 months ago
 
Rally
10 years, 11 months ago
The same thing that happened to PC demos.

Forcing people to buy the game without knowing if it's any good means more money to the company, since most stores don't allow returns on opened media.
Poulet7
10 years, 11 months ago
OMG your so right. i never really noticed it but you are completely right. the last time i saw a demo for a pc game was like... back in 2005 when unreal tournament 3 came out. with pc being like one of the best gaming mediums, i would expect there to be hundreds of pc demos like every couple months. man.. your so right on that one. now days i just read reviews and ask around but your totally right. WTF happen to downloadable pc demos.
Rally
10 years, 11 months ago
Steam will get one once in a blue moon, but it's still ultra-rare to see. Indie games are more likely to have it, like Euro Truck Simulator 2. I actually got to try that out to see how awesome it was before paying $40 for the full version.

When game companies don't release demos or actual gameplay footage in their trailers, I just assume they don't have any faith in their own product.
kemosabe
10 years, 11 months ago
It's the death of customer service.  I was alive when you could have someone check your oil while you put in your gas, or for an extra dollar or two he'd fill your gas too.  *le sigh*
EvilDog
10 years, 11 months ago
some stores do still have it, Game and HMV in my local town have demo machines

but I've never asked about putting other games in to try out, so I'm not sure on their policy
AmaraMcLeod
10 years, 11 months ago
good to know some stores still have it hun :P

i know the prgram is gone completely as far as i know in New Mexico where i am from

not sure about other states
EvilDog
10 years, 11 months ago
it's different over in England
AmaraMcLeod
10 years, 11 months ago
pretty much like kemo just said, death of customer service

also a friend of mine worked at gamestop during those days and she said that alot of games were getting scratched up by employees and other reasons but that was the most important reason why

company did not insure against broken or scratched disk and they were hemmoraging money that way
Poulet7
10 years, 11 months ago
i would think that would be more of a employee problem. be like them stopping geeksquad from fixing computers cause they kept messing them up. you don't stop the service, you start firing bad incompetent workers. *sighs* such a shame.
AmaraMcLeod
10 years, 11 months ago
oh i couldnt agree with you more on that hun ^^

i miss those days
elix
10 years, 11 months ago
If you're a large, lawsuit and bad-PR-adverse company like Best Buy, and you want to make as much money as possible, the moment something even smells like it might be more trouble than it's worth, under the bus it goes. The welfare system'll handle the unemployed, so why the fuck not?

*gag*
soggymaster
10 years, 11 months ago
Rally's comment is precisely why I am very, very suspicious of titles that do not allow the press to see it during it's development.

As a result of me completely distrusting game reviews, except word-of-mouth, I have turned to watching actual game play prior to a purchase consideration.
Poulet7
10 years, 11 months ago
makes since. i usualy look at reviews and word of mouth. its so funny. i was so hyped about the new devil may cry yet scared to by it cause it seemed to good to be tru. it took me having to borrow the game from a friend and play like 4 lvls before buying it on steam. amazing game fyi. but yeah man. I'm a firm believer in buying a game to help a studio continue quality work. yet its so hard now days due to like of trustworthy sources on reviews and demos that give you very lil time to see if the game is worth it. then you have piracy. ill admit even ive done it. but if the game was good, ill gladly purchase it. its just a shame i have to reduce myself to doing it when the company doesn't take the time to make a demo that's longer then 15 minutes or releasing one at all.
soggymaster
10 years, 11 months ago
In this era of Youtube and Twitch, I honestly don't see much of a point in game demos when folks like Totalbiscuit and the Yogscast and others like them get pre-release code and are allowed to stream/VOD actual content.
Rally
10 years, 11 months ago
Playing something for yourself will always be better than watching someone else do it, in my opinion.
soggymaster
10 years, 11 months ago
While that is true for experiencing the game, that is not the case when making a buying decision.  Generally, the first 30 minutes or so of game play is sufficient to base a buying decision on.
Rally
10 years, 11 months ago
I still disagree, but that's why they're called opinions! XP
unsent
10 years, 11 months ago
If it's on PC, pirate it. Then if you like it buy it. That's what I do, most of the time.
Poulet7
10 years, 11 months ago
that's what ive been doing lately myself. i did that for farcry. player it for about 3 days and i liked it so much, i picked it up on steam. multilayer co-op is fun. :)
MystBunny
10 years, 11 months ago
We used to have a game rental place or two in every town, now they're all gone. They were gone before gamefly and netflix and the like, though, so don't know why. One of them even rented out the consoles themselves.
viviboi9
10 years, 11 months ago
I mostly play demos or read reviews about before i buy a game but I see what your saying but now a days some parents will filp on any violent games because they think there kids will be violent :l
celestiallupeo
10 years, 11 months ago
The world has slipped into a quarterly profit fundamental.

what this means is making the numbers better for every single quarter outweighs making better numbers for the entire year, even if it hurts the company in the end. The big wigs for all companies/corporations/franchises are looking to make quick profit now to fill their pockets which turns into our experiences suffering. Customer service cost money so that was the first thing to go, getting turned into being a robot to do what it's told. Some gamestops down here where i live still let you test drive games but it's few and far between. It's hard to find actual people in the shopping world but they're out there.
ShadowsInc
10 years, 11 months ago
There's a store called "Play N Trade" that sells everything from systems to merchandise, and everything from Atari 2600 to PS3 titles and systems. They also allow you to try ANY title in store before you buy. Also the allow you to simply play games all day for a small hourly fee, and $1 a day rentals :3
It's an AWESOME store and if you have one in the area check it out.
MeleeIB
10 years, 11 months ago
I still own a tonne of Demo discs, mostly Xbox (original), PS2 and PS1, I played the hell out of the Destroy all Humans on a PS2 demo disc before getting it many years later on the Xbox.

There are a lot of old games I haven't played yet want to, there's a shop that does preowned games in my local area (everything from NES to PS3) where if I spot a game I'm interested in, I'll buy it to see if I like it, and if I don't I bring it on back for something else. For recent games I usually just try the PS3 demos, though not all games have em.

That and with newer games I rarely buy new, so I'm usually waiting for a game to drop in price and by then a lot of games get a version with all DLC included (eg: I waited for Red Dead Redemption to go down in price and that got a Game of the Year edition)
SenGrisane
10 years, 11 months ago
I guess "Let's play" reviews replaced the self test. Nowadays I pretty much know if I like a game from watching the trailer or some lets play stuff. Only very rarely have I been disappointed (and most times a play test would not have revealed the problem either).
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