its happened to me soo many times you play the demo but the demo is crap, so you dont buy the game. Kind of defeats the purpose of a game demo. Shouldnt you want to buy the game after you play the demo lol

The other way to look at it, producers release demos because people are more willing to try something free and therefore this trial could lead to purchases, it has happened many times with me. However yes there are some absolutely awful demos out there.

Well, demoes helped me choose not to buy the Simpson's Game (I'm a "buy it on day one" simpson's fan) and Clive Barker's Jericho.

I look at it this way. If a game demo is terrible, then I assume that the developer's had nothing worthwhile to show.

Just me, though.

While from the publisher's perspective a demo is a promotional tool, from the more practical perspective of the gamer it's a sampler to help determine whether or not the game is worth purchasing. Even if playing the demo puts you off buying the game, it's still served its purpose just as much as if it had convinced you to rush out and buy the game right frikkin' now.

Game demos have convinced me both ways. For example, I bought Crackdown because of the demo, while I passed on Burnout Paradise because of theirs. It's just a way to make a more informed decision, and since they don't cost anything it's also a way to try out games you're curious about but not willing to risk a purchase on.

Game demos put me off buying a game if I didn't enjoy the demo. If I enjoy the demo, I want the game more.

It's put me off some games, but made me go out and buy others. Most of the time the demo has been pretty close to what the actual game was like as well.

I don't even download demos anymore since they either show the best parts of an awful game or the worst parts of an awesome game. I instead turn to downloading the full game after it's release and play it then to make up my mind. Now I'm 100% aware that it's not what you'd call legal but in my defense I at one time owned a combined total of about 400 games between my PS1, PS2 and Xbox that I bought brand new for retail price at Gamestop; not to mention PC games which are the easiest to download and never pay a dime for if I wanted to be cheap. But I own a massive library of games for my PC as well that I bought at retail.

My last experience with a demo was Clive Barkers: Jericho. I played that demo at least 20 times and LOVED it, I decided though to download it first and put it through my own standards test and I'll just say I'd have rather bought a box load of games for my Sega Genesis with the money I would have spent on that game.

Eh either way just my two cents.

Usually game demos prove my suspicion that the game is bad or good.

Like the Haze demo, i knew that the game wouldn't be that great and the demo proved that to me with annoying voice acting, horrible aiming (no auto-aim), and way to easy even on the hardest difficulty.

I've seen more people burn out of EVE Online in the 14 day demo period than Orange Box owners who actually bought the whole version of Peggle.

Also, I remember playing an old Duke Nukem demo and thinking "This... is crap." before breaking the disc =/

Biggest disappointment from a demo: Hard to Be a God. Wow, they took that story in the least interesting direction possible, just to shoehorn it into the standard "levels and items" RPG structure.

At the same time, demos have helped me discover quite a few games I like. Age of Wonders is probably the best example.

-- Alex