Demo Limitations

[Steven West]

I think it's all 'demo' from the get go? Whether ones scooping tons off Kazaa, or cruising the News here?

Problem with Warez as well is they come with a Help File many times. So even if someone says 'I really should buy this so I can get the support I need... Oh, wait a minute - here it is.'

So maybe the 'Help File' should be more guarded than some insanely long registration number these days? Imagine someone trying to use a crack of Melodyne without any tutorials or Help File? Muck around with it all they'd like - but I'd don't think they'd get far? But those impressed with the options, menus, and general layout might be intrigued to buy it atleast?

I'm sure warez won't change, but those 'legit' who try to should not be considered 'punished'. I think 'progressive' would be the better word.

[shamann]

It's not so much I feel compelled to go the warez route, rather just take my business elsewhere. I won't stop living without any of this stuff, and so can easily pass it up for some thing less hostile to me.

I really think that if the demo is going to be an intentionally miserable experience, where you're reminded every five seconds that this experience is nothing like the fully paid for experience, than simply don't bother releasing a demo. Write up some good docs on your site, put up five or six good sound examples, have a limited time money-back guarantee and be done with it. Save yourselves some bandwidth. It's like they're saying user demand forces us to put up a demo, but f**k them if they think they've won.

Ttoz was selling some effects bundle a while ago at a good price, so I tried out the demo to see if I might be interested. You could only adjust one parameter in the demos of each plugin. WTF, what is the point of that? Not only are you giving the exact same information that a demo clip would, but you're insulting me in the process.

With the list at the top, there are so many things crippled, I can't honestly see where at any point the developer actually thought the demo would be of any use to me.

[shamann]

I should add, I'm pretty sure that the noiseburts/silences are more there to dissuade bottom feeder sample CD makers from recording the demos and publishing the results. But even then, how hard is it to play something twelve times in the same way on synth and reconstruct the sample? Anyone who wants feed off the bottom will always find a way to do so.

[Steven West]

And like I said as well - I think if these developers had to put up with their restrictions in their own lives... Sitting in a car for 2 minutes and being pestered to BUY IT, BUY IT! Or have their food brought to them and taken back because the moneys not on the counter right away... They'd be as pissed as you.

So definately as well - they got to look at the potential users perspective and maybe allow a little more leeway in the least.

[eduardo_b]

I like time limited stuff. What did I try recently??.. oh yeah, Anarchy software's SwarmSynth. 30 day fully-functional trial, unusual synth. Even 5 days would be enough for me to make a decision and feel more satisfied with it than if I'd interpolated my experience through bursts of noise.

My only concern with this approach is that I've recently discovered that one method to limit a demo in terms of time, and prevent it from being reset to zero days, is the use of non-deletable registry keys, which means that there could be dozens of these littering the registry -- and registry cleaners can't remove them. I don't think most of the EULAs reveal this, assuming one even reads these things. When the demo is uninstalled, the keys remain unless you make the effort of going to the restore point for that demo, and you haven't already installed other software in the meantime.

[Blue Wind Project]

I hate demo's anyway.

[Zauni]

I still chuckle thinking about the first Jamstix demo and the response it got here. Now THAT was an annoying noise burst

Boy, did we catch heat for that one...