No need for cracking anymore ?

[codeminion]

Recently we have been researching some games similar to the one we are currently working on. We were playing it for quite a long time and even got to some of the higher levels (ahh those time-only limits) and we wanted to play more just to check out the features.

What did we do ? Did we buy the full version ? Hell no (but we would have if we had the money ;) ) Instead we simply downloaded the demo from another publisher. "Thankfully" the app saved it's profile data in an publisher independant spot thus we could simply continue for another hour.

As we look at it, we think this could be quite a problem when there are more game stores and publishers having apps wrapped in their own systems/arcades.

What do you think ?

Cheers :)

[Tertsi]

I don't really think that usual casual gamers would just go and download the same demo from another publisher so he could play it again. Such people would usually rather just download the full, cracked version. :(

However there are annoying publishers for the game's developer because of these publishers' own systems. For example PopCap doesn't seem to use Trymedia's privacy protection (ActiveMARK). Therefore crackers have an easy job when they just take an unprotected or poorly protected publisher's version and crack it.

[papillon]

As long as you're using a bit of content limitation along with time limitation, I think the ability to restore your time amount could be a good thing.

The buyer who doesn't cave and buy the game immediately when time runs out can go download it again and play more... keeping the game in their mind instead of just throwing it away... but they're *still* not getting the whole game, and if they have to keep downloading it repeatedly, I would think this might make them think "You know, I'd save myself some time if I just bought it..."

Of course, that only works out if your game is really addictive and they don't get sick of it with extra time to try it out. :)