Buying decision, not so easy...

[NNKK]

When I first ran into SE3, I downloaded Malfador's demo.
It wasn't restricted to how many turns you could play or anything, just had restrictions on technologies and such that made it worthwile to purchase the full Version.
I spent about a week playing Space Empires III before I finnaly decided to fork over the cash for it. I'd played probably several hundred to a thousand turns.
Now enter SE4... so far the game itself looks good aside from some bugs which apparently still exist in the gold demo, and a few interface design decisions that I'm sure I'll get used to.
But there's a catch... I can only play the demo for 100 turns at a game, in addition to the technology restrictions.
Now while it's entirely up to the author/publisher to decide how the demo is to operate, I must say that I think 100 turns per game on a demo may be a very bad idea, as it is affecting my decision about wether or not to buy the full game a *lot*.
Prehaps if it was 200 turns I'd be able to make the decision, but then what about the next guy who needs 300? or 500? there are going to be people who really do not have much money to spend on games and would like to be really sure before purchasing a game... my budget is not that my life would be affected if I bought a game and later felt the money wasn't worth it, but I would prefer not to throw money away, and it may be easier to simply not purchase the game than not be sure if I'm going to like it.

In summary, turn limit on the demo was probably just a bad idea... if you wanted to be sure, put other restrictions on the demo, say restrict the quadrant size, or make races less customizable.
As it is I feel very much like I'm playing a SEVERELY crippled and stripped down Version of the game that really doesn't allow me to easily decide wether or not I really want this game.

EDIT: I think I should add just so there's no misunderstanding here, that this is in no way a flame towards anyone... I'm not trying to make anyone look stupid or anything, I'm just pointing out that it may not have been a good decision to limit the number of turns in the demo.

[This message has been edited by NNKK (edited 13 October 2000).]