BioWare - Greg Zeschuk Interview @ CVG

[guenthar]

In copyright law it states you can have a copy of a copyrighted work you don't legally own for a 24 hour period and at that time you have to remove it.

That means it isn't piracy to download a game to try it then buy it or get rid of it as long as you do it in 24 hours.

I usually don't try demos myself since either the information available is enough for me to buy the game or I rent it from a local computer shop that rents computer games. The exceptions are if I just end up coming across the demo and try it or if the game has online activation which prevents game rental places from renting them out.

 

[Konjad]

That means it isn't piracy to download a game to try it then buy it or get rid of it as long as you do it in 24 hours.

That means I'm not pirating because I very rarely test games more than one day? Good to know Next time when I receive warning on the forum I'll have argument to defend myself

 

[booboo]

What about a demo?

Zeschuk: We've not really talked about a demo. ...

translation: "we have not planned a demo" in market-speak. This despite the fact they have had many months to think about it? Doesn't bode well for those of use who like demos I'm afraid. I understand all the usual excuses trotted out for why demos are 'bad', but I have been persuaded to buy many games on the basis of demos, and I do not have the unreasonable expectation that the demo will show off every aspect of the game in full. That's just dumb. All I need is enough to convince me it has some promise. I don't expect to see things like 'consequences' played out in full in a short demo. But i'd like to see combat, dragony stuff, magic/combat/stat system, gain a level or two, get a sense of the story. Things that introductory parts/level often already have. The intro level of Drakensang convinced me to buy it - and that after being very dubious! The intro was a convenient chunk they could snip out and distribute as a demo. I can't imagine *this* game is so complex and multi-layered that they could not do something similar.

 

[Lucky Day]

Devs don't really seem to be put off by people openly discussing piracy (and apparently even less by excessive swearing) if the Codex is any indication. They got a lot of high profile peeps from BioWare and Obsidian posting quite regulalry as far as I know.
That doesn't mean that I am pro-piracy (I am in fact NOT at all) but it's a fact that the Codex for some kind of reason attracts devs a lot more than the Watch.

that is true, I can't argue with that. They are more popular than we are though and have kept the same URL.

We have at least one case where a dev complained. I think it was Ian Currie who said he lurked here quite a bit but felt moved to set the record straight that Wizardry 8 was in no ways Abandonware despite Sir Tech Canada being out of business.

The irony it turns out is that Sir Tech Canada had absolutely no rights to the name Wizardry as a game. Andrew Greenberg was always paid a license fee by Sir Tech (US) and had been suing them for something like 10 years. Last we saw he was suing Sir Tech Canada in New York State over that.

 

[Tan]

They got a lot of high profile peeps from BioWare and Obsidian posting quite regulalry as far as I know.

Actually, noone from Bioware posts there. David Gaider used to, but he left after being constantly ridiculed by (some) forumites.

You're correct about Obsidian devs posting there.

 

[skavenhorde]

So the moral of this story is to start spouting out how I pirate everything and won't pay for it unless it meets my quality of standard and then the big dogs come in to say hi? lol, no thanks. I can't be that "cool"