Demo to Help Stop Piracy?

You bought no pre-order, but the early access to a playable light first build, and all following development builts until full version. Last time I checked their shop description, they were very clear about that in their wording:

"Assetto Corsa is already in advanced state of completion. Meanwhile some features and structures are under progress and testing, the developers have decided to offer the immediate access to the basic features and contents included in the game, to satisfy the requests of the AC followers. A first, light build of Assetto Corsa is now available for download on Steam Early Access.

The first build of Assetto Corsa includes the main structure of the game and 8 classes of cars for a total number of 11 vehicles, with the aim to guarantee just from the beginning the chance to enjoy the dynamic model of the game racing with different kind of vehicles.

Players can buy the game saving 22% of the retail price, getting the access to the beta version, including its updates, and they will receive the final version of the game, when it will be released, without any additional charge."

A pre-order is something different. You order something early - and get nothing until the production is finished.

 

I think there should be a demo at 1.0. Not just any demo but a very generous demo featuring a few cars and tracks with set-up possibilities, and the devs actually spend some time on it. A mini game where drivers can win upgrades, skins, tires and even some extra cars and tracks for winning races and for setting hot-lap times. Interesting enough that when the servers are a bit empty someone who owns the game might think about jumping on a demo server for a bit of fun. The reason being, get those many GT, Forza, Grid, F1 etc people utterly addicted to AC, buying wheels if they don't already have them and growing the PC sim racing community which will maybe help give Kunos a healthy financial future, which means more future content for us. With lots of updates through Steam to make the complete Sim as hard to pirate as hard as possible.

 

Sorry, this is the internet for you. Not wanting to get specific about AC on this point because I'm not sure how I feel about the AC pre-order stuff yet.

I said I paid for an early version of AC over on RD forums and was crucified over there for saying as such, and saying I'd pre-ordered it and that early access as a 'gift' from the KS dev team for doing so. Or words to that effect.



In any case my point still stands "generally". Paying for stuff that isn't finished does weird things to expectations/motivations in my view... especially at this kind of per-unit pricing range.

A demo would be a nice thing to see so you can properly try things out before money comes into the equation at all. I can go look at a car without having to buy it first, same with houses, same with a bed, a sofa, a gun, a handbag, a pair of trousers, a pen, etc etc. Imagine having to buy some jeans before you could try them on, at which point you decided you didn't like them. It'd be retarded. But with games we seem to do it. No matter how many reviews you read or whatever else, they might just not be your kinda jeans when you get to that final trying on stage.



How this all effects piracy is another matter, and how it might effect piracy on AC is another matter again.

The only reason I can think why people won't offer a demo is that they will lose buyers, but they will only lose buyers for whom the product isn't suited anyway. And if product isn't suitable for people then you shouldn't make them have to buy it to find that out. That is just completely stupid and retarded business.

Thankfully that business model hasn't made it's way into buying jeans yet haha

Dave

 

I saw the pirated AC on a torrent tracker. Unfortunatley it is nonsense to

i saw ac on a torrent tracker. pointless to report it

 

You seem like an intelligent guy that probably knows how to read quite well....You knew going in that you were buying a game that is unfinished with many features missing....If you had so many unanswered questions before buying AC why wouldn't you wait until V1.0 was released to buy it, especially if there would be a demo at that point you could try? The simple fact is that people are impatient and you made a choice to risk being disappointed with the reward of having AC right now instead of waiting. Nobody forced you to buy during early access, nobody convinced you that if you don't buy now it will never be available again. You are a grown adult and you made a choice to spend your money on a incomplete game that is constantly changing with every build. The fact that you are unhappy with your choice is nobody's fault but your own for being impatient.

If paying for stuff that isn't finished does weird things to your expectations/motivations than FFS don't buy things in early access. If you know that devs plan on supporting a product for 5 years once it is released common sense tells you that there will be DLC or micro-transactions or some other way that the dev team will have to make money over that time; it honestly doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out yet I remember you acting shocked that part of their business plan included DLC.

The only people that don't understand and are confused about early access are the ones that really should have waited for V1.0 because being impatient and clueless make a bad combo. (looking at all the people crying about not getting a downloadable gift on Christmas)

 

I made a mistake I guess. I wanted to support KS but was probably premature in doing so looking back.

As time has passed its become more obvious AC isn't gonna be what I expected at v1.0.

Hey ho.

 

Slightly OT:
The latest three early accesses I got are PCars, BeamNG and AC.
With PCars I subscribed very early, I think a couple years ago, before they had released anything. I downloaded only one or two builds, just to realize that I was driving a sofa and that the code wasn't optimized enough to run on a weak laptop. I never thought to go and protest to PCars' forum: they had no responsability on my choice, I simply lost interest in their product and forgot it. Money well spent? I think yes.
BeamNG: I played sometimes with my 7 y.o. son. We loved to crash cars together. You can't do much more with that software, and I ended not using it in a while. I never thought to go to their forum and protest, because - e.g. - the simulator couldn't be driven with a steering wheel: I should have taken the time to inform myself. Not their fault. Money well spent? Uh yes! Big laughs with my son
I bought AC early access without thinking, because I knew kunos for netKar-Pro and for FVA. I knew a bit Stefano and Aris after reading their posts on some forums, and I appreciated their way to talk in a clear way, and their capacity to express their own points of view in a sincere way. I knew I wouldn't have regret the little investement since the beginning, but anyways: what if AC would have broken my thoughts and expectations?
Would I have to consider kunos in charge of dealing with my own expectations? I think they have to do software the best they can. What I understand or what I thrust, this isn't their business.
Money well spent? Yes, up to now it is very well spent. Furthermore: kunos only makes AC. Who sells it is Steam (your partner in the Agreement you signed to buy the Early Access under the condition of no-refund). Maybe if you go to their forum and protest, they will help you for the next time. I wouldn't go, but we are all free.

Back IT: I think a demo wouldn't help with piracy. It may help loyal customers to test the software before they buy, but it wouldn't change a bit with pirated copies. rFactor and LFS are demoes until you unlock them, and the internet is literally full of pirated copies of both of them.

 

Pirates always feel the need to get one over...so.. No.
While a demo is good for allowing potential customers the opportunity to try the software, it will not deter them one bit.
A pirate simply will not be satisfied with just a demo...the urge/challenge to get it for free dictates they get the whole game.
It's sad because I think the game is very good and fairly priced.

 

Quite right. The mindset of the pirate is simply to get the game or movie for free. Once you get that mindset, that everything is free, and is a challenge, it's very hard to shake that, and a demo is an irrelevance. And most of the time, the pirate, feeding their piracy addiction, wouldn't have bought the game anyway.

 

My personal experience. I bought LFS because of their demo, AC because of NKP. If I hadn't tried NKP, I might probably download a cracked version to see if I like it, too.

 

Pirates gonna pirate.
Doesn't matter if there is a demo or not.. They might try the demo and go "Oh nice, better pirate this"

 

I know of dudes who have steam accounts because the store/sales page that opens when you log into Steam gives them ideas for what to pirate next.

Like so many have said, and I agree, pirates will pirate. A demo will not change this. However, having a demo is still a good idea.

I bought Assetto Corsa the day it came out on Early Access. A few of my Steam friends had bought it and they wouldn't leave me be until I had it too. No regrets. There's a few in our group who are not convinced by our praise of the game so far. I would love to shove a demo in their faces.

 

Yep you never going to stop software pirates because for a lot of them its sport , and I believe its not the big revenue loss they try and make out because the guys with pirate copys were NEVER going to buy the software anyway , I hate it when software developers try and make a legit purchaser jump through so many hoops just to play while the pirates crack and run it easier than a guy that paid his money .

 

unfortunately with such a vast range of quality in games, demos are a must for the savvy consumer. I've bought too many games that are simply crap. it's not just the outright purchase price that i have to consider, but also the download costs (i'm not on unlimited bandwidth or downloads).

 

To be honest, i would not even know assetto corsa without pirates. I noticed the game from one tracker, googled it and bought it right away, cause of the upcoming mp.

Demo will not remove pirating, but it would give a nice first touches to the game. Cause theres allways possibility that the game will suck. Large game companies releace so much games that should not be releaced at that point. And they just copy the earlier game with new content. For example current F1 series. I dont feel buing em, cause they will not work properly before 5th patch and content is the same old, same old.. ;D I think this kind of games are the ones that will be pirated the most.

 

I agree that a demo wont stop a pirate why would they get a demo when they can try the full game. If there are ways of stopping pirate copies racing online at least that will be a good thing as many that pirate will quite likely like the game quite a bit and want to race online so they will have to buy.

If no way of stopping them at least make one car model that is a big pirate ship anchored to the start line so the pirates cant drive it too far online and will be visible to all others.

 

I do not believe that a demo will stop or even minimise piracy. Not every download is a lost sale, it is only a potential lost sale and the developers need to do what they can to turn those downloads into a sale. As has been mentioned previously some will download it and never pay and nothing anybody does will change that, those that are undecided and have downloaded need to be given some incentive to then pay and the product needs to be as accessible as the downloaded version.

 

From other games, always on internet and micro updates seem to be the best ways to combat pirates.

I tend to be quite selective about the games I buy, unless something's on sale. If your gaming interest is very niche then you really need to support those developers. I've been sim gaming long enough to see 99% of my favourite developers go out of business. The remaining ones I buy everything they produce, even if it's not 100% my thing.

 

I pirated the game before deciding to buy. With so many sims on the market there is no way I am buying them before choosing one the stick with.